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Sea's The Day

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Notes from a little yellow beach hut by the sea.

NCS

  • Déjà Vu, Algérie

    Déjà Vu, Algérie

    These two came out of a packet of mixed stamps. A random set of lighthouse stamps purchased on ebay. I found the blue one first. A little later, the green one. Same palm tree, same road, same bay. I had to put them side by side to be sure. They’re from Algeria’s Views of Algeria… Read more

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  • Knot Ruined

    Knot Ruined

    A wooden postcard of the Grand Traverse Lighthouse from my post pal Eric, after his tour of Lake Michigan. Hand-cancelled, hand-carried, and not a crack on it. Read more

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  • Ordinary Days

    Ordinary Days

    Ask most people about their life and they will tell you about the big days: weddings, births, the first job, the house move, the funerals. They are the days we photograph and come back to. But if you count them, there are not many. Most of a life is made of days nobody would think… Read more

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  • Tide and Seek

    Tide and Seek

    St Mary’s Lighthouse at Whitley Bay, sent from a California heatwave by my Postal Pal Darla. A tidal island, a tower standing upside down in a rock pool, and Edgar Allan Poe on the back. Read more

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  • The Jersey Score

    The Jersey Score

    This one I bought from Jersey postal. It had been on my list since the day I first saw it. Jersey, 2024. Ninety-eight pence. Blue sea, cream foam, a lighthouse on a red rock. It belongs to a set called Debussy in Jersey, illustrated by the local artist Will Bertram. In the summer of 1904… Read more

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  • Rests Are Part of the Score

    Rests Are Part of the Score

    There is a line often attributed to Debussy: that music is the space between the notes. I can’t find it in anything he wrote, and it gets credited to others too. I have decided not to mind. For most of my life I have believed the notes were the point. The meetings, the decisions, the… Read more

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  • Right Ho, Air Mail

    Right Ho, Air Mail

    A birthday present from Melanie: an airmail envelope sent from P. G. Wodehouse’s home in Remsenburg to Swindon, with a playwright on the stamps and a zip code dutifully filled in. Read more

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  • Cape Expectations

    Cape Expectations

    One of my favourites, found at the Spellman Museum near Boston. Edward Hopper’s The Long Leg on a 2011 Forever stamp, with a lighthouse on Cape Cod keeping quiet watch. Read more

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  • Aden and Aden

    Aden and Aden

    Aden, 1939. Two stamps, one harbour, in orange and in blue. A tall white tower I was sure was a lighthouse, and a town that isn’t Aden at all. Read more

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  • Pier Group

    Pier Group

    A sunrise over Ramsgate’s West Pier lighthouse, sent across the Atlantic by my Postal Pal Darla. A harbour that promised shelter, a pier full of good company, and a circled sun on the back. Read more

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  • Alger Rhythm

    Alger Rhythm

    Algeria, 1930. A stamp with the lighthouse in plain sight, and two quiet figures on the shore watching the ships come in. Read more

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  • Pier Pressure

    Pier Pressure

    A rough day on Lake Michigan, a lighthouse at the end of a pier, and a postcard from a friend that sells the bad weather instead of the good. Read more

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  • The Finnishing Touch

    The Finnishing Touch

    A postcard of Bengtskär, the tallest lighthouse in the Nordic countries, from a Postcrossing stranger in Finland who read my profile. The front is for everyone. The back was for me. Read more

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  • The Lighthouse Nobody Was Looking At

    The Lighthouse Nobody Was Looking At

    Brazil, 1922. A stamp made to celebrate a nation, and a tiny lighthouse in the corner that nobody was meant to notice. Read more

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  • Opposite the Sunflowers

    Opposite the Sunflowers

    I sit on the bench opposite Sunflowers once a month, give or take. Usually on the way back from something in London. Train into Charing Cross, ten minutes in Room 43, train home. A small private detour. You get blocked, sitting on that bench. People walk up and stand in front of you and you… Read more

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  • The Algorithm and Samuel

    The Algorithm and Samuel

    She was ahead of me in the coffee shop, phone in one hand, oat flat white in the other. Talking with her friend. “Honestly? I just trust the algorithm. It knows what I’ll like better than Samuel ever did.” Samuel, I assumed, was her local bookseller. Or maybe the friend who used to slip her… Read more

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  • The One Who Didn’t Know Any of That

    The One Who Didn’t Know Any of That

    People don’t usually tell you when your writing is good. They just read it and move on. So when someone takes the time to say something, you notice. What I started noticing was this. When people mentioned a post, it was always the same ones. The street sweeper my mother pointed out when I was… Read more

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  • When Time Gets Short, Work Gets Better

    When Time Gets Short, Work Gets Better

    Most good work doesn’t happen in perfect conditions. It happens with just enough pressure to focus the mind. A little adrenaline. A deadline close enough to matter. Not panic. Not chaos. Just the awareness that time is limited and already running. That awareness changes things. Distractions fall away. The unnecessary options quietly disappear. You stop… Read more

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  • Write to Live Better

    Write to Live Better

    If you want a life filled with skill, productivity and creativity, think carefully about what really matters. This leads to genuine engagement. Don’t accept a life that is tough, empty, and short-lived. And the best way to think clearly is to write. Writing sharpens your thoughts. It catches vague ideas before they slip away. It… Read more

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  • Who Shows Up When It’s Hard

    Who Shows Up When It’s Hard

    It’s easy to be someone’s friend when it costs nothing.A quick Gchat. A shared laugh. A joke liked, a thumbs up sent.Convenient, comfortable, light. But real friendship shows itself when it’s anything but convenient.When it asks for your time when you’re busy.When it interrupts your plans.When it makes you stand up for someone when staying… Read more

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