The world from my window

As my watch ticked towards six o'clock, we eased off from the pontoon, out through the twin piers and into the open sea. With the glorious, golden sandstone, layer-cake cliffs of West Bay behind us... ...we tore off into a cloudburst sunset and headed for Lyme. And then we saw them. A mercury sea, calm as anything, and a strange sky turned from silver to scarlet as the Red Arrows roared overhead, giving a full-on aerobatic display to the good people of Lyme Regis. In the bay, other boats like ours but with better timekeepers as skippers, had turned off their engines to watch the drama in the skies overhead. At this time of year, there is something of a pilgrimage to Lyme for the annual lifeboat week which raises money for the RNLI , one of the most worthy causes around these parts. Tonight, the town would be packed to the gunnels but here, in these still waters and from this angle, the experience was weird, surreal. They whirled, they spiralled, they parted. I...

A friend of mine has run into a spot of bother. He's been quoted in a national newspaper article highlighting the negatives of living in rural and coastal areas like this one. Anyone would think he was the Antichrist, the way his comments have been received. But, in broad brush terms, I think he's right. This corner of England, this land, is the closest things to heaven in the world.                We have amazing cliffs and coastline, rolling hills and hinterland, and we're continually featured in the media for this wonderful landscape and the feel-good vibe.        It's what I missed when I was away from it for a year in Corfu. It's what hundreds and thousands of people come to visit each year. It's a rural idyll. But is it? Is it really? Beneath the veneer there is something else. Something you will find in similar places up and down the country. There are drugs, there i...

In Dorset, the A35 road sweeps up over Askers to reveal the most beautiful view of all. After looking to the left and the sweep of the Jurassic Coast, the corner of your right eye is drawn to Eggardon and the lush hinterland, with Lewesdon and Pilsdon - the twin peaks known to sailors as the Cow and Calf - Coney's Castle and Lambert's Castle acting like pulsating echoes in the distance. And the electricity pylons march like giants through Narnia, giving perspective to a landscape so dear to me I almost cry. There is a sense of drama in the air. And then down to West Bay, to check on the boat, a pizza to share at Ellipse and then a look at some of the locations for the hit ITV series Broadchurch  as a real-life SoCo gathers clues next door after a drugs bust.   Waiter, waiter, there's a body in my soup . It's a strange experience, because not long ago this was my manor. We wind our way back to Lush Places, that Brigadoon village in Jack and the B...

As the mist swirls down from Bluebell Hill and in and out The Enchanted Village streets, I can at last feel autumn is heading our way. After almost a week of unseasonably hot weather, October is now putting its pullover on the right way round after a couple of days of wearing it inside out. The designer label was on show for all to see. Indian Summer , it screamed. Scorchio . Down at the seaside, there have been people on the beaches, in the water, on the water. Yesterday we caught thirty laughing mackerel from an open boat. The voyage was too much for Number One Son. Although it could have been something to do with the party he went to the night before. Meanwhile, the cliffs along our part of the Jurassic Coast are stunning. We are so lucky to live here. And then this evening, the woodsmoke rises from The Enchanted Village chimneys to shake hands with the fog that is making its way down the hill and crunching fallen crab apples in its wake. ' Well hello t...