Wednesday 23 December 2015

On the eve of Christmas Eve

I have promised myself a 5 beach (Kilfarassy, Annestown, Kilmurrin, Bunmahon and Ballydowane)  beach comb tomorrow come storms and high water, both of which are forecast due to storm Eva and a full moon. 

Till then, from my last 2 beach combing days on Ballydowane: -


A bird's pelvis, possibly heron


Velella Velella



 

Friday 13 November 2015

Blue Day at Ballydowane

I haven't been able to get to the beach much due to other commitments but last week I had a day off and on a wonderful bright blue day I drove down there.  I got the tide times wrong and it was almost high tide but I managed a little mooch amongst lots of debris that had been deposited from the recent stormy weather.  Fittingly, lots of it was blue to match the sky.  I climbed up onto the cliff overlooking the beach and watched the tide come in. 

A car drove into the car park and parked up.  Talking to the driver on my (reluctant) way home again, I discovered that he is also a connoisseur of Ballydowne - a Ballydowaneophile I suppose.

















Monday 28 September 2015

Always


Rocks and Feathers

I have been away from the beach and this blog for too long - a combination of a holiday and getting a job.  But on Saturday evening I headed there after work and it was a beautiful evening, just after a very high tide and I had the beach to myself.

On previous visits I've left beach drawings and coloured in bits of driftwood. 



On the visit before this one, I left a little cairn perched high between two boulders

 and when I went there on Saturday night, there were 4 more cairns all along the beach!  





I know cairns are very common all over the world - I got the idea for the cairn from the beaches on the island of Kos where I went for my holiday and now that idea has been transferred to Ballydowane.  Maybe someone will see these cairns and build one on their beach and so on.  For me, it is a way of recognising the beach and of saying 'I was here', taking time to find the right stones and the right place to leave behind a souvenir for others to see and share.  On Ballydowane, which is a narrow beach with high tides, you need to find a good spot to stop the sea carrying the stones away again so there is that consideration too. 

Before I left, I re-did my cairn using more stones and the base of a metal shovel I found for extra stability.  Then I added a feather below.  And then I found a plastic bowl and more feathers so I made a feather arrangement and left it on a flat rock, away from the tides, like an altar.  Feathers are very common on Ballydowane and maybe, hopefully, the next time I go back, they will be fluttering all over the rocks as well. 



It is really a very small cairn
  

Wednesday 19 August 2015

On the day that Waterford

lost to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final, I went down to the tiny beach near the Daligan River that seems to be nameless but you can see here.  It is a smelly beach, due to the amount of rotting seaweed but has crab claws as big as they come and a fine amount of flotsam and jetsam.  I made a few collages which is something I haven't done in ages and listened to the seagulls and the oyster catchers.






Texture x 10

All from one half hour's mooch on the back beach at Clonea.