Light , Contrast & A Sense of Place

Emotional attachment to a place is very difficult to define. It was brought home to me when we were driving to the gym this morning. Yes, this Marion and Nigel that we are talking about, we are now regular gym bunnies, at least three times a week we hit the machines at our local gym for at least an hour. It is already starting to have beneficial effects on our bodies and more important on our minds.

Well that is a little deviation, as I say we were driving the gym this morning. Our route takes us along the sea front in Scarborough on the Marine Drive that runs for two miles along the town’s North and South Bays. As we turned onto the North Bay we just had to stop for a jaw dropping moment, it was because of the view in front of this that I captured in the photographs below.

 So first of all we are extremely lucky to have this view on the way to our gym. It encapsulates all that we love about living in Scarborough. There is the proximity of the sea, the sea is so changeable – sometimes it is mirror calm, on another day it is really rough and the waves roll in overcoming the sea wall. Look at the impact of the spray and the light, the shadow effect of the Roman castle on the headland. Just out of this world.

The scene also changes colour and character dramatically according to the sky and the position of the sun. So look at the photo below, this was taken from exactly the same point at the same time but I had turned 180 degrees so that I now had my back to the sun. What a contrast.

 Amidst the gloom and sleet of the North Yorkshire winter we had discussed at home the benefits of living in a sunny climate during the winter. But would we ever have the sensory experience of this morning. It just made us feel so much better compensated for that lack of sunshine.