29th October from the West Cliff Green, Bournemouth
A grey, drizzly morning but still summer warm. Flurries of pigeons take off, fly around and settle again. The sea chatters as if annoyed with the sand. Long ribbons of brown weed mark the tide’s edge. Signs of autumn are all around. A bright red creeper clambers through the brown of the clifftop. And in the hedge glowing pink on a grey day and nodding in the breeze - the last rose of summer.
From 29th October 2011
A sharp breeze snaps at my face on the clifftop. The world is beginning to emerge from the darkness. I can see pinpricks of light from fishing boats putting out from Swanage and the red blink of the Needles ighthouse. On the Island I can see the headlights from a car making its way on the cliffs behind the Needles and the distant red fairy lights of the Chillerton Down and Rowridge transmitters. Everything has that soft brown aspect that you see as the dawn breaks on a cloudy day. Now I can see little rowing boats dotting Poole bay and the fishermen standing still catching the morning tide. But before I have reached home again it is bright day and the strangeness has all gone.
