Beaches – self indulgent

[erastes]

With a gap, where I spent about five or so years or so living in London, and two years in Leitrim – I’ve always lived near the sea.  I get jumpy and claustrophobic when I don’t.  I would like to live nearer though, nearer than I do.  It’s only about four miles from here, but I like the sound of gulls, and it’s only when they come inland, like they did this morning, that I realise how much I miss their call.  I was in Lowestoft a week or so ago and the garage was right on the quay with gulls everywhere. It was bliss.

Photos under the cut.

This is where I spent my childhood – Westcliff-on-Sea.  The sea was full of sewage back then, but we didn’t care. The crabs obviously did well on it, and the cockles!

My teenage years were spent here:Thorpe Bay beach, a little more upmarket and further to the east.

I lived in Bournemouth for about ten years, although I tended to avoid the beaches when they looked like this:

and would seek out the quieter ones like this, in Purbeck.

And now I live in Norfolk, where – although the sea is bloody freezing – the beaches are fabulous (and REAL, unlike Essex, where they import a lot of the sand for the main beaches)

Here’s Holkham Beach, which is probably most famous for the end scene in “Shakespeare in Love”

And here’s Caister, which is nearest to me. Yeah, a little scruffy and neglected, but I love it.

I think it’s partly about water. I can put up with living inland if I’m near water. My friend Ottilie says the same, and she regularly runs back to Southend to recharge.  If one day I earn enough to be able to afford a home elsewhere I’d spend it on something within walking distance to the beach.

Comments

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Ahaha yes. we usually put the remains of fish n chips on the wall beside the priory and watch them swoop down for tea.