Vaulting the flood defences

...at Clevedon, Somerset, at the start of the Poets' walk along the clifftop. These sandbags had been left in place to remind us that winter isn't over yet, and that the coast of Britain is never free from flood risk.

We were here to celebrate our friend Mary's 60th birthday, with a walk and enormous picnic on the downs at the end of the walk. It was what blipper Steve Hughes would call another of my Famous Five adventures, though there were more like twenty-five of us. The day started out cold, and we shared out gloves, scarves and flasks, but by the time we'd got to this stage of the walk along the seafront, the weather had turned positively balmy. As we ate our feast on the clifftop, we were actually able to lie in a hadily ready-made bunker, and sunbathe with all our clothes on.

It's not a great picture. I have some more scenic postcardy shots, but it's the crowd and the occasion I want to remember today. The woman clambering over the barricades is an old friend of Mary's called Keggie. Mary is to the left of the shot, in the pink scarf, and hat. Flanked by her two children Bea and Louis. I think the horizontal feet in the right of the shot might be her husband's!