Monday 3rd October 2011

Phew, what a scorcher.

Phew, what a scorcher. Again.

Phew, what a scorcher. Repeat until autumn arrives.

Which could be on Tuesday or Wednesday. Apparently. Although, I am having serious doubts about the weather service; I mean this is friggin October, and we have the hottest night of the year. How does that work? It was four balls hot last night. By that I mean when we went to bed four balls of our Galileo thermometer had sunk, and that is darn hot. Too hot for cats, most cats anyway, to spend the night in when they could be out terrorising the local mice population. Although, we have had no gifts for a few days, well inside the house, although there was a small rat under the car on Saturday. My little thought through plan to throw dead rat in the hedge was shown to be a poor one as it began to hum as we had our bbq on Sunday night.



But before then we had to live through what turned out to be the hottest ever October day. We got up at half five, had a coffee and then headed out to the cliffs, as we wanted to watch the sunrise. One of the many bonuses of living so near Dover and the White Cliffs is that on occasion we can see France across the Channel; and most mornings, the sun rises over France. So, off in the car and park up beside Bluebirds Café, and walk to the cliff edge and wait.



From our vantage point, we could see all the way looking over east Kent to Ramsgate on our left, and then over the expanse of the Channel and round to South Foreland and the ferries coming and going from Dover Harbour. The air was still and the sky was all sorts of colours, oranges, reds and as you looked further up fading to dark blue and black. Contrails littered to sky towards where the sun would rise. I snapped away, at the scene, the passing boats and seagulls. It was magical.
And just before seven the sun began to rise above the horizon; I took a whole series of shots, ending when the disc became too bright to look at. In all we had been there for about 40 minutes, and we had had the place pretty much to ourselves, the world slept on through the wonder of the dawn of a new day.

We drove along the coast to Dover Coastguard station so I could take a shot of Dover Castle in the warm morning light. We found a place to park beside Upper Road, and I got my shots. The trees still have not changed colour, so the scene was still mostly green, but hopefully the change in foliage colour will come in time.



After breakfast I headed out to the butchers for some meat-based supplies, and being still so early I had to roads pretty much to myself. The light was sensational, and you have to keep reminding yourself that it is October not July.

It was already very hot, and our planned walk on Sheppy was cancelled, and instead I sat down at the computer to process the shots from the sunrise and listen to the radio. After lunch it was the Merseyside Derby, and so I sat on the sofa and watched millionaires running around in the hot sunshine. A beer was tempting, but I resisted. And then at three all the other games kicked off, and Norwich’s game at Old Trafford was the commentary on Radio 5. City held out until well into the second half before conceding twice. We also missed a couple of chances, but once again were not embarrassed, which is always a worry when playing a ‘top team.’

That night we watched the final part of Smiley’s People, it was very good I have to say, but maybe like TTSS it needs an updating.

Sunday morning we did head out to Sheppy for our walk. We left home at eight, and drove along to Chatham and then over the bridge to Sheppy. The drive from the main road to Leysdown over the marshes to Harty is a lumpy, bumpy one, and for the most part is single track. The road is subsiding badly in places, and is pot-holed by frost damage.



We parked up at Harty Church, and walked along the track to the water’s edge and then along on the earthen barrier which keeps the fresh and salt water apart. And man, was it hot? By now it was past ten, and the heat of the day was really climbing. At one point there is a large hedge which is good for spotting butterflies and dragonflies. And I did get some fine shots of a few dragonflies; it required me to stand still for a while, and watch the dragonflies to see if one would settle and then sneak over to get as close as possible to get my shots.



Back to the car, and back of the island as it was not yet opening time. My plan was to head to Goodnestone to take shots of the inside of the church, as last time I was there it was being renovated. And beside the church is a very fine looking pub, and if we timed it right, it would be just about opening time after I had snapped the church.
As it turned out it took longer to get to Goodnestone than planned; the M2 was chocker with cars as people from North Kent and London headed for the coast. We just managed to avoid a shunt in a queue of traffic.

The church was open, and inside was magnificent. The stonework looks pristine again, and all the work looks to have been well worth the effort and cost. Back outside, it was gone twelve, but the pub was closed for refurbishment, and so we had to adopt plan B. Find another pub. After doging more traffic in the naroow lanes, we ended up at Eythorne and got a table outside The Crown, had cold, sweet beers and beef ploughmans. That was good. And the day was now at its hottest, and there was little to do that slump on the sofa and try to stay awake through ‘Super Sunday’.

I did try to watch the NFL afterwards, but I am finding it hard to get excited about it. I tried to watch the Lions/Cowboys game; it was a great game, but my concentration faded and I ended up switching it off before the 4th quarter began.

And like that the weekend had passed.