1 – From my mobile Continue reading
coasts and harbours
Marine photography
2 – My approach to photography
When I was a dentist, I took photographs all the time – mostly macro settings of small objects and areas. These were essential records of what I was seeing.
In my private life, my photographs have also been records – records of places, people and details. My family will tell you somewhat wearily, “He takes photographs of boats mostly!”
Three images from yesterday – Knightshayes
We were invited to visit Knightshayes accompanied by the former head gardener who had been involved in designing and planting the gardens for over forty years from the early sixties. He was talking about the trees he had planted from seed, about the garden and woods from before the garden and woods were there, about the way they had collected trees and plants, about why they had put them here . . . or there.
Marine photography
1 – Post it again differently
My last post was a try-it-an-see effort – could I upload an image from my camera onto my mobile then post it on the blog – from my boat? Evidently I can. With a little practice, I can improve on it too.
Little wind
Plymouth Sound – two hours ago
(Posted from Blue Mistress via my mobile)
Along the Teign – in black and white – and colour
We walked from Drewsteignton to Chagford on a rare hot, sunny day. I was being introduced to the walk – “It’s a great walk. Not too difficult.” It is and it wasn’t.
A coincidence I could not ignore
I was intrigued to see, downstream from Blue Mistress, two masts of a large schooner towering over the normal view. Continue reading
A visit to Appledore
3 – Bideford Bar
I have never crossed Bideford Bar but it seems that I have known it all my life. I thought I would check it out. Who knows? I may yet get the chance.
Many sailors have crossed this Bar, and many still do. To them I say, please bear with me. I am doing what I should do – looking at the water, reading the entries in the pilot book, looking at the chart. Also, I am looking at it from two different viewpoints – what it’s like now and what it might have been like in the nineteenth century. I have always had problems envisaging what it would have been like to live in a castle that now stands in ruins, but envisaging being at sea in a wooden sailing ship is different altogether – the sea is the same sea, the wind the same wind.
That there was a gale blowing and rain was in the air last week just made it more interesting. The outside bar was hidden in the murk . . .
A visit to Appledore
2 – Richmond Dry Dock
From my grandfather, via my mother, we had inherited a box of flood-affected old photographs of sailing vessels, including a large number of my grandfather’s trading ketch Ceres. Among these were several of Ceres in dry dock.
A visit to Appledore
1- The Maritime Museum
Over the years I have mentioned the trading ketch, Ceres, which belonged in turn to my great-great-grandfather, my great-grandfather and finally my grandfather. I promised myself that, when I finished the day-job and had more time, I would further explore her history.
Last week, I visited Appledore in North Devon – three reasons: to visit the small and excellent Maritime Museum , to find Richmond Dry-dock – (in the photograph of Ceres below), and to look at Bideford Bar across the entrance to the Taw/Torridge estuary.
When I arrived, a gale was blowing and there was rain in the air.
Beyond Steeple Point 