Wednesday 9th Feb - Ribbons and Skylarks

 On Monday we went for a walk - Out! Away! Open Spaces! Sun!

You wouldn't know it from this photograph, but we went down to the south coast and walked a little way along the seafront at a place called Goring Gap;

It is one of the few places along the coast between Worthing and Brighton and Hove where the fields come sweeping down from the top of the South Downs to the sea.

I suppose the distance wasn't much more than one-and-a-half miles, but by the end of it my legs were as weary as that time we walked from Leeds to the Bingley 5-Rise locks along the Leeds to Liverpool Canal one night. (Why did we do that?)

You may notice that the line marking our path doesn't complete the circle - I came to a stop at this point, and BB had an opportunity to stretch his legs after walking at a snail's pace as he went to fetch the car!

The sea front was bright and cold, with a bracing breeze blowing in our faces, groups of people walking their dogs along beach at the edge of the water. The tide was well out, so there was a steep shingle bank to climb down, or up on the way back, so we stayed mostly on the rough path between the green grass and the pebbles.

The we turned inland, sheltered from the wind by the houses marking the boundary of Ferring, and walked through the fields along the the ditches bordering the fields. There were skylarks singing overhead - reminding me of the times my friend at boarding school used to skive Sunday Church by gong to the top of the downs - still the South Downs but further West - and lie on the warm turf in the sun listening to the larks, keeping an anxious eye out for any teachers, and also making sure we would get back to school in time for lunch.

There was a bare tree, decorated with ribbons halfway through the trees;

one ribbon had 'Happy Birthday' printed along it. Could this be a clue? Another, rather up-market gros-grain ribbon had 'Dior' on it, and must have come from a gift box.  

I have an urge to choose a tree somewhere near us and tie a ribbon to it, and see if more ribbons appear over time...