Back to the beach

At the Shore 2016

 

As I said last year I love the beach! When I’m home I try to go at least once a year. I’m from Philadelphia which is just over an hour from the Jersey and Delaware coastline. I grew up going to Wildwood, NJ every year for a weekend or week with my family and sometimes we’d even go down for the day. After 1997 I didn’t go to Wildwood anymore, too crowded. I soon started going to Atlantic City. I would get deals for several nights stay at a Howard Johnson that included breakfast at a great diner next door. I wasn’t in to gambling (back then I was too young anyway) but I just liked feeling grown up, going to the beach and walking the boardwalk.

In my late 20s I started taking day trips to the shore with my younger cousin. We went to Brigantine, Rehoboth and Ventnor. My uncle has a condo in Ventnor and I used to go a couple times a year for the weekend. There is nothing like waking up with the ocean breeze and the call of seagulls. I usually hate seagulls but something about hearing them in the morning is very soothing.

I haven’t found the shore in Britain to be as nice. First off there aren’t many sandy beaches. Second they’re really steep. At home I kept beach chairs in my trunk so at any time I was beach ready. The first time my cousin and I went to the beach we used a plastic table cloth I had in my truck to lay on. I never made that mistake again. The next year I bought my beach chairs. But either way at home you can use a chair or a towel and just lay down. The beaches are soft and sandy and there’s a cool breeze blowing and the sunshine to warm you up. I used to lay on the beach with my Discman or MP3 player. Not the case here. It’s a trek to get to the water and the beach isn’t suitable for sitting or lying. The shingle is painful! When I came to visit in 2011 I went to Brighton and although it was March I had to put my feet in the water. I had bruises on the soles of my feet for the rest of my trip; Not Fun At All!

This year we only made it to the shore two or three times. I did get to collect shells and I had a few left over from previous years so I had another go at making shell jewelry. When I made them last year the journey was just getting started. I didn’t have a lot of experience working with the tools or the materials. I noticed when I was getting ready for the sale that although the joins were artistic they weren’t very functional. Now I’m much better at it. I decided to try to match the shells to beads I have; as you can imagine I’ve collected quite a lot over the past year.

 

So I got all my shells out. First I selected ones that were beautiful. Then I had to sort out the ones that weren’t or weren’t too damaged. Then I had to put the ones left into pairs that were close in size and color. This is very tricky! The birds and fish that eat these delights aren’t tidy eaters, and of course the ocean moves the pieces around. In the end you can’t match two shells perfectly; they may be close in color but not size, or the same size but slightly different colors but hey, this is nature!

 

Once I got the pairs figured out I had to select the beads that went with them. I’m a bit OCD so this was hard, I think that took up most of the time.

In the end I completed seven pairs. Two pairs from Pevensey – a unique clam shell I’ve never seen before but they have beautiful coloring and their shells are shiny.

We went to Pevensey two weeks ago. We went out for the afternoon stopping off first at Wilmington to see the Long Man. We packed our lunches and ate them in the field opposite the man and discussed his origin and history; there’s still a lot of controversy regarding when he was made. You can read more about it on Neil's blog. Afterwards we drove to Pevensey. Neil was reluctant to go there since he’d been over 20 years ago and didn’t think much of it. But I’m glad we went. It was a lovely little town, the kind you’d like to live in. There was a castle just a few miles away from a nice beach with pretty shells. Still a rocky and steep beach but lovely. Best of all there was Rose’s Fish Bar on the street behind the beach. We went and got fish & chips to go and ate them on the beach under the moonlight.

 

  

There are two pairs from Littlehampton – clams again one smaller and one larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I get excited when I see clams. They are a delicacy at home but I can’t find them anywhere here. We make soup with them, bake them in their shells or fry them. We started going to Littlehampton last summer. We went out for the day to Amberley (where I’ve wanted to go since I was 16), then drove to Arundel and ate lunch, then we finished our trip in Littlehampton. This was another case of a town Neil had been to over 20 years ago and thought was terrible. He was reluctant to go again but I was looking for a sandy beach so we went. It’s another lovely town! The beach in Littlehampton is sandier than most and also not as steep. I did get in the water there last year but I forgot my beach shoes when we went this year. Instead I combed the beach looking for shells and found these lovely little clam shells. Littlehampton also has a lovely fish & chip shop called Fred’s. We love their fish & chips so much that whenever we are I the area (and I mean within 20 miles) we go there to eat. The line is always up the street, even in the winter – it’s that good!

 

The rest of the shells I collected last year. One pair from Margate - I had to make this pair, one of the shells is absolutely gorgeous, perfect in fact. You can see lines throughout the shell almost like rock strata laid down over time. And two pairs from Hastings – one tiny and one larger. I love these mini conch shells. Overall I think they are the best quality shell. They don’t have noticeable holes or cracks and you can usually find them intact on the beach. Unlike the other shells that are sometimes battered, broken, chipped or damaged in some way. These almost always look pristine.
 

These all took a lot of time, effort and materials so they will be a little pricier. But they are so worth it! I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

$13.50 including US Shipping, £8.00 including UK Shipping