Monsters in Mersea.

 Mersea Island, on the coast of East Anglia, might be more famous for its oysters (one of the reasons the Romans invaded Britain way back when) but for us it's the best place to go crabbing. I don't know if it's something done anywhere else in the world, but I grew up with it as a child. I can remember my husband's scepticism when I told him about it, but the stunned look on his face the first time we went together and I repeatedly pulled crab after crab out of the water is something I'll always remember. :)

I don't know if it's the time of year, but normally we'll just catch dozens of little ones - our record is 120 crabs in one session. Today was a day for monsters - and I don't just mean my kids. :-P We caught about five that were the size of my palm if you didn't count the legs. Usually a local seal hangs around in the hope of being thrown the scraps of crab bait at the end of the day, but he wasn't there today. Most likely because the number of crabbers has dwindled with the drop of temperature - we're just insane.

The local crab bait recycler

It's probably the last chance we'll get for such escapades with winter creeping in. Already the temperature has dropped a couple of degrees over the last few days. Tomorrow my dining room is being half demolished to gut the rotten wooden windows letting in a gale, to be replaced with some nice french doors - something to enjoy when, and IF, we ever get a summer in the UK.

So I finish with a last glimpse of sun for probably a long time to come.

Mersea beach

The walkway over the Mersea mudbanks