Sea of Napoli

We spent a wonderful few days in Dorset/Devon last weekend including a lovely time on the beach at Branscombe  - site of the MSC Napoli grounding in January 2007, resulting in the spillage of the contents of many of its 2394 containers into the sea and onto the shore...
What a contrast now (and with our North Sea beaches on the Suffolk coast - perpetual victim of huge quantities of shipping waste) : on my short walk on the beach I found only one piece of (visible*) marine litter, shown below.

* who knows what traces of other pollutants remain... according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, about 150 of the Napoli's containers held "hazardous" substances including industrial and agricultural chemicals.
Despite this - and arctic water temperatures - we enjoyed a lovely swim... come on in the water may be lovely!!

A new world record!!

Found on a local beach: the oldest recorded crisp packet ever washed up on a beach anywhere*...

Sadly this pre-decimal packet of Golden Wonder crisps was not found by me but, rather appropriately, by flyintheface artist-in-residence, Jane Darke, whilst staying here earlier this month. Jane is well known for her 'wrecking' on the Atlantic coast Cornwall coast which she documented with her late husband Nick Darke in her brilliant and haunting film, The Wrecking Season.
 To see more of Jane's work, visit her website.

* unless you know different....?

Skipping in Orford

Earlier this month our  second 'residents' were here: Jane Darke (film-maker & painter from Cornwall) and Andrew Tebbs (photographer, sculptor and more... from Derbyshire). On a quick walk round Orford, both Jane's (longterm wrecker!) and my eyes alighted on a skip in Quay Street in which we found this discarded carved lobster plaque...

- a really apt find in view of Jane's own lobster fishing and not least her film The Art of Catching Lobsters, an extraordinary and moving film shot on the rugged North Cornwall coast, in which Jane records her husband Nick's life as a fisherman, beachcomber and playwright... 'a film about how to manage love... and the loss of it'.

To read more about the film, see theartofcatchinglobsters.com

Talking Walking...

Last summer on a very wet, cold and windy day, I was interviewed by Andrew Stuck (producer of Talking Walking) whilst walking on the beach between Thorpeness and Sizewell. You can now hear the interview here...

Where in the world...?

I witnessed some amazing changing landscapes on my recent travels...

...but no need to go to North Africa or the Middle East - it's all here on the English east coast (but, hurry, as you can see, it's disappearing fast...)

Going wild in the forest...

The  flyintheface residency is launched! Essex artist Gordon Flemons christened the studio and had a wonderful week exploring Captains Wood, recording sound and vision...
For more of Gordon's work visit http://www.gordonflemons.com

Defending the galaxy...

Someone's been partying out at sea... I recently walked along the beach at Covehythe and found 72 balloons washed up on the shoreline. Balloons released in the south-east nearly always end up out at sea because of the prevailing southwesterlies. Wherever they land they cause a major hazard to wildlife, but particularly at sea where they can either entangle sea creatures or can be swallowed having been mistaken for jellyfish (turtles' main food source).


Here's what I found:

Balloons don't just injure wildlife out at sea - a swift fell from the sky into my garden last summer, having flown into a latex balloon from a charity balloon release, which burst around its neck and wings... (this bird was lucky - we were on hand and able to release it...)

For more information see the Marine Conservation Society's  Don't let go campaign.