Shell quest brings out my inner child

MY brother told me that on the beaches near his apartment on the Atlantic coast of southern Spain, where we are staying, interesting shells could be found which are sometimes incorporated in jewellery.

They are called habanitos — “little beans” — and, on the reverse side, look like one of the Heinz 57 varieties.

In a mile of beach-walking, we found only one. He warned that searching for them was a good way to spoil a walk but, in fact, the search enhanced it, drawing our attention to the beauty of the myriad shell varieties washed in by the sea, the ‘sunset’ shells, where the colour gradates, in bands, from orange to a deep red, and shells that were purple, and others that were shining white or glittering mother-of-pearl.