I grew up on the North East coast of England and feel endlessly drawn to the sea although I live, here in Cambridge, almost as far away from any coast as you can get in England. Oh well. It’s always inspirational to see the whitecaps on any visit and to spend time at the shorelines in any kind of weather, although sunny and warm is preferred over freezing cold and tipping down. It’s perhaps the beauty of it, the briskness, the stones and sand, the spindrift, the mindfulness, the timelessness…
A recent trip to the coastal village of Mundesley with Mrs Sciencebase and some friends got the creative juices flowing. We even had a bit of an audience on our first night singing and playing a few songs and Mrs Sb demonstrated her percussive prowess on the tambourine. One of our party, RL, did some beautiful pen and paint sketches in between beers, there was plenty of lively plucking of banjos and guitars, kicking and picking of stones, lots of scenic photos taken, laughs had, beer supped, wine uncorked (both delicious and otherwise), songs sung and some serious discussion too…
This is my musical sketch of the trip. I must confess although we were close to The Poppy Line, we didn’t actually take the train and that’s really just a reference to walk through fields of ripe barley destined for beer, speckled with the occasional coquelicot. I have not added the early morning sounds of wrens, wood pigeon, blackbirds, chaffinches nor any other dawn choristers for the sake of our sanity, but there is the sound of the sea and a telephonic ident in there for the clear of hearing.
You can listen to the track on SoundCloud (128kbps mp3) or on BandCamp (high-quality file to stream or download for free).
For completeness, the lyrics: