This little slightly fuzzy chap is a bush cricket on Spurn Point. We went with our local Natural History Society for the most beautiful, sunny day out today and heard these crickets in the brambles and grass by the path.
This brick is part of some structure, probably a path or road, and you can just see the upward pointing arrow that denotes Ministry of Defence. There are lots of wartime remains at Spurn and this brick caught my eye. I wanted to 'beachcomb' a length of black polythene pipe but upgraded to a brick when I saw this. I can hardly ever come back from the seaside without bringing something with me. It's never been a brick before though! Google tells me these are from the Hamblet Blue Brick Company in West Bromwich.
This side shows the road surface. We found another half brick like this. The inside was red - only the outside had the charcoal grey colour. At first I'd like to have found one or two more but by the time I got back to the car and our lunch I was rather glad I hadn't, because I WOULD have struggled along the beach with them, even though it's probably treason!
This concrete dish is an early, pre-radar listening device for enemy aircraft. A real bit of history.
The gorgeous Sea Buckthorn grows abundantly at Spurn and is a delight at this time of year with its orange berries. One of our group said that they'd seen Ray Mears on the television eating the berries so we had to try, didn't we? They taste quite fruity, a bit like rose-hip jelly. Some people thought they tasted like oranges but I'm convinced that is because of the colour. (Although they did remind me a little of the Haliborange tablets we were given as children.)
When we got back we replaced a pane of glass in the greenhouse -local young footballers to blame - then went to the allotment to bring home more yin-yang beans to finish drying and several pounds of achochas. That's my job tomorrow then - de-seeding them and putting most in the freezer.
6 comments:
Sea Buckthorn's an amazing plant - it could be the new super-food! It's packed with Vitamins and loads of minerals too! Lot's of research has been done in Russia whre they are developing new cultivars.
I bought some gorgeous Sea Buckthorn soap made in Norfolk where the plant grows in abundance. The latin name is hippophae rhamnoides which means 'shiny horse' - in ancient Greece the berries were fed to horses to improve their health and give them glossy coats.
Loved reading your beachcombing adventures!
Celia
Interesting about the sea buckthorn Celia. I passed some of the berries to another member of the group who couldn't reach them and they were so ripe they squished all over my hands. Naturally, I licked the juice off. I don't know why they aren't eaten really. However, having wioped my hands on a tissue which I then shoved in my pocket, I can vouch for they dying properites too!
I remember seeing some of those listening dishes on an episode of Coast - amazing things. Glad you had a good sunny day for your trip. hugs, Bilbo
I've never tried Sea Buckthorn though I have been tempted to buy it but I figure I should make sure that I try them first. I've always heard that you need to eat them with lots of sugar but it sounds like they were good raw?
Yes, I've read about using sea buckthorn. I think I would use it in the same way as rose hips. BTW, a lot of us have had this Chinese spam message (above) I deleted mine.
Sea buckthorn did remind me of rosehips - I thought they'd make a good jelly.
I found them quite sweet, but as I said, they were ripe to the point of squashing when they were picked. They were a bit astringent rather than sour and I don't think sugar would have made a difference to that.
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