Barton on Sea

Jackie having completed packing away the Christmas decorations yesterday, I transferred  them to the garage this morning.  Anyone who has seen the Christmas posts will realise that this involved quite a lot of boxes.

This afternoon Jackie drove me to Barton on Sea and parked near the cliff top cafe.  She had a coffee in the cafe and waited in the car whilst I took a bracing walk along the cliff top.  I had seen photographs of a cliff fall here in the St Barbe Museum.  Now I saw the reality for myself.  All along the top there were signs warning people not to come too near the edge.  It was a bit scary.

I thudded along the turf path for about twenty minutes hoping to find a path down to the shore.  It didn’t look likely that one would be forthcoming, so I turned back and found Fisherman’s Walk alongside the cafe.  The slice of cliff face to my left as I walked down here demonstrated the crumbly nature of this part of the coast.  I understand Dorset has lost more in the recent flooding.

Down below, I crunched the pebbles and watched and listened to the waves pounding the granite rocks at the water’s edge.  A photographer and his model I had shot on the way down were pleased with the results.  Unfortunately the woman braced for the spray was not engaged in a swimsuit promotion.  It was unlikely to have fallen from a rag and bone cart, and I don’t think the discarded wellie was hers, so I didn’t run after them with it.

Before sunset I climbed back up to the car and Jackie drove us home in time to see glowing yellow-tinged clouds scudding above the bare trees of Castle Malwood Lodge.
This evening we dined on chicken Kiev, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and ratatouille, and Remy would have been proud of it.  My drink was Les Courlandes 2012 Chateauneuf du Pape.  Jackie’s was Hoegaarden.