Beach Head

Shelter From The Storm

On New Year's Eve there was a huge ship off the coast of Waterford, visible even from our house which is about 3 miles inland.  It turned out to be the Fedora, a Swedish vehicle carrier which was slowly moving up and down the cost after leaving Bristol.  The North Atlantic was stormy and the Fedora hung around from 12 hours before I suppose things got calmer and off she went, to cross the Atlantic to Baltimore.

You can check which vessels are in the vicinity of your own coast on  https://www.marinetraffic.com/

Close Encounters

Nearly all of the things I find on the beach are rubbish and get thrown in the bin but are beautiful at the same time so I've started photographing them as best I can, usually singly, sometimes together.  I like this freezing in time of these articles - the sea has faded and folded them, battered them out of shape, given them a new identity almost and it is this that attracts me and this that I'd like to capture before putting them in the bin. 

And why in the bin?  Some things, I can't bring myself to throw away but most things I have to or my house would be full of bits of lino and sandy pan scrubs.

Beach Botherer Is BACK!

I broke my arm - on the beach of course - at the end of June and have been traumatised since then.
The ambulance crew came out to rescue me, as did the Coastguard.  I was at the furthest end of the beach from the car park and that wait for the ambulance was one of the longest of my life.  I didn't know until that day how painful a broken arm is.  It hurts so much.
The ambulance men had gas and a great sense of humour.  They cut my jacket off me and pulled off my watch and ring and then the Coastguard drove me along the beach to the ambulance.  The local doctor was there too with morphine for the journey to the hospital in Waterford City.
I broke both bones in my lower right arm and had them pinned the next day.
I couldn't drive to the beach for weeks but got lifts there whenever I could.
I watch out for slippery rocks now but still get to the beach as often as I did so I have 5 months of photos and tales to put up here.
The photos below are what I saw on the day I broke my arm.

En l'air

This balloon was on the beach at Ballyvooney Cove, tangled in the rocks dancing by itself.  I don't like balloons on the beach so I removed it but before I did, I filmed its wind dance and then gave it music and a twin to dance with.

The Cunnigar

"The sharp wind blowing around An Rinn from Helvick is bracing and iodine-filled. And the strangeness of the name, the Cunnigar, still lingers. My mother used to say it had something to do with hounds, and a Portlaw cyclist resting in The Railway Bar, Cappoquin, said that it had something to do with rabbits. Goats and donkeys grazed there on the little vegetation. Today the Cunnigar - best seen across Dungarvan Bay from "the lookout" of the old Stokes Baths - is a refuge for sea-birds. Rabbits were introduced into the area at the time of the Desmond Geraldines, hence the name, An Coineagéar" 

Thomas McCarthy - original text here  

The first beach I ever came to in Waterford was The Cunnigar.  I asked in the Sue Ryder charity shop for the closest beach and was directed here.  It was misty and raining and felt other-wordly.  I found a rusty enamel bowl which I still have, on the shelf in the spare room.  The second time I came it was sunny and there were black cows grazing the strip of grass alongside the beach.

Today it was sunny and overcast, warm and still with oyster farmers being ferried by tractor to the oyster beds and evidence of their industry washed in all round me.

 

Smile