A Sheerness Consciousness

We were up and out early for a run this morning and as we could see it was going to be a glorious late summer's day replete with plenty of sunshine and azure blue skies, albeit with a definite chill in the air, we thought we should head out for a sea adjacent location when we got back and decided on the short hop over to Sheerness, on the north west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in North Kent.
Consciousness is the state of being aware of and responsive to your surroundings. Sheerness is sometimes dismissed as run down and deprived but we've always found it to have an idiosyncratic charm all of its own and have developed quite a soft spot for it. We like it for its own sense of individuality and the fact that it's not been gentrified to within an inch of its life unlike some other seaside destinations. Sure it has its rough edges but that just adds to its own particular character.
It has a wonderfully expansive promenade with an almost spotless shingle beach accommodating uninterrupted views out to sea and at this time of year it is populated with very few visitors - so we had a fabulous walk hoovering up all that coastal ozone. Having said all that I've just realised that only one of my images even shows a hint of the sea!
The initial image I took was the first extra as we walked along a side street in the town to get to the beach - there was just something about the bequiffed skeletal sign outside a local barbers that appealed to me - although I should perhaps apologise to the pedestrian who was walking into the shot as I've chopped the top of her head off!
My second extra is of the maniacally grinning graffiti'd face opposite a fractured heart on the side of an empty warehouse next to the sea wall. I just liked combination with the colour palette and that strong diagonal shadow.
The third extra is of a metal door blocking off a passageway to some nearby terraced houses - you can just make out the rooftops though the mesh surface and I found the outlines and the spray painted word "not" made for a diverting composition.
My main image was actually the last one I took and is a housing for multiple life bouys on the promenade with the red curves with the white stripes really standing out against the blue sky.
We still had time on the way home to stop off for a lovely cool pint at The Tudor Rose in Upper Upnor in their fantastically atmospheric garden and say a quick hello to the pub's resident ducks, Alabama and Clarence - although they did decide to stay inside their rather well appointed bijou hutch.