After a Saturday night out in Bridport which had delivered wine, beer and Hendricks Mojitos at the Venner Bar, the last thing I expected was an early morning. I am notoriously NOT a morning person
But at 7am on this December Sunday we threw on some layers, grabbed our cameras and headed off to soak up the atmosphere at West Bay
The Station Kitchen Restaurant would have been a lovely stop – if only it had been open
We walked by the harbour, where few brave boats headed out and quickly vanished. After taking a lie in, the sun stretched out, pushing the fog along the cliffs to Bradstock
Leaving only stillness and calm in West Bay
So: would you have gone out, or stayed in bed until the sun came up?
A weekend by the seaside is always a treat. We have just finished restoring the bedrooms at the West Bay flat and it looks amazing, so I treated myself to this painting by Avril Larsson of the Bridport Art Society. The colours and composition will work brilliantly against the white walls
‘Catch of the Day’Our bedroom, now restored and relaxing
West Bay enjoys East-West light, making the coastline (and our little flat) especially beautiful at sunrise and sunset. The beach is a mix of pebbles and sand, and the huge bright golden cliffs full of fossils and deep faults look as though they could have been designed by Gaudi. On Sunday morning we threw on some layers and headed East along the beach towards Bradstock before the sun was fully up. The fishing boats were just leaving the harbour, the tide was out and the low sun caught the textures beautifully. It evoked Paul Weller’s haunting lyric, ‘Like pebbles on a beach, kicked around, displaced by feet…’
Stone stacks and ‘found art’ often appearEast Cliff – Gaudi-esque in the October sun
Baz spotted a Peregrine Falcon from the beach. We saw it land on a high outcrop and we climbed the steep mud path up East Cliff to get a better view. We found a spot to watch him for a while before he started to take the air through his wings and he took off towards West Bay, probably unseen by families and dog walkers on the beach
Peregrine falcon perched on East CliffThe view from the top
There is no season when I don’t love to be beside the seaside, but the soft autumn sun is a reminder to us all to make the most of every possible day outside and lodge the colours in our minds to carry us through to spring, like an animal feasting before a winter sleep