Time and Tide

In the first story on Shell Island there is a man who was able to predict the future. He has to leave his island because his predictions failed and find a home elsewhere. Will he survive? Annie's speciality was in making shell women, One day she found something floating in the tide which would change her life completely and even help generate a famous landmark in her little seaside town. Cornwall especially is well known for smuggling, This third story is about the attempt to smuggle in brandy by two people to a small village in Cornwall on the river Fal. The watcher is there, watching day and night and sees everything but does not do anything. One may ask why? Many of you in your childhood may have played in rock pools, trying to catch some of the creatures living there. Would you try and get them out? Certainly not in this rock pool in the fourth story, as an unknown fate may await you. The fifth story is about a man who jumps into the sea to retrieve his mobile phone where two other witches lie in wait. What is his fate? Will he escape or become just another source of food for the three witches? The sixth story is about a boy who collected these starfish as he thought they may survive but little did he know the consequences of having a pocket full of starfish. The Royal Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate, Kent was formed for the scrofulous poor of London, for the saving of limbs and preserving the lives of those persons on the brink of death. The seventh story relates to two small children and their experiences whilst in the infirmary and during a huge storm on the coast. The eighth story is about a mother waiting for her son who has gone with fishermen out to sea on a long voyage. Will she ever see her son again before she dies? Who can tell if he will return once more? Ricky felt undressed if he didn't have an open book on his head. He went everywhere with this book but one day in the ninth story something happened to change all that. . Who lives in the house with different coloured bricks and what do they do? It seems nobody knows but will they find out. One day all is revealed in the tenth story. Two gulls live on an old lady's chimney in the eleventh story. They can see her daily activities and her front garden which contains a magnificent paeony tree in flower. One day they see something unusual which affects the old ladies life. This twelfth story is about the last leaf on a tree. It journeyed on far from its home but eventually fell to rest at night in the dark only to find that unlike other leaves it would become something treasured The thirteenth story is about an abnormal winter. Everything froze and ice completely covered the roads and anything in sight including the tree in which the blackbirds sat. . The fourteenth story is about a person who from childhood collected figures. Who says figures have no control over people? In this story they seemed to right up to the end. Metal rusts. The fifteenth story relates to a rusty front gate which has seen a whole kaleidoscope of happiness and sadness, Would it be repaired? Would it survive or become scrap only to be melted down never to be a gate again. The last section is a play about eight colourful characters who visit the day centre.. There have many experiences before time finally runs completely dry. The sea always plays an important part in our lives especially in the past. Many children are taken to the seaside and sea air was a medical requirement for diseases such as TB. Care home also are common at sea resorts some purporting that it can put an extra 10 years on your life. This volume covers an interesting variety of stories some tales of happiness others of sadness. Enjoy