Dungeness...

 "The nuclear power station is a wonderment. At night it looks like a great liner or a small Manhattan ablaze with a thousand lights of different colours. A mysterious shadow surrounds it that makes it possible for the stars still to glow in a clear summer sky."

DEREK JARMAN

Surreal, inhospitable, desolate, windswept, wild, some might say...

There is no middle way, you either 'get' Dungeness or you don't...

Dungeness is the world's largest shingle expanse and the only desert in the UK with its climate being classed as arid; despite this, it is home to over 600 species of plant life, a bird sanctuary and some very unique and eccentric human and animal life...

Oh yes and of course the small matter of a nuclear power station, well two actually, Dungeness A and Dungeness B...

We visited Dungeness once in the summer in June and then again in the winter in January. I had never previously visited this incredible place on the edge of the world. My friend Mandy urged me to go but I was also inspired by the late Derek Jarman's book about his house and garden in Dungeness.

An invitation to explore for some...

But, please tread softly...

 Derek Jarman said on his first visit to Dungeness "There's a beautiful fisherman's cottage here and if, ever it was for sale, I think I'd buy it". It was for sale, serendipity reigned, and he purchased Prospect Cottage.

 Stained pitch black and with a corrugated iron roof and egg yolk yellow painted joinery;

  Prospect Cottage, still sits within the garden that Derek created.

  Rear view of the cottage and garden.

 

One of Derek's mysterious flint circles.

The side view of the cottage with sculptures of driftwood,

ancient rusted anchors, twisted metal and anything else that

the sea delivered to the shore that could become part of the garden...

And a boat...

   My well-loved copy of Derek Jarman's book.

Derek Jarman's notes.

  In June the vivid violet-blue 'Vipers Bugloss' was abundant.
 It was used as a cure for snake bites in the past and...

Helen of Troy served the herb to her guests at a
dinner party as it was a known aphrodisiac...

 Vipers Bugloss with its pale pink trumpet-shaped throats and stamens
 and hairy aromatic foliage, perfect for flirting with bumble bees.

Sea Kale was in abundance too. A popular vegetable in Europe in the 19th century its shoots
are eaten like asparagus. Geologists and biologists are swooning over it because it may be
a 'food of the future' due to its ability to grow nutritious vegetation  in salty water and it
reproduces by seeds that float.

 Scarlet poppies were flowering where they had randomly self-seeded and

occasionally I spotted an opium poppy with its precious seed pods.

   

I marvel at the soft velvety patchwork of mosses and lichens...

In so many shades of greys and greens...

Jade green, bottle green, moss green, lime green,
 emerald green, racing green, sea green,
 celadon, eucalyptus green, olive green, sage green...

 Someone has made their home in a disused railway carriage.

  Dungeness has a thriving artist community.
Outside a gallery I found this unique sculpture that is
 evolving continually and is added to daily...

And another sculpture this time made of paintbrushes...

To the light house...

Half way up the light house staircase is a room full of jewel coloured prisms.

 And once you reach the top you can see across the flat landscape for miles.

  And look down on the nuclear power station if you so wish...

Off for a ride on the steam train now...

 The old railway station cafe, straight from the film set of 'Brief Encounter'.

Signals...

 

 The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch steam railway. 

The smallest passenger railway in the world.

 The railway which started in 1927 was commissioned 

during the second world war to assist troops. 

Proof that I took a ride on the train...

  Our fellow passengers...

 If one hangs out the window one can see

how the steam transforms the landscape...

 Into a magical, mystical place...  

 

  Where even nuclear power stations can look romantic...

  Or like a film set for Brigadoon...

My collage of Dungeness greys...

 What I love about Dungeness is that you never

know what you are going to come across next...

 This was a rusty old container...

Where else in this world can you find a view like this?
And, is that a man holding up the shed-wreck?

Part of a boat?

And this?

 

  Boat on the shingle...

Fishermen with a smart usable fishing boat...

  And then I wander down to the shore again and

photograph the shells and the shingle and the fishermen's nets...

 A mosaic of scallop shells and...

  I find so many different shapes and colours and interesting things...

 Until the sun goes down...

And the sky turns the palest of pink...

And the fishermen are on their way home...

 Home along the soft grey moss and lichen covered path...



 "The moon is even more spectacular. The sunset turns the seashore into a rosy mirror, with streaks of pink cloud. Then the moon comes, and casts a silver path across the waves, a shimmering carpet for the stars. Dungeness, Dungeness, your beauty is the best, forget the hills and valleys."


DEREK JARMAN