tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post3632378762750095410..comments2024-03-18T10:29:46.055+00:00Comments on Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff: Downpatrick Head – Just Standing and LookingKen Armstronghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07775956557261111127noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6496460488742488789.post-28019276788059938652016-08-08T16:10:10.373+01:002016-08-08T16:10:10.373+01:00I miss the sea. It’s hard to credit it but I proba...I miss the sea. It’s hard to credit it but I probably haven’t set foot on a beach in almost forty years. Forty years. I need to let that sink in for a minute. Basically what I’m saying is that after I got married I never went to the beach. That can’t be right. And yet I’m struggling to think of any instance after that. Did I never take my daughter to the beach? I can’t remember. As a child that’s where summers were spent and we even went in the water. Which all seems so alien now. I’ve taken my daughter swimming—in a nice, clean indoor pool—but not to the sea. Or maybe once. I have a vague recollection of her paddling in the water. Right up until my teenage years I was rarely away from the shore especially after the crowds had gone and the place was pretty much my own apart from the odd hardy dog walker. I could pretty much guarantee that most of the time I’d be alone or as good as alone and I liked that. I mean you can be alone in a busy shopping centre—aloneness is a state of mind after all—but I like the added dimension of physically being on my own and knowing that there was probably no one else within a square mile of my vicinity. I can’t say I was a big nature buff for all I was surrounded by the stuff. If I saw a hare or something it always pleased me but I never went looking for birds’ nests or anything like that. But the sea itself always impressed me and often calmed me. Occasionally I listen to ocean sounds off YouTube or rain. I like jungle or country sounds but they just gets the bird stirred up as he tries to compete. I never took a Walkman with me down the beach and even thought I have an iPod-thingy I never take it with me when I go out these days. It’s good to get away from all kinds of artificiality even the more melodious kinds.Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com