Beach Art

 As you may have seen, I always enjoy playing with the stones and shells on a beach to leave a message or a picture for others to see.

Here's a message I left in Southend the day we  rode the pier train with a friend from Taiwan

I selected only brown stones of a round shape and left the message on the wall for passers by.  

I really enjoyed the message with the blue and white rowing boat in the background!

The weather was hazy and beautiful that day.  We rode the pier train, ate ice-creams and then headed home to make vegetable pasta.

x

Beach Art: Shell message

Back in mid-August, we headed to Southend-on-Sea to meet our friend N for his birthday and we went to a hotel called The Rosslyn for dinner.  After all meal, we decided to head to the beach for a quick walk.  I immediately decided to collect oyster shells to leave an arty message for passers by on the esplanade!

I collected many of the plentiful oyster shells in my hat and left this message.  I wonder how long it lasted for?

Alas, it was so windy, it was none-too-pleasant to be on the beach so C and N sheltered in one of the covered benches until I'd finished and we headed back through the blustery streets to the car!

What would your message say?

xx
 

Port Isaac and Tintagel castle

When CBC and I arrived in Newquay Porth, we were delighted our holiday home was about a 3 minute walk to the beach but was quiet and set back. It looked a lovely place with a small but nice outdoor place with a picnic table and a hot outdoor shower!

The communual spaces inside were very nice indeed.

The bedrooms were quite simple- CBC and I ended up in one of the two tiny twin rooms upstairs- there were two twin bed, 3 coat hooks and a tiny wall-mounted rail with 3 hangers and that was it! Not ideal.  Presumably intended as a children's room but rather cramped for two adults! Still, we wouldn't be spending too much time in there.  The set up of two ensuite double rooms downstairs (which CBC's sister and husband had one of, his Mum had the other) and we had a shared bathroom for us two and for CBC's brother and friend upstairs (plus there was a single loo downstairs) who were sharing so meant there was a wait for the bathroom sometimes but it was fine.

On our first full day, we spent most of the day at home relaxing and then on the beach.  We also went for a walk on the cliffs. In the evening, we went for a Tapas meal.

On the Monday, we decided to go and explore and set off in two cars, leaving J relaxing behind as she had developed a cold and isn't really up for any walking and our plans involved walking.

We drove to Port Isaac, a beautiful fishing village which featured in a much-loved British TV programme called Doc Martin.

The sea was looking glorious. We really enjoyed the walk from the car to the village.

Heading down to the quaint village, the sea looked beautiful and you can take a boat journey from here. Several people were swimming on the beach. It's not the nicest looking place to swim in the harbour, but it would be cool.

This seagull was keeping guard, looking out for stealing opportunities. I was gleefully looking for unwitting folks who didn't know how to guard their food. Alas, the moment I was in in the ice-cream shop, I heard the conversation that said a child had just had their ice-cream stolen by a gull. I legged it to look but was too late. I know, I'm mean.

We sat in the shade on a stone wall on the beach whilst a couple of our party ate pasties. I confess, I did not eat any pasties on this holiday.

This garden on several terrace levels was so tranquil and well-kept.

We found Doc Marten's house which sold recently for 1.5 million pounds.

We headed into the tearoom which was the old methodist church. It still has the organ which can be played.  Some had cake and tea. CBC had a savoury cheese scone with cream cheese and chilli jam and can testify, it was delicious. In fact, he recreated it back here in Essex and it was very tasty but disconcerting if you looked at what you were eating as it looked like a sweet one!

Next, we drove to Tintagel to visit the English Heritage-owned castle.

I was worried as CBC and had forgotten our membership cards but luckily, they checked the system and found us (apparently, this wouldn't have been possible at the start of the series but now was), which was a relief as it cost £24 per adult to get in!

Tintagel is the legendary birth-place of mythical King Arthur.  I wrote my A level history project on who the real Arthur and Camelot might have been.  All 38,000 words of it!

The views from every angle were incredible.  It was scorching hot so I looked enviously at the swimmers in the bay.

Here I am on the cantilever bridge over to the castle.

One of our party was a structural engineer so was explaining how the bridge worked to various members of the party.   She got a bit worried when one of the employees asked her if she was a Structural engineer and said they thought there was a problem and wanted to report it to an engineer. She worriedly told him she was on holiday and to maybe tell someone else!

The paths were superbly well maintained but you may struggle if you have walking issues. It was quite steep and we were relieved we hadn't brought J!

On the cliff was a huge sculpture of Arthur and the sword Excalibur.

Here are some views of that Cantilever bridge.

There was a small exhibition about Arthur and the castle next to the shop. We enjoyed an ice-cream from the kiosk with our 10% 2 years+ membership!

Back home, we prepared a pasta for dinner.

It had been a hot, but enjoyable day.

xx

 

Northumberland Days 1-3 A trip to Whitley bay

 Having ended school on Friday 21st July, CBC and I decided to head straight up to Northumberland for reasons which will be explained.  As is our usual habit, we were super reluctant to pack on Saturday the 22nd.  I was slightly better than CBC, having chucked items I knew I'd need at a suitcase on the Friday night.  Eventually, we set off at the shameful time of around 4.15pm.  The car was rammed full of suitcases, CBC's bike, games, musical instruments etc and then there was the added complication that we needed to fit in my Brompton as I had booked it in for a Service that day but we had to get it to a place around 25minutes drive away. The only way she would fit into the car was on MY lap in the front of the car. So there I was with a Brompton bike wedged on my lap, having to be held strictly in position without a) getting my clothes oily or dirty (she is filthy....oops) and b) not touching the gear sticks.  We got her to the shop without incident (but a lot of grumbling) and then drove onto Northumberland without stopping.  We arrived at J's house (CBC's mum) around 10.30pm...arriving to darkness!!! She was supposed to have C's friend and family round to dinner.  But where were they?   Eventually, after about 20 minutes, she turned up.  It turned out there had been a localised powercut in J's estate 3/4 of the way through the dinner and so they had decamped to the friend's house to finish the dinner! The power was back on.  She had brought back Spaghetti bolognaise and Salmon pasta for us so that was a welcome late night dinner.  We went to bed around midnight.

The next morning, we woke up to find there had been another power cut!  So breakfast was cereal an juice with no tea.  We headed down to Hexham to go and get some tea/coffee at the Abbey refectory.  I opted for a bacon roll also and the others joined in with that.  It was largely rainy and grim so it was quite nice to be cosy inside (and not in a cold house!).  The temperature is distinctly lower up north.  After this, we headed back the house, having popped into Milletts for a Jetboil so we could boil some water back home.  The powergrid care team were in the road when we got back. Still no power and not looking like it was due to come back on till at least 7pm.  We were given a couple of power packs and were invited to come and get  hot water from the van if needed.  Apparently, the power cut was due to the intense amount of rain and some connection had come loose but they weren't sure where.

Luckily, we had some other plans and CBC and I headed into Hexham to the Beaumont to meet his friend Matt and wife and daughter who serendipitously were over from China for a holiday and had come to Hexham for a few days. This was the reason we had headed up so soon as this would be our only opportunity to see them.  We last saw them 5 years ago after we went camping together in Derbyshire.  They are SUCH lovely people and we got on so well, it was like 5 years hadn't gone.  We had tea (and they had scones.... I'm not so much a fun so I opted for crisps!) and then headed to the park to let their cute toddler play on the swings. She is a real sweetie.  We then headed to the Heart of Northumberland pub for a roast. I had the pork. All the acompaniments of the meal were amazing and bountiful.  The meat was actually my least favourite part!  Eventually, K needed to go to bed so after a walk in the Sele park, we headed to the Beaumont to meet Joan who had come down for dinner since the power was STILL not back at 8.45pm at night!  We both had dessert!!! 

The next morning, we headed into Hexham to purchase a couple of things, and sadly, to go and visit the new Lidl - love a Lidl bakery.  C's OTHER best childhood friend was ALSO in Hexham (from Manchester!)- what are the odds of both being there the same weekend!?  They were walking down at Tyne Green so we wandered there to see if we could see them but sadly, they were not there but I enjoyed the wander.  We went back to town to the Beaumont (for the 3rd time in 2 days!) to meet J and Chris' sister's inlaws who were ALSO in Hexham on their way on holiday! We had a drink with them and then S, CBC's childhood friend called to invite us over to the house.

It was great to see them and meet S's two boys who I've never met before- the older is 7 and the younger is 3. They were totally loud and hyper which is not my ideal situation BUT, after about 5 minutes of bewilderment, I realised how  LOVELY intelligent and kind they are despite being really loud and hyper! The older is SUCH a sweet boy, totally eccentric and I got on really well with him by having some eccentric banter!

We ended up playing a brilliant board game with them called 'Connect' which was created in 1969 by Ken Garland is basically a game where you have to connect tiles. I really enjoyed it (and have been stalking the second hand websites for it to find one! It was then updated into a game called Rivers, Roads and Rails and thankfully Vinted came up trumps for me on this version).  The family had to get back to Manchester so we bade them goodbye and went back to J's house to make veggie pasta using the veggies we had brought with us from Essex.

The next day after 2 days of remaining in Hexham, due to rain, we decided we wanted to head on a day trip out...despite the likelihood of rain.  

Our first location was Tynemouth which is probably the nearest beach/seaside town to Hexham. It is a lovely place with some great independent shops, a great view down to the beach and a vast sandy beach.

It was, however, starting to rain as we arrived and since it was lunchtime, we headed into a cafe called Dil and the Bear which was a GREAT choice as the food menu was super interesting, not your average cafe and the decor was a beautiful Moroccan style.

I had Vietnamese beef rice noodle salad which was a delicious choice as it was so fresh and full of delicious veg.  CBC and his Mum also chose delicious and original choices which I would have gladly eaten.

Once we had finished, we headed off for a quick look at the nearby shops. The best was Raspberry Bazaar which is full of Indian blockprints, fairtrade and hippie brands like Gringo and Run and Fly clothing. I was restrained and only bought a red and white fairtrade,blockprint, cotton  headband.

After this, we jumped back in the car and headed to Whitley Bay. Having read about this place in a couple of children's books, I was excited to finally see it. In the 1960's, this was the seaside resort to visit. 

We headed to St Mary's lighthouse first.  This is exciting because there is a causeway that connects it to the mainland and so you can only go there at certain times which adds an element of danger and surprise!! It had started raining when we got into the car at Tynemouth and very kindly, it stopped the moment we got out the car at the lighthouse car park!

It was an impressive view!

You can climb to the top of the lighthouse but we decided not to this day.

There were some rockpool exploring sessions going on and some interesting lifeforms had been found from the excited squeals we could hear!

Most excitingly, we saw quite a few  seals basking on the rocks and swimming on the sea and several Cormorants looking brooding on the rocks.

There is a shop by the lighthouse with very friendly volunteers.

After this, CBC and I had a little play around walking on the rocks and then the 3 of us returned to the car.

Next, we drove to the town where there is a place called Spanish City which was a pleasure dome built in the 20th century. Sadly, as package holidays became more of an attraction, it lost its status as the place to go.  Happily, in recent years, it has received funding to be revived and is now an impressive tearoom and restaurant and is an impressive building on Whitley Bay's sky line. previous attraction place

The building is beautiful, especially when viewed from the beachfront side!

We decided to head inside to the restaurant as it was starting to rain again!

CBC and his mum had a savoury snack and I opted for the Milk Chocolate Torte which was ENORMOUS and served with a full family-sized jug of single cream!

It was so big that is was enough to feed all three of us!

The dome is really beautiful!

After this, J went to sit in the car and then CBC and I headed for a walk on the beach.  The sky was beautiful and there was a rainbow!

We headed back to Hexham after this

What did I wear this day?

Well, it's the lilac dungarees again, worn with a different white top!

I took these photos for a friend on Instagram whose daughter was wearing a pair or lilac dungarees and a white top with a purple flower crown! I told her I could recreate the outfit and she said she LOVED the idea of me cosplaying her daughter so I made myself a lavender circlet for my head and then shared the pics with her! She laughed so much!

Have you visited Whitley Bay or Tynemouth?

xx

Beached

Oh, joyful pleasures need not be long and protracted, they can be short and equally wonderful!

Today, CBC had been on his usual Sunday morning cycle.  He arrived back and lay in the garden awhile, tired from his 60miles of toiling.  I suggested that we go to the beach via the Seafood Shack, which is a little hut alongside a local pub, and buy some food to take to the beach.

We did so, both choosing the weekend special of Alfredo Linguine- his served with prawns, mine with prawn and chicken.  Being a nice independent business and not some chain with 'policies', they were happy to take my plastic containers to put our food in to take out, rather than us have to take their thick cardboard boxes (I also refused a paper bag to put them in).  CBC, when I said that they had cardboard containers, said, that surely it was ok to take their containers since they weren't plastic, but I reiterated that, if you CAN avoid creating any waste, then DO IT! After all, cardboard and paper has a larger Carbon Footprint than Plastic, even if it can be recycled and composted. 

We drove off and headed to the beach- not the touristy one which all the daytrippers in East London come to, but the one further down the track which has no amenities apart from some old loos and the  station is nowhere near the beach.  It is also more traditional looking with beach huts

CBC paid for one hour of parking so this wasn't to be a long treat but we felt SO content, sitting on the pebbles and sand,  the tide was in so the sea was near but there weren't that many people on it.  

The Linguine was plentiful and tasty with garlic bread on top.  I'd remembered my cutlery set- in fact, I have reorganized my bamboo cutlery set into a makeup bag so I have some duplicates in case of a companion who has forgotten/not got any...so in this case, CBC!

The sound of the sea was so soothing.  As there were few people, there were no screaming children to contend with.

Once I'd eaten, I told CBC I was going to change into my swimsuit.  Aghast, he asked, "What, you're really going to swim?"

"Yes, of course I am!" I declared, "No matter how cold it might be, I am SWIMMING!"

It wasn't that cold. It was pleasant and as soon as you swam in it, it felt warm.  As you can see, I didn't have much competition for space.  One older lady was swimming a bay along.  I swam back and forth a few times, lost in my thoughts without worrying about collisions.  After about 20minutes, I decided that I was content to get out.  I wandered up to CBC and wrapped myself in my turkish cotton lightweight towel (a Christmas present from Mum which is brilliant for light packing!) and CBC said we had 15minutes on the car.  5 minutes of reading my book, the Chilbury Ladies Choir, and then we got up ready to go.

Only an hour on the beach, but that was enough to make me content.  Simple pleasures but ones for which I am immensely grateful. I am so glad to have discovered that we can swim and visit a pleasant beach without loads of crowds within 20minutes drive.

When we got home, I went in the shower to wash off the salt, which was another delight- I do love our shower- and then, after a snuggly sit on our swing seat whilst CBC watched the Tour De France medal ceremony and I completed my book, I walked round the corner to go and pick some blackberries from an easy access stash I have discovered.  To my delight, I saw a lady coming out to water the garden from the house where I had picked up some free runner bean plants from. I asked if she was the Runner Bean donater, which she confirmed, and I thanked her and said how well they were doing. She was delighted and said there would be more plants next year and she and her husband sneakily watch out the window when people go past when they put them out, egging on people to take them- they cheer when someone takes some!  That conversation made both of us happy.

I hope you have had a joyous weekend with simple acts of contentment.

xx

 

So... you want to see Frinton on sea????

Yesterday, after I shared my Frinton on Sea post, a few of you said it sounded like a nice place to visit and Ang referred to Walton on the Naze which is nearby and pleasant.

Today, I decided I would like to look at my archive to republish a post after Gretchen Joanna commented on a couple of old posts. It's quite nice to visit a few old favouites, esp for anyone that didn't read the post originally.

Bizarrely, when I  clicked randomly on my side bar, the post that came up was one entitled, "Fabulous Frinton on Sea!" How utterly strange is that? And no, I don't think it's some sort of cookie, it really is serendipity!

Therefore, here is a reblog of my post here from Tuesday October 30th, 2010 (almost the exact same day!) of my visit to Frinton-on-sea

The fabulous Richard Lester performing at Boxted Parish church. Cellist extraordinaire! I met him once before when he borrowed a cello from the Academy when I worked there- he's really nice

Autumn sunshine on Boxted church- beautiful!

We headed down to the seafront at Frinton where the light was perfect, the air wonderful and all was restful

It was such a beautiful beautiful day.  It was totally a spur of the moment thing to come to Frinton- we dashed out of the house to make the concert and didn't think about post-midday!

My last birthday Cape  keeping me warm! I love that CBC chose this himself!

There is a fabulous array of  beach-huts at Frinton. I've never been inside one- have you?

The sea-spray was pretty fierce as we wandered.  It made me think of that gorgeous John Masefield poem, Seafever, verse 2:
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

Sourced from: http://allpoetry.com/poem/8495913-Sea_Fever-by-John_Masefield




  It did make me laugh as I found this Spike Milligan version when searching:


I must go down to the sea again,
to the lonely sea and the sky
I left my shoes and socks there -
I wonder if they're dry?

Sourced from: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-must-go-down-to-the-sea-again/

Notice a familiar bystander in CBC's photo...

Who then backs away in alarm at the monster wave.  What happened next?

Quite possibly the coolest beachhuts ever here!  One appears to have been decorated by Emma Bridgewater and the other?

Which do you prefer: spots or stripes?

CBC took this (and most of the other) picture- check out all those wind turbines! Essex is doing its bit for renewable energy? Rather serendipitous that I was coincidentally wearing a sailor-cardie for an impromptu sea-side sojourn!

I could have walked on for miles...

Frinton is a lovely seaside retreat in Essex.  Have you been?