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Christmas traditions colours Land Art landscapes light light quality sculpture the sea the seaside the shore Wales

New Year’s Day at the seaside

This post was written right at the beginning of the year but I never got round to publishing it, so here it is a day spent at the seaside to celebrate the arrival of a new year, 2019.

It has become a tradition with Jude and I to spend New Year’s Day at the seaside, sometime on the north coast, sometimes mid-wales. For 2019 we made the trip to mid-wales settling on Aberystwyth as our venue for the day. Daughter Jo and son-in-law Rob joined us so it was extra special.

 

We are always amazed when at the coast how both Mother Nature and visiting humans produce little creations with pebbles and driftwood.

    

As the day wore on the light changed and a warm light lit up the sea and the rocks where the tide rushed in with frothy waves.

So now we can look forward to January 1st 2020 a new year’s day seaside amble and of course a new decade’s day amble too!

Categories
architecture light light quality photography the sea the seaside the shore Uncategorized

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside! A Crazy Lighthouse

We do love to be beside the seaside and love the surprises it gives us! When we visited Burnham-on-Sea we were in for a real treat, a big colourful surprise which took us totally by surprise. It was a lighthouse on the beach but not only that, it was wooden lighthouse!

We knew one existed somewhere as we remember seeing it on a BBC series called “Coast” but didn’t realise it was at Burnham until we spotted it in the distance as we were taking in the sea air promenading aimlessly along the soft sandy beach. We walked towards it seeing more detail as we got closer.

The first picture shows the point at which we stopped to decide if we could get to it and back again in the time we had and of course before the tide slowly returned to maroon the lighthouse back at sea. The second picture shows me photographing the lighthouse just as we reached a point close enough to fully appreciate its strange beauty.

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The third photo records the moment that the lighthouse filled the viewfinder.

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When we got close enough to touch the wooden boards of the lighthouse we looked upwards and then realised how tall it actually was and how bright the red and white clapboards were glaring in the sun and against the deep blue of the October sky.

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Its reflections in the saltwater pool beneath it were crisp and sharply outlined.

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To enjoy our visit to see the crazy lighthouse please enjoy my gallery of illustrating our amble across the sands. As usual click on the first photo and then navigate using the arrows.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our discovery of the lovely eccentric construction on the beach. We love being at the seaside, wandering beaches or discovering the character of shoreland towns. Surprises like this lighthouse add to the experience.

 

Categories
architecture buildings landscapes reflections the sea the seaside the shore

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside! – Burnham-on-Sea

We do love to be beside the seaside, beside the sea, as followers of my blog have probably realised already. Is is great when we discover another seaside town as we did recently on a visit to countryside along the Somerset and Devon border. We were looking at a few gardens down there and fancied some time beside the sea so made our way to Burnham-on-Sea to see what we would find there.

We are always delighted and excited if we learn that the seaside town we are visiting has a pier so Burnham was onto a winner where we were concerned. We also like to see a sense of humour wherever we go and to see B-on-S boasting that it has the smallest pier in the UK rather than the more usual longest, oldest etc. So that was our first port of call, off in search of the tiny pier. We soon spotted its white roof glaring in the sunshine in strong contrast to the deep blue sky.

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Walking along the promenade we could look down onto the beach to sea what the sandy beach lovers were getting up to. As usual people at the seaside become creative as they discover their creative streak even if it is for just one day.

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Play leaders were busy providing entertainment for families of young children with games all things pirate and even had a pirate ship mock up on the sands. The ice cream man realised the potential business opportunity of parking on the sand nearby.

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Come for a walk along the promenade with us now and see what was happening through the lens of my trusty Nikon.

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We walked back along the sands rather than retracing our steps along the prom. This gave a very different perspective and afforded the opportunity to take a close look at the sand and the patterns in it.

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The most amazing and surprising discovery on the sands was the colourful wooden lighthouse. In my next post I will share my photos of this incredible construction. Burnham-on-Sea was a surprising place and provided us with a most enjoyable day out with added surprises!

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Categories
architecture buildings colours

Southwold – Beach Hut Special

In this blog I will celebrate to the unique beauty and eccentric natures of the great British beach hut. Southwold situated on the Suffolk coast overlooking the North Sea is rightly famous for its huts, having a style of hut named after it and having a couple of rows adding up to a few hundred brightly coloured little “homes-from-homes”.

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The Southwold style of beach huts has a tiny veranda with wooden balustrading along their frontage. some owners now enclose the balustrade with wooden panels too.

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Let us now enjoy the colours, patterns and quirkiness of the Southwold beach huts and spot the owners’ characters as we go along!

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Categories
light light quality the sea the seaside the shore Wales

Seaside Textures

Every time we visit the seaside and take a walk along the sands we start collecting shells to decorate our Seaside Garden at home, and once we start looking we notice the amazing patterns and textures created on the sand as the tides retreat.

We recently drove over to Anglesey and after leaving the main road as it crossed over from the Welsh mainland we drove down lanes which got narrower and more secretive until we arrived at our favourite beach. On opening the car doors all we heard was silence occasionally broken by birdsong and the raucous calls of gulls. That is why it our favourite beach for a quiet walk. Come with us as we wander heads down seeking shells and finding the shapes and textures etched into the sand.

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Please enjoy this gallery of photos to help you share our wanderings.

The strangest shape and texture of all belonged to these beached jelly fish, their star like shape and jelly texture sitting lifeless on the sands. It looked as if the sun had fallen from the sky and was resting on the sand.

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We stopped part way home to watch the sun set over the sea. What a great day out!

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