Today's blog will be in two parts. And forever, my life will be measured Before St Paul's and After St Paul's. But more of that in the next post.
Due to the fact I had an appointment with a cathedral in the afternoon/evening, so I had booked the day off. When I requested it, I thought that I would not get it, but everyone seemed very keen that I take the day off and all was approved. And as I did not need to travel upto London until the afternoon, I had the morning to myself to do with whatever I wanted.
What I decided is that Jools could drop me off somewhere on the way to work, and I would walk back. I decided on Kingdown as the drop off point, mainly in order to check on the progress of the orchids there, and that a walk along the cliff tops is never time wasted.
As expected it was a grey and gloomy morning, with the sun looking like it had hardly risen, and yet the day being already over an hour old. Jools dropped me off at the crossroads, and from there is was a short walk to the seafront, walking over the stones that had been swept on it, to the railings to snap the glorious scene. Pastel shades and the Channel gently lapping at the beach was perfect.
From there I walked to the orchid site, many of the rosettes are still small and hard to find, but I did find one putting forth a tiny spike with a flower head already formed. With some warm weather, we might have a flowering orchid by the weekend. Or not.
From there it was a short walk to the base of the cliffs, passing by a dispiriting amount of trash just left where it was thoughtlessly dropped. Quite why people would come all this way to see a beautiful location, nature in its glory, and leave crisp packets, plastic bottles. Don't even mention the plastic bags of dog poo!
Up the steps cut in the cliffs, up to the leas on top of the cliffs, past the golf course and towards St Margaret's. Already the mist was burning off, and the sun was warm. It was great to be out, and in all my walk I past just one other person, a twitcher who had come down from Margate but seen nothing interesting. Such is life.
At the end of Kingsdown Leas, there have been several cliff falls, one of which has reduced the width of the leas to a few metres, and soon there will be no space left to the private land beyond the fence to the north. I walked on, all the time I felt my back getting stronger, which was great I have to say.
Finally through the gate, and just the climb to the Dover Patrol ahead, this I feel is the boundary between the two villages, so I felt I was at least on home ground now.
I picked up the pace, striding up the hill, looking back at the ever-changing coastline with its eroded cliffs. At the top of the rise, I changed my route, walking through the village instead of taking the usual route back down the fields and past the pig's copse. Sometimes we should encourage change.
The village was quiet, not many people about. Being the school holidays, there was no shouting from the playground, just the singing of the birds in the trees all about. JUst the walk past THe Rad Lion, down Station Road and up the other side to our street. And now for breakfast, a cuppa, and get ready.
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