Another gloomy morning with a cool breeze under dark clouds. But a glimmer of sunlight appears through the emergent Black Pines, to alight the chalk cliffs of Tennyson Down on the horizon.
The woodland walk offers a little respite from the wind. Numerous pink flowers beyond the walls lining the coastal path; Hemp Agrimony and Willowherb towering above daintier pink Herb Robert. The sweet-scented Honeysuckle trumpets and their vines twist and turn, to ascend the flowering Bramble, and magenta-pink Fuchsia ballerinas.
Meadow Grass fills the cut open glades whilst Bittersweet, Enchanters Nightshade, and countless Ash saplings compete for sunlight in the borders. Creeping Buttercup intertwines, though the flowers have now gone to seed. A buzzing Common Carder Bee passes by, though favours the Hedge Woundwort flowering nearby.
Heady pollen scent fills the air below Solent road where the understorey of Privet has flowered. Here the sound of calling birds also builds under the canopy of the larger trees: Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Wren and the distant cawing of Herring Gulls.
Durlston Bay is calm and sheltered from the Westerly winds with a lone kayaker leaving the only ripples in its wake. The calming sound of the water ebbing and flowing upon the rocky shore carries up to my ears.
The Rhododendron has now gone over at Sunnydale, yet there’s still some really beautiful blooms to see – St John’s Wort Hypericum ‘Hidcote’, Mock Orange, and Hydrangea; both white and pink.
I really love the colours of the Plane Tree bark when damp – mottled patches of yellow, lime green, and brown. Explored of course by Yellow and Brown-lipped Snails.