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| A fish box ready to be claimed! What a wonderous sight! |
Fish boxes are like mana from heaven for a beach side gardener. These delightful finds are often spotted with a yelp and a mad scramble across the beach towards them ungracefully slipping and slithering along the way. If you can picture the scene similar somewhat to running towards a long long loved one - that about sums it up. Yes, I've been known to run, embrace and weep at the sight of them. I'm sure if I ever meet my demise on a slippery beach it will be due to having cracked my head open whilst sprinting towards a fish box. At least I'll die happy! I'm very lucky to live right by a beach - a 6 min walk from my back door..... bliss! I've been known to carry them home on my head, under an arm or with a reluctant child at the other side of one, thinking I am insane. I carry my treasure with pride when I find one, I'm seriously in love with fish boxes. Very sad I know, but there you are.
These boxes are like treasure sent down from the heavens. Why you may ask? Or even what is a fish box? Put very unromantically, they are plastic crates used to store fish when at sea. They arrive from all over the world - their town emblazened on their sides - they are very interesting to find, where they've come from and how they ended up on MY beach. I guess unfortunately for the fishermen sometimes they fall off the boat and plonk themselves on the beach. Unlucky for them, very lucky for me. Its funny how a lump of plastic can lighten your mood when you spy them, but they have so much potential!! From a gardening point of view they are mega handy - you can use them for storing things like pots etc - they are very easily stacked and they make amazing containers - they've already got the holes int he bottom, they are durable and quite frankly indestruictable. They can also be shallow or quite deep - which makes them very good for either an inpromptu cold frame or as a mini raised bed or vegetable container. They keep the wind off - perfect for my climate. They are generally in bright colours, which for some they might find them a bit garish, but to my mind their colourful nature makes them more ecclectic when stacked or nose to nose beside each other. OK I sound besotted don't I? I guess I am, these are mightly useful and free finds when you happen upon them.
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| 'Beach stack' - You can find more from the gallery here |
Today however, has not been a very lucky kind of a day and I am rather glum. Well, its been wonderfully lucky in some ways - today I spied two whole complete wonderful fish boxes on the beach (one red, one yellow). However, we have a bit of etiquette surrounding beach finds. First of all unless something is whole, we cannot take it home. After a lifetime of beach living, we needed at least that golden rule or the garden would be full of half wrecked lobster creels and bouys. That is therefore rule number one, if its not complete it can't come home. Rule number two is simple and today was my downfall, dratted rule number two. There is a whole etiquitte surrounding beach combing and finds, well there is here. If something is above the tide line, not tossed there, but placed, generally with a rock in it or a semblence of 'claim' surrounding the find then good manners and etiquette dictates that it's claimed and not for removal.
Just my luck - both the fish boxes we spied today where gorgeously whole, but above the tide line. In anticipation I hoped and prayed that they had just happily landed there above the tide line, by accident, innocently. However, each box had a rock placed in it - clearly above the tide line, clearly claimed. Blast and tarnation! Our beach is shared with a few local houses. No one would have seen me, however, thats not the point.Whilst I do love fish boxes, I couldnt' risk breaking one of the key rules of beach combing. You do not take another persons treasure. NO good will come of it. Ces't la vie I guess. Whilst I could have wept real big fat salty tears when I left them behind, with a heavy heart I wandered home. I wish their claimants well done them for finding them before me, I can wish them only happiness with thier fishboxes. I may be jealous, but I'm not about to break fish box etiquitte - no matter how lovely and bright the colours were or how wonderfully both boxes might crop in the garden. The worst thing is that I don't have a red one, oh well, my fishbox will come in another day. Just means another trip to the beach another day.
And, I'm not the only one - I found a great fish box lover in the fish box blog!
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Wonderful finds - wish they would wash up on "my" beach - perfect for hauling plants around I would imagine.
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Thank you Karen for popping over - they are indeed perfect for hauling plants around in - too and from friends and too and from farmers markets. Very handy indeed. I love that we have a beach at the bottom of the track - I can't really claim it for 'my' own - but I do often, especially when it's full of fishboxes!
ReplyDeleteI love this post. It is really fun learning about something you have never heard of your whole life. So now for as long as I live I will know what a fish box is and also the rules of beach combing etiquette. Thanks, again I just loved this post.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand. Why someone would leave the box and mark it as claimed. Why not just pick it up and take it with them when it is found?
ReplyDeleteHi there FBMKW you love the beach posts - glad you've found out about the delights of fishboxes!
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, it's maybe not easy to understand why someone 'claims' treasure like a fish box but doesn't take it immediately. I'll try and explain, often beach finds are lugged or dragged above the tide line, leaving them safe from the sea and claimed. This can happen for many reasons, in a rush, wrong clothes, needing reinforcements to lug things home, wanting to bring the kids or a car etc (although you can't get a car to this particular beach. Anyhow, once 'claimed' normally beach finds are left for the owner to collect. If things are left for a few weeks to a month, perhaps then the claim is lost. But generally if it's moved, the person who saved it, has first claim to it. Hope that helps....thanks for the comment!
I've never even thought about fish boxes before! I would love to live so close to the sea. Wishing you many happy fish box claims!
ReplyDeleteHi Fay.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your explanation. I must admit, though, I am still confused. If one were to go to the trouble to go below the tide line for a fish box, this means that one would likely be getting both wet and sandy. Me, I'd only want to be covered with sand and wet once-so I'd take the box along with me so I wouldn't have to come back to claim the box and have to repeat the process of getting the sand out of my shoes, car, clothes, etc! :)
Wow - who knew? I sure didn't :) What an interesting post.
ReplyDeleteHi Fay, I am laughing at this post.I know ALL about fish boxes.I currently have two in my utility room holding up a door which is waiting for two coats of paint(a door which has come off my downstairs loo at least three weeks ago,so theres a lot of embarrassed singing going on down there at times)!.Anyway to get back to the point,my Hubby is a beachcomber extrordinaire and fish boxes are his specialty.Unfortunately he brings them home in any condition for some future project,so I have a pile in my garden shed.
ReplyDeleteThey are the most useful free things you can find on the beach,I totally agree.!
Makes me sad to walk along a beach and see how frighteningly much plastic junk washes up. At least you are helping to clean up, and reuse some of it.
ReplyDeleteFish boxes are brilliant. We use them for cabbage seedlings, loading with newly-picked tatties and as feed troughs for the sows. I've got about 15 and could do with a load more.
ReplyDeleteJane glad you've found out a new thing!
ReplyDeleteJulie how funny - what an image I have of your life now!! Good luck to hubby and the finding on the beach!!
Malc - popped over to your blog - hello up there! We've got about 15 too - never have enough though eh?
Elephant eye - very true - thankfully our beach not much bothered by rubbish - these are useful. Once a year here we have a thing called 'bag the bruck' (rubbish) and you head down to your favourite beach on the elected day and bag up everything with a lot of folk - usually alot of fun and helps keep the beaches here clean!
Hi there again Lisa - I can understand someone not wanting to get sandy and wet twice - but for me its my favourite thing! Often, you find things on the beach which you don't have time to move - hence the claim! Just the way it is I guess. If that chap who claimed the box had claimed both - he couldn't possibly be able to carry them both and perhaps needed reinforcements! You are right to be a bit confuddled - no real reply to why - I'm only making a guess. x
ReplyDeleteFish boxes are indeed wonderful, but not as wonderful as your beach combing etiquette, how utterly civilised! Sorry you missed out this time.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Now I feel awful. I recently vetoed my partner from bringing home any more fish boxes. We have half a dozen - red, black, yellow. And often see them on the beach, down here on the coast at Seaford/Newhaven. And I thought enough's enough. But now I can see I was wrong. So very wrong. Bring them on!
ReplyDeleteIt takes me back to when we lived in Orkney. We collected boxes too......there are so useful. Don't find any on the beaches round Montrose, or maybe there's not the same beach etiquette.
ReplyDeleteJanet, who would have known eh?
ReplyDeleteDavid - can there be a thing such as too many fishboxes? You did make me giggle!
Janet - Montrose is lovely - maybe they all go quickly, more people?
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ReplyDeleteOK, I admit... I luv'em also. Living on the south coast of the IOW, I find plenty of French boxes. I use them for storing dinosaur fossils in! Like you, restricy myself to non-damaged ones only. Cheers.
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