Among Drifts of Sea Thrift

 

 Back rested and revived from my few days away on the Isle of Portland. On arrival at Weymouth, the beach was packed with families enjoying the sun ( and a traditional  Punch and Judy show) - very different from when we visited in March! The first thing I did after I'd dropped my bags off  at the hotel was head out to the  Chesil Beach visitor centre. This was also busy with  visitors - you could hear the determined crunch of feet  heading up the slope from quite a way off. But only a few metres away it was much  more peaceful. The expanse of pink and yellow flowers was glorious and I found a sheltered spot to sketch crouched down among drifts of sea thrift, listening to the sky larks. 

Refreshed after a good night's sleep, I  walked directly from the hotel on one of the 'Legacy  Trails' of the old quarries including DWT King Barrow Quarries nature reserve.  More pinks and yellows including some of my old  favourites from my chalk grassland survey days:



 Polygala vulgaris ( milkwort)

 Hieraceum pilosella ( mouse-ear hawkweed)

 Lots of Common Blue butterflies

 Sculpture both natural wind blown trees and hewn from  stone  like 'Still Falling' by Antony  Gormley ( below) in Tout Quarry

Then a  walk down hill  to lunch at   Jacksons' Gallery with views out to sea and excellent soup, coffee and Florentines .

 

 Inspired  by  the current exhibition by Roy Winstanley , I walked down to Chiswell  and onto the beach for some sketching  and taking lots of photos of weathered surfaces and beach detritus.  

 

  With good timing, I was  in the area during the  ArtWey open studios fortnight so with the weather the following day being rather wet and windy , I headed inland  by bus to Upwey. Bit of a trek from the bus stop   but I was made very welcome at the Gallery on the Wey  ( particularly liked the etchings of Wendy Batt) .

I had a lovely lunch at the Wishing Well Café  after some purchases from Upwey Potters:

                                           Raku 'axe head'  by Bill Crumbleholme

   Dish by Laurence Eastwood

 

 

The Heights hotel where I stayed was a very different experience from our usual 'home-from home' of Ferrybridge Cottages  but perfect for a  brief breathing space . My room was comfortable  and the staff  so helpful and I spent hours looking out at this view  of Chesil from the bistro -  both at breakfast and evening meals I had a window seat. Spectacular. 

 

Just Being

After a frantic few days finishing things up at work (ordering chemicals before we transfer to a new finance system, joint union meeting, setting up new experiments) we're down in Weymouth again for a well-timed weeks break. We travelled down on Saturday with the football crowd, yesterday (Sunday) was our first full day and we soon got into the swing of doing not a lot. After the best Sunday lunch we've had in a long time ( apart from our own!) at the New Inn, Portland we had an afternoon siesta( got a lot of catching up on sleep to do this holiday) and then walked  a short distance from our cottage in Ferrybridge to the 'Painting Promentary'  near Smallmouth Bay at the end of the Rodwell Trail.  I've got painting materials with me with the intention of doing some mono-printing towards a little book and scraps of fabrics for composing some journal quilts. Meanwhile we were very content to send an hour sitting on a bench watching the changing light over Portland , hearing a lolloping labrador continually chasing after stones in the waves, just being.

Big Skies, High Winds, High Seas, Low Tides

 An exhilarating weekend in Weymouth for Ian's birthday,  with strolls on Portland between meals experiencing the varied weather and its effects, and a bit of sketching from and on tablets while it was still fresh in our minds.   
First thing on Saturday the combination of high tides and high winds meant you could see the waves crashing against Portland from our cottage in Ferrybridge ( about a mile away!)  It was a bit calmer ( still 30mph+ winds) and heading towards low tide when we went by bus to Jackson Gallery and Café for lunch - delicious mini pizzas and Florentines and views out over the sea

 We headed down the hill to the Cove House Inn for  a pint, very blustery and difficult to keep the camera still. You can see the high water mark right at the top of Chesil Beach ( going over the top in places) with sea spray like smoke.

 After a lovely dinner at Floods on Saturday( red mullet baked with fennel -yum) , Sunday was a little  calmer although still windy  with incredible skies and cloud formations as the sun rose.

 After a leisurely lunch at Blue Fish Café  we walked back over the causeway, stopping off at the Chesil Beach visitor centre to admire the mudflats in the waning light  and then headed to the oyster beds at Ferrybridge - I took so many photos!!!

Finally at the end of the Rodwell trail, the sea was so far out that you could see the remnants of the pier associated with the  old Whitehead Torpedo  factory  and there were hundreds of seabirds where land met sea.  There was a very high tide again as we left on Monday but nothing  as  bad as in January.
Update 5th Feb - video of waves crashing over Chesil  earlier today.