ESTUARY (noun)  es.tʃu.ə.ri

The wide part of a river at the place where it joins the sea

Leaning over the railings of the Severn Bridge, just five miles from our house and looking longingly southwestwards, to where I know the ocean waits.

It’s been an emotionally strange and longer than usual month, with January 2021 teaching me to dig deeper than ever I’ve known. To find the ‘new’ in the well-trodden paths around where I live.

I won’t deny, I’ve planned all sorts of covert dawn-breaking ocean jaunts inside my head – it would take around 40 minutes to drive to the rolling waves I need to be with right now – but Covid-19 shows no humanity and has left us all feeling terrified and risk-assessing literally every move we make.

The rules are made and there are fines in place, hospital scenes are no longer behind-the-scenes. It’s everything and anything to stop this. So I’m digging deep, finding the patterns, the dancing light and new ways of seeing on my walks from our home.

The Severn Bridge is the furthest point, and if I walk along this stretch of the coastal path, across the mudflats and long grasses, following the estuary back home, I’m those few steps closer once more to the sea.

“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 next to the talented Ann Owen and experience her coastal adventure for January 2021.

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