Happy New Year !!

from Ramsgate to all my friends and readers.



ramsgate harbour in the (not rising from the fog yet) early morning sunrise..



remnants of New Year Celebrations were evident everywhere...



our New Year's walk took us through the village of Pegwell



into the countryside. (I thought of Micki but did not carry a carrot for the horses.. which was just as well as soon I saw a big sign saying 'don't feed the horses'!)



Pegwell Bay nature reserve is lying on the edge of a disused hovercraft site but has a beautiful beach lying at the bottom of the cliffs which are towering over it..



It is good this stretch is a nature reserve and protected, as in the marshy waters of the bay, many migrating birds have a rest before continuing on their journey. Here a few oystercatchers standing inbetween the seagulls.



Whenever a manmade structure gets abandonned, nature takes over again. Through the cracks in the concrete of the abandonned hover port, lilac bushes and grasses grow in abundance, making for a surprising landscape..



Can you imagine cars waiting to board here in the heyday of the hovercraft?



A bird with Very orange legs risked coming quite close.. (I have to look up what it is.. not sure at the moment..)edited: It's a redshank, thanks Julie!



And flocks of smaller birds also flitted about. Settling on the mud en masse...
(a sort of sanderling maybe?)



only to fly off just a second later..



The sun seemed to symbolize the start of this year... It's trying to break through to make it a sunny one... but still a bit of a struggle...



I hope that for those of you who had a brilliant 2010, the coming year will be even better. For those for whom it was a thoroughly terrible year (and sadly, there are quite a few too...) I hope that the sun may shine through the fog and come out bright and strong and make 2011 a year to remember for all the good things that happened!

I will leave you with another beach shot. May 2011 be the best year ever !!