Post-Storm Survey, Halkidiki

After two days of Force 6 winds off the Aegean, we walked the shoreline at first light and found the beach had been entirely remade. The storm had stripped the sand back to bedrock in places and deposited whole tree sections at the tide line — timber that had clearly been travelling for years, its surface worn to the texture of old bone.

We marked three pieces worth returning for. The largest was a beam, roughly four metres, with a salt-bleached grain that ran in near-perfect parallels. The Inventor walked its length twice without saying anything. That usually means something.

The light was flat and cold. We photographed everything before touching it, then spent the rest of the morning working out how to move the beam without a vehicle. The answer, as it often is on this peninsula, involved rope, patience, and the kind of problem-solving that doesn't have a name.