This is heaven to me

We spent Saturday in North Norfolk – the north-west corner, where The Wash meets the North Sea. This is where I first saw the sea, it's my defining memory of 'sea-side' It's not the abrupt cliff edge of land meeting the crashing forces of water; here the land dissolves into the sea – salt water dilutes into fresh water – mud mingles into sand. If you take look at a satellite image you'll see the patterns of the creeks and water channels getting ever smaller like bronchioles in our lungs or neurones in our brain.

Here I can hunt for special shells and treasures in the ripples; hear the whippling, mewling calls of the sea birds; feel the wind buffeting my clothes and the yielding marshland under my feet and see the purple shimmer of the Sea Lavender flowers. These are the same scenes that appears in my photo album – finding shells with my Mum; or in a framed photograph on our wall – an art school black and white photography project. Thornham is heaven to me; this is the place to go when metropolitan Burnham Market is just too bustly, when the new farm shops and delis along the coast road feel a little too suburban – I can guarantee that you will find the true peace of the Norfolk coast here.


Music: 'This is heaven to me' by Madeleine Peyroux

Marsh Samphire is at it's best just after mid-summer, the marsh has a lush spring greeness to it as the sun shines through the translucent green-glass stems. Once the Samphire was burnt on the beach to make ash that was valuable for glass making, now the Samphire is harvested to send to top class restaurants and fishmongers as a speciality vegetable to accompany seafood. We picked our own and bought cockles, brown shrimps and crabs' claws from a hut at Brancaster Staithe for our supper – washed down with some pink bubbly.