Pat Renson Interiors
Message in a Bottle

In August 2012 whilst beach combing on my local beach, (Portobello Beach) with my family, we found a message in a  bottle!!!

After taking it home I took photographs of it and put it on my Facebook Page – Beach Art. It was thee most beautiful letter written in Chinese Characters  on brown paper. Between a Beach Art customer who’s daughter attends a Chinese School in Australia and a friend of my husbands we got a translation….And it was a beautiful LOVE letter.

The story captured the public and everyone who follow my Facebook Page and the media. The story featured in 14 newspapers all over the world, websites and it got a spot on our local STV news with myself talking about finding the bottle and going down to the beach to film where we found it. And x2 photo shoots with myself and my 4 yr old daughter who first spotted the bottle on the sand.

The bottle then went on display at my daughters school/nursery school for all the children in the community to share in the story. Which in turn inspired the children to then make collages of sea pictures imagining the bottle on its journey and then making there own ‘Message In A Bottle’ to send out to the ocean.

I Got To Go To North Carolina

International Beach Combing Conference 2018 – North Carolina USA

And again…I got to go the International Beach combing Conference AGAIN – 2 years in a row…. amazing…. dream come true material….

13months after the amazing time in Hawaii at IBC2017 I returned to the USA firstly to Annapolis in Baltimore to meet up with some early bird’s beachcombers at Dr Beachcombs house for some Maryland Beach combing adventures before we headed down for the conference.

We searched and found fossilized shark teeth and fossilised coral and we had a day trip to NYC to mud lark in Dead Horse Bay. We then had an 8-hour drive to North Carolina to Bogue Banks, crystal coast region for more adventures. We stayed on a camp site in lodges so we could all be together and eat together. This was a wonderful experience meeting old and new friends, who all share common interests…. The love of nature and the beach.

I once again was lucky enough to be asked to give a tutorial, we decided this could work well in a comfy seat, kind of show in tell in the lounge area of the trinity centre. I gave a talk about the area and the history of where I’m from, what I find and have found whilst beach combing and I had specimens with me and books of the area.

Once Again, we had fantastic educational lectures from Marine biologists, learning about sex on the beach…sea shells reproducing…and a fascinating lecture from an expert on black beard the pirate, which I could have listened to all day…we also had some fabulous field trips, taking ferries and exploring the uninhabited islands on the outer banks, where we found giant conch shells (empty, of course) washed up and wonderful jingle shells, which do in fact jingle!!!

I learnt so much and just had the best time, like summer camp, (which didn’t exist for us Scottish kids) with the loveliest people, who are kind and giving of their time, beach finds and their knowledge…

We are expecting more visitors to Scotland this year and we cannot wait to give them a warm welcome.

Putting the ‘I’ into IBC

International Beach Combing conference 2017 – Big Island Hawaii

I first read about a beach combing conference on social media and immediately thought wow!!! It had been going to a few years, well 7 to be exact and the 8th conference was coming up….it was very far away and probably a lot of money…but I thought I’d send a message and get some more info. I also said if you ever need any specimens or a representative from Scotland I’d love to come to a conference. There’s a 12 hour time difference from Hawaii to Scotland, so by the morning I received a message saying I would be welcome to come and give a lecture and get a fee for doing the lecture also!!!

I really felt that The stars had aligned for it to happen and I would put my expensive 26 hour travelling time and cost of 3 planes on our visa card. I was so excited I couldn’t even read all of the message from Deacon aka Dr Beachcomb…I now had to work out a plan for childcare after school for our daughter, but with the support of my husband Martin and our close friends, it all worked out.

The IBC’ers were keen to hear my talk (as I was the only one attending who put the ‘I’ into International as the rest of the attendees were all from USA). Everyone was so welcoming and for the first time I sold some of my vast collection of Sea glass rare finds such as sea glass stoppers from old bottles, frosted sea glass marbles, sea worm beautiful pottery and some of my collection from my Seaham (In NE England) trip. We can find amazing pieces on our beaches here on the East Coast of Scotland, due to our busy shipping routes and many potteries and bottle factories.

The conference was fantastic and very educational based which I loved, we heard fantastic lecturers from volcanologist’s, archaeologists and from Dr Beachcomb too. My talk went well, even though I did end up loosing 2 of my power point slides, but that’s another story!!!

We all stayed at a Motel, and this allowed us to eat together which was wonderful, we shared car drives and went on excursions to find shells, sea glass and to see wild turtles basking in the afternoon sunshine on the lava rocks.

I made life long friends and 5 of those friends have all come to visit and stay with me and my family here in Edinburgh & Fife.

What a truly life enriching experience.