stiffkey freshes

we walked over the saltmarsh this afternoon and waded the Stiffkey – a powerful current pushed the dogs sideways into the deeper parts; I just walked very slowly – it was nowhere near the top of my boots, but I had picked my path carefully. the snow and rain has swollen the river so it is more like its winter self.

01a-lesson-in-knots.jpg

rust dyed blue rope and rusty shackle on this  fibreglass hulk caught my eye, so I ended up making a little photo essay of Jonathon and his mussel fishing.

01a-js-boat.jpg

the river makes a lapping noise as it runs over the gravel shallows. the Stiffkey and the Glaven empty out into the big lagoon here behind the point, making a very special brackish environment, perfect for mussels, and other estuarine shellfish, which feeds a huge population of wetland birds.

01a-j.jpg

a cold tough job, but an independent small enterprise, which supplies pubs hotels and restaurants all along the coast here.

01a-mussels.jpg

at low tide the resin boat is towed out into the lagoon to the mussel beds and filled by shovel and rake.

01a-jsparafinalia.jpg

today was grey and drizzling, temperatures around six centigrade, but as we talked the last of the cloud moved across and the sun came out.

01a-js-truck.jpg

Sal and Tilda fancy the mussels, they know there’s something edible there.

01a-salandt.jpg

simple functional things are often the most beautiful.

01a-jsanchor.jpg

the light here is really special; the huge sky reflects off the water and the wet mud.

01a-stiffkey.jpg

potato farmers, supplying Walker’s crisps, buy water from the river for irrigation, and there is a worry that they take too much in dry seasons, which affects the salinity of the water in the harbour, and allows rapid silting up.

01a-freshes-view.jpg

low sun across the marsh, late afternoon.

01a-sun-view.jpg

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.