During my walk home from Battersea on Saturday, I passed a ramp leading down to the Thames. A little pebbly beach lay at the base of the ramp, strewn with all sorts of riparian detritus.
So many stray shoes had washed up that someone wove them into a sort of sculpture along the seawall.
I couldn't help but think some little kid shed tears over the loss of this cute toy.
In fact, there were a lot of toys on the shore -- mostly balls. Soccer balls, basketballs and volleyballs were all represented. There are at least six in the photo above; I counted a dozen altogether. And that doesn't include the tennis balls and ping-pong balls.
Most of the debris was wood and plastic -- bottles, foam, packaging and other trash. I shudder to think how much plastic is in the Thames, and how much of it gets all the way to the sea.
There's something both fascinating and repellent about it all --
ReplyDeleteI think the shoe sculpture is good--shows some creativity as well as making the point about lost things. As for the rest, it just shows that people are careless because that area could be beautiful if anyone cared.
ReplyDeleteYou make everything look interesting, if perhaps not beautiful, in your pictures. Wow.
ReplyDeleteriparian detritus would be a great band name!
Love the shoe sculpture - but, yes, it's very disturbing. We're such trashy people :)
ReplyDeleteI would have to rescue the sad little toy monsterish thing...Astonishing what drifts out and back- in the late 70's I spent some time in Morocco before plastics were such an obvious hazard- the amount of garish brightly coloured plastic shite that found it's way to the Moroccan shore was horrific- can't imagine what it is like now!
ReplyDeleteLoved your shots anyway! even though it is trash...
Linda Sue, it's funny you say that -- I wanted to rescue the toy. But it was just too rotten. I think it had been in the water for a while!
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