Views east of the reclamation

It's great to get views that would only have been possible from a boat a decade ago...

.. from Green Island on the right...





.. left along Greve d'Azette to Havre des Pas.







Close ups now...
Le Dicq area, easily recognised 3 points of the roof of the Hotel de Normandy, Longueville beyond...





.. right a bit... Greve d'Azette
(I still wonder why this area alone has been allowed to be High Rise Row?)






More of Greve d'Azette before the Grande Charriere slip, Grouville Hill beyond.







Lighthouse and Les Marais.






Green Island and Icho round tower.

I bet that cat down there has plenty of rats to prey upon :)

New land, new road, new views

I was surprised and delighted to find a new road behind the power station and fuel farm....







.. past the bus depot, it just goes on and on and on....

(note the smoke drifting over the south-east of the island as usual - great place for an incinerator?!)





.. around the corner of the sea wall from the previous land reclamation phase (white paint here was a marker for seafarers).






(closer)






.. and all the way to a the latest tip site (about here on the map). Not a great deal left to fill in, is there?







Closer, the back of the 'fuel arm' that used to be open to the public but anglers were using naked flame lamps a bit too close to fuel pipelines - so they fenced it off.





.. closer... Elizabeth Castle.






The real joy was discovering new views of the coast from Havre des Pas to Green Island (more tomorrow)... there really ought to be more public access to enjoy this.

There should be a footpath along the top of the rock rubble edges of this new land (add a mile or two to the length of the Around The Island walk, hehe!), with banked earth to screen off the inland industrial views and a line of trees... then... a car park view point with a strip of grassed bank for people to laze upon in the summer. A hundred metres or two of car park with great views, possibly a cafe cabin, I think it would be really popular. Why not? If it's safe enough for people to work here, it must be safe enough for the public. It's our land, we paid for it!

The Wasteful Garden

What is the point trying to make this hurried-through area look pretty?
As a regular Fort user walking through here, it seems to be dug up and re-planted several times a year - which seems like a big waste of time/money/manpower considering that we have recently read complaints of lack of gardening in more important areas of the island like Devon Gardens at Gorey.


Could it be because States Members have free parking here at Pier Road in the choice spot on the ground floor nearest to town? Are TTS Parks and Gardens trying to impress The House in order to keep their budget and show what a marvellous job they do? (Which they do, certainly).





Everyone who walks through here does so in a preoccupied hurry, and it's only seen by a very few islanders and visitors. Surely it would be cheaper to lay down some wood chippings and bung in some low maintenance evergreen bushes and be done with it? Trim things quickly once in a blue moon rather than spend so much time on it, as at present?





(apologies to vertigo sufferers!)


All that great manpower could be far better spent somewhere else.


UPDATE: replanted May 2009

Mystery Watercolour "Back of Fort"

One for JEP readers... this mystery watercolour was in the JEP a couple of days ago.
Where, in the island, is there a sea wall walk with rocks to the left, sea to the right, with a built up area in the distance?
The little pier in St.Brelade's Bay isn't like this.
Between St.Aubin and La Haule the rocks used to come down to the shore, and the road is relatively new - but that still doesn't look right. La Rocque wouldn't fit well either, and the land in the distance at Le Hocq would be flatter in the Pontac area. I'm pretty sure the entire North and West coasts can be discounted, which only leaves....


.. La Collette. Maybe it was painted from memory, or not 100% accurate... maybe the rockface has been changed since to widen the path, or the sea wall was rebuilt... but it looks like a strong contender to me.

It looks like the artwork shows the old ship yards along between La Collette and Havre Des Pas. It certainly ties in with "Back of Fort" well enough... i.e. Fort Regent.

JEP - thanks for the article - you're welcome to publish this pic with credit to "internet blogger 'Crapaudmatic' " if that's easier than sending your own photographer. And if you strongly object to this being here, for copyright reasons, just say the word and I'll remove it.

The other watercolour could be anywhere, but it reminds me a bit of Le Hocq.

Misc odds and ends

Dunes







From afar...







.. closer, with two Martello towers in one shot.







Autumn...








.. and Winter.






Seymour/La Rocque area from afar.







St.Aubin's Bay ...








.. closer...








.. closer, Bel Royal.





This little one was hopping about quickly and I didn't have time for a clear shot... but the question is, what kind of bird is it.. please?







The current state of El Tico II construction.





Town from La Haule/Beaumont... quick snap from the traffic jam. Lovely quaint old buildings, huh? :)
Top quality Waterfront.... *sighs*

Misc.

The Green Island area from the hills.








Le Hocq and Icho towers.






Chausey Islands (Wikipedia) on the horizon (map), Jersey cows in foreground.
You can just about make out the Lighthouse on the left of the Grande Ile.





Les Ecrehous (Wikipedia) with France beyond.






.. another, with windpower.







Meoww...










.. friends' puss.

Flame suit on

Toilet block burnt down? Always vulnerable to further arson?
Why not rebuild it out of flammable materials like wood cladding, bitumened flat roof felt and plastic windows?!
That'll be fireproof....

.. and a snip at a mere £xxx,xxx :)

Misc. on a Cloudy Day

Marsmallow pink at La Pulente, an area gradually getting tidier.





10 miles away on the other end of the island, at Seymour Slip, apparently Tom Scott has donated this carpark to the public. Thanks Mr. S, public benefactors make a pleasant change!







There's a gap at Havre des Pas while more redevelopment takes place.






A new skatepark has opened on the New North Quay...







.. but fencing means that no-one can get around this way any more! Pesky old Elf and Safety yet again :)






.. or you could just stick two fingers up at the Safety Dictators, climb up off the path and hang around under the escalator instead :)

Bollards!

Creeping bollards disease has struck again. This used to be a quaint old corner of the harbour, but it's now blighted by unsightly and pointless bollards. There used to be a single parking space there in the corner of the pavement, which wasn't a problem. I'd much rather see a car parked there than a row of repulsive sentinels.

Why do our 'leaders' hate cars so much? I like them! They are great things, giving us freedom of movement, they are usually attractively designed (to entice people to buy them) and I just can't see why the moaners want to banish them as much as they can. People are very strange....!

More Gorey

More pics from my walk where I overdid it a bit with the sheer number of snaps taken. We'll have a break from Gorey next time, and come back some time later :)