The Stone Face

CLICK ON SMALLER, CLUSTERED, IMAGES TO ACCESS LARGER GALLERIES.

This afternoon Jackie drove me to Hengistbury Head, where she drank coffee and I explored the scene.

Hengistbury Head

En route to the beach, I passed the top of the hill, where walkers could be seen, to my left,

and observed silhouetted figures against the sea and skyline.

Isle of Wight and The Needles

There was a new angle on the Isle of Wight and The Needles.

Hengistbury Head and beach

Walkers accompanied their dogs along the beach,

Group on beach

where a group did their best to dodge the advancing tide.

A gentleman contemplated the scene, and walked down the shingle to join them.

Eventually I did the same, and watched the sea slap the flanks of the rocks,

receding, sliding, slipping over the glistening, tinkling, shingle, and sucking at the seeping sand.

Waves

Soon the rolling waves came roaring in

Stone face

and I walked back up to the footpath, passing a stone face, mouth open, ready to drink from the spume that would hopefully reach it.

Walkers on Hengistbury Head

I watched walkers ascending the hill which had once been home to Stone Age people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hengistbury_Head)

beach scene

Below, others were returning along the beach where

Hengistbury Head beach

a pair of swans I had seen earlier still floated on the water.

Boscombe Pier

We continued on to Boscombe where the pier was set against the sunbeams lighting the sea,

before returning home to a meal of fish cakes in lemon and parsley sauce, with boiled potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli, followed by bread and butter pudding. We finished the sauvignon blanc.

 

65 comments

  1. Thanks for this wonderful seaside tour, Derrick. I love all the images and could almost hear the waves slapping against the rock. I had fishcakes for dinner as well!

  2. Wonderful pictures, beautiful expertly crafted words and a flourish of a fish-cake to finish …. what more can I want as I settle for the evening 🙂

  3. Stunning photos, Derrick, and I enjoyed the wide range of photographic styles. The black and white group looks like they’re in some sort of stark, dystopian scene, while the photos of waves are glorious. The last shot is simply beautiful.
    I like your descriptions, too. 🙂

  4. I had to zoom in to check that those were not dinghies – they were very large swans! Thanks for the clear shot of the Isle of Wight. 🙂

  5. There you go again, waxing lyrical “receding, sliding, slipping over the glistening, tinkling, shingle, and sucking at the seeping sand.”

  6. Glad you didn’t get too close to that stone face with its huge mouth. After all, it might want more than a drink 😉

  7. That stone looks like a skull of some Jurassic creature. Great find. The swans in the sea look stunning. I have never seen anything like that.

  8. The last photograph must be mentioned first, straightaway a fantastic one!
    Your words tell volumes while your photos send my mind sharing and then, quieter, deeper into thoughts.

Leave a Reply