Everywhere was very windy today, and Dungeness was too. It was fine walking away from the wind but walking back the other way was an eye streaming and ear aching experience! There were lots of gruesome finds on the beach today-gruesome and smelly. I found a bird skull-which still had some fleshy parts on, and I did pick that one up. I have just been boiling it with washing liquid and now the flat smells very bad and I am quite unpopular with Andy, though the cats don't seem bothered! I have put it outside to cool off and then I will see what to do with it tomorrow. Most of the smelly things stayed where they were though.
I don't suppose these two met when they were alive, but have ended up sharing a square foot of beach together now that they are not. I don't like to imagine what that fish is with its tooth filled beak.
This is just pretty rather than gruesome.
Back to the horror. There were lots of parts of birds like this. There is always a recurring theme at Dungeness, and today it was these, mermaid's purses and beautiful clam shells.
I picked this up but didn't take it, as I was not sure what the mysterious pieces of machinery were inside it, and whether it was made of lead or not.
This was amazing-quite large-about two and a half feet long. Its mouth is fascinating. Those things are kind of rubbery, not hard like teeth. I think it is either a
Small Eyed Ray or a Thornback Ray. I wish I had turned it over to have a look at its top side. I think they are also called Skate, and are the fish that produce all those egg sacs and mermaid's purses.
This Cuttlefish has strange sharp, purple marks in it. Not sure what they are.
This little skeleton must be a crayfish or lobster or prawn-not at all sure. It was extremely stinky!
There were lots of dead Dogfish again. Having looked back at all our other visits to Dungeness it seems that this is pretty common.
Andy in the distance past a blurry piece of wood. I liked the rust mark and meant it to be in focus!
A single crab leg.
A snorkel mouthpiece. I did actually pick up some rubbish to bring home, rather than leave it on the beach. Maybe on our next visit I will take a bin bag. I would certainly do that if I lived there, as there is so much rubbish.
This piece for example, which caught my eye because of the OFFSHOR and SEA wording.
Not sure what this is. Maybe a root.
The underside of whatever this is has a very pretty spotty pattern on, like delicate lace curtains or that spotty glass you get in bathrooms.
After seeing all those dead fish, we thought we would go and eat some. I wonder about myself sometimes. It was delicious though and the pub was cosy and warm. Then we drove along past the shacks and wooden houses, found the cafe was closed, so went somewhere else in search of tea.
We found New Romney, home of this lovely Norman church, a good charity shop, and a lovely tearoom. Last time we were there we visited the Sainsbury's, but I preferred today's visit. I got some exciting things for school in the charity shop-a monkey toy for next week's Chinese New Year activities, (he is battery operated, and, against all hope he actually works-it is the cutest toy ever) a toy Henry Hoover, and three of those magnetic drawing boards that you then swipe a switch down to clear.
We parked in a back street, and walked past this lovely old building on the way to the main road. It said 'The Priory' on it, and I had a strange little conversation with a lady who saw me taking pictures. She said she thought that lepers were kept there-but she couldn't remember the name of the disease, and thanked me for helping her to.
It had some very ugly but endearing gargoyles.
I liked the bike parked in front of the wall. It reminded me of France.
New Romney is one of the
Cinque Ports, and I think this coat of arms is related to that. I am not sure though, as some of them have boats instead of the back end of the lions. I have just spent an interesting half hour looking at lots of information about them but it is too much to share here!
Lemon cake and proper Earl Grey tea in bone china cups. Delicious! Andy had Assam and chocolate cake.
Aaaaaah!
3 comments:
the photo of the bike by the wall is stunning! A prize winner! The ooky fish bones would be nice if they had been bleached by the sun, dried out! Poor Andy, another hilarious story to add to the list of many! Very entertaining post, Ms. Sarah!
hello Sarah,
the rocks on the beach look like treasures to me. I wonder why there were so many dead things there. the mouth of the stingray or whatever it is, is so very interesting. almost looks like beadwork.
love the buildings of the area.
then cake and tea, that sounds so good right now!
I wonder if it is normal to find that many dead things on a beach too? I think storms and the nature of that beach may explain some of it-the tide goes out a long way and maybe things get stranded. Sometimes it is jellyfish, one time we saw lots of dead starfish, and the last couple of times there have been the dog fish.
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