The Seagull

Gliding high on the thermals a lone gull wheels above the fishing port of La Cotinère on the île d’Oléron. The silvery waters are tinted rose in the late afternoon as the clouds roll in from the west obscuring the china blue sky of the afternoon.

The former lifeboat shelter and ice house, stands abandoned on the quayside, it’s shabby walls portraying the ravages of the sea air, its paint peeling and the reminder of its important role in the past is echoed in the huge fading blue letters on its façade. Its future is uncertain, its past contribution inconsequential in these modern times. And like the cries of the gull above it, its cries to be saved are silenced and taken far from the shore, on the wings of the sea breeze.