For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) its always ourselves we find in the sea

[oddegg]

Went to the coast today.

I love the sea.
And I love old, slightly shabby seaside resorts, especially out of season.

The beautiful curves and lines of 30’s buildings looking hunched and downtrodden in their grubby cream or white paint, and they now house caff’s run by worn-faced women who look out blankly at you over their domain of formica-topped tables and lonely slot machines, and who serve you your tea in thick brown glass mugs.
- Summer Holiday seen through a glass darkly.

I like beachcombing. Picking the best pebbles, the perfect tiny shells – though I prefer the broken ones; spirals of sacred geometry interrupted, pearlised pastel stripes torn through.
The ruin of it suits the surroundings, like the rotting seaweed, the half-decayed seagull above the tide-line.

Nothing should strive for perfection next to the totality of the sea. The competition is too unfair.

Comments

[fredbassett]

You've catued my own thoughts on this so beautifully that you really must have taken up residence in part of my brain.

I spent my formative years on the beach at Blackpool, which is about as tacky as you can get and I still love it!!!!!!!!! And I would adore to spend a day on the Pleasure Beach there again playing on all the rides (except ones which go round too fast in circles and make me spew) and someone told me a few months ago that they still have the big carosel of horses there and .....oh bugger, why can't I go to the seaside now??? Are we there yet? Are you sure we aren't there yet? Can I have an ice cream? I want a wee! ARE WE THERE YET????

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

DAMN IT!! I will turn this LJ around, I will!

We're going to Milton Keynes next year, I swear...

[fredbassett]

Oooh, concrete cows, ARE WE THERE YET???

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

*Bashes head on steering wheel & decides next year to drive us all to hell*

*then realises we're all slashers and we're going there anyway*

*gives up in despair*

[fredbassett]

Oh noes, are you saying slashing is bad??

Will there be pretty men in hell to slash? Can I play with them and break them? Please, mommy, please!!

[fredbassett]

Meant to say "captured" in the fist line. Whoops.

Are you sure I can't have an ice cream? What about some sticky rock? Or fish 'n chips???

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

Sticky rock and ice cream? Bound to be sick then! (I shall be forced to eat them myself to save you from yourself ::sigh:: the things I do for you)

[fredbassett]

It's not a proper day out if you aren't ick in the car on the way back.

And I have a house full of shells and rocks and bits of wood picked up on various beaches and I always swear I'll do somethig useful and artistic with them, and I don't, I just keep them and smile at the pretty.

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

I have the world's largest collection of sea shells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you've seen some of it. ...
Steven Wright

Mine's not quite that large, but it's getting there *g*

[telperion-15.livejournal.com]

Having just moved to the seaside recently, I so know what you mean. Whenever I go to the shops I always make sure I walk there or back along the seafront - there's nothing like that to make you feel better if you're down, or just blow away the cobwebs.

The other day I walking along there, and it was sunny and breezy, and a couple of kids had a brightly coloured kite, and it was all just simple and beautiful and lovely.

I even love the wind farm we have off the coast in this part of the world - it's far enough away to be a feature and not an eyesore! *g*

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

I would love to live right by the sea. I'd even be willing to suffer through the tourist hordes in summer.

Living next to a rather smelly river isnt quite the same.

[munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the sea... but this is more the sort of ocean where I come from. I live 10 minutes away from this spot...*veg*

[telperion-15.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that's pretty! My seaside isn't quite as pretty as this - in fact, there's quite often mud!

*is jealous*

[oddegg.livejournal.com]

Agree with telperion - my seaside's nothing like this, and I may have to hate you.

*looks at pictures again, looks at out gloomy scottish weather*

Yup, I'm going to have to hate you. Sorry.

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

I'm insanely jealous of all this sea having-ness! And I know exactly what you mean about beach combing, that impossible desire to pick up everything you see that even looks vaguely interesting when sloping along a beach, rocks, feathers, bits of shell, smooth pebbles.

But I must visit the coast against soon, just to hear the sound of it. I love the sound of it the most.