Conversation:

Okay 'beside the seaside' is an English phrase from a song, But I just read an article about its overall health benefits if you live there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18856680

The question is addressed to folk here from any country...and including holidays, activities and visits..

Mostly the smell and the light. There's something so invigorating about the breeze off the sea and there's something quite remarkable about the vividness of the light too.

I'm also very fond of the walking opportunities and sitting on the tops of sand dunes, chilling out with friends.

I love looking at the sea when it's choppy & gray. It seems to energise me somehow. It's a much better feeling than I get looking at a calm blue sea which is basically just "Nice sea view. Now what can I do next?".

Deb

I love the smell of the salt air, twiddling my feet in fine sand and watching the waves roll in. Bliss.

The air... You can breathe properly with teh air by the sea... Compaired to the muck we have to breathe in citys
The storms... thunder and lightening over the sea...
And walking down the coastline

I lived in a waterfront cottage for decades and
was quite fond of watching the ghost ships that
drifted into my bay. I would row out into the fog,
sneak aboard and plunder their skeletal remains.

After the great boxing day tsunami a few years
back I moved inland to a height of 200 meters
above sea-level and have been suffering hay fever
every year since.


~jwf~

O ye! who have your eyeballs vexed and tired,
Feast them upon the wideness of the Sea;
- John Keats

I don't know why a view of a flat piece of water should be so desirable, but it seems to be built into the human psyche that the sea is worth watching. A house with a sea view is worth so much more than one without.

There are lots of things I like about the sea - the noise of the waves, the smell, walks along the strand. The wildlife - there are nearly always seals down at the point and on two occasions I've been shadowed by a seal as I walk to or from the point. Watching terns diving is almost as good as watching gannets diving, since although they are much smaller, they do it much closer in to shore.

I love the stones uncovered by the waves - the beautiful polished marble-like ones - although they're not as nice when they dry.

The steady pulsing sounds of the waves beating against the shore provide a comforting background noise. The sand on a beach is said to be the very best surface for walking or running on.

I don't go to the seashore as much as I used to [I'm more of a mountain vacationer], but there are enjoyable things to do ont he beach. I like to walk along the edge of the water, where the sand is more compacted by the water. Seagulls fly over head. You can occasionally see the head of a harbor seal about thirty yards out.

The downside is overcrowded beaches on a hot day. A bigger downside is lack of an umbrella to shield you from the hot sun. Sunburn is not a welcome condition!

I concur with stuff posted here by others...but I went a bit left field, (what's new ), and put 'end of the pier' into google. One of the hits was this blog

http://occamstypewriter.org/cromercrox/

Looks like an interesting guy and the sort of blog I'd happily peruse occasionally..(He does actually mention he likes beach combing. I love that too)

Yes Gnomon I was always very sad when pebbles dried. As a child I would collect them for paper weights..and they'd have to be varnished before given out as presents. On the south coast of England you can find some good ones with fossils of various kinds in them.

the smell of the sea breeze - walking along a( pebble) beach in the rain. Bliss.
Sitting in a bus shelter eating chips.

Sounds a lot like one of my holidays in Scarborough as a kid.

Effers <<'end of the pier'>>

That reminds me of when I was a kid, walking on Deal pier and peering at the sea between the cracks in the wood. It always looked really green.

I'm loving this thread.

Deb

Having been born right near the sea, and lived my early years there, another thing, was summer eveings on the beach, until the early hours... with a fire, and as much booze and err other stuff as we could get hold of... then often getting to the top of the cliffs, in time, to watch the sunrise... utterly wrecked out of our heads mind... but still semeed like fun at the time
Oh, and having sex in the sanddunes....
Going along some of the more ruggard bits, a day or so after a big storm/high tides, seeing all the newly exposed cliff face, seeing the new shape of the beach where the cliff had collapsed down on to it... and finding fossels...
Finding 'odd items' amongst the rubbish washed up onto the beach... ... crabbing in the shallows in estury areas...
Oh, and one mental day, deciding that it was a 'nice day', and we'd canoe out...
We got to the one mile marker boys, err buoys, and decided it was a nice day... and went out further...
and then spent about five hours and every last ounce of strength to make it back to land again

Oh, and doing stupid wreckless things on the sea defences... we used to race across the tops of these giant grannite stones which had been thrown into the sea as defences... sharp, jaggard, leathal, and with the dark sea all around... and we'd run across them... useually barefoot Quite how we never managed to kill ourselves, growing up by the seaside, with all its huge levels of social unease, and drug abuse and alcohol... BoB-knows...

Oh, and skinny dipping with a at 4 or 5 or 6 AM, after having been out drinking and clubbing all night and stuff, was good fun too In December that was... in the North sea... substances other than alcohol may have been involved at soem point

When I was in Maui, I got a chance to swim in the ocean. The water was as warm as bath water. I also went with some friends to do some snorkeling, but a huge wave dashed me against the sand. No more snorkeling for me!

The smell.

And the sense of being a very long way away from anywhere or anybody in that direction out there.

PP

I live in a seaside town and never tire of watching the changing colour and temperament of the sea. I don't think you can beat dramatic coastal scenery, cliffs, rocky or sandy bays.

Admittedly I don't spend a lot of time at the town beach but go smaller places nearby where there is more peace except the sound of the waves and oyster catchers

It's being able to see an horizon that makes me happy..Being born in Africa I found I really missed being able to gaze across an horizon as in any average British town one's vision seems very constricted to the buildings around you.

For the first 5 year spent in Woolwich it was like I couldn't breathe properly.But now when I feel depressed I can take a 5 minute walk and viola I have instant horizon and lots of very fresh air.I can feel stress seep out of me..

>>the sense of being a very long way away from anywhere or anybody in that direction out there.

I think this is the key; look out to sea and you get a calm sense of nothingness, somewhat analogous to the mental state achievable through meditation.

2legs, the first bit of your post has stuck Kid Rock's All Summer Long in my head.

...we were trying different things and we were smoking funny things, making love out by the lake to our favourite song. Sipping whisky out the bottle, not thinking 'bout tomorrow, singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long



Deb

about right... cept for it being the sea, and not a lake....

Naturally.
2legs is much, much deeper than any kid rock.
He has his own Davy Jones lock locker in which
he keepeth the nighthoover.


~jwf~