Stranger on the seashore

For a start it was a windy day, and it was cold, but did I feel the cold? (you’re not really expecting an answer to that are you?)

I was invited to spend an hour or so beachcombing on a particular part of the North Norfolk coast where some amazing objects, shapes and even creatures are washed up. I was told that the finds are most abundant after a high tide and a storm.

I am not sure we saw a rough sea and probably the tide earlier in the morning was high but not a lot had been carried ashore – or so I thought. Beachcombing isn’t just a matter of luck it is something the eye has to get tuned in to.

We wandered about the wet shingle with out carrier bags and for quite a long time mine remained almost empty. My colleague meanwhile was fairly shoveling bits into hers. But eventually I started to find unusual shapes, strange artefacts and gorgeous coloured stones and shells. (They certainly qualified as gorgeous when they were wet, but once they started to dry out they looked much more commonplace).

I quickly began to recognise objects that I had read about in books, such as razor shells and fish egg cases. Some I didn’t know such as sea beard and mermaids’ purses. Not sure I went a bundle on lumps of sea weed. I did try arranging some, but it looked neither creative nor picturesque. It just had a terrible smell – but maybe I tried arranging the wrong sort.

My thanks to my guide Hanne whose enthusiasm never waned

and who kindly tipped all her treasures into my Sainsbury’s carrier bags. Of course I took them all home, but realising the smell of the sea shore would be unwelcome in the kitchen, I placed then all in the garden shed for a day or so in the hope that the smell might subside. (It got rid of the mice in the shed).

There were a few items that looked quite special and so I offer them as interesting pictures in the week’s blog. The remainder will become an interesting feature on our garden rockery, once the rain stops and the mud subsides a little. They will be my contribution to this feature. Good idea eh?