Sunday 16th September, 2015.

The night after John and Jane had hosted a fine BBQ at their house on South Street, Jane joined me on a swift evening walk to West Bay. Our aim was to be high up on East Cliff with a good view of the hundreds of people who at 8pm would start processing from Bridport town centre. We would see them snaking their way along the road into West Bay and then tossing their torches into the huge bonfire on the beach.
We set off later than arranged, the light fading fast. At West Bay we climbed up the steep grass slope to the top of the cliff, threading our way through lots of groups of people already sitting there.
It was a fine night with just a slight offshore breeze, ideal for blowing the bonfire smoke out across the harbour.
We sat in a fine companionable mood, disturbed only by the mediocre rock/pop music being played down below. We would have loved to have a remote control!
We lay back in the tall grass and enjoyed gazing at the stars until, finally, the firework display started up. It was excellent, well worth waiting for.
We picked our way carefully by torchlight down to the beach and walked across to the bonfire, warming ourselves from the hot glowing embers. We felt happy, and pleased with ourselves
Then we matched back home, often stepping out into the road to overtake the stream of people walking back to town.
We felt glad to be on foot, enjoying the physicality of it, not creeping along in a queue of traffic.
It was an exhilarating evening. I'm so glad I waited and didn't set off without her!