Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Beach in Winter

It's cold here in England. Not Michigan cold, or even Northern Virginia cold. But still cold. No gardens are blooming. No warm hills or sunny meadows beckon me forth. The wind whips up from all sides of this island and leaves me with few choices. And since I had not ventured east yet, the decision was clear. It's time for the beach.
 
Oh, the desolate beauty of a beach in winter! The forlorn expanse and bitter cold are a far cry from her soft summer ensemble. But she's breathtaking in the dead of January, nonetheless.
 
I had hoped to see a lot of water fowl at this end of the estuary, but was captivated by the seashells instead. This is at Cudmore Grove Country Park in Essex, a strand looking out across the English Channel.
 

 
Others dug deeper for treasure, like this lone beach comber.


 He was happy to find this Egyptian coin washed ashore from who knows when.


There were ruins of bygone lookout points:

 
. . . and long soft sandy marshes giving way to tide pools.
 


Standing above the beach looking east . . . 



 . . . despite the wires and warning not to:


A little bit inland was the Colne Nature Reserve and this bird blind where I could get out of the bitter cold for a bit and watch the swans and coots.
 
 
 
Hiking further north led to the Copt Hall Marshes and the sparse beauty there as well.
 
 


Because of all the water fowl there (of which I got zero good pictures), it's a good place to train your hunting dog, like this guy is doing:



Or just enjoy that bracing wind.


 


2 comments:

  1. Beautiful pictures of a part of England that I don't know at all. It is lovely to see these places when there is nobody around. I hope you have a trip to North Cornwall coast planned. It looks like you are keen walkers so it doesn't take long to get away from the crowds along the coastline.

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    1. Thank you, Maggie. We had been to the north, south and west of the UK but until now had not headed east. It was so starkly beautiful there, I'm so glad we went. And funny you should mention Cornwall. We are planning a 4-day 50-mile hike from St. Ives around to Lands End then to Penzance in late March through a walking holiday tour company. We're very excited about that one too! Hope you and your loved ones are all doing well.

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