From that gigantic bed of the sea
Where darkness on time
Begets pearl, monster and anemone
Only shells come
To chatter of emptiness, or lie
Lovely as dumb.
from Shells by Ted Hughes
Another photo from our recent trip to the UK this week. We were staying on the coast, so of course a walk along the beach was a must.
The Lincolnshire coast is subject to erosion, and for many years the sea was kept a bay by concrete sea walls. The latest thinking is that sand does a much better job of absorbing the force of the waves, so the level of sand on the beach has been artificially raised.
Luckily, as I’m a compulsive beach-comber, there are still plenty of shells and sea-polished pebbles to be found. I love these lines of Ted Hughes (yes, him again), which are a reminder that the sea shells we find on the beach originate from somewhere much more mysterious and alien.
