The Lobster and The Whale.

In my hurry to get ready for school, I forgot to put on sunscreen. It was a rather fatal mistake as it was our annual beach clean up. Now I look like a well cooked lobster! Hundreds of small bodies would be descending on the poor unsuspecting shore to gather all sorts of unsightly debris cast aside by beach users.

It was an incredibly windy day and as each child received their bright yellow garbage bags the wind filled them up like a high pressured pump much to the obvious delight of each child. This prompted one or two boys to consider parachuting off the nearby wall, but their ideas were quickly quashed and they were ordered back into orderly lines, legs crossed, one behind the other, still with a lingering longing.

We began our trek, head toward the wind, yellow bags flapping and floundering. The children took their job seriously and scoured the area for wanton chocolate wrappers, the beach was very clean and litter was very scarcely distributed. Soon children being children, they began to find sticks to drag behind them in the sand in all sorts of swirly patterns like a cluster of drunken snails on a moonlit night. Every so often you would hear the sharp reprimand of a high pitched voice as another child stepped on his snail trail.

Some children began to find and collect shells, and every couple of steps I needed to wow at another treasure collected by a small sandy hand. Pockets began to bulge with shells, pebbles and "mermaid's purses". Eventually it was decided to sit down and let the children play and build sandcastles.The spot of beach soon became a major construction site of small shell decorated hills, tunnels and moats with brazen sticks supporting huge sloppy sea-weed flags.

I sat down to take in the beautiful surroundings. As I looked out at the sea, I was startled to see a Southern Right whale breaching close to the shore." Whale! " was all I managed to say. ( Oh how exciting) She put on a spectacular show breaching over and over again, every now and then I could see a huge white spray of sea as I presume her tail smacked the water playfully. Whales really are huge,the average length of a Southern Right is 18.5 m.

Apparently size does matter with these whales as the Southern Right's sport the biggest testicles of any animal on earth, a fact I was careful not to pass on to the children. You know how these things get lost in translation when they arrive home.
Mom: How was the beach clean-up Johnny?
Johnny: Awesome Mizz Scorn was gonna  let us parachute with our garbage bags off the top of a big wall only we didn't have enough time and then she showed us these things with the biggest balls e-v-e-r!

 I could see the characteristic white callosities on the whales head. I am told each whales callosities form a unique pattern, like a fingerprint. It was such a spectacular show, I felt so utterly blessed. It would seem the children felt the same way as they gave "our whale" a standing ovation before sitting down again to commence building.

And so I wonder, what will I see or experience today, that will deserve a standing ovation? Spectacular is just around the corner from all those whose eyes are trained to notice it.