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Writer's pictureSim Elliott

The small and local sublime - Whitehawk Hill, Sheepcote Valley, Ovingdean, Undercliff

The experience of vastness (see this post) is not a prerequisite for finding things that are sublime to you: the beautiful nearby can evoke a feeling of awe. Yesterday I walked across Whitehawk Hill (10 minutes from my front door), through Sheepcote Valley, down to Ovingdean and along the Undercliff to Kemptown Seafront; a walk that I have done many, many times before. I took my camera and photographed anything I thought was beautiful. The experience was very rewarding; even though I didn't find many thing, and none of them would be described as "spectacular" in a travel brochure; and none of the birds (Magpies Stonechats and Herring Gulls) would be described as ornithologically exciting in a birding journal. But they were beautiful to me; and that's what counts to personal wellbeing.


This sequence is the chronological order of seeing. I am not labelling these photos, as the pleasure I had in seeing these things was non-verbal.















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