Braye Beach Monolith

A might-have-been view of the beach I stayed by in Alderney with a monolithic observation post or direction finding tower looking like a beached ship. Both postcards bought in St.Annes but separated by about 48 years, postage on one tuppence ha'penny. In fact, there seem to be so many fortifications from different eras on the island that this view is not beyond the realms of possibility. Interestingly, the tower is keeping watch inland, over events in the island rather than out to sea for potential attacks.
I'm wondering about calling this "Run Aground".

This is the other, unseen side of "Shot - reverse shot".

Defending the View

A short-notice show at Norwich Arts Centre has meant 2 weeks of hectic organising of editing, printing, mounting, framing photographs and video. Some troublesomeness over the title of the show.

Passing cranes

Visited the Channel show, Southampton to look at my photos. Maybe some framing issues?Visited the Solent photography department too. Also, went to Artsway and had a sneak preview of their open show, which looks rather good for an open. Glimpsed a lovely conglomeration of cranes on the docks on the journey there, but only from the speedy road. On the way back I picked up another 7 films in for processing, including a rather nice shot of cranes loading the cargo boat in Alderney. The buoy looks beautifully fluorescent against the greyness of the weather.

Postcard of Braye Beach with Fort Albert in the distance, sent to my Mum some years ago.

I read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" whilst on Alderney - not much concrete in the book, but The Guernsey Press said it had increased American tourist numbers to Guernsey.

I also dipped into "Festung Alderney" by Trevor Davenport and compared the diagrams to the actual sites I visited when at times the visibility was down to shrouded-under-a-white-cloth distance - not like the sky in this postcard. The book is pretty comprehensive, if rather niche.

Alderney

An island three and a half miles by one and a half and so many fortifications:Napoleonic, Victorian and German WWII, all jammed on top of each other and around each other. Houses turned into defence fortifications then back into houses. Bunkers built on granite forts and camouflaged to look like stone and great angry-looking concrete slits knocked through the Victorian walls. Winding trenches breached by brambles. Anti-tank walls deluged under banks of sand. A very, very long breakwater with rusting railway tracks disappearing off the end. Organisation Todt on overdrive and the misery of the 'slave-workers' embedded in the wood-shuttered cement. The sense of watching and waiting, of being watched by countless, dank, dark gun embrasures, is immense and so often it is the sense of staring out over the sea to something invisible or perhaps about to appear through the fog.
All this and some stunning seafood too.