About Me

Sunday 17 February 2008

A walk along the estuary

Friday, the sun was shining once again and, as I wasn't working, I caught the train to Lytham and walked from there to St-Anne's-on-the-Sea along the estuary.

It's not the most beautiful spot on the English coast or the most magnificent but it's the nearest stretch of coast to where I live and it has its own special charm. It has become one of my favourite places for walking: wide open space, sky, scrubby grass, mudflats and birds. The Ribble Estuary, managed by English Nature and supported by the RSPB, is one of the most significant places in the county for sea birds. Here you can find knots, plovers, redshanks, curlews, dulins, sanderlings, black and bar tailed godwits, not always easy to distinguish when in large groups, as well as merlins (yet to be spotted) and flocks of wintering finches including linnets with their warm pink breasts. You can also see meadow pippets, skylarks and whinchats over the year.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Lent


Lent, the season of preparation for loss, death and rebirth.

Time to contemplate the silence, the quietness. Time to be free from mental din and work-a-day pressure for just a few minutes before I get out of bed in the morning and, in the quiet, hear only the sound of my breath and the birds singing.