22nd March fromthe West Cliff Green, Bournemouth
Gulls cross high against the hazy sun. There is a chilly breeze and a mist out on the bay. It’s the equinoctial high spring tide and the angry sea is racing into the shore and frothing the white waves into a frenzy. The sound of the waves is loud and joins the wind in the tree tops to make a mighty sibilant hiss like a great boiler venting it’s power. The wind rakes the new green grass into order and drives the dry leaves of the holm oaks skittering about the path. It feels remarkably like autumn but where the goats have been working hard to cut back the taller growth on the cliffs, the spring greenery is showing through in the new found light.
From 22nd March 2022
The sun is bright. the shadows between the trees are dark. The breeze is crisp and sweet. The little waves march in upon the beach in an orderly fashion. A blue haze softens the outline of the Purbeck Hills and the Isle of Wight. The green foliage of spring and summer plants is pushing through the long grass. Clumps of mallow, wild carrot, tall nettles, acanthus. The robins are singing a shorter song than their winter attempts to keep our sprits up. But it is a more musical and complex effort. Childrens voices echo up from the Chine. Pigeons coo. #bournemouth #westcliffgreen #spring #March
From 22nd March 2021
The air is still cold with the sun only occasionally peeping one eye out from beneath his quilt of grey clouds and beaming down a brassy puddle on the still waters. The bay is alive with activity. Apart from our cruise liners and fishing and work boats, there is the Cotentin setting off for France and the Willem van Oranje heading off for the North Sea having unloaded its sand on the shore. Bulldozers and excavators scurry about distributing the piles of new sand before the workers climb down and head off for their breakfasts. The bushes are mad with small birds: dunnocks, warblers, green finches, robins. Each vying for best song perch at the top of a gorse bush or on an old, bare branch. As I turn to head back, a warm moment of sunshine casts a long shadow behind me.
