Trawler coming into harbour!

A baby 'Scream'

See here for the orginal

apparently Andy Warhol did his own version too

and you can see Little Scream's big brother from our competition - here.

Just sitting there!

View through a 'brick'!

Hollow sort of brick (lots of them around) presumably from the pier and I used it to take the photo of the pier, putting the camera lens up to the hole (with some difficulty, trying to juggle camera and brick)

My favourite!

This is the pinky grey stone I mentioned earlier, I have seen much bigger bits than this.

Stone

It looks like a parcel wrapped around with string.

(I've found the rocks always look better in situ when they are still wet form the sea; often when they dry out what attracted me is lost.

Beachcombing rewards

Went down to the beach today despite the bitterly cold wind; not another soul in sight and what did I espy, unbelievably, just alying on the pebbles, but a £5 note!

It was far too cold to take a photo ( and anyway, the note might have blown away by the time I had extracted my camera from my pocket.) I honestly looked around for an owner, but as before, no one else was braving the biting wind.

I am just hoping that I don't now get a lot of claimants, as Alex did when he found the koumboloi. See Judgement of Solomon

Still a lot of this all over the beach; the first piece I saw was like a large brick, with a runnel in it, and the pinky streak you can see in the ones above. At first I didn't know what it was, well I still don't really, but I think it must come from the pier, because there's so mcuh of it. It is a creamy yellow, with a pink streak, and very light.

Smiley Face!

See other examples at HERE.

Treasure?

I found this stone, or half stone on the beach and it seemed obvious that it had had a crystalline structure of some sort in the cavity. You may be able to see the glitter from remaining glitter.

I assumed the sea had broken it, and spent some time looking around for the other half. Then I looked for similar stones - I found one easily enough, and cracked it open easily - but alas, there was no treasure inside.

I was telling a friend's father about it later, and he suggested that there had been human intervention. I hope to spend more time looking and seeing if I can find my own treasure.

New Year Resolution

Well, yes - obviously I know it isn't New Year yet, but I feel bad about letting Alex and all you others down - so am going to try and do better!

These are more pier finds, as well as shells and a stone. There is hardly a day on the beach when I don't come back with a stone or pebble that has fascinated me. There's grey quartzy type of stone, with pink in it (okay, I never claimed to be a geologist) and stones with lovely brown, black and orange colours, they look abit like some Australian Aborigine painings I have seen - but the colurs are best before the stones dry out.

I have acouple of its of charred timber, one of them has a bolt in it, and two bits of metal lacework in the second picture are bits of melted metal.

Oh, and I hope you all had a Very Happy Christmas - Καλά Χριστούγεννα

I know - it's been ages!

Yes, I do have my camera back, and I will try to find time to document my earlier finds, but for the last few days it has been a bit difficult to beachcomb! See above, taken today.

And for those of a romantic turn of mind: (Very Dickensian, which is quite appropriate, as he had two aunts in Hastings, and spent some time staying with them.

Well! That didn't work did it?

Tried blogging the photo from Picasa but desn't seem to have worked, so, hopefully, herewith!

So quick & simple - and done.

As you might be able to guess, I haven't got my camera back yet!

But I was feeling a bit guilty about failing Alex, so I had this great idea to use the webcam on my eeepc.

Couldn't get it quite right (actually was trying to photograph six shells I picked up today!)

It was very stormy yesterday and there was fresh pier debris. I love the beach in a storm - I love the beach. (That's 'full stop')

Hello there!

Hi, I am Alex's solution; my name is Lexie Godbehere and Alex has asked me to take over his blog for a while. He has asked Sandy (Sandy Godbert) too, but she hasn't answered yet.

As is so often the way, my new, birthday camera had to go in to be repaired the same day Alex contacted me. (Lens error!) So you will have to wait for photos but I have collected lots of things!

First shells; I read somewhere on the web that because Hastings is a pebble beach there are no shells. Load of....!

And you may have heard that our pier got a bit burnt; there are loads of bits and pieces all over the beach so I picked up a couple.

Then, of course, there are the pebbles - every day I walk on the beach and every day I pick up pebbles, the shapes, the colours; of course, I do keep hoping I will find something worth lots of money, or of great importance.

I did find a mobile phone, still working and the owner was very pleased to get it back, and I found a pair of Prada sunglasses- well, it said PRADA on the side.

I am aware......

....I have been so caught up in family matters and other things I just haven't had time to blog, let alone beachcomb! I do have an idea in mind, so don't stop taking a quick peek occasionally and I will try and get my idea up and running.

Meanwhile, you might find this interesting (well, I did!) -
http://sites.google.com/site/marijsak/thestonesummons

http://sites.google.com/site/mjsakbiog/biography

Sorrow! My heart hurts for my friends in Hastings

So many friends have told me about the Battle for Hastings Pier, and how hopeful they all were that they could get it reopened - and now it has been burnt down! I am sure it was an accident, but how sad for everyone.

But it must be something about the people of Hastings - they still haven't given up and are hoping that something can be done.

After I heard it on the news I had a look online and here are photos etc.

• Second fire on Hastings Pier this morning
• Hastings Pier arson suspects released on bail
• Giant crane to demolish parts of Hastings Pier tonight
• Council leader says Hastings Pier fire is "devastating"
• VIDEO: Firefighters tackle Hastings Pier blaze
• People warned Hastings Pier is dangerous
• CLICK HERE for links to every Hastings Pier story you need
• VIDEO: Hastings Pier destroyed
• Hastings Pier monitored amid collapse fears
• Hastings Pier kills local wildlife
• Hastings Pier fire leaves dozens of homes without water
• Two arrested over Hastings Pier
• Hastings Pier blaze destroys most of historic structure

Hippo Campus

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/09/hundreds-of-baby-seahorses-cau.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

A record-breaking 918 baby short-snouted seahorses were born at London Zoo's aquarium on Monday and caught on camera.

Famed for their unusual gestation process - whereby the male is equipped with a 'brood pouch' and goes through pregnancy and birth - seahorses are notoriously hard to breed:

http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/newshastings/A-century-of-seahorses-born.6384428.jp

A century of seahorses born at Blue Reef - Hastings
.............more than 100 seahorses were born at the aquarium. The tiny short-snouted seahorses, which are notoriously difficult to rear in captivity, were born as part of a nationwide breeding programme............................

"These babies were born from parents that were rescued after accidentally being caught by fishermen. .....................................

First-Ever Halley Comet Sighting: It Was All Greek

I caught this from the newsfeed at the bottom of the blog.

..........the mention of a comet falling somewhere in the Hellespont region of northern Greece, either in 466 or 467 BC. Hintz and Graham write that records from the time describe how the meteor fell even while a continued to burn in the sky. (It subsequently became a tourist attraction for the next 500 years.) However, most of the subsequent commentary focused on the meteor, giving the appearance of the comet relatively short shrift.

Fast forward to 1705. That's when Englishman Edmond Halley correctly predicted the return of a comet seen in 1682, which returned to pass by the Earth in 1758. Since then, scientists have been able to project backwards the comet's return trips, which typically take place every 75 to 76 years.

Using computer simulations Hintz and Graham suggest that what we now call Halley's comet might have been visible for about 80 days during the summer of 466 BC.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20016110-501465.html

Beachcombers - contributions/corrections welcomed!

strandjutter, موجة طويلة, 比奇科默, tulák - velká příbojová vlna, Pikk ranna-Aal, rantajätkä, 1. vague déferlante - 2. propre à rien - 3. personne qui ramasse des objets sur les plages, Strandgutsammler, frangente, 大波 (Onami), Okeano banga, موج خروشان دریا و اقیانوس, 1. przybrzeżna fala morska - 2. człowiek żyjący z tego, co morze wyrzuca na brzeg, бродяга, 1. ola - 2. raquero - 3. persona inútil, lodosçu, ביטשקאָומער