Sky Watch Friday

Before anyone asks - no, this is not me! I have neither the physical health nor the nerve to do this. These pics were taken about a year and a half ago at Rhossili, on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea (south-west Wales).





I'll be back to make my visits later - I have a mountain of laundry, cleaning, etc, to do.





Happy sky-watching - and keep an eye out for passing alien scout-ships :).

Click the link for more Sky Watch Friday.

Sky Watch Friday

Taken late one January afternoon, at Pennard Cliffs, on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea.


Click the link for more Sky Watch Friday.

Sky Watch Friday

Normally, I just post one pic for Sky Watch Friday, and very few words. But today, I bring you three images - and a rant! Take a good look at the horrid structure in these images - this is just a small section of it. I call it Nightmare Towers. Why? Well, when it's completed, the focal point of this development will be a huge skyscraper, 330 feet tall. If this was being built in central London, or down-town Manhattan, it would fit in perfectly. But it's not. It's being built right on the seafront at Swansea Marina. Some poor people, who have had privacy for years, will have new apartment blocks literally a metre or two from their windows. Even now, the residents of the existing apartments will have had much of their natural light cut off by this vile structure.



One poor man has already lost his life to this structure, after falling from it, whilst helping to construct it. I just hope it claims no more lives. This is a petty and insignificant gripe in comparison to the loss of a man's life, but when this ugly thing's completed, despite the fact that I live on a steep hillside, some 650-700 feet above the bay, I will lose a fair chunk of my sea view. People on lower ground will totally lose their sea view to this hideous monstrosity. Why the council gave planning permission for it, I really don't know. It's being plonked on our lovely seafront by a Dublin property development company. If they like their design that much - why not dump it on Dublin's seafront?



I also think this thing is a security risk. We have no local buildings anywhere near the height that this monster will be. These cranes are probably about a third of the monster's eventual height - and I felt sick just looking up at them to take this shot. Our local fire fighters have probably had no training in how to evacuate a skyscraper, or how to contain a blaze in one. That's not because our local fire service is in anyway inept. They're far from it. But we have no other comparable buildings in the area. The highest buildings we have are a number of high-rise blocks of flats (apartments) and the BT Tower - all of which must only be a third of the intended height of this nasty thing. If anything goes wrong at this new tower, the fact that our fire fighters will lack experience in tackling blazes in such buildings, will put them and anyone working and living in the tower, at great risk. And I know this will probably make me sound like a scaremongering alarmist, but - what if terrorists target it? Swansea may not be New York, but terrorists will attack anywhere where they can cause major loss of life. The very fact that the council is hailing it as such a wonderful new development, could make it a target.


I've been against this horrid thing since I first heard about plans to build it. I'm so shocked that local people have allowed it to go ahead. This really can be an apathetic city on times. I'm all for development and improvement. But not development causing disfigurement of a perfectly good landscape. Oh well, I guess I'll have to accept it, and watch the ships docking in the harbour from my lounge window while I can. Once this thing is completed - I'll have to head to the beach to see the ships dock. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and thanks for visiting my Sky Watch. Happy Friday!

Sky Watch Friday

It's time for Sky Watch Friday again. I snapped this blazing sky whilst standing on my living room window, and pointing my camera towards the docks.

Sky Watch Friday

It's time for Sky Watch Friday! I know people who have been visiting this blog for a long time, must be sick of seeing this image. But it really is one of my favourite sky shots. It's just so menacing and eerie, especially with that evil-looking cloud demon.



Have a great weekend, fellow sky-watchers!

Sky Watch Friday

It's Friday, so it's time to head over to Dot's blog, for Sky Watch Friday. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may well have seen these images before. If not - they were taken on a stormy autumn evening, as I stood in the doorway of a local Tesco supermarket, looking out across the car park.





I'm running desperately behind with my blog-hopping and commenting - and I apologize to everyone who has left me a comment, and hasn't heard back from me. You will do, sometime today. Have a great weekend!

Skywatch Friday

Dot, the host of Skywatch Friday, recently visited this blog, and invited me to take part. I checked it out - and I love it! I have loads of sky images - clouds, sunrises and sunsets are some of my favorite photographic subjects. The biggest difficulty I'll have here, is deciding which images to post.

Here's one of my favorites. It shows a small bay - well, more of a cove really, to the west of Swansea, called Limeslade. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas own a house very close to this spot - I think they have a view right over it.



This image was shot a couple of years ago, on a bitterly cold January evening. At one point, my camera simply refused to work, it was so cold. I had to tuck it into the waistband of my jeans to warm it up, before it would work again. I had a whole series of shots of this particular sunset, but lost them to a hard drive failure, and subsequent back-up CD failure. I managed to retrieve this one, as I had it stored in an online photo album.

So how did I do for a first entry? I'm looking forward to visiting as many other participants as possible. Happy Friday!