Cornwall wouldn't be Cornwall without having the elements thrown at it frequently and, despite escaping much of the cold winter weather the rest of the country generally suffers, there is never any escaping the wind and rain. This winter has been pretty bad for that and, with particularly high tides often coinciding with storms, our beach has taken quite a battering.
The Water element has shown the nature of its power this winter. This is the first time in our 12 years of living here that the dunes have lost so much sand to the sea. Being backed by National Trust owned land, the beach here will continue to be at the mercy of the elements, as the N.T. have a 'managed retreat' policy regarding coastal erosion. What this means in practice is that it's going to be left to its own devices.
This last year has also seen a change in the course of the river that empties out into the sea. For many years it has flowed out next to the rocks, but last year it changed course and now meanders out somewhere around the middle of the beach. This has caused chaos at times in the summer, as the Lifeguards try to keep the beach safe, and people from being swept out to sea on the outgoing tide. There has actually been a line of rocks in place to try and keep the river flowing out by the rocks for many years, but this is no longer working as intended. Consulting older maps, it seems that the river changes course like this from time to time, so maybe it's best left to natural cycles.
There is an ancient tale that our village was once a seat of great learning, that there were many saints around these parts, but they lost sight of the true path and fell into sinful ways. Gods wrath is said to have buried them with sand in a great wind storm, just to the rear of the dunes you see above. That must have been the Air element! Of course both of these elements are acting on the Earth element, both building up and taking away in natures perpetual balancing act. Perhaps if this continues some ancient secrets will be discovered in the dunes? Let's just hope that the element of Fire shows it's benevolent hand this summer, in the form of lots of lovely rays of sunshine to bask in.
Part of our vegan ethos is obviously our concern for the environment. Hopefully the choices we make go some way in balancing the environmental scales in Mother Nature's favour. Regardless, we appreciate that Mother Nature makes her own choices and the biggest mistake anyone can make is thinking they can control her. Treating her as respectfully and gently as possible however is sure to make a little bit of difference. We were certainly taking notice when we went to 'elementary school' but of course you could go a degree further and start investigating beyond the four physical elements, into the realms of the fifth element; Ether/Akasha. After all isn't everything connected?
The Water element has shown the nature of its power this winter. This is the first time in our 12 years of living here that the dunes have lost so much sand to the sea. Being backed by National Trust owned land, the beach here will continue to be at the mercy of the elements, as the N.T. have a 'managed retreat' policy regarding coastal erosion. What this means in practice is that it's going to be left to its own devices.
This last year has also seen a change in the course of the river that empties out into the sea. For many years it has flowed out next to the rocks, but last year it changed course and now meanders out somewhere around the middle of the beach. This has caused chaos at times in the summer, as the Lifeguards try to keep the beach safe, and people from being swept out to sea on the outgoing tide. There has actually been a line of rocks in place to try and keep the river flowing out by the rocks for many years, but this is no longer working as intended. Consulting older maps, it seems that the river changes course like this from time to time, so maybe it's best left to natural cycles.
There is an ancient tale that our village was once a seat of great learning, that there were many saints around these parts, but they lost sight of the true path and fell into sinful ways. Gods wrath is said to have buried them with sand in a great wind storm, just to the rear of the dunes you see above. That must have been the Air element! Of course both of these elements are acting on the Earth element, both building up and taking away in natures perpetual balancing act. Perhaps if this continues some ancient secrets will be discovered in the dunes? Let's just hope that the element of Fire shows it's benevolent hand this summer, in the form of lots of lovely rays of sunshine to bask in.
Part of our vegan ethos is obviously our concern for the environment. Hopefully the choices we make go some way in balancing the environmental scales in Mother Nature's favour. Regardless, we appreciate that Mother Nature makes her own choices and the biggest mistake anyone can make is thinking they can control her. Treating her as respectfully and gently as possible however is sure to make a little bit of difference. We were certainly taking notice when we went to 'elementary school' but of course you could go a degree further and start investigating beyond the four physical elements, into the realms of the fifth element; Ether/Akasha. After all isn't everything connected?
Anyway, bringing us back to earth now........I have shared Martha Tilston's song Rockpools before in our blog but it is such a beautiful song. It also really reminds us of Cornwall when we are away from home and its lyrics are really quite poignant to this post.
It will be interesting to see what the beach looks like come summer. To be honest, if mother nature wants to reduce the steepness of the dunes - she can. My legs will thank her!
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