Friday 17 October 2014

Mermaid's purse - spooky!

I’ve been hoping to find one of these for ages.



I used to imagine perplexed mermaids swimming about wondering where their purses had gone.

It is also known as a Devil’s purse.

I was quite disappointed when I found out they were empty egg cases. This one is most likely from a skate, but could be from a ray. Sorry I can’t be more precise.

Darn. So no such thing as mermaids after all? Or is there?

I didn’t know a great deal about the egg cases so I looked it up. Apparently they are attached, by the parent fish, to weed growing on the sea bed and sometimes a storm will dislodge the weed and the egg case complete with eggs or babies which is when you find them on the beach.

The cases are made of collagen. I’m glad to say I’ve only ever found empty ones.



The best time to catch crabs is as the tide is going out. The seagulls all know this and sit patiently waiting for the water to recede.

They’d had a feast one day. I saw hundreds of footprints and dozens of bits of crab on the sand bank. It was quite sad really, but the seagulls have to eat. This is a feast on a smaller scale. It appears only one poor old crab was eaten here.



These ripples in the sand were quite close together. They change depending on the weather. Sometimes the ripples are very wide and flat.



This morning I saw a man digging up lugworms (Arenicola marina). They can live for 5 or 6 years (if a fisherman doesn’t dig them up for bait or a hungry sea creature doesn’t eat them) and live in a burrow under the sand.



The casts in the photo are close to the beach and are from very young lugworms (and yes that is a Dusty footprint). The bigger, older ones can be found nearer the low tide line. The cast is made from worm poo as they burrow into the sand, eating nutrients and expelling what they don't need!

So where is this all leading?

I took a photo of the man digging for worms because I thought it made a great shot – silhouette of a man against the sea with shovel. Bear with me – this is where the spooky bit comes in.



This is what I got – and I took several photos of him. So where did he go? He wasn’t there when we walked back. Perhaps he was never there at all.

Maybe he was a merman looking for his girlfriend’s purse…


Cue Twilight Zone music! 

Am I making it up? I'm a writer, what do you think? There was a man there and I did take photos and he wasn't in any of them - but it was very bright and I couldn't see my screen, so I might just have missed him. 



Speaking of making things up, I have a new book on Kindle, Gold Digger & Other Stories. You can read more about it (if you want to of course) by clicking the short story tab at the top of my blog. It contains fifteen tales with a twist.




27 comments:

  1. When I see wildlife programmes with animals being hunted, or a bird of prey swooping I never know which side I'm on - do I want one to starve or the other to be eaten?

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    1. It's a hard one isn't it, Patsy. I've always had a soft spot for crabs, but I love the seagulls too. I tend not to think too much about their eating habits, but have found it fascinating to come across the remains of a feast. I would hope it's over quickly x

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    2. It probably is. The gulls (or other predators) won't want their prey fighting back for a moment longer than necessary.

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  2. Replies
    1. My husband is baffled too - he was there when I took the photos x

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  3. I am very sceptical about ghosts, but vey strange that the man just seemed to disappear. Our homework this week is to scare ourselves witless, so I'm getting in the mood now. Lovely photos of the beach.

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    1. I think it's good to be scared sometimes, Maggie - but only if it's a controlled thing like reading a book or watching a film. Real fear I can do without. Hope you manage to scare yourself :-) x

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  4. That's a great spooky Halloween post, Teresa, and lovely shots for book covers. Now, who modeled the cover then for Gold Digger? I have to get that book, it looks great fun. xx

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  5. Those are my legs of course, Susan, wink, wink. Oh, I'm not going to fool anyone - my legs never come out on show :-) x

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  6. Course there's such things as mermaids - Tom Hanks found one didn't he! Oooh what a spooky tale. Much more interesting to think - "and where did he go and what was he?" rather than you 'just missed him' ;o) Great post, so interesting, and fab photos as always - even if the man/ghost was missing!! Whooooowhooooo (that's supposed to be a ghostly sound by the way, not a train!!) :o) xx

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  7. Love your post and photos, Teresa - very interesting info too! And I definitely want to imagine that man should have been in the photo.

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    1. Thanks, Rosemary. It reminds me of Antigonish! I used to ask my dad to recite it to me, then I'd be scared to go to sleep because of the man who wasn't there on the stairs :-) x

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  8. This is very spooky. I wonder how the man wormed his way out of the shot. However, they are all, as always, stunning pictures. I love the rippled sand and I'm so glad to see a mermaid's purse at last. It's gorgeous and elegant, just like the cover of your lovely new book. xxx

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    1. I hadn't thought of him worming his way out, Joanna, but that's exactly what he did :-) That rippled sand makes your eyes go funny if you look at it too long x

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  9. That is spooky and that's a fair good innings for a lugworm! :-)x

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    1. Sea creatures do seem to have a long life (if the seagulls don't get 'em) - must be the salty water :-) x

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  10. Thank you for solving a couple of the mysteries of my beach-going childhood, Teresa. :)

    The disappearing man is certainly spooky...

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    1. I'm afraid I'm going to bore everyone rigid with my seaside tales, Carol :-) x

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  11. I hope you didn't believe all that research about egg cases, Teresa. They're mermaids purses. Definitely. Lugworms on the other hand are just lugworms. I think they ate the man who was digging them up. Mystery solved!!

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    1. I think a purse is more plausible, Rena. How can a fish make something so leathery? Hm, I think you're right - purses definitely. It's funny you should say that about the fate of the man digging the worms - that was my husband's theory :-) x

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  12. Definitely mermaids' purses and I believe in the mysterious man! I can hear the twilight music playing even as I stare at the photograph...
    Talking of twilight - I posted a photo of Dave in the pool at sunset, on holiday, on my blog - but he's pretty hard to spot too...:-)

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  13. Ooh glad you stopped by - your new post hadn't appeared in my list so I would have missed it. I'm off for a read now - and also hopefully to try and figure out why you've vanished too!! Maybe it's me! Is it me? Oh dear :-) x

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  14. Oh my... The man in the photo sounds soooo spooky! There has to be a story in that...

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  15. Oh how I've missed you and the magic of your blog :).

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    1. Glad to see you back lovely Mummy to be :-) x

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