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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: sand dunes

Seaside at Sunset

29 Fri Jul 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in music, plants, Rural Diary, seashore

≈ 55 Comments

Tags

Black-headed Seagull, common ragwort, Common Sea Lavender, gorse, hare's-foot clover, harvestman, mudflats, oil, Perennial Glasswort, plants, sand dunes, sea, sea campion, Sea Sandwort, Sea-holly, seashore, Suffolk, sunset, thrift, Walberswick

After a busy day last Friday and a hot, sunny day too, we thought it might be nice to go to the coast for a little while.  We knew that it would be extremely crowded for most of the day so we left it until after we had eaten our evening meal and set off just before 8.00 pm.

We decided that we’d visit Walberswick as we hadn’t been there for some time and parked the car in the car-park there at about 8.30 pm.

P1000941Walberswick

Walberswick. With its creeks, mudflats, sand-dunes and varied flora it is a favourite place of mine to visit.

The mass of mauve flowers you can see in the photo above are Sea Lavender.

P1000940Common Sea-lavender

Common Sea-lavender (Limonium vulgare)

I couldn’t get a clear picture of these flowers – mainly because I couldn’t get down low enough!  Sea-lavender (no relation of true Lavender) is related to the cultivated Statices – everlasting flowers.  Many people pick these flowers illegally to make dried flower arrangements.  Strangely, the drier the ground in which it grows, the taller it gets.  This plant grows in great masses on the North Norfolk coast and I would love to see it there again.

P1000944Thrift

There wasn’t much Thrift or Sea Pink (Armeria maritima) left – mainly seedheads. Thrift is a relative of Common Sea-lavender.

P1000942Hare's-foot Clover

There was a lot of rather scrappy Hare’s-foot Clover (Trifolium arvense)…

P1000943Sea Campion

…and a small amount of Sea Campion (Silene uniflora)

I cropped the photo I took.

P1000943Sea Campion-002

The calyx (the area behind the petals) is swollen, like Bladder Campion is and is similarly patterned with red veins. The petals are larger and thicker than other types of Campion and usually overlap each other.

P1000947Sea Sandwort

Sea Sandwort (Honckenya peploides).  I like the way this plant grows. It reminds me of children’s building toys.

In Richard Mabey’s ‘Flora Britannica’ he says ‘… (Sea Sandwort) is one of the earliest colonisers of sand-dunes and shingle, and remarkable for its sprawling concertinas of geometrically stacked leaves’.  It is able to keep growing upwards so if ever it is inundated with sand or mud it can survive.  As with many seashore plants it is succulent and edible.

P1000945Harvestman and Sea Sandwort

More Sea Sandwort, this time with a Harvestman or Harvest Spider. Can you see it? They are not true spiders but are related to them. They have one-piece bodies and no silk-glands so can’t spin webs.

P1000948Common Ragwort

Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) in flower and Gorse bushes (Ulex europaeus)

P1000949Dunes

The dunes and my shadow!

P1000950Dunes

Richard and Elinor beat me to the sea. The cool northerly breeze was so refreshing.

P1000951Walberswick

The sea and sky were beautiful

P1000952Sunset

The sun was just setting behind us

Lumps of oil
Lumps of oil
More oil
More oil

I was sorry to see this oil on the beach.  This is evidence that tankers have been flushing out their tanks illegally in N W European waters .

P1000955Sunset

The sunset progressed.

P1000957Sea

The view out to sea still looked good.

P1000958Seagulls

Seagulls were making their way out to wherever it is they go for the night…

P1000959Black-headed Seagulls

…except these two Black-headed Gulls (Larus ridibundus) who seemed to be doing some synchronised beach-combing.

P1000960Sea

One last look at the sea…

We made our way back to the dunes where I found a couple more plants to photograph.

P1000961Sea-holly

Sea-holly (Eryngium maritimum)

P1000962Sea-holly

A most beautiful plant!

P1000965Bug

A cute little bug hoping I leave him alone!

P1000966Vetch & Hare's-foot Clover

Vetch and Hare’s-foot Clover

P1000967Perennial Glasswort

Perennial Glasswort (Sarcocornia perennis)

Another name for Glasswort is Samphire and like Common Glasswort (an annual plant which is also called Samphire) it can be eaten lightly boiled or pickled in spiced vinegar.

For many hundreds of years Glasswort was used in the manufacture of glass.  The succulent stems were gathered at low tide, dried and burned in heaps.  The crude ash which is high in soda was then fused with sand to make a poor quality glass.  Saltworts were also used for this purpose.

View inland with the R. Blyth on the right

View inland with the R. Blyth on the right

We had enjoyed our hour on the beach and went home cool and relaxed.

Thanks for visiting!

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Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

17 Thu Sep 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in Days out, plants, Rural Diary, wild birds

≈ 34 Comments

Tags

beach huts, beach shop, cannon.Battle of Sole Bay, community radio station, flowers, fungus, GunHill, herring gull, high tide, lichen, life guards, pier, promenade, sand dunes, sea, seaside, shrubs, Southwold, Southwold & Walberswick ferry, Suffolk

My last but one post featured a walk we took on Dunwich beach.  This post is about a walk at Southwold.

As most people who live near the sea know, the best time to visit the beach is after the end of the school holidays.  There are fewer visitors and there’s a greater chance of finding somewhere to park your car.  The sea is warmer than at the beginning of summer and with luck the weather is good too.

We have been having fairly changeable weather this summer so when we saw that the weather was bright and breezy the other Saturday afternoon we decided to make the most of it and go to Southwold.  When we arrived we saw that the tide was right in and the northerly wind was causing the sea to be quite lively.

High Tide

High Tide

The waves were rolling in round the base of the steps that go down to the sand so we couldn’t get onto the beach just yet.

High Tide

Stairway to the sea

We walked along the promenade while the tide started to recede.

Southwold Pier

Southwold Pier

As I mentioned in a former post about Southwold, the pier was restored a few years ago.  It is fun to walk out there when the tide is in and see the waves splashing just under your feet.  There are places to sit and watch the waves and there are places to buy food and drink and shelter from the wind.  The end of the pier is very popular with fishermen.  This is a link to the Pier Cam which will show you a little of what we like to see.  There isn’t much to see at night except the lighthouse flashing but during the day-time it’s quite interesting and you get to find out what the temperature is on the coast too.  Don’t forget the time difference if you live overseas!

End of the Pier

End of the Pier

There seemed to be a number of young Herring Gulls about. (Larus argentatus)

Immature Herring Gull

Immature Herring Gull

Immature Herring Gull

Immature Herring Gull

Immature Herring Gull

Immature Herring Gull

It was a really pleasant walk along the front with other promenaders.  As the sand started to appear people ventured onto the beach and the life guards marked out the safe bathing areas.  Huddled in coats and blankets, the beach hut owners were sitting with the doors opened as they read or drank hot tea or coffee.

Beach Shop

Beach Shop

Southwold Beach

Southwold Beach

Southwold Beach

Southwold Beach

Elinor bewails the fact that our sea isn’t blue.  The North Sea is not deep and the sand on the sea-floor gets churned up especially in stormy weather.  Our sea is brown most of the time.

At the end of the prom. the path goes up the slope to Gun Hill.

Gun Hill

Gun Hill

On the 28th May 1672 a famous sea battle was fought just off-shore from Southwold.  This was the Battle of Sole Bay when the English and French fleets clashed with the Dutch fleet.  It was the first naval battle of the 3rd Anglo-Dutch War and ended with a tactically indecisive result though a strategic Dutch victory.  The English and French fleets combined had a total of 71 warships and the Dutch had 61 vessels and the total number of men taking part was said to have been 50,000.  There was great loss of life.  James, Duke of York the brother of King Charles II was Admiral of the English Fleet and took up residence for the duration of the battle in Sutherland House in the town.

IMG_5627Cannon on Gun Hill

Cannon on Gun Hill

There are six 18lb cannon on the green and were given to the town in 1746 by The Royal Armouries as protection to shipping against raids.

Gun Hill

Gun Hill

Their last known firing was in 1842 to celebrate the then Prince of Wales birthday.  Southwold was bombed during the First World War because the German army considered that Southwold might be a fortified place because they had seen the cannon.  The cannon were buried for safety during the Second World War!

Cannon

Cannon

Cannon

Cannon

Another feature of Gun Hill is the radio station building.

Community Radio Station

Community Radio Station in the Casino

The primary radio transmitting studio is located in an old WWII bunker in the grounds of St Felix School Reydon, a village next to Southwold but further inland.

Erigeron glauca

Erigeron glauca

A few naturalised garden plants thrive on the slopes up from the beach.

Unknown Yellow Daisy

Unknown Yellow Daisy

I don’t know what this flower is; I see it is suffering from mildew!

Tamerix

FrenchTamerisk (Tamarix gallica)

These plants are often planted for soil stabilisation or to act as a wind-break.  They aren’t native but have been established here for a long time and do very well on the coast.

Beach Huts

Beach Huts

There are beach huts all the length of the sea-front.

Gun Hill Beach Café

Gun Hill Beach Café

This is one of the two kiosks that sell food and drink.

Looking Towards Walberswick

Looking Towards Walberswick

Walberswick is the seaside village next to Southwold going south down the coast.  The two places are separated by the River Blyth as it flows out to sea.  There is a ferry operating during the summer months.

Looking Towards Walberswick

Looking Towards Walberswick

Sand Dunes

Sand Dunes

We thought we might walk through the sand dunes to the ferry.

Sand Dunes

Sand Dunes

The Marram Grass (Ammophila arenaria) was bending in the strong wind.

Fairy-ring Champignons

Fairy-ring Champignons (Marasmius oreades)

I found a rather shrivelled fairy-ring.

Sea Buckthorn

Sea-Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides)

The tree is small and suckers easily.  It has thorny twigs that have silvery scales that rub off.  The bark is fissured and peeling.

Sea Buckthorn

Sea-Buckthorn

The leaves are long and thin with silvery scales on them.  I couldn’t see any fruits on these trees so they were probably male trees.

Camp Site

Camp Site

There is a camp-site on the outskirts of the town.

We almost got to the River Blyth but Elinor began to get a back-ache and we had to turn round and make our way back to Southwold.

Towards Southwold

Towards Southwold

As well as the lighthouse you can see the tower of St Edmund’s church and the water tower.

Towards Southwold

Towards Southwold

Tiny House

Tiny House

Lichen

Lichen

Chickory

Chicory (Chicorium intybus)

Common Bird's-foot Trefoil

Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)

Southwold

Southwold with one of it’s many greens.

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Lifeguards

Lifeguards

Southwold Beach

Southwold Beach

Sea at Southwold

Sea at Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Southwold

Here we were approaching the pier again and the car park beyond it.  You can also see the two-storey pavillion building at the end of the pier built in 1936.

I hope you have enjoyed this visit to Southwold.

Thanks for visiting!

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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