13th February from the West Cliff Green, Bournemouth
Still cold beneath a lumpy grey sky. The sun occasionally making a dart of light onto the ruffled sea. Some lads, tired of the winter have decided to come out and play frisbee. A walker saunters past talking loudly and gesticulating. And further along another and another. Once we would have taken this as disturbed and disturbing activity, nowadays we take it for granted that they’d rather converse with their Blue Tooth than engage with the world they’re actually in. Once or twice the sun manages to struggle out and there is blue sky over the town but a fine mist drifts in from the bay and the warmth is fleeting. Gulls circle overhead silently.
From 13th February 2022
The wind roars down the road, tumbles through the tree-tops and whips the waves into mass of white foam for two hundred metres off shore; it sings in the street lamps and howls in the aerials on the high points of the flats. The rain is hard and hurtful and the dark puddles wash across the path but the tarmac itself is as slick and shiny as polished pewter. A party of pigeons peck gamely at the grass. A crow, sat on the cliff top rail stares at me as I pass trying to fathom what I'm thinking. As I draw level and stop for a moment it comes to the conclusion that I am of no interest and allows the wind to carry him off into he blast. #Bournemouth #westcliffgreen #springisonitsway #February
From 13th February 2017
The heart shaped ilex tree is being shaken by the gale hammering in from the bay. The wind is crying in the crevices and the rain sheeting across the waves is running like tears down my window. There's a Valentine's message in here somewhere but I can't quite get it.
