Hurst shrine

It was looking like a lovely evening, so I decided on a coastal walk and chose Hurst Spit, a mile and a half walk along a pebble spit protruding into the Solent, not the easiest walking, but that's easily made up for my the views and the air. The spit curves gracefully round on itself, so that if you walk right to the furthest point, way past the castle, you look over sheltered salt marsh towards the route you'd taken out. It's a spot which depending on the weather can solicit an array of differing emotions, when stormy it's decidedly isolated and frightening, when misty it's weird and haunting, and when it's sunny or calm it's tranquil. The spit's ever changing, you can see that by the piers that are now inland or who's remnants lay inaccessible off shore. I was shocked to find the water lapping at the walls on the Solent facing side of Hurst's Victorian fortress, I'd not seen that before (that's not to say it doesn't happen, just it was new to me). Tucked away in one of the bricked up firing embrasures on the Solent side, a shrine of a type has developed. I don't think it's a shrine to anything or anyone in particular, as there's all sorts of themes, various dates, styles and purposes. I took a while to explore the deposits, and wondered how and why. Then turning the corner I wandered back under a peach/salmon pink coloured sky. Worth the pebbly walk, pebbles of course being just the worst.

Skin

Freed from winters constraints the sun shone brightly, warming the air and raising your spirits. The weather wizards predict that these clear skies will be short lived, with a grey blanket once again being drawn up over us by the weekend. Still, that's not today, and anyway, that's spring for you, April showers and all that. Today’s walking venue, Hurst Spit, a long curving shingle spit extending into the western mouth of the Solent, and crowned with a multi period fortress with its origins in Tudor fears.  The spit is high and although battered by the sea at times to the point of near breach, it affords protection to the salt marsh and tiny harbour at  Keyhaven beyond. We walked the length of the spit and round to its furthest point, way beyond the castle. The one thing a beach is always guaranteed to do is show you something new, it's their way. The worlds flotsam and jetsam is continuously on a grand tour, and nature is forever revealing her strangeness; I find no end of weird shit where the land meets the sea. Take these stones, shrink wrapped in sheer seaweed. I couldn't help wonder if somewhere in that there might not be a solution to part of our packaging problems. Groovy looking, whatever.

Bleak House

The winds whipped around Hurst Castle this afternoon, and above its battlements towering grey slabs of cloud sped east, whilst around its walls the Solent and the sea wrestled with the tide, the waters thrashed, the castle was completely surrounded, engulfed in the elements. I felt uneasy, aware of my remote location and its potential dangers, and this was a relatively gentle day, I imagined how the area would be transformed into a nightmarish environment by a fierce storm. I've always had a healthy respect for the sea, well, that's not strictly true, it's more a mix of a fear and respect.  I wondered what it must have been like to have lived here, in one of the early garrisons, when the site would have been even more exposed. In a storm it would have been a bleak house, no doubt. The walls of the original Henrician Castle are forbidding, matching their location, and they may sport thick walls with small windows and embrasures, but even so, being inside whilst nature threw her wildest at you for days must have been a grim duty. The isolation too. The spit is long, thin and exposed, trying to negotiate it during a storm would have been (and still would be) treacherous at the least. I imagine you'd have been cut off for days at a time sometimes. And the seas!  Man, the waters are always boiling menacingly here, where the forest rivers gather to meet the sea.  What I'm trying to say is, I wouldn't want to get caught out here in proper bad weather. Still, Hurst is a fascinating multi-period fortification in an beautiful location. I've painted it grimly as today dictated, although on a sunny day, with a warm breeze, blue skies and great panoramic views for miles, it's lovely. Honest.

Hurst spit

A view of Hurst Castle from out on the furthest most point of Hurst Spit at North Point.

Last light from the lighthouse

An impromptu walk found us taking in last light from the lighthouse out on Hurst Spit; a very mellow end to the day.