Tide time

Tags

coast, national trust, nature, photoaday, Photography, Walking

“Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself.” – Annie Leibovitz

Eeek, I took a little longer off posting than I had intended this time, it was supposed to just be the weekend, but one thing led to another and somehow it is now Wednesday, where do the days go?!? I have been making sure that I spend at least 15 minutes outside each day and will continue to post about each of my 30 days Wild (even if I do end up posting about them in July!). I must say though that so far I feel so much better for it and I am sleeping so much better at night too, it may just be a coincidence, but I do not think so!

The sun was shining brightly on Saturday morning, our children were both away, my daughter in Normandy and my son camping with Cubs in a clearing in a woodland area in Surrey. We made the most of the good weather and headed out in our convertible, roof down, coast bound to go for a walk.

We started in East Wittering parking by the shops then headed to the beach. The tide was relatively high so we could see very little of the sand so our walk started along the public pathway which is a shingle covered footpath that enables a better look at the houses that lie close to the shoreline. These vary in style considerably from ramshackle huts to wonderfully magnificent manor houses and even a stunning thatched cottage. There is a lot of development taking place at the moment, old buildings either being converted or taken down and replaced with modern seaside abodes. For part of the way the large houses with their wonderful gardens and shore are separated by a moat-like ditch with everything from plain wooden walkways to ornate arched bridges crossing the divide. It is quite noticeable that the houses become more ornate and bigger as you walk from East to West.

In some gardens, plants stand like works of art sculpted, shaped and bent by the constant onshore wind and while in others driftwood has been collected and then form makeshift sculptures that decorate the gardens amongst the spare plant life

We passed many dogwalkers and people setting up camp beside the groynes with there windbreakers sheltering them from the ever increasing wind.

In the distance across the water towering above the other high-rise buildings I recognise Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower, I have not been yet, but have seen it in the distance from many places I have visited including from the coast on the Isle of Wight.

The two Witterings, East and West, lie on the coast in the south-western corner of the peninsula – East Wittering a cheerful holiday place and West Wittering a pretty little village that stretches a broad sandy toe towards the Isle of Wight and juts a marshy elbow into the wide waters of Chichester Harbour.

It is not far at all from East to West Wittering and the line between the two is easy to spot as the footpath changes from shingle to the fine sand that produces sculptured soft dunes that alter considerably with the elements.

As such we quickly passed through East Wittering and headed towards the sand, taking our shoes off and walking in the water, feeling the coldness between or toes. We walked across the wide, sunny stretch of beach. People are everywhere – sitting on the sand, erecting windbreaks, riding bikes, building sand castles, running down to the water, paddling, swimming, surfing, kite surfing and flying kites from the shore. It is a beautiful day, I could not help thinking that this will be a wonderful place to come later in the year with less people around to take photos as it is so pretty.

This beach seems to go on for ever, just beautiful. We walked up past the Beach huts to find a large car park near by and stopped briefly for an ice cream to cool us down before heading on. So many people are arriving and leaving. Barbeques are being lit. Picnics are in progress. A group of friends are obviously celebrating someones 30th birthday (because of the banner held high), sitting near their cars, guitars in hand singing, drinking and laughing, just enjoying themselves.

This area was saved from commercial development by local residents who formed a company and purchased the land. In late 1951 it became known that the Church Commissioners were in discussion with either Billy Butlin or the National Union of Mineworkers with a view to establishing a holiday complex at West Wittering. The Commissioners then owned the foreshore and nearby coastal farming land. To avoid losing the wonderful local landscape 126 residents subscribed to a new company and the West Wittering Estate Limited was born. In July 1952, the company bought the land for £20,546.14.9d The company’s main objectives was then and remains to this day; ‘the preservation of the beach and waters adjoining the company’s land for the safe and peaceful enjoyment of the public and the preservation of the rural and undeveloped nature of the company’s property and its surroundings’.

We rounded the great tide-exposed sand flats off West Wittering and turned north along the dunes that make up the club-shaped East Head. Shaggy with marram grass, these sand dunes – a National Trust nature reserve – are constantly shifting under the subtle but unceasing pressure of the wind and tide.

The outer edge of East Head faces Chichester Harbour and forms a beautiful sandy beach. The sheltered inner face of the spit, in contrast, is all dun-coloured marsh and curling creeks.

We decide not to walk to the end of the dunes as time was getting on and we still had to head back towards our car, we walked through the car park to see what was here and came across three flags at the entrance, the British Flag, American and Canadian. The two plaques underneath read:

This memorial has been built to mark the 50th anniversary of the ‘D’ Day landings in Normandy on 6th June 1944.

It is dedicated the the Allied Armed who trained in this area and who lost their lives in the liberation of Europe.

We Will remember them.

(on a rectangular plaque on top)

followed by

To the glory of God and in thankful commemoration on the 50th Anniversary of Victory over Tyranny in the Second World War 1939-1945

This Memorial is given by The Parish of West Wittering 1995

Lest We Forget

(underneath on an upside down triangle plaque)

This was quite a timely visit for us being exactly 51 years to the day since the ‘D’ Day Landings!

On heading out of West Wittering this time the tide had turned and we could see not just stones at East Wittering, but a large expanse of sand, so we walked as far as we could along the on the sand close to the shore, stepping over the groynes as we passed.

We will definitely be visiting this area again soon, but bringing our children with us. They would love it here, as there is so much to see and do.

As the colours on the beach were so gorgeous and bold on this day I have also included this post for the Weekly Photo Challenge on the Daily Post where the theme is “vivid”, yes I have converted some to black and white, but lots of the other photos show the wonderful colours along this picturesque section on the West Sussex coastline.

Broken beauties

Tags

art, Broken, old, photoaday, Photography

A door to the unknown

The Daily Post photo challenge this week is “Broken” in which we are encouraged to capture something broken: an old window, a vintage sign, a toy never fixed, a contemplative friend. Or go deeper: find beauty in something broken.

I like wondering round taking photos (no surprises there then!), often I find abandoned buildings, like the one below which intrigue me, windows and doors broken or aged by weather, so full of character and each telling there own tales.

The red door above, I found at the bottom of a garden we visted and it just made me think of the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden. No secret garden here unfortunately but it did open up to a fantastic field with a gorgeous view 🙂

The Old Fire Station

Knock, Knock, who’s there?

This rusty of handle on this latch I found on an old shed, needed lots of oil to get it to turn, but inside there was a treasure trove of old tools that looked as though they had not seen the light of day for many many years. The light below no longer shone as the electrics had long been bitten through by the small mice that now lived in the corner and the spiders, well lets just say I was not brave enough to go in fully until some light was restored as the webs were just everywhere and I have an irrational fear of all spiders!

Last legs

I had a wonderful technology free weekend with my family, so much so that I have decided that I will only be posting from now onwards on Monday through to Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be family time only, spending as much of it as we can outside, especially now the summer months are upon us.

Enveloped in mist

Tags

art, daily, nature, photoaday, Photography

Web-tastic

The Daily Post weekly theme this week is the word “Enveloped” and what it means to us.

The photo of the web above came to mind when I first saw the theme for this week. It was a cold misty morning and the droplets of water on the web caught my eye, I just loved the muted colour tones due to the mist enveloping the whole scene.

Covered in the Union flag

I have been reorganising my Lightroom catalogues today (well making a slow start at it!) and came across this image from 2012 and thought that it fitted the theme quite well too. These statues in Cardiff had been covered with the Union Flag and added some great colour to what was a very dull rainy day.

Up against the forces of nature

Tags

art, Beauty, fine art, landscape, nature, photoaday, Photography

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”              – John Ruskin

Sunset at the Cobb

The Daily Post photo challenge this week is “Forces of Nature” in which we are encouraged to share a force of nature from our corner of the world. “It can be something as large as the Grand Canyon, or as small as the tiny seedling steadily breaking is way through the concrete in your driveway.”

I so love taking photos of nature in all its beauty, from the sunset and waves crashing against the sea wall in Lyme Regis as in my top photo to

Frosty morning walk

the beautiful frosty grass and sunrays shining down on an early morning stroll in the park.

A Circumzenithal arc

Then there are upside-down rainbows which are a rare phenomenon caused by refraction of sunlight through horizontally-oriented ice crystals. This usually occurs in cirrus stratus clouds rather than raindrops on cold days as well as

Seeing double

beautiful double rainbows.

Golden leaf

To me when leaves fall to the ground the beauty does not end as can be seen above, even in decay when seen close up through a macro lens, the skeleton can look so beautiful – like golden lace.

It’s all about the details

Tags

art, birds, fine art, flowers, macro, nature, photoaday, Photography

Sitting proud

The theme this week for the weekly photo challenge is INTRICATE, we are encouraged to share our photographs on what the word “intricate” mean to us.

Watching and waiting

To me intricate is something that is very detailed or complex, so the feathers and details on these wonderful birds of prey perfectly illustrate the theme. I could then have gone on and posted lots and lots of the thousand of macro flower photos I have, each so intricate and detailed in their beauty. I decided to just post this one below as I loved the simplicity of the colour, the lines from the petals drawing my eye in towards the centre. I would love to know what you think, do these photos work for you?

It’s all in the details!

Chaos in motion

Tags

art, colors, colours, fine art, Motion, photoaday, Photography

Chaos in motion

Wow, this week has just flown by for me, we have just had our kitchen redone from scratch and the ovens and plumbing work finished the main section of the works on Friday. After three weeks making do with camping stoves and a small oven/ microwave and bottled water it is BLISS to have a kitchen again. This weekend we spent cleaning and trying to get back to some semblance of normality by filling the cupboards with all our things! I am LOVING my new kitchen so far, we only have the touching up and floor tiles to go now, so the end is really in sight 🙂

The theme this week for the weekly photo challenge is MOTION, we are encouraged to share our photographs that have captured motion, and tell the stories behind the images.

Well, the above photo was taken in my garden late on a summer afternoon, the weather was glorious, so warm. My daughter was making a coaster out of Hama beads, she had placed a variety of colours into a small IKEA pot. Luckily I was sitting beside her snapping photos for my Project Life layouts for the week when my sons football hit the blanket we were sitting on. Lets just say, my daughter was not at all happy as the beads went flying, but I was was very pleased that I captured the moment. The shot is quite cropped from the original, but I loved the way the Hama beads were caught in motion as they flew out of the pot.

The early bird catches………..

Tags

art, classics, daily, fine art, landscape, photoaday, Photography, Poetry

“Lost – yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.”

– Horace Mann

London sunrise

Everyone at one time or another has been in awe of the beautiful red and orange colours of a sunrise or sunset. Although colourful sunrises and sunsets can be seen anywhere, certain parts of the world are especially famous for their twilight hues.

Suburban garden views

In the days before weather forecasts, people often turned to sayings and proverbs to provide some sort of indication of what the weather would be like in the next day.

• “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”

The saying is actually most reliable when the weather systems predominantly come from the west as they do in the UK. “Red sky at night, shepherds delight” can often be proven true, since red sky at night means fair weather is generally headed towards you.

A red sky appears when dust and small particles are trapped in the atmosphere by high pressure. This scatters blue light and leaving only red light to give the sky its notable appearance.

A red sky at sunset means high pressure is moving in from the west so therefore the next day will usually be dry and pleasant. “Red sky in the morning, shepherds warning” means a red sky appears due to the high pressure weather system having already moved east meaning the good weather has passed, most likely making way for a wet and windy low pressure system.

• St Swithun’s Day

A folklore myth that whatever the weather is like on 15 July will be how it is on the following 40 days and nights.

The Jet Stream does play an important part in predicting how the weather would be for the next 40 days and nights from the end of June or early July. The location of the jet stream shortly after the summer solstice largely determines the following summer’s weather. If the jet stream is located southerly then it is likely to be a more unsettled summer. If the jet stream is in a northerly position then the weather is likely to be brighter and dry throughout summer.

• When halo rings show around the Moon or Sun, rain’s approaching on the run

When a ring appears around the Moon or Sun, sometimes referred to as Haloes, this suggests of approaching rainfall. The Halo is caused by ice crystals formed in high clouds. These ice crystals then refract the light from the Moon or Sun. As the ice crystals travel lower, precipitation becomes more likely. In summer months particularly, the Halo can be a sign of approaching storms.

A ring appearing around the Moon or Sun may also be a result of a Corona. Where the formation of a Halo is due to light refraction, a Corona is formed from light being diffracted. As the light travels through the cloud, it is deflected around the water droplets. This causes a Corona which appears as a circle around the light source.

• “When the wind is out of the East, tis never good for man nor beast”

This weather proverb carries some truth if you consider the various air masses that affect Britain and its weather. The air mass coming in from a North- Easterly direction is the Polar Continental; record low temperatures have been seen due to this air mass affecting Britain. This air mass originates in places such as Eastern Europe and Russia to affect Britain with bitterly cold winds in winter and dry, warm winds in summer although it is usually only apparent in Britain during winter (between November and April).

• “Mackerel sky and mare’s tails make tall ships carry low sails”

This weather proverb originates from a nautical background when different cloud types were used to determine whether sails needed to be lowered. Also referred to as just a ‘mackerel sky’, it is associated with altocumulus clouds while ‘mare’s tails’ refer to cirrus clouds. Both could develop before the instance of a storm which would lead to the lowering of the ships sails. Altocumulus clouds appear when there is a certain level of moisture in the air suggesting rainfall is approaching. The term “mackerel sky” comes from the clouds resemblance to the the scales of the fish mackerel.

• “Rain before seven, fine by eleven”

This refers to the fact that weather systems tend to be variable and move through the UK fairly quickly with the westerly flow off the Atlantic. Whilst this can sometimes means that a low pressure front may have moved through in a morning, this is not always the case and rain can and often does stay around for longer than a morning.

Whilst this saying may sometimes be true, it is far from reliable.

Early morning sunshine

Another benefit of watching the sun rise is catching those first warm tones as the sun low in the sky starts to warm up the world on a frosty winters morning.

The prompt this week on the daily post was “get up early and explore the morning light”, I am not really a early bird, much preferring to watch the sunset, but in the winter months when the sunrise is at a more “social hour” I often head outside, if it looks like the sunrise will be a picturesque one. The only time I really get a chance during the summer months is when my kids are at school and I am on holiday as at any other time my photography time can be a little on the restricted side, as my family for me always has to come first.

I’ll tell you how the Sun rose

by Emily Dickenson

I’ll tell you how the sun rose,–
A ribbon at a time.
The steeples swam in amethyst,
The news like squirrels ran.
The hills untied their bonnets,
The bobolinks begun.
Then I said softly to myself,
“That must have been the sun!”

But how he set, I know not.
There seemed a purple stile
Which little yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while
Till when they reached the other side,
A dominie in gray
Put gently up the evening bars,
And led the flock away.

————————————————————————————————-

All the weather information was found on The Met office website

Land ahoy!

Tags

art, fine art, landscape, photoaday, Photography

Calmness on the Wey

The Daily Post weekly prompt is “show us what afloat means to you.”

To me afloat brings visions of the waterways near where I live, the Basingstoke and Wey River Canals, the River Thames, the sea that surrounds us as, being an island no where in the UK are you ever that far from water.

Coastal bound

Sail away

Lensbaby love

Tags

art, black and white, blur, childhood, daily, fine art, lensbaby, photoaday, Photography

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. – Scott Adams

Run, run as fast as you can

The Lensbaby lenses are manual-focus tilt-shift lenses that allow a photographer to creatively explore selective focus and blur. It can help the subject of your photo stand out more (or less, depending on your desired effect).

On the edge

Sometimes it can even create an effect that makes it look like your subject is in motion.

Swinging

The look they create does not appeal to everyone, however, the images they create are very unique, and a lot of fun. I happen to be a huge lensbaby fan. It is one of my lenses (as well as my macro that is!) that is always in my camera bag. It consist of two parts – lens body and lens optic. I have a composer pro lensbaby lens body and a variety of optics which are interchangeable: sweet 35 (35mm), edge 80 (80mm), macro converters and the  double glass optic (50mm). I hope one day to get the pinhole optic, the soft focus optic and the zone plate optic. By far, my most favorite lensbaby optic so far is the edge 80, I just love the look. It creates a slice of focus through the frame, blurring out the rest.

This post is in response to the Daily Post weekly challenge of “blur”, the brief being “A throwaway shot, or purposefully unfocused? This week, find beauty in a blur.”. I immediately thought of my lensbaby with the word blur 🙂

Those fleeting moments when………….

Tags

art, daily, fine art, photoaday, Photography

“Substance is enduring, form is ephemeral.”- Dee Hock

Sunshine on a spring evening

The daily post theme for this week is “ephemeral” we are asked to show our interpretation.

I decided to go with the short lived definition of ephemeral, that fleeting moment when the sun hits the blossom, that moment when the sun is setting and you get that golden glow that warms everything.

That golden moment

and finally that moment before the bubble goes “pop”!

A reflection of home