Spring..err..back again!?

Yesterday turned out to be a good day. I had limited my expectations, as my last post suggested...but those were surpassed and we had fun. It was a lot colder than we anticipated, with a strong wind westerly wind nipping at our ears and cheeks. Clear skies and bright sunshine. We made our way to Jericho; River trailing along, but appearing to be in much better spirits, a little tired perhaps. We stopped off at various 'playgrounds'. A pile of gravel and a temporarily abandoned digger. Muffin Break and the lure of carrot cake and muffins. Then on to the beach, spending time attempting to climb trees, scrambling along fallen branches over the duck pond. Adventures in 'killing cattails' (cattails are Nicky and Bronwyn's arch enemies - another story); they busied themselves trying to destroy the remnants of cattails that surrounded the Jericho duck pond.

We walked further down the beach towards Spanish Banks and spent some time on the crab-fishing pier (as we call it). Lots of people out there; swinging out their crab catchers, baited with pieces of raw chicken, into the receding tide. I always wonder where crabs develop the taste for chicken. It is curious when you think about it. Why would a meal of chicken lure a crab into a trap? I know there's a good explanation for this, but I don't know if I want to know it. Preferring instead to ponder the possibilities of how crabs come to develop a taste for chicken. It is questions like those that entertain me during those empty moments we all experience now and then.
 

budding photographer

Mike and I decided that we should buy a crab trap. How expensive can they be? We could then return to the pier and catch our own crabs. Of course we would throw them back. Even the biggest crabs; the ones that are wrapped up and taken to be eaten, are not particularly big.

I have never eaten crab. I have always been put off by the boiling alive method of killing. Also, there is something a little barbaric about how people look when they eat crab; cracking the bones and digging out the flesh, their lips shining while butter drips down their chin. And there is the undeniable fact that crabs look like big ugly spiders - and not very appetizing to me. There is not much meat on the crabs caught around here anyway, so rather than eat them, we'd just throw them back - but it might be fun to catch them, especially for the kids. Nicky reminded us today that we need to buy crab traps...tomorrow.