We set off on the most beautiful sunny morning, led by Grace O’Sullivan, through the historic picturesque streets of old Tramore.  We walked under the pink cherry blossom in full bloom, past the sparkly butterfly stone on Pond St, shook hands with the five-fingered horse chestnut leaf, played with the sticky back (the inspiration for velcro), noted how the pennywort growing out of the wall looks like an ‘inny’ bellybutton, and headed down Strand Street, to the big strand of course.

 

 

 

On the beach we built a few sandcastles, before we started to explore the rock pools.

Our most popular seaside friend was the Velvet swimming crab, also known as the Red-eyed Devil crab.  We watched him scuttle across the sand, bite a razor shell with his pincers and then escape from us by burying into the sand.

We also came across a scene where there was fresh seagull droppings and another crab shell that had been cracked open and eaten up.

Poor crab!

In the background a heron was standing very still waiting patiently to catch its dinner.

Can you say ‘anemone’?  It’s a very tricky word.  They look like mini jellies, but not so sweet to eat.

We looked at the limpet shell, the cow of the sea because it grazes on the rocks!  Grace showed us a periwinkle shell with a little hole in it that had been drilled by a whelk so that it could slurp it out to eat!

Grace poured hot water onto some seaweed.  It turned bright green.  Then she poured cold water on, and it turned all slimy.  It was really fun feeling the slime in our hands.   

Back up to the prom wall for our lunch and a nice stroll back uphill to school.  Thank you Grace for bringing us on such an amazing adventure in our own town.