A Tentative Foray

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst this morning's news is as desperately sad and worrying as we seem to have become used to ... the cycle of the seasons really does just keep on moving as though all was normal with the World.

Our garden, which always looks pretty gloomy at this time of year is starting to spring back into life showing us signs of what is to come ... and jobs that will need doing.

Last year we impulsively added a splash of spring colour, with these bright red primulas, which have really brightened up the bottom of our garden, but looked a little lonely ...

In an effort to add even more spring colour, which is the time that Martin and I struggle to envisage our garden ever looking nice again, I made an impulse purchase of 12 pots of tete a tete from the 'man on the market'. They seemed a real bargain at six pots for £5, though mum told me she would have waited till they were past their best and bought them for 50p a pot 😂

We soon got them planted and they looked so bright that I got mum to pick me up another 12 pots, which I am hoping to get planted today. They definitely add a bright pop of colour to the bottom of the garden, at a time when everything is predominantly green or brown.

There are a few bits just starting to come into flower though ... lots of buds on the magnolia and the first of the camellia flowers is just starting to burst into bloom ...

On the job front, we have made a start on a project which will be a big one for us. Our raised beds are starting to drop to bits and this year the aim is to rebuild the one nearest to the house ...

We think we've managed to source the wood and have measured up more times than I can count. We just need to bite the bullet and get it ordered now. We did make a bit of a start last week by emptying it of planting. As there is nothing planted at the moment in the two metal beds we have moved everything into them temporarily. The strawberries are in one ...

Actually ... I mean half of the strawberries are in one. When we were digging them up they had multiplied again, beyond belief, and half have been transported to mum's to go into one of dad's old vegetable beds.

The perennials have all been transplanted into the other one ...

... along with the new plant supports we bought last year. In here we have 'bastard balm', phlox, white valerian, a couple of verbena, some aquilegia, some pinks and a random foxglove.

I'm not sure how everything will do in these beds as they are in the 'shady' side of the garden, but I think the long term plan is to transfer them all back once the other bed is rebuilt.

Our next job is to temporarily remove all of the soil and deconstruct the bed, so that we can see exactly how it goes together and whether or not we can salvage any of the wood ...

It seems to be very late for us to be getting started in the garden this year. When I look back I am normally sorting out the strawberry bed mid-February, but I've just not really been feeling it so far this year. The cold weather hasn't helped ... I am definitely a fair weather gardener. Hopefully now that we have finally made a start it will give us the impetus to keep going.

Spring is also a good time for tulips and whilst these are on of my absolute favourites I don't have much luck with them in the garden. They don't seem to be a bulb that comes back after the first year for me ... so I was delighted when Martin came back from the supermarket with a couple of bunches ... they really brighten the place up ... I love having fresh flowers in the house ...

So that's us from a gardening point of view ... we've made a very tentative start. Although I did watch about four episodes of Your Garden Made Perfect back to back last night ... and that's always good for a bit of aspirational inspiration 😀

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Exploring :: Northumberland #6 ... Heading for Berwick-upon-Tweed, via Spittal

Hi there everyone 😀

On one level it feels more than a little frivolous to be writing about holiday adventures and daily trivia whilst things are so terrible for so many people across the world right now. On another it feels important to keep on going with normal everyday stuff. 

It appears lots of bloggers are feeling the same way and I’ve seen lots of feedback, from readers, of an appreciation for the chance to escape what has become the absolute tragedy we are seeing, reading and hearing about constantly at the moment … if only just for a few minutes … in favour of something which is a little less horrific and may even provide a little comfort and sense of normality. 

It’s with this in mind I have decided to try and continue posting as normal for the time being …

It was Thursday, the last full day of our winter break in Northumberland with our good friends Lesley and Tom. We were back up to full strength, the weather forecast was good and we were ready to make the most of our last day.

Although I’ve been to Northumberland a few times I’ve never actually visited Berwick-uponTweed and it was somewhere I that was definitely on my agenda for this trip. I’d done a bit of research and was really looking forward to exploring somewhere new.

Lesley had also been on Google and suggested we stop at Spittal beach on the way. I’d never heard of it but it was just our side of the estuary so was definitely up for it … after all, it was on the coast, it was bound to be worth a look.

It was a bit of drive from Seahouses but we were soon parked up in the car park just off Spittal beach, and directly across the estuary from Berwick ...

We immediately knew that, whatever else we did when we got to Berwick, we were definitely going to be having to have a walk out to the lighthouse ...

I don't think I've ever seen a pier out to a lighthouse quite so long ...

That would all be for later ... but first ... Spittal. It really was a bright and breezy day, with a really cold wind but, as always, we were dressed for the weather and headed along the footpath which would take us to the promenade ...

There were was plenty of evidence of the aftermath of Storms Arwen and Barra, with bulldozers working to shift all the sand that had been blown up from the beach ...

You can make out the piles ready for returning to the beach at the bottom of the above photo. Lesley and I were both fascinated by the almost identical lawns on the row of cottages looking out onto the beach.

Whilst very open to the elements it was a lovely wide promenade ... with great views across the beach ...

... where there were some very hardy people actually braving a swim ...

... and back across to Berwick ...

It was easy to see how much sand had actually already been shifted back onto the beach, and from talking to some of the workers, we found out that more machinery would be brought in to spread it further away from the promenade wall ...

We walked pretty much all the way along the prom ...

... before deciding to head back along the beach ... towards Berwick ...

It wasn't long before we all had our heads well down ... hunting out pretty pieces of seaglass ... finding plenty of bits worthy of bending down and picking up ...

Before we knew it we were pretty much back where we started ...

It was time to head across the bridge and into Berwick ... but I think I'm going to have to tell you about the rest of our next in my next post 😀

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Exploring :: Northumberland #5 ... The Holy Island of Lindisfarne

Hi there everyone 😀

It was the Wednesday of our week's break in Northumberland back at the beginning of December. We were a man down but Storm Barra had passed over and the forecast was reasonable so the three of us decided to head to The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

Our mission, amongst other things, was to recreate this photograph, a print of which was hanging in the kitchen of Cuthbert’s cottage …

We had checked the tide times … very carefully and after about half an hour’s drive we were heading for the causeway … though it felt quite dull there was a bit of bright sunshine really picking up the grasses on the dunes across the bay ...

Even though we were absolutely 100% certain of the tide times I always find it a bit surreal driving across a causeway ... it's not something we get the chance to do that often and it's something I can never resist. It's hard not to think about how quickly the tide can come in and make the road impassable.

As we reached the far side it was certainly looking like we were going to be lucky again with the weather and we just had to pull in and try and capture the moment ...

We were soon parked up and had a route planned for a good wander … taking in the old priory, the harbour and then maybe over to the castle, depending on we were for time and if the weather was still on our side …

We started our wander by heading for the old priory ... which looked beautiful in the hazy sunshine ...

Before exploring the priory further we made our way around the back of the church ...

.. and through the gate for some great views across St Cuthbert's Island and back to the mainland ...

St. Cuthbert's Island is connected to Lindisfarne at low tide in the same way Lindisfarne is connected to the mainland, but it is an island at high tide. It was here, within sight of the main island, that Cuthbert first attempted living as a hermit. He soon realized it was still too close to Lindisfarne; monks could still shout over to him. After that he went to Inner Farne, where no one had ever stayed for long.

We made our way back through the gate and rounded the side of the church for the most fabulous view ... of the church in the foreground, the ruins of the old priory and the castle in the distance ...

Whilst the priory was actually closed to visitors you can see the majority of it without needing to pay to visit anyway ... it really is in the most beautiful spot ...

On our way to the harbour we met a lady very concerned about a young seal pup that she said had been stranded on the footpath for a day or so. We couldn't not go and have a look so we tentatively made our way along the footpath and soon came across this little guy (or gal) ...

He was a fair way from the sea and there was no sign of mum so we did find this all a bit stressful. We kept a good distance and could see that he seemed ok, he was pretty feisty ... as we found out when a couple walked past from the other direction, carrying a little dog.

We couldn't just do nothing so after a lot of googling we ended up calling Marine Conservation, who said they would try and get someone to come over and have a look.

We had no choice really but to leave him and hope that someone would get out to take care of him.

We headed back towards the harbour, with our goal of recreating our holiday cottage photo ... but first a selfie ... just the three of us this time ...

The harbour area on the island is very photogenic and I can imagine, with the right light and plenty of patience, there are some fabulous photo opportunities ... here are my favourites ...

As well as all of the normal harbour paraphernalia one of the things I love about the harbour on the island are the upturned boatsheds ... I've never really seen anything like it anywhere else before and we couldn't resist taking lots of photos ...

Finally ... we found the boatshed we were looking for ... it was time to create our own masterpiece. Lesley and I both took loads of photos and here are a couple of our best efforts ... not quite an exact replication, but we were definitely in the right spot ... the first two are mine, taken with the Lumix ...

... and these two are Lesley's, taken with the iPhone ...

It was beginning to get pretty breezy and the temperature had dropped by the time we'd finished hanging around taking photos, but we decided we would walk out to the castle ... even though it hadn't yet opened to visitors for the season ...

It was very exposed and blowy on the footpath across to the castle and by the time we got there it was beginning to drizzle ...

The views looking back across the bay, as the sun was beginning to drop, were pretty spectacular ...

We decided it was time to head back ... and we did manage a very quick pitstop before the rain set in ... 

It was time to head for home ... we had decided we would call into Seahouses on the way back and pick up fish and chips for tea ... so at least Tom would have a bit of a treat, having had to miss out on a day of adventures.

The Holy Island had one last photo opportunity for us as we made our way back to the car ... it's a bit faint, but a rainbow is always a treat ... 

We'd had a lovely day ... been really lucky with the weather and managed to recreate our holiday cottage print photo ... and we still had a chippy tea to look forward to 😀

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