Wish you were here?

It was such a beautiful morning, warm and sunny with blue skies and only the prettiest little white clouds, and I realised how fortunate I am to live by the sea. Before I'd ever actually been to the Midlands, I used to think of it as a sort of heart of darkness, close and airless; not because of the industry or the architecture, but just because it's so far from the edge. Now of course I know it's not really like that (well, Nottingham was, last July) and nowhere in skinny little England is that far from the sea, but I still thought I should make the most of what I've got on my doorstep.

So pausing only to grab my trusty little camera, I set off for the beach. I left around lunchtime, and by the time I'd got half way, come back for new batteries for the camera, had a cup of tea and set off again, the weather was starting to change. It wasn't really cold, but it got cloudier and more windy. I walked down the West Quay, where the fishing boats are based, and which wasn't built on at all when I first came here, but now has housing nearly all the way along (complete with predictable 'waterside living' sales pitches), down along the harbour (photo above) past the Fort, and round to the West Beach. This is one of the very few sandy beaches on the south coast, but is privately owned and, since a piece of concrete fell out of the sea wall onto the beach last year, has been out of bounds to the public. Then I went past the old harbour arm - again, you used to be able to walk right along this to the end, which was great with the spray flying over the wall, but that's too dangerous now too apparently - to the pebble beach, where a couple of hardy families were ... well, I don't know what they were doing, but they were there.

I only planned to take a few pictures to use on the blog, but I was quite pleased with them, so I've uploaded the photos here, so you can take a virtual walk along the West Quay and around the West Beach, as the weather changes.