July Evening Over Poole Bay

It has been a week of rain, grey skies and blustery winds. A clifftop BBQ had been planned for months, so we were relieved to see the clouds clear by evening, when friends gathered at a small community hall, where the terrace overlooks Poole Bay.

Along the sandy beach towards the east, white buildings shone on the clifftops at Bournemouth and the main Pier jutted out over calm water.

The sun had sunk behind the Purbeck Hills and the sky softened to shades of pink....

.....giving a rosy tint to the chalk of Old Harry Rocks and Ballard Down in the west.

People walked , cycled and ran along beach and promenade. On the clifftop, we found formal beds of flowers...........

....and a backdrop of wild gorse, heather and bramble clinging to the cliff sides in the wooded chine.

On the western tip of the Isle of Wight, chalk on the Needles and the steep cliffs of Tennyson Down glowed pink.

The light began to slip away.........

...so we climbed down steep steps to the sandy beach.

Holes were dug, by hand ........

....as we heard sand martins twitter past on their way to roost in nest holes in the cliffs.

We found paw prints....

.......watched the pink sky darken to grey....

....while clear, shore water , still as a mirror, reflected the soft-wool clouds.

The Big Balloon, in the Winter Gardens, rose into the sky above the town. What a night to see the Bay from a basket on a tethered, gas filled balloon!

Sunset sky and waves.....

Reflections....

...of clouds.........

....as day ends........

...and the lights of the weekending town stretch away along the night-dark cliffs.