The Colourfield

Now you know those things you find on the beach, the things that are like a kiwi-fruit that has mated with a coconut. No one thing has inspired so much speculation, wrong speculation, as to what it is or where it comes from. Bamboo, pine needles, algae - all have been proffered and all have been wrong. It was, therefore, with some considerable delight, not to say relief, that Gordon mailed me with a link that solved the issue once and for all. Those balls are in fact the waste-product of the Posidonia Oceanica, a sea grass as opposed to an alga. The good news is that this grass only grows in clean, unpolluted water and is therefore indicative of a healthy sea. The bad news is that it is a threatened species.

How do I know this? Because of that link, which took me to the really rather wonderful Mallorca Photo Blog. This is a real labour of love, with loads of photos, as the name suggests, and a host of informative bits and pieces on all sorts of subjects; plant life being one of them. Anyway, I mailed a comment to the blog, which, unlike the comments thing here, is not anonymous and consequently got a reply, a reply from Klaus who seems to be the one who is labouring over his love.

After all this time and all this debate as to the origin of the balls, I have to offer a hearty thanks to Klaus, and let me commend to you the blog, which is now linked but is at http://mallorcaphotoblog.wordpress.com. If you go to this blog and look up plants and scroll through, you'll find the entry for Posidonia Oceanica, and see a photo which shows that this grass is a multi-coloured thing that exists in what are effectively fields. Extraordinary stuff.


And ... I can hardly let it pass. In today's "The Bulletin" in the Lash column is a photo. The caption mentions a German Island dentist (itself a rather strange usage) by the name of Dr. Peter Dentacare. Now, I don't know, is this a joke, is it some post-modernist irony, is it actually his name, has he changed it by deed poll? Maybe he has - great move. I suspect it's none of these things.


QUIZ: Yesterday - Steve Wright. There was a character called, I think, Cap'n Fishy who had the line about the great smell of fish which was something of an innuendo. But please don't expect me to tell you what for. Today's title - the best known of this group was?

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