Thursday 21st December 2017

I am on my holibobs, but Jools has to work four mor whole hours. Seems mad to me if there is no work to do, but there is always filing I am told.

Jools gets up first, and is busy downstairs, I lay in bed thinking about whether to lay here all day, or get up. I had said I would get Jools to drop me off near the National Trust place and walk back home along the cliffs, but I feel more inclined to stay in the warm of the house and waste the day.

Jools asks if she is dropping me off, and I say no. Not looking too bad out there, stopped raining. When you leaving for work? Quarter past seven she says. So I say, OK, you can drop me of. She makes me a coffee and I check cameras ready to leave.

It really is still dark just after seven as she takes me along Reach Road, past the coastguard station, then down to the entrance to the National Trust site. She stops and I get out. No getting out of it now.

She drives off, I take a shot as she leaves, trailing a cloud of exhaust smoke. And all is quiet. I go to the top of the steps down to East Cliffe and take a shot with the town and bay laid out below. I think it came out OK.

I need to get down to the path some twenty feet lower down the cliff, not going to be easy in the near dark, but I follow a path, go down some steps, a ruin of a wartime building, down some more steps, and I reach the path, right on the edge of the cliff with head spinning views down to the busy port below. I could hear Tony's voice in my head warning me not to get too close.

Down below there are six lanes of cars waiting to get through immigration checks, but beyond that there is little traffic in the port. I take shots, and the lights of the port and the camera means I am confident that the shots will come out.

There is a slight mist in the air, meaning the pinpricks of light from the floodlights show well.

Far below a ferry is emptying, and the one next to it being loaded, all busy for seven in the morning. Trucks and buses race round the elevated roadway, wanting to get out of the port as quick as possible. I walk on.

In a few minutes it is all quiet down below, as the loaded ferry casts off and glides out of its berth, but there are no more traffic leaving, the roads are quiet once again.

I take the narrow path down to the Cliff Road, climbing gently upwards until it turns inland to wind its way round Langdon Bay. I decide to take that way rather than the footpath, that will be slippery and dangerous, so walk up leaving behind the sounds of the port, and there is silence all about me. In fact I see no other walkers the whole time along the cliffs, just a couple of ferries coming and going.

I reach the top of the Cliff Road, and I notice how much lighter it is, but there is nothing but clouds above. The path along the cliffs is very muddy, the topsoil when mixed with chalk creates a very sticky mud, much which as I walk along the top of Fan Bay clings to my boots, making each weigh ten pound, and filling up the treads meaning I slip and slide as I walk along. I don't really want to walk off the path, meaning more grass gets worn down, but it is the only safe way and best to get rid of the mud.

I have reached South Foreland and the lighthouse. From there the path goes inland, and I take the path to Lighthouse Road, deciding against walking over the fields as I know how muddy it will be. As I walk down the road where the houses start, I hear much singing of birds in the trees above me. I look up and see a tiny bird with a yellow flash, they are Goldcrests, and the first time I have seen them. I stand and watch them for ten minutes, try to get a shot, but only get black blobs with the compact. But I have identified the little things.

From there it is simple to walk to the main road, over to the doctor's surgery and along the back lane to to the Red Lion and finally down Station Road and home. Along the path past the school, I see a few flowers still in bloom, even on this, the shortest day of the year. I see my first Winter Heliotrope, something I have only seen photos of. I am pleased, not as pleased of happy I was in seeing the Goldcrests.

Back home I make a coffee, have some fruit and butter a couple of rolls, smothering them in Christingle marmalade, which has been one of my better purchases.

I put the radio on and review the photos I had taken that morning. I am more than happy to have got good shots, and something other than something taken from the back door for the shot of the day. Such as things are when you walk from home at this time of the year.

The morning turns into the afternoon, and soon after 1, Jools returns home laden with cider, as she had called in at Sainsbury's on the way home, and in her words, it was "manic". But for her too the working year was over. So we have something to eat while we listen to the radio. More time passes.

Outside darkness falls, the shortest day had come to an end.

That evening, we watch the first episode of Wolf Hall; it was good, but not sure if we will continue with it to be honest. It might be drama, but it is historical too. Anyway, the day is getting away from us, and nearly time for bed. I edit more shots, listen to some radio, and that is it. Tomorrow we both have the whole day off, and there will be trains. Oh yes, there will be trains.