Bridlington harbour, Britain and the sea

click photo to enlarge

According to the Ordnance Survey the farthest point from the sea in Great Britain is near the farm of Church Flatts outside the village of Coton in the Elms in Derbyshire. From that location to the nearest sea - at Fosdyke Wash, south of Boston in Lincolnshire - is 70 miles (113 km). That information tells you that for the people of our island a trip to the coast is a relatively easy proposition. Nonetheless, people being people, quite a few go there rarely, if at all.

I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, an area of valleys, hills and mountains. The nearest sea to me at that time was about 30 miles distant, and I loved to go there. I liked the sea so much that later in life I spent fifteen years living by a tidal estuary with the North Sea only 16 miles away and twenty years living a mile from another tidal estuary a mere two miles from the Irish Sea. During those decades I spent a lot of time by the sea, enjoying the light, the open space, the air, the sights of the coast and offshore, and revelled in its ever changing quality. Today a trip to the nearest sea is about 11 miles. However, that location is the saltmarsh edge of The Wash, and whilst this is fine for bird watching and has potential for photography, it isn't the kind of coast I've known and came to enjoy. I once again have to travel about 30 miles for that experience. Consequently, when I recently went to Sewerby in East Yorkshire I took the opportunity to spend an hour or two in nearby Bridlington with its working harbour.

Boats attract photographers like ripe fruit attracts flies, and I wasn't the only person that day pointing their camera at the many and varied boats tied up there. The foreground of today's shot shows a few small, probably pleasure or hobby boats tied up on the landward side of the harbour. The centre now has pontoon jetties for yachts and launches, but the seaward side of the harbour, in the lee of the curving harbour wall, the inshore fishing vessels and landing facilities can still be found, looking much as I first saw them forty or so years ago.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Daisies, likes and dislikes

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I've never liked the ornamental "pincushion" version of the common daisy, Bellis perennis. It always seemed very artificial looking with its flattened pom-pom head and often lurid colour. What I didn't realise, however, was that the way many gardeners use the plant contributed significantly to my antipathy. Those straight rows in lawn edge borders, with either the daisy alone or alternated with alyssum, lobelia or some other low growing, contrasting flower, seemed so forced.

What opened my eyes to the potential of this flower was a recent visit to Sewerby Hall near Bridlington. This former country house on the clifftops overlooking Bridlington Bay and the North Sea is now a visitor attraction run by East Yorkshire Council. The house holds museum-type exhibitions and period-furnished rooms, and the gardens, many that date from the time when the building was a private residence, are very well laid out and maintained. In the walled garden  - probably a former kitchen garden - I came across a few large beds of the pincushion daisies and I was so impressed by what I saw that I photographed the best examples. The most striking was the mixed planting of of red daisies with blue forget-me-nots. This combination was eye-catchingly vibrant, not to say dazzling, certainly photogenic, though probably too much "in your face" for my tastes. However, a bed of pink daisies with forget-me-nots had quiet, understated, elegant, pastel qualities that I admired much more.

You're perhaps thinking that a section of our garden might be given over to something like this. But probably not. We tend to favour pockets of annuals among perennials and shrubs rather than complete beds of annuals or biennials that have to be replaced en masse part way through the season. However, the sight of these lovely flowers paired up with forget-me-nots has changed my opinion of this kind of daisy and we could well find a use for it in the future.

photograph and text (c) T. Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 55mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/100
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On