Canine Encounters

I wasted two hours attempting to recover missing pictures to one of my Streets of London series of posts, then gave up and resorted to

which required the comparatively easy Convert to Blocks approach.

The Pharmacy at Milford on Sea shares the forecourt with our GP surgery and the Memorial Hospital. When we arrived there this morning the area was deserted, because neither of these other services is open on a Sunday and heavy overnight rain, according the the staff had kept people away on this first day of British Springtime clocks being put forward.

The consequent acoustics were such that, when I exchanged greetings with a woman emerging from the dispensary as I was approaching, our voices echoed.

From there Jackie drove me to the coast alongside Hurst Road,

where figures were silhouetted atop the shingle bank over which I crunched and listened, against the backdrop of the roar of waves and the mewing of the gulls, to the pebbles responding to my weight by hissing against each other as they repositioned their formation.

Norwegian Boulders form part of the defences against the

sparkling waves constantly

crashing along the rocks and the stepped seafront.

Dog walkers were out in force both there and

at Barton on Sea where a number of canines enjoyed close encounters.

Elizabeth visited this afternoon, bringing more clothes for Ellie donated by Ella and Jack, and staying for pleasant conversation, cups of tea, and a Tunnock’s tea cake..

Later, the rest of us dined on Red Chilli takeaway fare. Jackie’s main choice was Butter Chicken; Flo and Ellie’s, Chicken `Korma; Dillon’s, Chicken Dhansak; and mine, Naga Chilli Chicken. We shared Tikka Panir, Peshwari Naan, Pilau Rice, and Special Fried Rice. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Malbec.

75 comments

  1. I’m glad you had a drop of Malbec left.I shall enjoy a glass of mine very soon.

    I love the coastal images, I would have loved to have taken a walk on the sea front after lunch. I really must visit the coast this Easter.

      1. I so remember when we did that drive from San Francisco to Astoria with another Aussie couple. We’d see these signs saying we were leaving a tsunami area, and my companion kept saying “thank goodness I didn’t know I was in one!” Not what we came to experience at all.

        1. Supposedly we are going to have a “big one” earthquake off the coast at some point. I am glad you got through your trip. The signs do make one wonder about the odds of getting out.

          Next time you are out here, contact me. Would love to meet you!

          1. Wouldn’t that be divine! I’m so glad we made the trip when we did, as since then, the other couple have faced up to health problems which mean their travelling days are over.

          2. I am looking ahead myself, and realizing the road ahead is shorter than what is behind me.

            I have having WP troubles at the moment and can’t “Like” posts or comments from within the Reader feed. Consider yourself “liked” though! 🙂

        1. Mother Nature can send warning shots from time to time. We are about 2 hrs from the coast. There are two mountain ranges that run north-south through Oregon. The Coast Range, over by the Pacific, and the Cascade Range to the east, flanking the valley between. We are in the Cascade foothills at about 800 feet elevation. Interstate 5 runs up the valley as does the Willamette River. I’ve read when the Big One hits, everything west of Interstate 5 is in huge trouble.

          The Cascades are still volcanically active, and occasionally one of the Three Sisters, not far from here, makes a few veiled threats. Mount St. Helens of 1980 eruption fame is in the same range, but up in Washington. We weren’t living here at the time, but locals said ashfall from the Mount St. Helens blowout traveled as far down as an hour south of where we are now.
          https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP

          1. This description really puts your spot on the map. That is a lot of potentially active volcanoes

  2. My son, who lives in Norway, says they are very keen on road building there – generating plenty of rocks to shore up your seashore 🙂

    1. That is an interesting additional piece of information, Anne. Thank you very much

  3. Such beautiful images. I love the way the people and objects look against the grey sky.
    And you have me craving Indian food (and Malbec). My husband would be happy with any of your chicken choices.

  4. Between the photos and your commentary, I felt transported to the seaside. I don’t think I’ve ever seen described the sound of seaside pebbles repositioning themselves after someone walks on them.

  5. Love the seashore photos. You must be careful on the rocks. My experience on rocks by the sea, or anywhere they’re wet, is they tend to be slippery. Dogs on leashes, I trust. Have a wonderful week, Derrick.

  6. Sorry about the two hours “wasted.” Sometimes I chalk those up to exercise for the brain. I’m glad you got out and enjoyed the canines enjoying close encounters. Those are fun for us since Marley’s had training in manners.

  7. All beautiful photos! And your silhouettes are spectacular!
    Oh, you know I love the canine and their people photos! 🙂
    The sparkly silvery glittery waves are so stunning!
    (((HUGS))) ❤️

  8. Tunnock’s tea cake – that takes me back though I did prefer their caramel wafers. That is until recently when I ate one it was so sickly sweet. My tastes have clearly changed.

  9. Your seaside is so different from ours. The only rocks waves can crash against here are the granite block jetties built out into the water. Those rocks also are transported, although from where I can’t say. It’s always a pleasure to see your photos from the shore.

    1. Thank you so much, Jan. I see the three of us every day in that spot when I look at the cover of your book lying on top of my printer

      1. And I see you every day when I look at my beautiful photo of the birds flying into the sunset! Such sweet memories of our time together. Thank you so much!!

  10. Hi Derrick, your ocean pictures are lovely. Indian is my favourite take out but we have it rarely as my mom doesn’t eat it.

  11. Brings back memories of walks along the coasts of England.
    I never trust any site to maintain anything and not lose it. I use Lightroom to keep track of all my pictures. It is easy to search for things by file name or key words in the metadata. For WordPress I export and save the low-resolution images I post to a WordPress folder on my computer. Then I back them up locally and to the cloud. If I were a writer, I would do the same for the text.

  12. Did the boulders really come from Norway? It was interesting to read through the discussion of Oregon tsunamis. I always enjoy hearing my own area described by someone else. I like to hear how it is presented. I would concur with everything said. 🙂

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