Back to the island

Yesterday my dad, the boy and I walked over to my favourite place in the world. Holy Island. I love the place and helped out at a summer camp there and can't wait to go back this summer.

It is a tiny island that is off the North East coast of England, known as Lindisfarne or Holy Island it is where there was priory (well still IS a priory but it is a bit in ruins) and the monks who wrote the Lindisfarne Gospels completed them. It is where a whole load of famous Northumbrian saints resided, has a castle, the most beautiful beaches, DEVIL'S DROP! (a huuuge sand dune you can roll down- although you should be prepared to feel very sick and dizzy afterwards!), a myriad of birds and wildlife. You get the most stunning views of Bamburgh too. If you are ever driving up the coast to Edinburgh go! It is fabulous.

Holy Island is cut off from land by the tides twice a day so we had a very early start to make sure we could walk across the exposed sand and get back in time! After bacon sandwiches cooked on the beach and with wellies on we started to follow the posts in the sand that guide the way across the causeway. We encountered the first watchtower which is there for people to climb up if the get caught out by the tide. My legs hurried up a bit at this point. Walking along the sand on a beautiful spring morning, knowing that hours before there had been sea was such an amazing experience.

We got to the island after me playing about with seaweed and generally being a goofball and went to the most gorgeous cafe (www.pilgrimscoffee.com) It was so lovely and we cosied up the the log fire for tea and scones. Afterwards we explored the island before heading back before getting stuck.

The distance is VERY deceptive cos it is so flat and halfway back I was starting to get a little tired but a bit of shell collecting spurred me on. A snooze in the car and the rugby on the telly was the perfect way to end a gorgeous morning walking in a stunning part of the North East to my favourite place in the world.

P.S. Do bacon sandwiches ever taste better than being cooked outside with hunger being the best sauce?!

Hello Sunshine :)

Looking out of the window and seeing fluffy clouds and blue sky AND knowing it isn't freezing out there makes my heart soar. I look back at the post I did nearly two years ago and I feel exactly the same. Crocuses make me grin like a silly loon, the snow drops are still going strong (they have been since January in our garden!) The million birds that have suddenly appeared in our garden. We always have lots of birds but in the last week the population appears to have doubled!

I love the birds in the garden. It is a bit of a secret passion of mine to sit and watch them with a cup of tea. The clumsy wood pidgeons, the pretty blue tits, blackbirds, chaffinches and my favourites the long tailed tits. The long tailed tits fly around in groups so if you see one you know there will be more nearby. We get slightly less regular visitors such as the nuthatch, woodpeckers (and thankfully even rarer the sparrowhawk!) It is a wonderful priviledge of living so close to the countryside that I can look out the window and see such a beautiful array of birds.

What is your favourite bird?

*Peeks around*

I'm amazed this blog is still here! After speaking to the gorgeous Emily at the weekend it made me wonder if my old blog was still there and it is! Only two years later... I looked back at a way old post about all the things I decided to do in 2010 and do you know what? I didn't do enough of them. So here's to running round my blog, dusting it off and here I go again.

I have been ill after Christmas and it sucked. It was stressful and worrying. Now I am getting lots better and feeling stronger and more like my old self. I think this blog will be a good place put my thoughts and ideas down now I am on the road to recovery.