I walked through a strange land today, a land where daffodils and tulips cover the banks and the wooded areas.

I travelled down an avenue through wilderness, back to a time as in an antique picture catching a glimpse of the past, where nature still seems to reign, squirrels chase mates with the joys of new love, Birds sing their melodious tunes welcoming the spring to this land by the sea.

In the heart of this metropolis, huge ships touch the sky looming out of the morning mist; almost as if a painter has painted a canvas and the ships have sailed in at the artists command.

I went by a shore where clusters of yachts twisted and tacked in the early spring breeze, Then across the ancient water as dusk began to fall, lights from a man made fairy kingdom twinkled and beckoned a magical land, Concealing the chimneys and the stacks that turn ancient fossil fuel into the power that drives the modern world.

My journey was brief; my delight was forever at this place which is home, nestling at the end of the Solent on a peninsula of two rivers which is called Southampton.

PADDY MAXWELL, Lordshill, Southampton.