Purring in ripples (Off Seaton Sluice)

By The North Sea

Her cheek was wet with North Sea spray,
We walked where tide and shingle meet;
The long waves rolled from far away
To purr in ripples at our feet.
And as we walked it seemed to me
That three old friends had met that day,
The old, old sky, the old, old sea,
And love, which is as old as they.

Out seaward hung the brooding mist
We saw it rolling, fold on fold,
And marked the great Sun alchemist
Turn all its leaden edge to gold,
Look well, look well, oh lady mine,
The gray below, the gold above,
For so the grayest life may shine
All golden in the light of love.

—Arthur Conan Doyle

[Photo: North Sea off Seaton Sluice]

Top thirteens

England:
1. Greater London 8,278,251
2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093
3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230
4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465
5. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996
6. Liverpool 816,216
7. Nottingham 666,358
8. Sheffield 640,720
9. Bristol 551,066
10. Brighton 461,181
11. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252
12. Leicester Urban Area 441,213
13. Bournemouth Urban Area 383,713

Great Britain:

1. Greater London 8,278,251

2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093

3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230

4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465

5. Greater Glasgow 1,199,629

6. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996

7. Liverpool 816,216

8. Nottingham 666,358

9. Sheffield 640,720

10. Bristol 551,066

11. Brighton 461,181

12. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252

13. Leicester Urban Area 441,213

UK:

1. Greater London 8,278,251

2. West Midlands (Birmingham) 2,284,093

3. Greater Manchester 2,240,230

4. West Yorkshire (Leeds) 1,499,465

5. Greater Glasgow 1,199,629

5. Tyneside (Newcastle) 879,996

6. Liverpool 816,216

7. Nottingham 666,358

8. Sheffield 640,720

9. Bristol 551,066

10. Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area 579, 554

11. Brighton 461,181

12. Portsmouth Urban Area 442, 252

13. Leicester Urban Area 441,213

I was surprised at how little the lists changed. I don't know why I was surprised. Yet I was happy too, because all I had to do was copy and paste instead of typing the list three times. God's way of telling me this was a stupid post? You be the judge.

Amazing but true:

England has 84% of the UK population, 53% of the UK land area.

Meaningless stat (but it begged to be done):

London has 16% of England's population, 1% of England's land area.

Other fun facts (for those who don't know the definition of "fun"):

Where is the point farthest from the sea in England? Nobody seems to know. I found a claim for farthest to the sea in all the UK (see below) but that wasn't the question. (Note, for those of you who think this means "see," I assure you the question is not asking, "farthest from the pope." K?)

Most distant places in England? Probably Lands End to Marshall Meadows Bay, a distance of (using my American metric skills) about 8.6 km. Give or take.

Long after I had tired of reading the arguments about "place farthest from the sea" I ran across the following from a BBC website. I'll bet this is what you guessed, too. You will note it ignores the question, "... farthest point from the sea in England."

Just outside the quaint village of Coton in the Elms is a small farm.

It is like most other farms in Derbyshire, beautifully nestled among verdant fields and grand trees.

However Church Flatts farm is special.

The Ordnance Survey has calculated it is the furthest point from the sea in all the UK.

To be precise, the identified point is one mile south-east of the farm house occupied by Henry and Joyce Blackwell.

Mrs Blackwell said she had been informed of the farm's special status by the Ordnance Survey, but the only people who showed any interest in the site were occasional ramblers.

So, living so far away, does Mrs Blackwell visit the sea often?

"I don't think I have been to the sea since 1988," she said.

Sadly, that was to identify the body of her mother, who died while holidaying at Skegness.

Mrs Blackwell said she used to visit the beach in the 1970s when her two sons were younger.

"They have grown up now, so we don't have much reason to go to the beach."

Well, do the Blackwells ever eat fish?

Mrs Blackwell laughs: "No, I guess we are more meat eaters."

EXACT CO-ORDINATES Latitude: 52º 43.6'N Longitude: 1º 37.2'W News Online's Brady Haran built a sand castle to mark the point (see video above)

The Blackwells farm 300 sheep and 250 cattle on their 150-acre property.

For the record, the nearest section of coast to Church Flatts farm is the mean low water line at Fosdyke Wash, on the edge of The Wash, south of Boston, in Lincolnshire.

This is some 70 miles (113 kilometres) away.

However, to be highly technical, the nearest high tide point is on the River Trent, which is a tidal river.

Using this definition, the nearest point to Church Flatts Farm is at Cromwell Lock, north of Newark, in Nottinghamshire.

This is just 45 miles (72 kilometres) from the farm.

---------
And so to bed.

PS-In case anyone was curious, Edinburgh was, like, number 53.

Happy Valentines Day

I was watching the Kennedy Center Honors on TV not too long ago, hosted by our President and First Lady, and one of the honorees was Led Zeppelin. They're a bit older now. They looked like they were having a good time, sitting up there in the balcony all dressed up, next to Michelle and Barack. They were feted on stage by their friends who played and sang some of the old music.

Led Zeppelin was Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones. After Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, with Jeff Beck, formed a group called The Honey Drippers. One of the Honeydripper's successes was an old Phil Phillips tune called Sea of Love.

That one's good for Valentine's Day, don't you think?



 And a bonus old Ray Charles number:

(Try and) Findus

The following news story really had me snorting and pawing the ground and champing at the bit when I read it. Any unauthorized additions to the story appear in [brackets.]

(NEWSER) – First British and Irish consumers were aghast to discover horse meat in their hamburgers. Now, horse meat is turning up in frozen beef lasagnas, with 11 of 18 tested Findus products containing horse meat in the 60% to 100% range, reports the AP. Findus pulled its beef lasagnas [is lasagnas really a word?] from stores and apologized immediately, saying it had "fully resolved" issues with its meat supplies.

While horse meat is not considered a hazard per se, [or at least not one we would pay for, says the NHS] food safety officials are testing the meat for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone, which is banned from entering the food chain. Many food officials are pointing fingers at Irish beef exporters, who in turn are blaming Polish suppliers [who in turn are blaming the lax disposal methods of royal polo ponies.] The UK Food Standards Agency is calling for more comprehensive meat testing to ensure labels accurately represent products.

[End of news story]

May I note that I have never seen an Irish consumer aghast? This thought itself is a mental treat to me in my news story reverie. Truly. An Irish consumer in a genuine state of aghastment, perhaps sitting on a curb/kerb with his/her head in his/her hands, perhaps a horse lover forever disillusioned with his/her trusted government meat inspectors. Did you know you can buy bison meat in the U.S. - all ground up to make bison burgers out of - right next to the ground beef packages in the meat display case in some supermarkets? Well, you can. But you won't mistake it for ground beef because it is too red and lacks all the fat of American ground beef.

Extra tidbit at no extra charge: Did you know that when Arizona cops stop you for DWI and give you a breathalizer test, they ask you to try and say the word phenylbutazone while blowing into it? Then they laugh at you and arrest you anyway, and take you to jail where you are fed Sheriff Joe's green baloney sandwiches with rattlesnake protein mixed in it.

Finally, here is a gratuitous photo I stole from Soubriquet's wallet, just to see if he reads all the way down to the end of the post. Ta.