Now despite my story from yesterday - ow I almost killed my wee 'uns on the mudflats of the Humber - I love to be beside the seaside. In fact if you discount flying I have never been farther than about a 100 miles from the sea EVER.
And the furthest I have ever been would be in Libya at the deset for a weekend - approximately 100/120 miles from the Mediterranean. I have lived and worked in the UK (no where is further than about 100 miles from the sea) Fiji (no where further than about 20 to 30 miles from the sea), Angola - either in luanda (a coastal city) or Soyo - at the very mouth of the Congo and the Atlantic ocean, or offshore (never more than about 50m from the sea) and even all my overseas holidays have been to islands (Phuket, Tenerife, Japan) or coastal cities - Rome & Amsterdam - or cities close to the coast, Paris or Houston. So when it comes down to it - apart from flying where I have crossed the US and crossed Asia) I have never been further than about 100/120 miles from the sea.
Clearly I need to get out a bit more instead of blogging and sharing piano rolls with you from 1909.
One of the wild plants I came across close to the Banff Aquarium was Scurvy Grass (I'm 99%...75%... 50% certain it is a scurvy grass - probably Cochlearia officinale) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy_grass) which is a Brassica - closely related to the cabbage/cauliflower/broccoli/sprouts group. THe brassica vegetables were developed from sea-side plants. The thing they all share is salt tolerance. I'm not sure which scurvy grass this is as I haven' time to trawl through the book bibles (The Concise British Flora - Keble Martin - the best there is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Concise-British-Flora-Colour/dp/B0000CMK3I/ref=cm_lmf_tit_7_rsrrsi0, or the best pocket guide to carry with you - Wild Flowers of Britain and Northern Europe (Collins Pocket Guides Series) (Paperback) Fitter, Fitter & Blamey (the middle Fitter - Alistair was one of the lecturers at York Uni when i did my Biology degree - I'm sure I took one of his courses but can't remember which and I am certain that he wouldn't recognoise me or know my name) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flowers-Britain-Northern-Europe-Collins/dp/0002190699/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245190584&sr=1-6
because they are back in the U.K.K.K) or the modern bible (Wikipedia) because it is 12:22 and I am up at 7 tomorrow.
