Season: autumn
The tide was high under bright blue skies in the afternoon. The sun was low over a beach in the west, a rare Norfolk sight. This is an environmentally significant place, popular with migratory birds, being a major east coast RSPB Reserve. On this occasion cockles and razor clam shells were strewn about over the sand and shingle, crunching under foot and mingled in with the indigenous flint pebbles and stones. The higher part of the beach is home to sea cabbages and some intermittent dune grasses. It’s a natural treat.
What the beach means to Jenny.
Toni’s audio eulogy to the beach.
A fine autumn afternoon at Snettisham beach.
It’s timeless. If I go down to the beach today, it’s the same as when I was a child. It gives me space to think.
For me, the beach at Snettisham always reminds me of the migratory birds that over-winter there. I remember waking up on my first visit, thinking “What’s that noise?”, only to discover it was the sound of thousands of pink-footed geese taking off. Now I look forward to hearing them at dusk and dawn, when they visit us on their journeys.