clamming up

out of focus? yes i know. but what are you to do when you have a moving subject?

i should explain. a couple of days ago herself and i went for a walk on the beach with young rokit. as he has now been persuaded that re-cycling has a limit (if i explain you would really rather i hadn't, believe me), she has now got the chance to examine the shore for things to take home. as well as a large lobster pot that both rokit and i had tried to persuade her was best left alone, she also picked up some shells. these were for the bathroom. i am not sure why people think bathrooms=shells. as far as i know the sea does not smell of lavender, nor is it hot.

anyway, herself brought home the above shell. it was not until later that she noticed that it was not just a one sided shell but in fact had another side to it. don't we all? she placed it somewhere cool to observe it.

after a couple of days in her pocket i suspect the poor thing would have given the reith lecture to get back home. funnily enough the shell opened. it didn't say much but clams are notorious for being tight-lipped, so this was to be expected. then it closed again, when my boy patted it gently on its shell.

so it was decided that it had to be replaced on the shore. himself left early for work, in spite of the rain being horizontal, with the clam in a little plate. he found just the right spot and placed it carefully where it might be comfortable.

when he arrived at work, his colleagues expressed surprise at the level of dishevelment, even for a member of our family, and how he had got so wet. he had to explain that not only does our family go in for lurcher rescue but, in spite of herself's partiality to spaghetti vongole, we also go in for a bit of clam rescue too...