My husband had a meeting yesterday in Blackpool so I decided to go along for the ride, it being my birthday and no commitments in the diary.
He dropped me off in Cleveleys, just slightly north of Blackpool and I went for a walk by the sea with Dash. I'm not so accustomed to the beaches on the west side of England. They've a different character to those on the East coast which are so much more familiar to me. For a start, when the tide goes out the west coast beaches are very wide.
The beach at Cleveleys is beautiful but quite bleak, divided up every hundred yards or so by breakers running down into the sea. I had to clamber over these and the tide lapped in unevenly round the sandbanks which were soft and very silty in places. There are warnings about incoming tides catching visitors unawares, so being on my own and a bit cautious, I was slightly jumpy as I got used to my surroundings. Dash however was in his element, all he wanted was for me to sling his ball as far as possible.
I started collecting shells which caught my eye, thinking I'd take them home as mementos. But instead I decided to make a picture and leave the shells there where they belonged.
Tomorrow I'm going to London. I'll take poet Jean Sprackland's award-winning Strands to read on the train, deepen my acquaintance with this west coast that she loves.
Sounds a good way to spend a birthday. I sometimes find myself a little further up Morcambe Bay. on the Ulverston side. It's a beautiful piece of coast to walk along. The swimming looks scary, though.
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