‘View Of Rangitoto Island From St. Heliers’ (26/7/20)
Tag: Sea
Down At The Dockside III
‘Down At The Dockside III’
More goings on at the Ports of Auckland.
This boxlike freighter, the ‘Beluga Ace’, may well be a sister ship to the vessel recently featured in my post Down At The Dockside Again .They are equally inelegant in any case.
F**k knows why I am developing a nascent interest in the cargo ships that come into town by sea.
Something to do with the normality of international trade in abnormal pandemic- stricken times, I think.
Oddly comforting.
Sacred Things
‘Sacred Things’
…this then, the candelabra in the sacristy of the wide, open yonder….
To The Island In The Light
‘To The Island In the Light’
Islands hold a special fascination for me.
There is something about there compactness, their isolation, their very apartness – that draws me like a magnet.
“Why should islands exert such an exceptional appeal? Why should so proportionately a small area of the earth loom so large in our awareness? What is the secret of the special excitement generated when people are isolated and surrounded by water?”
– John S. Bowman, ‘A Book Of Islands’
I have no real answers to the above questions, but I post this photo of craggy Taranga Island, in New Zealand’s Bream Bay, rising from the sea and bathed in light, as some sort of response to them.
In my mind, I go to the island in the light…
Incoming
‘Incoming’
Surfer Girls
‘Surfer Girls’
After the storm on Sunday at Mangawhai Heads, the sun broke through the following day and the waves became less messy.
With that, two intrepid surfer girls made ready to challenge the ocean.
Camaraderie and anticipation; clean breaks, churn and spray awaiting the pair.
.
To Keep Out The Sea
‘To Keep Out The Sea’
A new seawall on Auckland’s Tamaki River, filled with rock and brave intentions.
Nature wore down its predecessor.
Salty Dog Day Afternoon
‘Salty Dog Day Afternoon’
…oh, to be happy and free as a dog amongst the waves…
The Red King
‘The Red King’
The historic red iron fence along Auckland’s port area features heads of kings.
Apparently its Neptune/ Poseidon, the god and ruler of the sea, replete with pointy crown, large proboscis and flowing beard.
Magnificent!
Down At The Dockside At Dawn
‘Down At The Dockside At Dawn’
Down at the dockside
at dawn
a ship
set to wander
contiguous seas
in isolating days
Anderson’s Bay At Low Tide
‘Anderson’s Bay At Low Tide’
Prow
‘Prow’
Endless
‘Endless’
I was binge watching the second series of the Ricky Gervais Netflix series ‘Afterlife’ during the weekend.
Wickedly funny, but also filled with pathos and ruminations on our common mortality.
Right at the end of the series the soundtrack featured Iron and Wine’s song ‘Passing Afternoon’ from the 2004 album ‘Our Endless Numbered Days’.
Key lyric:
“There are things that drift away like our endless, numbered days”.
Quite.
The photograph above was recently taken looking over a coastal cliff on a walk ( I haven’t spent all of lockdown on my arse watching TV! ).
The gradations of colour, the deepening sea and the pattern of the waves held me in quiet thrall.
As I took in the view below me; as I watched Gervais’s character grapple with life and death; as Iron and Wine’s gorgeous song played, I found myself drifting….
Listen:
Sandstone And Sea
‘Sandstone And Sea’
…the view over a nearby cliff on one of many, many pandemic inspired (forced?) recent strolls in my locale. I am grateful, as always, for beauty in the mundane…
Steps Down To The Sea
‘Steps Down To The Sea’
steps down to the sea
rusted out old bastards
purpose all served
tread then with care
descend, descend
alight the last
and carelessly
walk on water
without weight
or thought for depths
cross ocean’s sheen
and twisting tides
transfigured
On The Beach
‘On The Beach’
“Now I’m livin’
out here on the beach,
but those seagulls are
still out of reach
… I follow the road,
though I don’t know
where it ends.
Get out of town, get out of town,
think I’ll get out of town.”
‘On The Beach’, Neil Young (1974)
Listen here:
Dark Promontory
‘Dark Promontory’
Sea Pointer/ Far Shore
I have been here before ( see Battered Protector ).
A different depth of field to the picture this time around, and so too another thought perspective.
The far shore of this arm of the sea is now visible in the distance.
The dagger-like groyne protrudes into the water and points to a spot on the horizon.
It is a affirmation of sorts, giving direction to destination:
” You can get there from here . I will show you the way.”
Door In The Water
Sea Cave, Muriwai, NZ
Water swirls at the mouth of this sea cave at Muriwai.
The darkened gap in the cliff face speaks of ancient mysteries and evolution through irresistible forces of wind and water.
A door to secrets I cannot fathom or be privy to…
Jesus Might, But The Sea Will
Heal you that is…
Graffiti on a stone wall by the sea in Fife’s East Neuk proclaims the possible healing powers of Christ.
As I have stated here before, I am no theologian, so cannot affirm the truth of the painted statement, or otherwise.
But I do know that the sea has magical healing effects.
Not just in the salt and minerals in the sea that assist with wounds (I once had cause to wash out a bleeding wound after been nastily bitten on the leg by a dog on a beach).
It is in the constant nature and rhythm of the ocean tides , the freshness of the salt air’s tang and the might and power of the waves.
For it has been my comforter as long as I can remember, the magnetic thing that draws me to itself without effort.
No day is worse for gazing upon a marine expanse, no mood so forlorn that it is not uplifted.
There is no logical explanation, so in that I sense am in the same proverbial boat as the Christians!
ebb then flood 