Surprises all the way

I’m just back from a trip on the Mean Machine, my mobility scooter, down to the fish shop. It’s smoked haddock for dinner today. We’re trying gnocchi, for the first time, I think.

As usual I went along the promenade. I go this way, partially on practical grounds as it means there’s no roads to cross, so there’s no drop kerbs to seek, but also on aesthetic grounds, in that I always love the view across the bay on one side, or up the cliffs on the other.

Where I first get onto the prom, the water was as still as a mill pond, grey & cold but very peaceful. Across the Bay, the land rose bluey grey, to disappear in a bank of cloud.

As I went along, I passed another bay from the main Morecambe Bay. Here the water came in in definite waves, all capped with white foam. You could hear them coming in, crashing down. Across the Bay the Lakeland fells have also changed. Now I could see some much craggier & higher fells, their contours emphasised by their coating of snow. The sun was highlighting them, making the whiteness glow.

On I go, a third bay. Now the water is gently lapping the beach, a comforting sound. A young child is paying with a ball, supervised closely by his parents. Across the Bay the lower half of the Lakeland fells are shrouded in mist. Above, though, you see the snow-laden caps – like some Chinese painting.

Each bay seemed to have had its own character, its own mood.

Returning home, I couldn’t help noticing the tide was changing. Now it was on its way out. Between the bays there are great limestone boulders deliberately placed there to break the force of the sea, to make flooding less likely. Now the boulders are covered with a black piping blanket. The oystercatchers have arrived in anticipation of plenty of food to be found in the freshly uncovered sands.

 

It was worth coming home with frozen hands to have seen all this beauty. It was also great to step inside to the warmth once more when home. Even then my surprises were not over.

In the garden, a few days ago I spotted some new avian visitors. One was back, sat on the trellis with his back to me. I can’t decide what he is. His back & wings are a definite brown, like a robin or a sparrow. His body is olive green. Just above his eye he has an olive stripe. When he flies off, yellow bars appear across his wings. He’s too small to be a greenfinch, being nearer the size of a chaffinch. I’ll have to do some more looking.