GREEN

The sun was shining so Mr. HCB and I decided to walk along the prom from Boscombe towards Southbourne - and how glad I was that we hadn't decided to walk along to Bournemouth. Fortunately, walking towards Southbourne, the wind was in our back so it was quite easy walking, although we got blown along a fair way - however, because of the noise the sea was making, it was quite hard to walk and talk.

There weren't many people about, but we met this young man, Rob, who was walking rather than riding the bicycle he had with him. We stopped to chat to him and he said that it was easier to walk rather than ride, which was so much more effort against the wind. He told us he was delivering the bike back to a friend in Bournemouth, so as he had a day off, he had decided that rather than put the bike in his car, he would ride from Ferndown and enjoy the view as he rode, but then he encountered the wind, so decided he would enjoy the view as he walked.

He was such a pleasant young man that I decided I would explain about blipping to him and ask if he would mind being my blip for the day - he was delighted and said "That's great, I'll be famous!" As one of the words in DDW's January Challenge is GREEN I told Rob that he fitted the bill perfectly with his lovely green jacket; I gave him my username so he could have a look and we went on our way.

We saw the Coastguard driving along the prom marking various things that had obviously been blown in from the sea and we guessed these would eventually be collected by the Council workmen. Mr. HCB was delighted that he saw a kestrel and stood watching it for sometime, but it wasn't long before it was dive-bombed by crows and we even had to jump out of the way once or twice when the waves came over the prom wall.

It was a very pleasant walk along to Fisherman's Walk, where we had a coffee and then started our walk back - we decided that it would be too windy to walk along the cliff path, so returned a different way (which reminded me of the Wise Men!) although it was still very windy.

On days like this, the Coastguards, the RNLI and the Council workmen do a fantastic job but it will take sometime before everything is back to normal.

"When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea,
and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds,
cleanses me with its noise,
and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me
that is bewildered and confused."
Rainer Maria Rilke

Have a look on Flickr if you want to see more photographs of our walk.