I can't afford to go to the beach, someone paint me a mental picture so real I can hear the waves crashing?



Answers:
It's too bad that you can't make it to the beach, but I hope my story helps lift you a little. It's not a beach story as such, but a short trip I took to the coast yesterday.



I took a short trip out to the coast yeaterday. I live quite close to the Irish Sea in Preston, England and I often go out walking on or around Longton Marsh. The marshlands are a nature reserve and there are many interesting creatures to be found there. My girlfriend and I set off from Longton village down Marsh Lane, past the Methodist Church and the Golden Ball pub. The day was bright and the sunshine warmed you, but was not too hot. The breeze was strong and carried with it a cool sharpness that gave me goosebumps. I love the character of these sea breezes. They can whip up into strong winds that can blow you off your feet, but they can subside in a matter of minutes just as easily. They also carry a mixture of scents depending on the time of year, although the underlying scent is always salt. Yesterday, with the spring flowers in bloom, the breeze carried a mixture of delicate perfumes.

Just a little further on the houses and cottages get further apart from each other until there are just a few farmhouses dotted around the landscape. This area is not the marsh itself, but was reclaimed from the sea many centuries ago by primitive farmers. The soil is rich and sandy and provides ideal conditions for the rearing of sheep and growing vegetables. We passed a farm with chicken pens at the side with a fat cockerel crowing loudly! We carried on down the lane until we reached 'The Dolphin' pub right at the end of the lane. We drank a draught of ale here to refresh ourselves and then stepped out again to find a fat sparrow perched on the hedgerow opposite us, chirruping and singing his heart out. We carried on a little further down a dirt path until we reached the dyke that seperates the marsh proper from the farmlands. We climbed on top of the dyke and walked along the top. The view from here is quite breathtaking. You look across a vista of marshland with little rivulets heading down to the River Asland, which in turn empties into the River Ribble estuary. The whole marsh is incredibly green and rich in shellfish, insects and birds. The government have set this area aside as a special nature reserve because of it's abundance. We saw Fritilliary Butterflies, Ladybirds (Ladybugs to you Americans out there), different varities of Beetles and Bugs and brilliantly coloured Moths. We also saw Oystercatchers and Dunlin fishing the rivulets and Greenfinches, Sparrows, Goldfinches and Bullfinches darting in and out of the hedgerow on the farmland side of the dyke.

We carried on around the dyke until we came to the end of Back Lane, where we stepped off and headed back to Longton. Back Lane is a nice sheltered road with high hedgerows and trees to either side. We saw a pheasant running across the lane just a little further on. We got back to the village and rounded our day off with a couple of pints of ale and a meal at the 'Golden Ball', before hopping on the bus back to the city. It really was an ideal day and was a pleasure to share it with the lady I love.

Other answers:
Get a conch!

Get a conch!
Salt air.
An orange sunset over a distant, blue sea.
A cold Pina Colada with colorful umbrella.
Sand in your toes.
The smell of tropical suntan lotion on your hot skin.
A good book half open in the sand next to your towell and beach chair.
Steel drum music in the back ground.
A volley ball rolls by your feet.
Lovers holding hands along the shore line.
Shells and jellyfish.
A cool breeze.
Toasty skin and cool water.
A beachhouse, massage and a sunset lobster dinner awaits.
I live a few miles from it. Rarely go there. You're not missing anything. The sand is so loose that you can barely walk on it. Its like being in one of those dreams where you get chased but can't move.
Just been on the beach in Cornwall, UK. The wind blew so cold and so hard that my ears froze and felt they would fracture if they were hit with a spoon. The waves were hitting the coast with a sound more like a boom than a slosh. Even though I never felt it at the time, if i lick my lips now they're salty so the air must have been full of sea water. My cheeks are redder than santa's trousers and I'm sat inside wearing wooly socks drinking a cup of tea thinking how dreadful it must have been to be a sailor in the 1800s. Ho hum.
I live in the country & theres no beach here but I do have a relaxing place. Every morning I sit on my porch & listen to the woodpeckers taping on the cedar fence. Tap tap tap tap tap tappity tap tap , & more tap tap tap tap tappity tap tap. The sound of the bluebirds little chater is so enjoying as the sun rises above the trees & the woos whoosh woo whoosh of 2 ducks flying to the lake is such a neat sound to hear.As I sip my coffee & listen to all gods creatures start there busy day, I think to my self what a wonderful life. " Hey wake up "

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