Portland Screensaver, unique!

Chesil Beach - the Fleet

Portland is a great place and something we Portlander's never tire of seeing it around us, some may and I am about to make that worse... ;o)

A few years ago I had a bit of a pickle in life, my ex landlord illegally evicted me, you Portlander's know this bully... anyway needing to do something about it and fast I and some great friends who were a massive help created something unique... 

Portland Quarryman's dream

Dreamy days... 

I recently shared a Portland poem on here by Bob Wollage, having a few people contact me saying they liked reading local poems, I am happy to share another great one from Bob, thanks go again to Sylv for sharing this with me...

A QUARRYMANS DREAM

Dawn comes -

Silent - like grief, stirring the dregs of night with cold tears.

Wooden crane jib leans - silhouette

against lowering clouds -

blackened - weatherbeaten -

by the West winds sullen hostility.

Life tired old quarryman -

stare and dream.

Watching impassive cranes display their dead strength -

in quarries.

He hears -

Dull thud of steel on stone -

protest of wheels as they strain,

Distant voices -

Familiar noises -

of which he was once part.

He's still there in spirit -

blood pulsating.

Thoughts small and fleeting -

seep through his mind -

like quiet breezes.

times scenes and faces -

longed for places- pass

and are gone -

graveward -

As death will come -

Tearing life's pattern -

from inert brain.

Bob Wollage - July 1980

Being a stonemason myself... I can relate. :o)
Poems are great in that they share something in a way stories can't.

Do you have any poems to share? Want to see it on this site?

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Isle of Portland poems...

The Isle of Portland has had a few budding poets overs the years.

Nice to read them and more so when done in the accent...

Thanks to Sylv for this Poem which is by Bob Wollage, written in 1987...

Isle of Portland Flag

The Isle of Portland flag! 

Portland has it's own flag as seen here.

The colours represent the landscape of the area: portland stone, grass and the sea. The white tower represents the castles and the naval coronet shows the long connection with the Royal Navy.

Portland's changing, making changes here too

Pause for thought... 

This Portland bill site has seen a few interesting changes over the last year and it has since then steadily grown in traffic and reach, slowly but surely... until a few months ago when it jumped, now it has doubled.

That is partly down to the facebook fan page set up for this site, partly down to YOU sharing it, partly down to my efforts elsewhere, partly down to Portland just being a great interesting place!

I'd like to say a massive thank you to all of you for commenting, sharing and most of all... being a reader.
So, just to share an update of sorts here and where's next for this site...

Yachts in Portland's Chesil beach cove

Sailing boats from Chesil beach.

Enjoying the fantastic weather last week on Portland's Chesil beach, I saw these boats anchored in the cove, it's not very often now we see boats "resting" here, so it made a nice change, would have liked to be on one of them to be honest, after all, it's one angle we rarely see Portland from.

Portland's secret tunnels...

Chesil beach! 

Portland's Chesil beach is seemingly endless, 18 or 19 miles of beach and I happen to spot this, what looks like a drain, so oddly out of place within all these pebbles.

If it is a drain that is, my imagination run away with me at the time because it didn't really look like a drain, more an entrance for something than anything. We all know on Portland that's possible ;o)

Portland's hidden secrets fascinate me...

Portland Sailing academy and Hamm beach

PORTLAND sailing academy! 

Talking a nice walk over the Chesil beach Road with my youngest son, I stopped to snap the sailing academy where the 2012 Olympics will be, with it's new backdrop too, you can if you look closely (right click image to open enlarged in new window) see the search and rescue helicopter coming to land.

The revamped block of flats dominate the area, there are two blocks, one finished, one not... the one still looking as it did on the left shows how drab they were, the updated one on the right, looking bright and new really does make that difference.

Portland's sea defence is a success and an asset

Chesil's defences open! 

Portland's Chesil beach sits somewhat safely behind this sea wall, part of the sea defence system, which started in the 60's, it obviously works well as we saw the winter just gone when we had a magnificent storm which threw up some of the biggest waves we have had for over a decade, Chesil beach was battered for a while but thankfully held up to avoid what we know can happen, severe flooding.

Hard to believe the beach could be so rough when you see it's stillness in the summer.

Portland's Castletown, the strip!

Portland's Castletown,  a few 100 yards along this road to the right side and situated at the very bottom of the island where the old naval base was, the single street, YES, ONE street here running through Castletown, this one street was known locally as "the strip"... sailors, a few pubs, a few shameless local loose ladies and you can guess the rest...

Portland's Ope cove, pebble gardens and castles

Gateway to Church Ope Cove

Portland's Rufus castle stands above Church Ope cove, a small beach which is a dot on the landscape in comparison to Chesil beach, though it is one of Portland's secret treats of which mostly locals use.

Lucky us!

A small cove surrounded by cliffs and two castles plus a 13th century church ruins, hence the name.

Rufus castle, the drawbridge of which you see here atop the arch is the old castle, a ruin really, you walk under this arch to get to the top of the 152 (I think) steps leading down to the cove and beach.

The other is Pennsylvainia castle sat to the right and on the main road to this castle.

Chesil beach under summer blue skies

Chesil beach

The weather on Portland is still fantastic, far to good to be indoors and much to hot to miss out, considering what a winter we had, it's no surprise to see people making the most of the summer.

Looks like I am not the only one judging by the amount of people I have seen out enjoying it, diving, swimming, canoeing (as you see in the picture) fishing and some sunbathers... (hopefully being sensible with sunscreen!)

Isle of Portland, an alternative UK holiday

Portland is getting back to normal after the school half term, thankfully the whole week was great weather wise.

Lot's of people enjoying the sun and sea on the one and only Chesil beach, plenty of divers down here too.

Plenty of fishing to be seen, lot's of mackerel getting caught too, ideal on a BBQ, of course!

All in all it has been a good half term for everyone, apart from those who worked!

A good summer coming up and a good time for...

Isle of Portland slides into summer...

Portland's Chesil beach!

The Isle of Portland slides into summer, reluctantly...

June already and the weather still can't make its mind up!

It seems we have a few fantastic days and then a complete contrast, misty, rain, and miserably grey... mind you at times it's cool though.

Good typical old British weather!

But...

Portland's blooming

Portland's Victoria Sq flowerbed.

Victoria square, Portland visitors first view as they arrive, not the best place on Portland by far and that's something which needs sorting out badly yet this flowerbed is, like many of the others around the borough, maintained pretty well, not as nice as some others but at least it's got flowers on it! :o)

Portland's two main parts, tophill, underhill.

Underhill!

Having had a few people ask me what is meant when I write "underhill," or "tophill" I thought I should clarify that for everyone who doesn't know.

Portland to the locals is really made up of two main parts, which as you can guess are called "tophill" and "underhill"... the actual "hill" this refers to can be seen in this picture.

New Road, which runs from underhill to tophill can be seen running up through the very left of this picture.

That is really what we say here, "going up top" or "down under" when we mention where on the Island we are going to and meaning exactly that.

Portland's underhill park

The park. 

Portland has been bathed in great weather today, so I took a stroll to the local park, sat in the sunshine near the bowling green as you see here in the left bottom corner.

With the landscaped garden, the nice trees and shrubbery here, it's giving the place a foreign feel, it was relaxing.

In the middle of the picture you see some stones, just here is the benches, almost hidden back into the shrubbery, in high summer this is a blaze of colour.

Portland Bill site possibly changing, again...

Portland Bill lighthouse!

This Portland Bill site may have some changes coming up, other than what I mentioned in the last post regarding working on a couple of things relating to Portland, things to share with you all, which will be as soon as they are finished, you will be the first to know about it, these other changes I am considering are a result of the last couple of months of keeping an eye on several factors.

I just wanted to share a few thoughts on this with you in this quick post...

Portland Bill, more possible changes and why

The Isle of Portland, majestic!

Isle of Portland 

Majestic, the Isle of Portland ~ A real beauty eh?

You won't find many people to argue with you on that here, who are lucky enough to get to see it all year, under all the different skies we have.
Take a walk around the island for a day (don't forget the camera!) and it's a place you won't forget in any hurry.

That's exactly what I have done a few times and I am hoping to do more with the many pictures I have, something I will be sharing the details of with you all here very soon, just getting that sorted out and I am hoping you like it.