Exbury Egg

It is always a surprise to look through the Egg’s door for a glimpse of how special the ordinary can be. This is the last official post and the culmination of a year of observances, and I can mark the occasion most meaningfully with no special message at all. There may be more posts as I catch up with unedited video moments from earlier in the year and a categorisation of the narratives so as to reveal different threads of thought and observation as we determine the future of

Last year the Samphire grew thickly on the marsh beside the Egg, but this year there is none at all in prospect here. The mud bank has lost height and has been covered in a thick layer of green algae … Continue reading →

The crab sat unmoving for over an hour in the shade of a three inch high mud cliff, stirring only when the sun rose sufficiently to pierce his shadowy retreat.

A family of shell duck made their way noisily to the Egg this afternoon to explore the river bank here. They reputedly breed in rabbit burrows hereabout, and I have been looking without success for their nesting sites amongst the … Continue reading →

Fashion student (now graduate) Sue Carley made me a pair of DIY jeans from unbleached cotton – Dye It Yourself. A small oak ‘bush’ beside the Egg (behind me in the photo) provided galls to create the dye and its individual leaves the templates for … Continue reading →

The over wintering Peacock butterfly laid its eggs on the upper leaves of the stinging nettles at 50˚47’10.29″ N x 1˚24’26.60″ W and they are all now hatching. The caterpillars eat on the leaves through five stages of growth, moulting their … Continue reading →

The native earth of the estuary is mid toned brown in colour, a sort of Beaulieu buff which I washed and spun, then dried in the summer sun, as part of an ongoing collection of refined sediment. It is nothing out of the ordinary, a … Continue reading →

Patches of iron oxide from chalybeate springs stain the generally browner mud at regular intervals along the littoral. John Ruskin, referring to another chalybeate spring in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, felt that the purest form of iron was its oxide, … Continue reading →

In marking a mooring post with the motif of the Egg, I hope to make new homes for solitary wasps and other singular creatures in need of a secure place to abide, long after the Egg has moved on.

Anne and Terry visited the Egg to bring the gift of a delicious banana and walnut cake which was most welcomely received. They spend a lot of their time living on their boat ‘Teal’ moored upriver of the Egg and have followed … Continue reading →

The budding brambles on Blackberry Way are increasingly interwoven with the counterpoint of twisting con volvulus. Amongst this bind weed abides the white plume moth, which I observed for a few moments before releasing it into the warm evening air.

I made an eye in the bow of the Egg by drilling a three inch hole through the sandwich of red cedar and epoxy forming its shell, providing the potential for discreet observation. Early yesterday morning five black headed gulls picked … Continue reading →

The morning after the night before

When Paul Baker was building the Egg at Battramsley Farm near Lymington, his dream was to finish his own boat which shared the same barn and to get onto the water himself. This afternoon he saluted the Exbury Egg as he sailed … Continue reading →

A young blue tit (they still have yellow cheeks) was found near the Egg by my neighbour Nick who preserved it for me in the refrigerator. Birds of many species have recently fledged but not all will make it to adulthood. … Continue reading →

One of a collection of drawings on the verso of 31 empty packages of goods consumed in April; Bi-Narrative No14_Sinutab Spider. The boxes continue one narrative about headaches, breakfasts (cereal boxes), power consumption (battery boxes) etc. The verso drawings in Exbury … Continue reading →

Large passenger ships are visible cruising along the Solent eastward to port in Southampton and west bound for destinations unknown to me. I did not recognise the ship in the early hours of May 2nd, but Oceania headed past on May 5th at … Continue reading →