About a year ago, a few months after I moved to the Northumberland coast, one of the best things I did was join a local beach cleaning group. We meet up every weekend for a couple of hours, litter picking alternately on two local beaches. I fell in love with the coastline when I came here in and wanted to contribute in some way, however small, to such a beautiful place.
The seasons and the weather on the day, create a different feel each time, sometimes there are huge hillocks of seaweed, others the beach looks swept clean.
But it is never really clean; there is always rubbish of some kind washed up: strips of plastic coffee cups, tangled nests of fishing line, heavy blue ropes and damaged lobster pots, plastic bottles and bags. Storm Arwen devastated last year’s seal pups, bird flu leaves soft bodies strewn across the sand.
But it is a time of meditative activity, of chatting afterwards with others who share gratitude for our wonderful nature and hoping what we do does make a difference.
sarah jackman 