These pilings are well weathered though I don’t know their age. They are the remnants of a wharf long abandoned to the sea. This old wharf is one of the reasons my husband and I love St. Peter’s Harbour.
From a distance, the pilings don’t look like much.
However, up close, the weathering of the posts make them unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
These look nothing like firewood or trees rotting in the forest. The sea makes a huge difference to this wood.
Individual pilings remain solid in the sand.
The bleached wood shows the remnants of the limbs which once spread out from the trunk, holding leaves which kept the tree alive. Now the trunk is like a sculpture in the sand.
These are not nails from recent history. They go back decades. The salt clinging to the rusty metal indicates the sea spray or water which has covered this nail, though not today at low tide.
The wood which is high and dry today is covered in salt as well.
The texture of the wood is visible and the knots break up the linear nature of the piece. The light gray and rusty brown colouration are curious too.
Even at low tide, the sea is relentless in its crafting of the pilings.
One can imagine what it’s like on a stormy day at high tide or when the ice has settled in for the coldest months of the year, encasing the wood in its cold blanket. The fact this wharf has lasted so long is a wonder of nature.
