Cast asunder

Sorry blog lovers, I haven't had much time in which to blog lately.
On the weekend, after Richard made a LOT more blackcurrant jelly (Kelly) on Friday night.
We went to visit friends who live at Sunderland point. Spooky is the word I'd use for Sunderland point. The very name reeks of isolation for when the tide comes in this tiny village which was once a thriving port is cut asunder from the main land and you can easily be caught in a swirling current that could drag you quickly out to sea.
It's a long way from Norfolk, on the West coast of England & it took us four & a half hours to get there. We had been warned about tidal comings & goings & so knew it would be OK to cross in the afternoon at about 4.30 pm.
When we arrived we had a nice time playing Petanque & then went for a walk. We found a quiet & isolated place, unchanged for hundreds of years.
We discovered Sunderland Point has quite a famous memorial....Samboo's grave. A young black West Indian slave had come with his master to this God forsaken outpost and died. He was buried on unconsecrated ground, in a windswept spot looking out to sea.
For a long time the grave was unmarked, until some years later a retired schoolmaster discovered the story and raised some money for a memorial. He also wrote the epitaph that now marks the grave:
'Full many a Sand-bird chirps upon the Sod
And many a moonlight Elfin round him trips
Full many a Summer's Sunbeam warms the Clod
And many a teeming cloud upon him drips.
But still he sleeps -- till the awakening
SoundsOf the Archangel's Trump now life impart
Then the GREAT JUDGE his approbation founds
Not on man's COLOUR but his worth of heart.'

It was an amazing landscape, all tussocky grass & rivulets of water. Green, green, green until it hit the water & the horizon.
We met an amazing couple who know all there is to know about fishing these treacherous waters. Margaret, the female of the two, has one of the few Haaf Netting licences. Haaf netting is a unique tradition found usually in the Solway Estuary and dates back to the Vikings. The word "haaf" means "sea net" which is mounted on a rectangular frame 18 feet long by 5 feet high. Fisherwomen walk out into the flat, shallows and mudflats and place the Haaf Net in front facing either the incoming ("flood") or outgoing ("ebb") tides, They have toclub the fish & hang it on their belt & wait again for another to come.

They gave us a packet of fresh whitebait & lots of advice about boats & engines.

Luckily there was some sun & the favourite green dress had an outing too.