AN UNFAIR COMPARISON..

Well, the weather forecasters all predicted that, here in Kent, today would see an end to this wonderful Indian Summer we have been enjoying for the last week.   So, given that prediction, we felt we should put Barney in the car and take him for a scamper down to the beach at St. Mary`s Bay, pictured above, and take the chance to enjoy the last rites of this belated summer before it fades away into Autumn and Winter.

St. Mary`s Bay has a very big beach when the tide is out as it was this morning and when our three sons were very young we used to enjoy our days there.   I recall playing cricket with them there on the sands and, as we always have done, just enjoyed being with our boys and sharing their company.   So we go back there now and again to get some sea air, let Barney loose and recall those days 40 years ago when we liked nothing more as a family than to be together enjoying life.

Trouble is, we`ve been spoilt.   All these years on from those wondrous days of childhood innocence, we`ve got a bit fussy in our old age and I think today St. Mary`s Bay suffered from an unfair comparison with all the other beaches we have enjoyed this summer - Mothecombe, Porhtcurnick, Daymer Bay, Polly Joke, Crantock, Lundy Bay and all the others.   Here`s a picture I took of Crantock beach just a couple of weeks ago:-

It`s a bit different.   St. Mary`s Bay certainly has its sands but also not a little mud, the occasional `outfall` and the panoramic view, even on a day like today, of the water tower at Littlestone and the nuclear power station at Dungeness, does not inspire in quite the same way as the wonders of Crantock and the others I have mentioned.

It`s not St. Mary`s Bay`s fault, of course.   It is what it is and therefore it is unfair to make the comparison, but we came away not just disappointed but also a little depressed, which condition has only been lightened by this afternoon securing another holiday next Spring back in the glories of Cornwall.   I can hardly wait.