Plans to widen the A303 is great news for Cornwall

In the news this week it was announced that plans were being put forward for the widening of the A303 through the blackdown hills. This is a beautiful but troublesome route that I have used for many years, travelling down to Cornwall with my family when I was a child to trips back to Essex now that I live in Cornwall. But one trip stopped me using the the A303 ever again. We were invited to a friends 30th in Essex one August so setting off early we decided that we would use the A303 but 6 hours later we were fed up, we had only just reached the famous Stonehenge and were most definitely going to miss the party. We were stuck bumper to bumper in traffic with no where to go and eventually managed to cut across county back to Bristol and joined the M5 where we turned around and headed back to Cornwall. After nearly a 12 hour journey no where we swore we would never use that route again and so this news to improve the road is welcomed from me as long as it takes the area of outstanding natural beauty into consideration.

This is my favourite bit of using the A303 seeing the magnificent Stonehenge so hopefully if they improve the road more people can visit this amazing historic site.  

Storm waves forecast in Cornwall again this weekend

It's hard to believe that only three weeks ago the year started with the coast of Cornwall getting struck by giant waves, strong winds and high tides. This created the perfect storm and created thousands of pounds worth of damage around the coast of Cornwall. From broken roads in Newquay to damaged piers in Portreath, Fistral beach bar had it's foundations ripped out and Perranporths beach now has a totally new look not forgetting Sennen where the biggest waves were watched by lots of storm chasers.

This weekend is starting to look like it will be taking on a similar pattern. Lots of rain is already forecast for the weekend but in addition to this there are again strong winds and high spring tides and yes you've guessed it another massive swell!

Checking out magic seaweed they have covered an article comparing the two storms and although this weekends storm is looking to be slightly smaller than the one three weeks ago it is still forecast to be a large dangerous storm that contains huge swells wrapping around Cornwall's coast.

Image from Magic Seaweed - http://im-1.msw.ms/eengine/ce_images/eedfdb7c6f2cb918/taketwo_940_589.jpg

I will naturally be out with my camera again this weekend to witness this storm to provide images for my blog so check back in a few days to see what happens this weekend!

Bike riding in Cornwall

When I was in my teens I used to love cycling I grew up in Essex but loved the countryside so I would go off on my bike at any available opportunity and cycle out of the city to the surrounding countryside. Sadly my bike was stolen and the cycling went on hold, my life changed, I learnt to drive and I moved to Cornwall, my passion for learning to surf took over and I never replaced my bike.

After nearly eight years of living in Cornwall this Christmas I received a new bike and my new years resolution like many others to 'get fit' might actually happen by accident with my reinstalled passion to explore the local area by pedal power.

I find that there are still so many parts of Cornwall that I don't know but driving around you don't get the chance to take in the full view, so on my bike I get the chance to explore new areas, see things and enjoy them whilst getting a bit of fresh air in my lungs.

Sunday I cycled to the beautiful fishing harbour of Padstow. Although my plan was to cycle to Wadebridge and back before the rain struck

I've already started planning my next cycling route around Cornwall but with lots of rain forecast this weekend I think I might have to put my next route on hold. 

Photobrook Photography in local Competition

I'm really pleased that one of my images is featured on the western morning news website in the photography competition to find the Western Morning News photographer of the year.

My image has a long way to go to get through each round to be in with a chance of winning but i'm super excited to just have my image in the paper :")

Wish my awesome image of a surfer riding the epic storm waves off cribbar luck with getting through to the finals.

Valentines day wish list

Christmas has only just ended and I'm still working my way through a massive amount of Christmas food and I realise it's less than a month to Valentines day!

I used to hate valentines day when I was at school, you never wanted to be the girl that didn't get any valentines cards but at the same time you really didn't want a valentines from the class clown. The day always made me nervous and was always glad it was over and never really thought much more about it. Now I'm in a long term relationship, approaching six years with my boy and I now look forward to Valentines day. I'm not one for only telling the person that I'm with that I love them on one specific day but Valentines day is a really good excuse to cook some lovely food and spend the evening snuggled up on the sofa watching a movie together, not doing any house work and leaving the dishes until the next day!

I don't think romance should be forced on one specific day and love it when I get home from work to find treats from my other half for no other reason than he loves me but that doesn't mean that I don't get to put my thinking cap on and work on a wish list for what I would like as a special valentines gift!

Thinking back to my school days I used to have Baby G watches, I had a blue one and two pink ones and this year they have this gorgeous heart themed watch. The best thing about these watches is that I can wear them whilst I go surfing! No more spending to long in the water and being late for work or over running on the car parking ticket!

But whilst I'm window shopping for myself I couldn't resist noticing this watch that I think Mr. Photobrook would love.

Although I would love to get his and hers watches this Valentines Day As long as we are together happy and healthy and have each other then I am more than happy and glad to have such a lovely man in my life :@)

Fistral beach clean

After seeing a hand drawn poster for a beach clean at Fistral I couldn't say no to clearing up some of the rubbish that had been left behind by the previous weeks storm.

Arriving at the beach at 1pm there was no body about but with rubber gloves and bin bags in hand we still keen to help out. As we stepped onto the beach at South Fistral we met another couple who were already litter picking so we said hello and started filling our bags with rubbish. 

As the heavens opened and the torrential rain started to soak through us we continued picking up rubbish washed ashore by the recent storms. Whilst head down picking up rubbish I suddenly noticed more and more people pulling bin bags out of pockets and joining in with the litter pick. There was even families with carrier bags picking litter, dogs dragging lumps of pipe across the beach and at least 30 people all complete strangers working together to make a dent in the massive amount of rubbish left on the beach. 

Some of the litter picked was understandable, bits of fishing rope washed ashore but a lot of the rubbish included drinks bottle lids, crisp packets and beer bottles. A lot of this rubbish hadn't been washed up from the sea but was buried in the sand dunes for many years and only uncovered now that the sea had eroded down the dunes. It made me so angry that it was people that have come to enjoy the beach by enjoying a beer on the beach that had left their beer bottles for somebody else to clear up. 

The beach clean was like a mythical army of people, one minute there was no body there the next an army of 30 people all sweeping their way from south Fistral to North Fistral litter picking all the way then once they reached North Fistral they all disappeared. The weather was horrendous and my coat is still dripping a nice pool of water on the floor but I feel proud to have been a part of a small group who got together in horrible weather to help clean a beach that clearly we all love so much. 

You don't need to be part of an organised clean to keep our beaches tidy to enjoy when the sun does come out, next time you go for a walk on our beautiful coastline pop a carrier bag in your pocket and if everyone picks up just a few items the beaches will return to how we love them the most. 

A week of storm damage in Cornwall. A round up of pictures from around the coast.

For most last week was the first full week back to work after the Christmas break and in terms of weather, what a week! With gale force winds, giant swells and high spring tides this created a combination to cause damage and flooding across Cornwall.

Luckily the majority of the damage is repairable and a lot is just damage resulting from debris leaving a lot of mess to be cleaned up. Although their have been two fatalities and one young man still missing the scene could have been a lot worse if people hadn't listened to the coast guards warnings about staying away from the coast.

Starting my round up of the week are some photographs from Fistral Beach storm damage where the RNLI hut and the Fistral beach bar took full force of the storm swell.

The sand dunes also saw dramatic change where they have been eroded back around 10 foot. This wasn't the only beach were the sand took on a completely new look. Perranporth beach with the famous bar on the beach the Watering Hole also saw dramatic changes. The storm damage at Perranporth luckily did not effect the Watering Hole but it has left a massive six - eight foot cliff of sand carved by the sea in front of the pub. The once gentle sloping sand from the shore up to the pub is no longer there!

It wasn't just the beach in Perranporth that saw change but the town as well was covered in a layer of debris and rubbished washed into the land by the extremely high tides.

Monday saw the biggest swells hit the coast with 30 foot waves impressing the coast line. The biggest waves were forecast at Sennen during the storm and were definitely worth watching. The massive waves came crashing into the coast creating impressive spray and thunderous sounds. 

Porthleven during the storm is always impressive picking up the swell on the south coast there is often some very impressive photographs of waves smashing up the harbour and flooding the seaside town. I visited Porthleven during the height of the storm but at low tide when it was safe to do so. Even at low tide the waves were looking angry and surging into the outer harbour of the fishing port.

After the week of strong storm swells that left beaches changed I'm now heading off out to one of my favourite beaches Fistral to help with a beach clean and return the beaches back to their beautiful state before they were damaged by the storms.

Photobrook Photography appears in the Cornish Guardian

With a week of extreme weather it's hard to believe the damage with this mornings sunshine bursting through the curtains and lighting up the room.

From building damage at Fistral beach, to changed landscapes on Perranporth beach and giant waves in Sennen the week was definitely an interesting one.

I'm pleased to see that local paper the Cornish Guardian have featured some of my storm pictures from this week on their website.

Don't forget if you want to help clean up the beaches after the weeks storm weather there's a beach clean at Fistral Beach tomorrow (Sunday 12th Jan) at 1pm.

To see all the pictures from this weeks eventful storm pop over to Photobrook Photography's facebook page to see lots of galleries from pictures all over Cornwall

Porthleven during Hercules storm

On Monday the whole of Cornwall was on flood alert with the massive storm swell Hercules hitting the coast. During Monday afternoon at low tide I headed over to Porthleven to see what the storm was doing to the coastal town that is famous for picking up large swells during the winter months. The images below are all taking around low tide and shows just how big this swell was with the tide nearly fully in even at low tide.

 

This image still taken at low tide shows the water close to breaking over the closed inner harbour meaning that come high tide there was no stopping the surge of water from hitting the small Cornish town.

Photographs of Winter Storm Hercules from Sennen with 30ft waves

The largest swell to hit the Cornish coast was forecast on Monday the 6th April. With the Surf website Magic Seaweed calling the storm swell a code red it was predicting the eye of the swell to contain waves up to 30ft high and this being largest on the tip of the North Cornish coast and the beach resort of Sennen.

Image from Magic Seaweed http://magicseaweed.com/news/Atlantic-Code-Red-Incoming/5954/

Watching the forecast all weekend my working schedule in my day job was shifted around on Monday and I was excitedly heading down to west Cornwall to go and do some more storm watching. I approached Sennen with butterflies in my stomach excited to see the waves and to be completely honest I felt a little disappointed. I was expecting monsters and where I was parked on the sea front car park it all seamed a little underwhelming. It was at this point low tide and although the waves looked angry and powerful I wasn't witnessing anything that I hadn't seen before when the famous wave cribbar had been working. Cribbar is a large wave that often breaks just off Fistral beach in Newquay and previously saw waves up to 20ft high. The difference was when I've previously photographed Cribbar the waves have not just been big but they have been clean and rideable with many surfers and yet skis attacking the waves. Whereas on Monday at Sennen the wind was creating messy waves and therefore loosing some of the awe of the epic swell. 

However it wasn't all a disappointment as I left the car park and walked towards the beach I saw a massive wave hurtle around the corner and smash up behind the lifeguard hut so headed there. As I approached there were lots of other people with cameras watching the waves. My jaw quite literally dropped the waves were massive, the sound of them crashing was like thunder and the crashing up the cliffs and the spray created was insane. 

Here are several pictures of the waves created by storm swell Hercules crashing in Sennen beach in Cornwall. 

This has been one busy weekend for Cornwall with massive waves constantly striking the coast from Fistral to Perranporth causing damage and flooding on both coasts. Lets just hope the swell drops and the sun comes out and we can enjoy some slightly calmer weather and recover in Cornwall.