I’d set myself a challenge of painting three pictures of local scenes around the Naze Tower in Walton on the Naze.  I’d finished the first two paintings, views seen from the same vantage on the beach. The first painting, Amber Beach, saw the tower in the distance; the next, Amber Cove, saw Felixstowe in the distance.  As I made one more 90 degree turn to the right, from the same stand point, I could see the vast expanse of sea reaching out to the misty horizon drawing the sky to the water.  The tide was out, leaving a blanket of sand for the birds to dance on.  Peeping through the sand were misshapen shiny stones dressed in seaweed.  Caught at their feet were puddles of water, caputured pools left as the sea receded for the second time that day.  Dancing on the carpet were hundreds of the black headed gulls playfully perching on any protrusion that the departing sea had uncovered.  In the distance I imagined I could see the lost mediaeval village of Walton with its old church that finally succumbed to the sea in 1798.  Some people say on a misty night you can hear the church bells ring…