Rachel Roft, Pennant 13

Under your feet at Covehithe

I have been coming to this spot at Covehithe for many years. The cliffs on my right, the Sea to my left and straight ahead in the distance the Lighthouse winks at me.

The Sky a subtle Silver and Grey with a smudge of blue. The wind beats up the Sea into double waves, the second trying to overrun the first and merge with the foam. Sand blows against my coat sounding like rain. Grass flaps fold over the cliff edge like excess cloth from a slimmed down cliff on a diet of erosion. The top is a small band of dark soil. Then mostly fine sand, with lines of stones and shells. Loosened by the wind and the tide they start their journey to becoming sand. At my feet is a cluster made up of seaweed, reeds, stones and shells. Some from the cliff and others travelled with the tides. All are from different eras and areas.

Buried beneath the cluster lies a building, marked by a strip of concrete. I have tracked the journey of this building as it emerged gradually from the cliff. A corner at first. Eventually the whole structure arrives and falls, ending at the bottom, onto the beach. Seemingly migrating through the sand to the shoreline and later appearing to rise from the Sea.

For now it remains hidden.

The extent of what is left of its structure only revealed with the next low autumn tides. In the summer it will become a place to sit, rest and watch the sea. Becoming repurposed and re-imagined. You sense an object that has come from the sea to the beach, however it is actually the land that recedes.

The building stays static, whilst the world is moving and changing around it.

It reflects the experience of life, especially over the last year.