AUTUMN SEA STORMS
Blog by Lynne Pearl
NOVEMBER’ 22
AUTUMN BY THE SEA
Autumn is about trees and leaves changing colour and I see plenty of that around here but also when you are really close to the sea there are other things that are happening too. Autumn means storms and the sea changing. It used to be that one would turn up with swimsuit and towel, ready to dive under the waves and swim as far as possible, even if it was only up and down the beach. Then watch the waves rise up and fall down and be lulled and rocked by their motion, surrounded by the saltiness of the sea that feels so refreshing and resourcing. It’s the tang of it on your bare skin. Then you are surrounded by sea weed, sand, rocks and pebbles. You have to watch where you put your feet down that you haven’t landed on the only sharp rock on your sandy beach.
SEASONS CHANGE
And it is always different as the sun moves, the tides change, the wind is either still or pushing you this way and that, always with the eternal movement of the sea reaching the land and retreating again. a bit like life. We are always trying, doing and then we try again and then we try something else. Constant change and that’s maybe why the constant movement of the sea is so lulling, here is something big and it keeps going.
STORM CLOUDS
Now the sea is no longer inviting, it has changed moods, storms begin to roll in and when they arrive you don’t want to be anywhere near the coast. A storm will arrive with black clouds hanging over the sea, when it makes landfall it hits hard, stinging your face and the rain is driven hard into the pavement and roads. Beaches that only a few weeks ago were crowded, people were playing basketball in teams, are deserted and dark from lack of light, heavy clouds roll in and stay, bringing the autumnal storms.
COLOURFUL LEAVES
Inland the leaves are falling and hang around the ground and pathways beside ancient Roman walls, some are yellow and gold, even a bright scarlet of trees usually grown on foreign shores, but in our autumn turn their glorious red, against the dark walls and bright yellow of other local trees.
SHIPS AT SEA
After a few weeks of storms coming and going a long period of extreme weather sets in with storms out at sea. Then we see ships coming in towards our shores, sheltering from the extremes of life farther out at sea. If the weather gets really bad they can make a run for port, where they stand a chance. Walking on the sea front one can count the ships on the skyline. That’s not the island off the coast farther west, there are now seven ships on the horizon. They are different sizes and shapes, some are container ships and some other kinds.
SHIPS ON THE SKYLINE
During the pandemic we had cruise ships moored offshore, idle with no customers, just anchored somewhere out of the way. They stayed there all one winter right into the next Spring until we got used to them on the skyline and felt like they were our landmarks they had been there so long. But one day they did, one by one, day by day, begin to sail away. It meant they could take tourists again, hoping their business would come back after months of laying back, just turning the engines on for a bit, taking a drive up and down Lyme Bay or even to France but never going where they were destined to, Norway, the fjords, the Caribbean, but just keeping us company off the coast.
WINTER VISITORS
The cruise ships haven’t come back, these ships on our skyline are container ships that will resume their route and go on shortly, as soon as the weather improves. Winter brings us these transient visitors, there’s the leaves, the migrant birds and the storms at sea, the seasons change, it’s the time.
