AS you look out to sea, the breath of a Puerto Rican blowing on his hot morning coffee travels without interruption to the shores of the British Isles to ruffle your hair. The breezes that blow through the fronds of the palm trees lining the sandy beaches of Martinique in the West Indies transfer energy into the water to create waves of power that surge unimpeded to our western shores.
Waves shape our island. They eat into the land on our eastern coast and shift the chewed-up land around to the western coastlines, spitting it out at the wide sandy beaches of Devon and Cornwall. There is no better way to understand how we are all connected globally to the interaction between wind, energy and topography than to watch the waves.
How many of you have visited the shores, walking briskly as you listen to music through headphones, exercising the dogs as you plan the week’s menu or marching beside a friend to catch up on news and gossip? We feel better for it, even if, once home, we have no clear memory of the beach itself. We are often too busy and distracted to notice the tide or the signature chatter of each wave, but what should we be noticing about the waves?
First, watch how the waves roll in towards the beach. They gain height, swell like heavily pregnant bellies; skin stretched tight, yearning to give birth as they push on towards the shore. The energy from the wind of Martinique has bowled across the deep Atlantic Ocean uninterrupted. Here, as the land shallows, the base of the ball of energy drags against the seabed. Tripped up, like a bully’s meanly placed foot in a school playground, the waves rear up and topple forward into a chaos of noise and foam, dragging at pebbles or sand in a clawing frenzy of dispersing energy.
Denne historien er fra July 07, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 07, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery