Checking Out The Crazy Creatures In Rock Pools

Number 37 and number 39 of the 50 Things To Do Before You're 11 3/4  is to

Check out the crazy creatures in a rockpool 
Catch A Crab

Today we headed to the fishing village of Appledore to go rock pooling seeing as though it was another gorgeous sunny and hot day. The boys, their cousin Laurel and I went with their Granma as she grew up in Appledore and spent many, many days at the beach during her childhood and knows where to look for the best rock pool treasures.

The last time Burton went looking for rock pools it was the weekend before Jenson was born (March 2011) and he held a little crab in his hand and he has never forgotten this!! He has often talked about this and held his hand out as he did in the photos to describe his first encounter with a crab.

Today was Jensons's first time looking for rock pools but before we took our nets and buckets to hunt for nature's little pool life treasures, the boys and Laurel just had fun running around on the wet squelchy sand, splashing in the puddles and digging up the sand and making faces in the sand with their spades

Burton's smiley sand face

 Then we headed over to the rocks to look inside the pools and thanks to Granma's excellent seeking skills, we found some amazing little sea creatures

 This is a peeler crab and it has a soft shell (yes I did touch it!) and when Grandma was a girl she used to go looking for these crabs to sell on the harbour side to the fishermen as the crabs soft shells make them ideal for bait. 

We also found some other crabs, a shrimp and a little fish aswell as some sea snails (all of which were safely returned to their natural habitats)

Burton fell on the rocks and grazed his knee and wrist and it hurt quite a bit - well it stung which was made worse by the salty sea water.  Where we were at Appledore is also the slipway where the life boats are launched, and one of the life coast guards saw that he had hurt himself and offered us the use of the first aid kit in the RNLI centre at the top of the slipway. The man was very nice and put a couple of plasters on Burton's grazes, and then let the boys try on a couple of the helmets!! AND allowed them to sit upon the life boat tractor! What a really nice man he was!

 Apparently the life boats get launched every Tuesday at 6pm so we will be returning to see this happen.

This post was brought to you as part of Flashback Friday

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Remember a flashback can be from any time whether it be yesterday, last week, last month, last year or yesteryear! It can be a flashback of your own, your children, your partner or your friends. And if you don't want to write a post, then just link up a photo with a date. If you don't have time to write a new post