Tiny Tuesday - ‘Solid/Hard’

This morning I visited Hazel in her care home with my friend Mary, having not been able to see her for several weeks due to sickness among the residents. She looked very well and, although she’s getting hard of hearing, if you speak up she can still take part in a conversation. Her dementia isn’t too bad so far - she’s a little forgetful at times, but at the moment it doesn’t seem to be advancing too quickly.

My blip for today shows some tiny shells which I collected on a nature walk around a small island off the County Cork coastline called Heir Island (pronounced ‘Hare’), which has a year-round population of around 25-30, and is 2.5 km long and 1.5 km wide. I stayed on it for a weekend around 20 years ago whilst doing a short cookery course at Island Cottage. These shells are exceptionally tiny - for example the miniature mussel at the bottom of the picture is just 1cm long. We picked them out from the clear water, along with some sea kale which we cooked later to go with our dinner. A lovely memory from long ago.

Many thanks to loisbiz for hosting the Tiny Tuesday challenge for January, with this week’s theme of ‘Solid/Hard’ - my tiny shells are definitely hard!