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This morning we took a drive out to Lepe, during a brief window of sunshine in a gradually gloomier day.
Jackie dropped me off at the Watch House, from which I walked to the car park, alongside which, in the café, she was enjoying a coffee.
Perched on a rocky spit, the occupants of this house, reflected in the water, must have enjoyed an excellent view when on the lookout for smugglers.
A set of steep stone steps leads down from the road
alongside the seafront,
on the other side of which stand the coastguard cottages, still undergoing refurbishment.
A number of pairs walked along the sea wall.
The Dark Water stream flows under the road.
Gulls perched on the wooden breakwaters.
The sea has sculpted some of the piles into abstract forms.
Various vessels sped past the Isle of Wight.
Providing a backcloth to a dog straining to reach a gull, one yacht sailed into the harbour,
and back out to sea.
Turnstones tried their luck on the shingle,
where a spritely little dog dashed about in vain attempts to catch gulls.
The only bird, another turnstone, that it could have caught hopped around at a safe distance in the car park, on one foot. It clearly found enough food.
Alongside the car park,
in the cab of a heavy vehicle, sat a worker wielding a pen. Was he, like Jackie, working his way through a puzzle book?
From Lepe, Jackie drove us to Molly’s Den in New Milton where we bought a birthday present and my debit card was blocked. Fortunately I had enough cash to pay for the item. When we got home a phone call to the bank sorted out the problem. I really can’t be bothered to go into what they had done and the hoops I had to go through to put it right.
Elizabeth, Danni and Andy joined us this evening and we all drove to Lal Quilla in Lymington for the usual excellent meal with really friendly service. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and Andy drank diet Coke. The rest of us shared two bottles of the house merlot. After that, if you expect me to detail the meals other than my own king prawn Ceylon and mushroom rice you will be disappointed.