Just before Christmas I visited Brighton for the first time in a long time and as usual the beach and pier pulled me away from the lanes and people to the blue sky and sea. Some things and some places you never stop inspiring you to look at time and time again as something will always be different. It may be the weather, it may be the people, it may be the light, but something always keeps it fresh.
Feeling a little worse for wear on Boxing Day morning I needed some fresh, cold, early morning air to blow away the cobwebs. I was at my sister’s house in Wakes Colne, out in the sticks of North Essex, so I decided to go explore down some of the lanes and tracks. I guess it is quiet most of the time but 9am on Boxing Day morning I had that little piece of countryside all to myself.
After skating we sat on the beach taking in the low sun, feeding the seagulls (probably not the best idea) and trying to take as much warmth as we could. You can’t beat the beach for a post skate wind down. Well, maybe the pub. Sometimes.
Looking through photos from last year I found I had some from the Dungeness road trip that were never added to either Forever Circling or Flickr. These photos reminded me of how varied and fascinating Dungeness is and how I need to return soon.
Back in the spring I took some photos of model Patricia Legardon Melian up in a wonderful little boat treehouse in a big, old apple tree. The photos were for my friend Zoe’s vintage fashion label and part of an all afternoon shoot in one of the best houses and gardens in Southsea, owned by the Parmiters. I think a couple of these photos were some of my favourites taken last year.
Back when the snow fell I shot two rolls of colour film, one 35mm and one medium format, and I only recently got them developed, long after the snow iced and then melted away. These first ones are of the birds sheltering together on wires. They seemed to genuinely be keeping close together to brave the cold air and snowflakes, I guess like everyone else was at the time.
Last Sunday gone a few of us were skating for the first time since the New Year and dusting off the winter legs after the snow and ice. After skating the weather give us a little glimpse at what spring might hold for us as we sat on the beach, soaking up the minimal warmth from the sun but thankful for it nevertheless.
On an early morning bike ride in Southsea a few months ago I ended up at the harbour and had a look around Johnson’s fish wholesalers who were kind enough to welcome me in to take photos of them at work. All sorts of fish and shellfish are available (you can even look at the live lobsters and giant crab in their tanks) and the guys working there were really knowledgeable, even going though every fresh fish and telling me where it was caught, much of it local to Portsmouth and the surround area. I grabbed some fresh cod fillet to grill for my lunch (cheap too) and said my thank yous and goodbyes.
After arriving at the sea from the bridle path I finally got to see the waves that were crashing against the reinforced concrete that I could hear from up the pathway. The waves were rising fifteen or twenty feet up, clearing the top of the concrete wall by some way. After getting rained on by salt water taking photos I cycled south along the sea wall down to the pier and down to central Southwold. Looking out over the sea it was a mix of colours and had cloud shadows passing over giving it a mixed, dappled look. Out on the horizon were the dozens of oil tankers moored up transferring their cargo offshore to save mooring and dock fees – causing much local controversy.
If you get the chance to visit the Suffolk coast and Southwold, do it in a blink.
Last night we had a wonderful, pink, winter sunset that coloured the whole sky. I sadly didn’t make it out to take photos in time but it reminded me of these photos I took down at Southsea seafront of a warm sunset back in late Autumn.
Nature really never gets boring or cliché.
Another flashback to the warm summer, this time to a visit to Southwold in Suffolk. I had just bought my second bike and this was my first ride, down a bridleway through some farmland down to the sea, just north of Southwold and the pier. On the way I passed a small farm which had a few rugged sheep that enjoyed sheltering from the brash morning sun in the thorn bushes. As I got closer to the sea I could smell the salt air and the sound of the waves got louder and louder.
Just realised this is the 200th post on Forever Circling, time flies!
Taking a quick look back to a walk around Arundel back in the summer, these photos were from the lake and stream by the castle. The lake was home to people slowly meandering around in row boats eating ice-creams. The stream was home to wildfowl bobbing along and washing, on the bank a water vole watched the world go by.
Hopefully the warm, dappled sunlight on the water will trigger summer memories to warm your cold bones a little.
The last part of the Hayling cycle ride ended up back where it began, at the ferry that connects Portsmouth to Hayling. During the winter the Ferry is really quiet so you can spend some time at the quay waiting for the ferry to leave and watch the beachcombers, yachts and sea birds go by. On the ferry journey out to Hayling a heavy rainstorm was just south in the Solent, thankfully it never made landfall otherwise the photos from this trip would have just have been from in the pub…
Langstone Harbour cuts in to Hayling Island at it’s westerly edge before looping back to form the harbour entrance out to the Solent. This area of mudflats running parallel with Ferry Road and then up the western edge to the Billy is called The Kench. Back in the 50s during a housing shortage surplus military boats were converted to accommodation and landed on The Kench and some of those remain to this day. As well as the house boats the mudflats are also home to the remains of wooden piers and other, unknown, structures.
I’ve cycled past this derelict house many times but this time finally succumbed to my curiosity and decided to explore it and it’s gardens and out buildings. The gardens are so overgrown it implies that the house itself has been empty for a long, long time. The house itself was burnt out more recently and is now just a partial shell, it’s empty window frames now looking vacantly over to the harbour and to the Solent.
Small seaside roller coasters always look a little dangerous, a little scary. Hayling Island’s fun fair’s roller coaster I think is meant to be like a wild west mine car like affair which makes it look even more decrepit from afar but up close the rickety wooden structure is in fact strong, sturdy steel.
A while back I cycled the width of Hayling Island exploring from the Langstone Harbour ferry quay, the waterways beyond, a burnt out house, the roller-coaster, the seafront beyond leading right up to the far easterly beach facing Chichester Harbour.
Past the fun fair marking the middle point of the southerly edge of Hayling Island are wide empty beaches and despite the strong winds that day the winter sun tried its best to break the clouds and warm as best it could the few walkers braving the weather.
I’ll be posting up the photos from that bike ride over this week.
Back in December it was a friend’s birthday so we went for a walk exploring around the village of Bosham, part of Chichester Harbour. The village has a road running around it’s southern edge that floods with a high tide and with each high tide people’s cars become stranded at their houses with only walking access. Not that anyone seems to mind seeing as they have amazing views of the harbour and the village has some amazing pubs.
After exploring the snowy pier I walked down to the closed skatepark. I have spent hundreds of hours here and know the place like the back of my hand but under a white bed of snow the place seemed strange with seemingly just the top of the metal and concrete transitions reaching up through the snow.
It’s relatively unusual for Southsea to get much snow, last year it was only an inch or two, but earlier this week Southsea got covered in a heavy white blanket. During the snowfall I walked down to the seafront to go see the sea and walk down to the pier. When I got to the pier I put in a roll of B&W film which I then developed once I got home. From the pier itself the Solent was a white out with the forts and the Isle of Wight almost invisible.
