A vial of salt 

I carry a little vial, well, a glass jar of salt that I bring with me everywhere. I go out to eat a lot and I really don't like table salt, so I like to have my sea salt with me. I live in Ayrshire so it's Blackthorn [salt], which is just down the road from me. It's my favourite.

Jam muslin 

I had been doing some research on women from Martha's Vineyard and their seaweed pressing techniques from the 1800s until today. I was inspired to pick up a straining cloth from my local hardware store. It's really lovely and doesn't stick or pull away. I live on the coast and have been pressing seaweed sporadically for a few years so now I’ve been using this.

Point and shoot camera 

I'm a photographer but I don't take as many pictures of my day-to-day outside of work as I'd like. Many of my cameras are bulky, even my film ones, so I recently bought a point and shoot so I can try to take more.

Eye drops

You'll always find eyedrops in my bag. I wear contacts and my eyes get so sticky and dry and blinky the longer I'm out: I hate it. Eye drops take care of that for me.

Leslie Marmon Silko: Ceremony 

I always have a book in my bag, and more specifically, in a poly pocket. I don't know if people have a normal way of dealing with it that I’ve missed, but I live out of tote bags so I want to make sure my books don't get damaged. Wear and tear over time is beautiful and I love books that have been read, but hate damage through carelessness which is what happens to most of mine. So I keep them in their poly pocket! 

The Nature Library is at Lochmaddy, North Uist until Saturday 28 October; Christina Riley: The Beach Today is out now on Guillemot Press; find out more at christinariley.co.uk