Marina

This stone sculpture is a garden ornament that's against a dry stone wall so you don't see it easily if you're just walking past as I was today. I found it quite grotesque as it was sort of stunted and only about 2ft long. Its chubby face makes it look like a cross between a cupid and a mermaid .....I think the sculptor must not have had enough stone to do a full mermaid's tail??? I took the shot because I found it ugly but the colours were good as the stone of the wall and the ornament were all shades of greys, greens and browns with moss and lichen growing around it. But when I looked at the image in black and white the textures were so much more emphasised, and with a bit of editing it started to look almost like a sketch or an etching, so have left the colours out after all.

I had a real thing about mermaids when I was little . when people asked my sister what she wanted to be she used to say " a nurse", I apparently used to say I wanted "to be Marina"....the mute mermaid from Stingray. I grew up a great swimmer and was very proficient at the old "dive for a brick off the bottom of the swimming pool in your pyjamas, take them off whilst down there and fetch brick to surface ( how weird was that test....please tell me it wasn't just our school because I might have to report someone!) Since then I've always loved swimming, used to do swimming and running biathlons, and am a qualified dry and wet suit diver and just adore the sea in all its guises. So I did well with the swimming bit of my Marina ambitions.......but well, I never quite captured the keeping quiet and just looking doey eyed!

So, for any other old Stingray fans out there.....

...' Marina, aqua Marina,
What are those strange enchantments that start
Whenever you're near?
Marina, aqua Marina,
Why can't you whisper the words my heart
Is longing to hear?
You're magic to me,
A beautiful mystery,
I'm certain to fall, I know,
Because you enthral me so.
Marina, aqua Marina,
Why don't you say that you'll always stay
Close to my heart?......'


Can't believe I can still remember the song! Lol.