22 February 2023

Seaside

We live inland, seventy miles from the sea. And yet our heartbeats remind us of the rhythm of waves bursting then receding upon this island's shores. It's always nice to visit the sea. A bit like coming home. It has healing qualities and troubles seem less troublesome there.

In the autumn of 2017, I carelessly dropped my old camera and damaged it. Soon afterwards I bought a replacement camera leaving 1600 images on the memory card of the old one. It was only yesterday that I downloaded those pictures onto my desktop computer. It was good to look through images that are over five years old now - from a time before the COVID plague.

I was reminded that we visited the coast of North Norfolk in 2017 - on England's North Sea coast. We stayed in Dersingham near the royal estate at Sandringham. It wasn't far from the seaside town of Hunstanton - famously the only resort on England's east coast that  faces west and we walked on empty beaches with big skies.

It was most pleasurable to be close to the sea and to explore a corner of The Island of Britain that was pretty much unknown to us.

These photographs bring it all back - well, almost.

Hunstanton
A detectorist
Hunstanton
Humstanton
Lighthouse seen from the ruins of St Edmund's Chapel, Hunstanton
The Wash

31 comments:

  1. Ah, the seaside. Why do we always crave a view of the sea?
    Growing up in London's western suburbs a trip by train to the south coast was always so exciting. Now I live a two minute stroll from the beach and love being so close to it.

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    1. With the wind blowing through your hair as you sing a lament about sailors lost at sea.

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  2. What lovely photos and I'm glad you found them again. The last time I was in England I stayed in Bexhill On Sea, and these photos remind me of Bexhill. I love the ocean but it's a 1000km journey for us, not as easy. Seventy miles, I think I would spend a lot of time there.

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    1. I have never been to Bexhill-on-Sea. It is a long drive from Yorkshire.

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  3. I have always wanted to live close to the beach. Like you, it's an easy drive for us from where we are to beautiful beaches on the Gulf Coast but we don't go nearly as often as we should. I do not know why.

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    1. I must go back before long. Get my fix.

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  4. I wonder if people who live by an ocean their entire lives ever crave a "sea" of rolling green corn stalks?

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    1. Ha-ha! Somehow I doubt it... except that inland tends to be safer I guess.

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  5. "Pick your own" nuclear waste barrel?

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    Replies
    1. That is actually a buoy on a chain waiting for the tide to turn back.

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  6. We're just under 70 miles away from the sea, too, here in Florence. The town I grew up in was only about 40 miles from the beach, an easy drive done in under an hour. I spent many, many hours on the beach growing up. Now I hardly ever go. I should try to get down there more often.

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  7. The are nice photos. You seem to have a little focus on travel now. Is there something in the offing?

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    1. Not really Sherlock. No imminent plans.

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  8. Can't imagine how you could wait this long to look at the photos. there are some great shots there.

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    1. I had seen them in 2017 but just didn't transfer them to my computer.

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  9. It's a beautiful area, though I'm wondering how an East coast beach can face West.

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    1. Just find Hunstanton on a map of England and you will see River.

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    2. I did and I saw. In my big 50 years old atlas it is listed as New Hunstanton.

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  10. That's a lot of photos to go through, and I am sure there are some surprises waiting for you, things you forgot you saw until the picture reminds you.
    The lighthouse through the doorway is my favourite here.
    I live hundreds of km away from the Sea but hardly ever feel that tug. I do want to go back to Scarborough one day, though; I know a lot has changed there since Steve and I spent part of our summer holidays there several years in a row.

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    Replies
    1. Anne Bronte's gravestone will have crumbled away even more since you last saw it.

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  11. Love tacky old seaside towns, summer will soon be here and you can all go to the seaside with Phoebe.

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    1. I love the penny drop machines in amusement arcades and I love vanilla cones and seaside fish and chips, striped windbreaks and older women showing glimpses of their bloomers and children putting little paper flags on sandcastles. "Oh I do love to be beside the seaside".

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  12. In your comment to Thelma you paint such a nostalgic picture of English sea-side holidays long gone. You've been watching too many old movies on Netflix! Glimpses of older women showing their bloomers - YP really - what century are you living in - women (of any age) haven't worn bloomers for a very long time!
    Excellent photos again and my favourite is the nicely framed photo of the lighthouse. I wondered if the last one was an unexploded bomb left over from WWII!
    Look forward to seeing more photos from the archives.

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    1. That object is in fact a buoy. It has a chain attached to it - not seen in the picture. By the way, my contacts in Spain inform me that when you go for a paddle you are often unaware that your bloomers are showing - pink and frilly like those women in naughty seaside postcards by Donald McGill.

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    2. Your contacts have been stalking the wrong woman YP - I don't own any frilly pink bloomers!

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    3. You have crushed my private fantasy Carol!

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    4. Frilly blue bloomers then? White ones?

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  13. Any waterfront is calming for me. The river front in my city, the shores in nearby ponds, the fabulous Lake Michigan shores of Chicago - I love to stand and listen to the waves. I live far from any ocean, Neil.

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    Replies
    1. You are right to suggest that any expanse of water can be calming but nothing beats the open sea.

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  14. I like the photo of the word "Jumping" next to Jiminy Cricket. How cool that you found so many photos you'd forgotten about!

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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