“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh, from A Gift from the Sea.

Welcome to our Coast to Coast loop. We are a group of photographers from around the world, from timezones as far flung as Australia to Canada and in between, each with a different seascape. Coast to Coast aims to document our changing sea views and perspectives - both literal and philosophical - of what the sea means to us, month to month through the changing seasons. To follow the loop go to the ever so amazing Jo Haycock

The month of June has been an incredible month for us at the sea. I love our little beach in the summer, it’s just the perfect little spot for swimming as it’s really shallow and I don’t need to worry about the currents. This month has also marked the return of evening swims which is one of my favourite things about summer! It makes me so happy that our family gets to enjoy these simple pleasures regularly. It’s also the month where my youngest, Forrest, felt brave enough to properly make his way into the water. 

We have also spent many days and evenings here exploring the low tide and have found so many treasures. This month it seemed to be all about the scallops, we even found some that were still alive which we thought was absolutely amazing. We also found a little horse which is so far the most unusual thing we have found here!

We have created a lot of memories just at our little spot but ever since our last mini holiday to Durdle Door I couldn’t wait to go away again and this time we had 4 nights and 5 full days at the Isle of Wight. It was really such a special time away, we have only ever done day trips here so it was amazing to be able to spend a few days and get a chance to really soak it in.

Since we arrived to the island early in the day we had a lot of time to spare before we could check in so we headed over to Alum Bay where we wanted to see the needles from this side.

I absolutely love this place, the beaches are incredible especially yaverland beach which is where we were staying. Well technically we stayed in a chalet in Sandown but it was only a 10 minute walk away. The view from the top of the cliff before walking down just took my breath away and this little spot became a sort of refuge for me. If we were in our chalet I would every so often sneak away on my own just to sit there for a few minutes and take it all in. Since at our little spot we can’t see out into the horizon due to our view being blocked by the Isle of Wight i always get such a special feeling when I can gaze out into infinity. 

We spent most of our time at this beach, we’d walk down the cliffs in the mornings and in the evenings for a swim and spent a lot of time with our heads down searching for sea glass, which we found lots of! The pieces here were much larger than the pieces we found at Durdle Door. We also spent  lot of time drawing in the sand and exploring rock pools.

On our last day we had to check out at 10AM so had a full day to explore before catching the ferry back home and we did quite the little tour! We went for a magical walk through the woods down devils chimney to monks bay and then we ended up driving further down the coast to Compton Bay where we all had a swim in the cold sea and the kids had the best time playing and getting covered in sand.

Just before we left we went and got some chips to eat at Fort Victoria which happens to be directly in front of our own little beach. We just had to know what it looked like on this side! We continued finding lots of sea glass and I even found a fossilised trionyx turtle shell!

Words can’t express how happy I am that we are able to travel at least locally again! I have missed exploring new places...it’s really something that my soul continually needs to do. I wonder where we will go next?!?