Sunday 2 January 2011

finding the inner me

 There's something refreshing about the coast* on
New Years day.
It's a peaceful retreat away from the
hub bub of the modern world.
 It reminds me of who I am and what I love.
 Nobody really owns the sea..
..and that's the dilemma..
My fresh and wistful mind turned to awe at this beachcomber haven..
and then to horror as the pebbles on the beach were turning bluer and greener..
but mainly plastic-ier!!
It's the plastic graveyard. 
(edited - it really was the worst I've ever seen)
toothbrushes, inhalers, sandals.
I almost expected to see a severed arm
(with plastic bangles of course),
such is the detritus of this modern world!!
It's shocking.
I have never liked waste and try my best to avoid 
unnecessary packaging eg.
I never buy fruit that is pre-packaged in plastic.
However the ownership of this mess lies on all our shoulders...
It is here on this beach that I heard my
inner Lisa Simpson..
..I'm not sure yet what I should do with it 
but I am AWARE of it now.
With this renewed feeling of awareness
we celebrated the new year
gazing at the needles (the Isle of Wight thank goodness!!)
and to everyone who wished us a very happy new year 
it was root beer!!!!
Who will be your inner being this year?
Nigella, Martha or Vivienne..

ps. did you know you can recycle plastic bottle tops?
Find someone who collects them for recycling.
It's a small thing..but if everybody did something..

Happy New Year!!

* Milford-on-Sea
Hampshire

15 comments:

{Love, Love, Love} said...

A refreshing and thought provoking post for the new year, Clare x

Unknown said...

It is such a shock when you see the impact we have on the environment - it is definitely a 'must try harder' prompt! Happy New Year xx

Floss said...

Great post. I have an inner Lisa too. I probably WAS Lisa, minus the sax, when I was her age... There are a lot of crafts in France which involve reused plastic bottle tops. They make quite fantastic mosaic place mats, trivets etc - I was quite surprised when I first encontered the idea! Better than chucking them in the sea, for sure. I look forward to hearing any further news on your lisa-wareness... and have a wonderful and blessed 2011!

Diane said...

I would have loved a walk on the coast with you Claire. "Rubbish" makes me very angry. The young man has decided to try for a career in "Waste Management" as he can see that there are potentially many jobs in this area because of the amount of stuff we throw away (plus he saw a job in a magazine that had a £72K salary plus BMW!!!) xxxxxx

Simone said...

Happy New Year Clare! What a load of old (new) rubbish on that beach! I hope this year is a good one for you. x

Anonymous said...

Quite a shock to go from beautiful duck egg blue beach huts (my favourite) in your first photo to the photo with all the rubbish.
No matter how much we do, I think there's always room to do more!

Happy New Year Clare, I hope it brings you all you wish for. :)

Vivienne x

Gilly Tee said...

We get the same on our coast . It's horrid.
Gillx

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year Clare. I would say that I have some inner Lisa Simpson in me in that I do as best I can to recycle and compost and garden with a mind to helping wildlife as much as I can but also a lot of inner Monica Gellar/Bing which just loves to organise and control a little bit!

Keepapi Creative said...

Thankyou for that post. Food for thought indeed. Happy New Year. Jacs x

**Anne** said...

Hi Clare,
A lovely post for the New Year (Happy New Year to year) and a reminder that we can all do a bit more to help our environment.
Anne xx

pamela said...

I'm so glad you posted these pictures. We all love a bit of pretty but we can't ignore what's going on right under our noses and toeses. If I lived a bit nearer I'd be joining you on a clean-up campaign! (BTW Clare did you catch my post last week about plastic with links to blogs of The Daily Ocean and Fake Plastic Fish? I think you'd find these links inspiring. Some amazing and thought-provoking people and actions around this planet-home).
Hope this 2011 is a great year for you;)
xxx

- said...

Stunning photos with one shocking one that I hope will make everyone stop and think for even a moment. There's just too much junk in this world! Why do we need so much individual packaging? It is insane.

I wish you the best of 2011!

Lisa said...

Happy new year to you too.
Fab photos.
Out on our walk yesterday we noticed empty cans of beer and Fruit Shoot bottles in amongst the trees, it makes our blood boil!
Lisa x

Itchin' Stitchin' said...

My heart sank just looking at all the plastic that washed ashore. Some really lovely things have been made with recycled plastic.

JuliaB said...

Milford on Sea????? Goodlord . I used to live right next door in Barton on Sea!! I went to school in New Milton (from age 15) .. Small world ..

Happy New Year to you too .. .I love that coastline too... when I moved to Oxford, my friend and I used to drive down to Barton beach every now and then to blow the cobwebs away ..

Lucky you living so near.

xxx