Winter beach

Considering the coast is at the end of the road, 10 minutes walk away, we don't walk there as much as you'd imagine. We should really, it's lovely walking, with great views. It's funny how you can overlook what's right under your nose.

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.

Pennington Marsh

We used to walk the sea wall which protects Pennington Marshes from the Solent regularly when the forest became too wet and muddy. Starting and finishing at Keyhaven, you can take a really nice circular route all along the coast and return via a variety of interesting inland tracks, with lovely views throughout. There's no shelter on this walk, it's open to what the elements have to share and although beautiful this morning, it can be very different in bad weather, still stunning, though. We hadn't walked here for some years though, as Norris got older he developed arthritis in his front paws, the sea wall path is hard packed aggregates and became too difficult for him to manage.  Unlike many of the walks we neglected in recent years, this one hasn't changed a bit. Nice way to start the day.

Installation.

Cycling along the top of the sea wall between Keyhaven and Lymington I could see something in the distance which I couldn't make out, something new.  The sea wall route to Lymington is a favourite of mine for two reasons. Firstly, the salterns behind it are always teeming with birds of all types and I've had the opportunity to see some great sights, like birds sweeping up fish and rare visitors to our shores. Secondly, the views out over the Solent and onto the Isle of Wight, that mysterious isle, where they say the inhabitants don't have thumbs! Well, that's what I've heard.  Anyway, as I got closer two black shapes came into view. At first I thought they might have been hides for bird watching, a common activity in these parts, but no, to big.  The closer I got didn't make an interpretation any clearer.  Of course it wouldn't, it's art! These two 'buildings' are an art installation called 'The Observatory'; one structure is open and creates a shelter for you to observe the surroundings, the other structure an enclosed artists work space for resident artists. The Observatory will move between four sites over two years and is currently here. You can see the buildings are of a modern design, and can be rotated (I think), they're clad in charred wood, which is interesting and the enclosed one is half glass, so you can peer in at the art in progress. Nice. There should be more space for art, more energy focused in that direction. It's great to come across art in unexpected places, it enriches.  Get down there and have a look, I don't know how long they'll be there, mind.