Carpe Diem #899 beach

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As I created our prompt-list of January I made a "cocktail" of classical and modern kigo. All the classical kigo were (almost all) very clear, but those modern kigo by Jane Reichhold ... that's really something else.
As you can see/read in the title of this episode today it's about beach and I think you all will understand that I was a bit amazed as I read "beach" as a winter kigo. Here on the Northern Hemisphere I cannot see that connection of winter and beach, but on the Southern Hemisphere it must be a wonderful idea to see that beach is modern kigo for winter.

What to do with this prompt, beach, on the Northern Hemisphere where I live? Well ... I don't know, but as I read the examples given by Jane in her "A Dictionary of Haiku" (the online-version) I started to see (and believe) that "beach" can be an example of a kigo for winter. I even tried to go to the beach yesterday ... and it was really an eye-opener ...

Here are a few example haiku by Jane with this modern kigo "beach":

beach-blown

rainbows in sea foam
sand crystals

a winter's day
suddenly the sun
at a beach picnic

February sun
lying on the nude beach
fully clothed

winter beach
in thin white clouds
thoughts of snow

© Jane Reichhold

She had several other examples, but these were my favorite and especially that first example ... I can see that scene in front of me ... and I really saw that yesterday as I visited the "winter beach". Really awesome.
And than that third example ... I love to lay on a nude beach, but of course not in winter, but fully clothed walking over the nude beach has something. I just felt that I had to go bare footed there out of respect for the nude beach ... The nude beach ... gives me that feeling and if I would be there now I surely would take of my shoes and socks to feel the nude beach in winter.

bare footed
wandering about the nude beach
in heart of winter

© Chèvrefeuille

Credits: beach in winter

Not so far from my home we have a beach. It's an artificial beach, but it's beautiful. It's surrounded with trees and meadows ... and yesterday as I visited the beach with that clear blue sky after snowfall (yukibare). That steel blue sky became even more blueish. I looked around me and on the bare branches there was a dusting of snow which looked like crystals, because of the bright sunlight. That thin layer of snow started to melt and the drops became even more like diamonds ... right at that moment ... I was the richest man on earth ...

steel blue sky
on the snow covered branches
a crystal necklace

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, a new Tokubetsudesu episode, later on. For now .... have fun!