Seeing a Bit of Sun and Hoping This Means That Winter's Done

It's getting warmer! I don't want to speak too soon but I might have noticed the start of spring. I can't help but get excited when the temperature rises. On Sunday, it felt like the whole town was thinking the same because the beaches and parks were full of people.

Me and the dog set out to be part of that number.

We started out at the harbour. It's pretty nice to imagine my life living on a boat every now and then.

Around the back of the harbour there's this little jetty that looks over at the lighthouse. It hosts a collection of memorial benches.

The main bridge was up so there was this treacherous thing for us to cross. My dog took some coaching, she was pretty scared mounting it. Like me, she's not much of a swimmer so I think she was worried shes slip off. As soon as we got on she wanted to get off as soon as possible. She pulled me across and then it was my turn to be scared that I was about to tumble into the cold murky waters. Might be a little bit of sun now but I'm not quite ready for a plunge.

We went down onto the beach. Every year around this time, mounds of sand are made on the beach but some diggers. This must be something to do with keeping the sea at bay, but I'm not completely sure what it's about. I do know that they're a lot of fun to play on so I'll probably come back with my niece pretty soon.

I was tricked and deceived by the tide on the far side. I went towards the stairs but realised the tide was in just a bit too much for me to get to them. Nevermind, back we went.

Then we approached the steps. Both me and dog were panting when we got to the top. They just go on, and on, and on. One thing (maybe the only thing) I love about climbing these stairs is you always get some words of encouragement when you cross someone. 'It's a lot easier this way' or 'Rather you than me', 'Never end do they?'. I love these tiny social interactions you have with strangers, the comfort of them and the predictability. I don't get not liking small talk. It's a useful short hand or script to interact with strangers.

Not my picture here, but here they are for reference https://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-few-ramsgate-pictures-from-this.html

Stairs defeated, we carried on.

I was really excited to see something happening to the local cinema. It shut down in 2020 and had sadly fallen into disrepair before that. This is where I watched all my first films. I remember a giant statue of Sully from Monsters Inc in the foyer and when even kids films had an interval. It also hosted our local panto. There's a lot of us and our family would take up what felt like half the theatre. It's really exciting to see that it's going to be restored to its former glory.

Then we started home. A very happy dog in tow.