Tag: walks
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08/04/23 – Dusk with the iron men
We walked through the dunes and saw them, all spread out, staring to sea. Antony Gormley’s Another Place, 100 iron men standing amongst the elements. The sun was setting, a band of pink below deep blue streaks of cloud on the horizon. The sand was dimpled and swirled, stuttered into bands by the tide, and…
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02/04/23 – Mermaid’s purses and egg sacs on the shore
Yesterday I went to the tide pool. It was windy and I wobbled as I walked out to the first ladder. Great swathes of seaweed had spread since I’d last been and they were spread-eagled beneath the surface, black through milky grey. I climbed down the ladder into chest clenching cold, swam across with the…
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18/03/23 – Seven Sisters
We took the path beside the low lazy river through the marshland. The tide was low and the banks, straight and ochre, stood a foot above the flat surface. A kayaker paddled seaward and we noticed that, at the very edges, we could see the sandy bottom. A cormorant took flight and we kept walking.…
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03/03/23 – Turkey tail mushrooms and budded daffodils
I went for a lunchtime walk by the river. At first I noticed only cyclists and joggers, bits of rubbish among the leaf litter. Then I watched a dog charge into the water. Chasing a gull, it launched itself, paws paddling furiously, a triangle of wake lanes rippling behind it. The bird planed low over…
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12/02/23 – Low tide at West Wittering
At the weekend I went to West Wittering for the first time and it was packed. I’d hoped a grey February Sunday wouldn’t be too busy, but there were huge groups of people all over the wide expanse of sand. I turned right, towards East Head, which I hoped would be quieter. The tide was…
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06/02/23 – Cleared undergrowth and snowdrops
Yesterday I found that the undergrowth in the wood has been cleared. The narrow path I usually squeeze down is wide now, the bracken and brambles gone, with only a few brown stalks left to show what was once there, what has been there for years. The trees still made a tunnel overhead, and I…
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21/01/23 – Frozen sunset in the woods
On the way to the woods I spotted the furry buds of a magnolia. The end of one branch had snapped, leaving a silky prong on the pavement. I picked it up and carried it with me. The birds were loud as I went through the gate and up the mulchy path. I don’t know…
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11/01/23 – A falling down fort and an early moon
Yesterday I went to the end of the road and down the back lane to where a small track runs off into the undergrowth. The path was sticky after so much rain, but solid still, bouncy underfoot. I walked along the back of the houses until I came to the woods, then turned down the…
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19/12/22 – Snow melt
Now the rain is melting the snow, but a few days ago everything was ice. The pavements were ridged with glass, the roads thick with compressed snow and criss-crossed with tyre marks. I went again and again to the woods, down through the tree tunnel, where the branches curve over the sky at every level…
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11/12/22 – Frozen birdbath bubbles
This morning I took a hammer to the bird bath. I started with a wooden spoon to break the ice and let a robin drink, but the ice wasn’t a crackable layer as it had been before; it was solid, bubbles suspended below the frozen surface. I used a hammer to break up the ice…
Bonnie Radcliffe 