the beach and full moons - how do I love thee?

Just a few pictures taken at night during some of the recent full moons. The first photo was taken on the 17th of February and shows the constellation of Orion , a familiar sight to anyone living in the northern hemisphere. The upper orange star is the red giant Betelgeuse and the v shaped constellation to the right is Taurus, the brighter star being Aldebaran.

The rest of the photos were taken on the night of the 20th of March , just after midnight and again on the following night at just after nine o' clock. These were all taken with an exposure of about 30 seconds.

Photo two shows the very low tide that occured during the March perigee moon. This low tide caused five ships to run aground on a bank of shingle not normally exposed, just along the coast from here on the Solent, near the Isle of Wight. Among them was the 2,900 tonne cargo ship Paula-C, on its way to Cowes with a crew of nine.

On the cliff at the top of photo three is a small pale shape which is the house, called The Gazebo, that the author R. F. Delderfield built on Peak Hill. Because of coastal erosion the house is now only a few feet away from the edge of the cliff. It is a two or three bedroom thatched cottage built in the 1950s or 60s to a circular design and is currently up for sale for the substantial price of £795,000.

Other notable local residents of the past include Sir Edmund Leach, the English social anthropologist who was born here. The Duke and Duchess of Kent, being the parents of Queen Victoria, lived in Sidmouth for a time. The Duke had large debts and sought a place where they could live inexpensively. The coast of Devon was recommended to them and The Duke took a lease on Woolbrook Cottage in the town, where he rapidly caught the pneumonia from which he died of on 23 January 1820.

Jane Austin is reputed to have met and fallen in love with a young clergyman while staying in the town in 1801, of whose manners, intelligence and charm her sister, the letter burning Cassandra, most warmly approved. Having gained the permission of the family to continue the friendship later, he died suddenly. Jane gives the resort only one very brief mention in one novel, Persuasion.

The astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer retired here in 1911 and built an observatory on top of Salcombe Hill, which is still in use. Beatrix Potter holidayed here and painted a small watercolour which captures the pleasure of a sunny afternoon on the beach, in a view not much changed. Turner passed through not long after the great gale of 1824 and painted a watercolour of a stormy sea with the town in the background. Included in his painting is a sea stack which was later destroyed by another storm. The poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her family moved here in 1831 and stayed for about four years. Elizabeth is also supposed to have had an unhappy love affair during her stay in the town.