The bitter-pungent smell from the flowers of the creeping or wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum) when you lift them to your nose call up memories from last summer, and the summer before that, and the one before, of the crunching of the merciless scissors when grains of sand got between the blades on cutting the tops of the plants. It is again time to bend on the shore sands to gather a good healing tea, and get your back tanned at the same time. There is plenty of wild thyme on the sands, enough for all.