A shoreline without thrift is unthinkable yet how easy to walk past it. The sea-pink is a favourite plant of mine. I love rugged coastlines and this chipper little plant sums up the best of it, throwing up its bonny flowers on the narrowest ledges and the sharpest corners of the toughest cliffs. Doused in salt and battered by wind this is a tough cookie.It also pops up in more gentle coastal locations such as Budle Bay in North Northumberland, which produced this fabulous display last weekend. The thing that really caught my eye though was not so much the glorious pink axminster but rather a lone plant shown off beautifully against the carbon black of an old tyre washed up on the shoreline.
I read that the old threepenny bit had a thrift flower on the reverse. Well I'm old enough to remember these and my recollection is of a portcullis. So that's another piece of trivia to sort out one day....
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Fabulous floral display. Having grown up on the coast, I've always liked these saltmarsh plants - especially sea pink and sea lavender. I remember once rowing along creeks in a flooded saltmarsh on a spring tide when only the sea pink flower heads were held above the water - and bees were still visiting them.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of threepenny bits in front of me now. One is 1960 and has the portcullis on the reverse, the other is 1937 and has three flowerheads of Thrift.
ReplyDeleteRob :)
Great stuff- thanks Rob - another mystery solved.
ReplyDeleteSome 3d. pieces did have thrift on the back - I found some in Tynemouth Market on Saturday http://cabinetofcuriosities-greenfingers.blogspot.com/2010/05/flower-for-our-financial-times.html
ReplyDeleteAh - well spotted Phil - so its true then. Much better design than the later portcullis. Wonder why they ditched it? (and also where Rob's post has disappeared to!)
ReplyDelete