Friday, December 07, 2007

An evening stroll with the dog

Last night I took Custard out for rather longer than usual.

To start with I had to pop to my Mom's house to collect the food for her pony - she had a fall the other day and has not been able to get out since, so I have been feeding per pony, Humphrey, each morning on my way to work.

While there, Custard had is first encounter with cats inside a house. He put up his hackles, bouced around and woofed, but they just looked down their noses at him and snuggled deeper into the chairs.

After leaving mom's house I headed for the beach. It was a very nice evening, the wind had dropped,the sky was clear with lots of stars, and the beach was not far away. It was a wonderful view - to the East was the main seafront of the town with its amusement arcades, leisure centre, clock tower, etc all lit up like, well like a British seaside town, I guess! To the North, out in the Thames estuary were white lights indicating where the ships were and red light announcing the off shore wind farm that we have got. Finally, to the West I could see the lights of other towns - Whitstable, The Isle of Sheppey and the distant glow in the sky that marked Chatham and Rochester. We strolled along the prom for a mile or so, Custard enjoying the new smells, I having a nostalgia trip back to my youth when I would walk this path on a daily basis.

We reached a point that jutted into the sea, at which point a line of rocks ran out for a further few hundred yards. I could hear the water gurgling and swashing over them. Funny. As a kid, those rocks seemed so massive when we climbed on them, but they are actually only a couple of feet high! I guess everything seems huge when you are tiny!

Then we ambled back home, Custard draining his water bowl while I hunted for a cold beer.

7 comments:

R.E.H. said...

I love those walks down memory lane. Used to walk to work every day, and some day's I'd take a detour which brought me by this place we used to party at when I went to school.

It's this large patch of green grass along the river where we used to play ball and drink beers, and hook up with the babes.

I walk along that path sometimes, dreaming I was back in those days.

Logzie said...

That was fun...to get such a descriptive view of your part of the world. It sounds very beautiful!

I hope you enjoyed the long walk...I wish I had the time to do that sometime. Maybe this Spring, I will have to make it a priority. I would probably be dragging Grover back though...Ha!

Terri said...

That was very picturesque. I felt like I was diving into a good book with that feeling of being right in the place you were describing!

And I can especially relate to everything seeming so much smaller than it did when you were a kid.

kenady said...

I was there with you! You have a very nice way with words. The other night my 2 girlfriends from high school (yes, high school... we've been friends since we were 14) came over for some beers after the kids went to sleep. We started talking about people from school and the next thing ya know we've got the year books out looking through at all the people from our past, laughing, talking, reliving old adventures. It was fantastic! I love that kind of stuff!

Kiki said...

Your words painted such a lovely picture of your walk, it must be lovely where you live, I could almost picture it in my head. I grew up and continue to live on the coast...it is a special place full of memories...the sights, sounds and smells all conjur up visions of diffent times...thank you for taking us on the walk!

Jen said...

Great walk! It's wonderful to be able to still do such things and remember all that used to, is and will be. . . .

I enjoyed the 3 Bears - The Real Story! Too funny. I'm going to print it out and hand it to anyone who questions what it is I actually do since I don't work. (I'll give a copy to the husband too so he can pass around when he's asked why I don't work.)

Thanks for making my day x's 2!

amazingbrenda said...

The bear story is the best! My husband & I were cracking up, we got a good laugh out of that.

Hope your mum gets better. Sounds like a great view, did you steal that line from a book? Just kidding. Thanks for sharing.