Sun sets behind the evocative ruins of Grosnez Castle on the Northwestern tip of Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands.
Sunset at Grosnez
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Tag Archives: Channel Islands
La Coupée
Our trip to the Channel Islands this summer included a stay on Sark.
Under the effects of wind and water, Sark is becoming two islands, Great and Little Sark. They are joined by a narrow isthmus called La Coupée.
It’s a spectacular spot, the cliffs shearing off steeply from both sides of the narrow path. My photos don’t really do it justice.
La Coupée used to be so dangerous that people would crawl over it on their hands and knees. During the nineteenth century, the path eroded until it was only three feet wide. The present road dates from 1945 and was constructed by German prisoners of war. It can still be an eventful crossing even today; on busy days tourists pushing bikes, the principal means of transport on this car-free island, mingle with carts pulled by horses. The latter have right of way, but there’s not a lot of room when they pass! Sadly, I didn’t get a shot of a cart on La Coupée; I always seemed to be there at the wrong time.
I did, however, manage to take some photos of La Coupée at dusk. As the light dims, and the people leave, it becomes a spooky place and, not surprisingly, has had a reputation for being haunted. One story tells of a black dog, called the Tchico, who roams the cliffs around La Coupée at night. I didn’t see Tchico, which is probably just as well.
More about Sark next week.
Fort Grey
I have done battle with the binding machine and submitted the hard copies of my dissertation. It is well and truly done.
I have already visited a few blogs and have plans to visit many more – I have missed the fun of sharing this great hobby with other enthusiasts. I have lots of plans, plenty of photographic projects in the pipeline. But I also want to share some of the photos I took during our holiday to the Channel Islands this year. This is Fort Grey, on Guernsey’s West coast. Inside, there is a fascinating shipwreck museum which I heartily recommend. It is never easy trying to do landscape photography on a family holiday. At this location I noticed the best viewpoint of all just as we were driving away and couldn’t bring myself to ask the family to stop again while I captured it. This will have to do. Mostly it was too hazy while we were there and there weren’t enough clouds to make interesting sunsets, but this evening was an exception.
Common Blue
It’s been several weeks since I was last here. I’ve missed it. I just pressed the button on my dissertation! I can no longer tinker with it; it’s done. All I need to do now is bind and drop off the hard copies tomorrow. I am excited to be able to get back to the blog. I hope you haven’t all given up on me!
I couldn’t completely leave the camera alone for the whole summer. Here’s a shot of a lovely little common blue butterfly, captured while on holiday in Sark in July. See you after college tomorrow!
Sark Sheep Races
Focused Moments is on a bit of a hiatus at present as we are on holiday in the beautiful Channel Islands. But I couldn’t resist sharing a quick iPhone snap taken today at the Sark Sheep Races. Believe it or not, those jockeys are teddies! Only in the British Isles 😉
Jacob’s Ladder
“Crepuscular rays are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky, specifically, where the sun is. These rays, which stream through gaps in clouds (particularly stratocumulus) or between other objects, are columns of sunlit air separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. The name comes from their frequent occurrences during crepuscular hours (those around dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious. Crepuscular comes from the Latin word “crepusculum”, meaning twilight.” – Wikipedia
Not surprisingly, perhaps, this spectacular meteorological phenomenon has often been connected with spiritual beliefs. It is known colloquially as ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, referring to Jacob’s dream of seeing a ladder to heaven in Genesis. The ‘ladder’ also has significance in Islam which revers Jacob as a prophet. It has inspired spiritual leaders of all faiths.
“God is the Sun and when His rays fall upon your heart, not impeded by the clouds of egoism, the lotus blooms and the petals unfold.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba
The movie Jacob’s Ladder (1990) starring Tim Robbins tells the story of a vietnam veteran haunted by visions. The story deals with questions about life and death, heaven and hell, and the film’s promotional poster shows a staircase spiralling out from Robbins’s face, like rays of sunlight.
Jacob’s Ladder is also a song written by Bruce and John Hornsby first recorded by Huey Lewis and the News. In the song, a fan dancer rejects evangelism in favour of a step by step, one day at a time, progression through life:
All I want from tomorrow is to get it better than today
Step by step, one by one, higher and higher
Step by step, one by one, climbing Jacob’s ladder
Summer dream
Well, the promised snow didn’t arrive. Instead, sleet and yet more rain. So I consoled myself with editing some more images from our wonderful trips in August and October to the Channel Island of Jersey.
Might have to go back again this year…
St.Helier in black and white
While we were on Jersey in the summer, I took the opportunity to try out some high contrast black and white photography along St.Helier’s seafront.
St.Helier is Jersey’s capital. According to Wikipedia, it has a population of 33,000.
The city is named after Saint Helier, an eremetic monk who believed that living as simply as possible brought one closer to God.
The Hermitage of Saint Helier perches on an inhospitable crag of rock out to sea. It is now joined to Elizabeth Castle but, during St.Helier’s day would have been a place of austere isolation.
Poor St.Helier’s reward for all his privations was to be murdered by pirates.
His hermitage can be reached at low tide by a causeway or at high tide by Elizabeth Castle’s amphibious ferries.
Over on The Shed blog today I write about five more of my favourite images from the Gallery.
That lighthouse again
At the risk of boring everyone, I thought I’d post some more pictures of La Corbiere, Jersey’s iconic lighthouse. Reached by a causeway at low tide (a claxon sounds to warn visitors foolish enough to ignore a rising tide), the lighthouse is attractively perched atop a granite outcrop, high above the Southwestern tip of Jersey’s coast.
It’s an attractive spot for watching sunset but, even if the sun does not put in an appearance, the view is stunning and the rocky foreshore provides plenty of nooks and crannies as foreground interest for the intrepid photographer.
One day I hope to be there in a storm to catch waves crashing over the lighthouse. In the meantime, however, here are some more shots taken at this lovely, windswept place.
La Rocco
Last post I showed some of the World War 2 fortifications on Jersey. Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, sits close to the French Coast but has for centuries been loyal to the English crown. It is not surprising then that the coast has plenty of other, older defences.
The North coast is craggy and rugged but the bays of the South, East and West coasts were very accessible to invaders. During the Napoleonic wars, a series of towers was built around the island.
General Conway, Governor of the Island, planned for thirty towers to protect the coast from the threat of French invasions. La Rocco on St. Ouen’s Beach was the twenty third to be built, in 1795-6.
It makes an attractive landmark, standing sentinel over the five miles of sand that make St. Ouen’s Bay.
What a wonderful setting for a spot of sunset kite surfing!
But you have to admit that as a silhouette it looks a little like a submarine.
More from Jersey next post.
Focused Moments 