Lee on Solent 16 October 2011

What is going on!!!!Blackthorn flowering in mid-October??!


We also saw ripe sloes and red holly berries.Fantastic.


But what a fabulous day to go to the seaside. We treated ourselves to a lovely cooked breakfast at 'The Penguin' on Lee-on-Solent seafront, where the usual hardy types were drinking coffee and smoking outside, swaddled up against the cold. 

One of many groynes designed to prevent alongshore drift

After breakfast we went for a lovely walk along the promenade, shedding clothes as we went. Andrew is training for his walk from St Jean Piet-de-Port to (approx) Burgos in November, traversing the Pyrenees in the process. I am slightly alarmed about the possibilities of snow at that time of year, and rather wishing I hadn't been to see "The Way" recently at the Harbour Lights cinema in Southampton. (One of the 'peregrinos' dies of exposure in the mountains...)

Sailing boats viewed through beach houses at Hill Head

I am just trying to de-stress from work these days, with my husband's help.
Walking along the coast in the sunshine, looking at dogs, boats, people and pebbles, was just about perfect.

The sailing races started at about 1 p.m. when the wind finally came in

A row of birds - oystercatchers and a black-headed gull I think.