She sells seashells on the seashore
I've always loved shells....... the shapes, textures, and beautiful colours facinated me when I was little. The fact that they were someones home once and sometimes they held secret treasures. My dream was to find one with a pearl one day.
Growing up I lived a short walk to the beach and still do, but now its further along the coastline. The beach was my second home. I spent nearly every day there, either running round in the hot summer sun with nothing on, brown as a berry.(In those days we were brought up unaware that bad people would try and take your picture or even take you away and sun cream didn't seem to exist). Or in winter I'd have my warm clothes and favourite red wellies that were the only things I'd wear other than that I would be barefoot the whole year.
My one trusted accessory was my bucket.I'd go off all day collecting treasures with it and present them to my mum after a few hours in return for an ice cream.
We went for a long drive one summer holiday and my mum took me to the shell house in Bournemouth where a man had covered everything in his garden with shells. He didn't charge to look around but would ask people to give a little money for charity.
I was amazed to see how he'd built such a magical place, adding pieces of broken china, chunks of glass, pieces of tile and clay faces. He had a bigger shell treasure collection than I could ever hope to own! I remember thinking how many ice creams I could get for all these :)
Unfortunately the shell house was demolished and replaced with a modern apartment block in 2001 and with it a piece of my childhood.
So with these memories in mind I thought I'd pay homage to the shell house and get creative with a some shells, a few off-cuts of wood, beads and some air dry clay. Not on such a grand scale as Mr Howards creation but they still make me smile.........
