Sister's Seaside Saurez

Being blessed with a birthday on one of the best days to gamble on British Summer seaside sun I have always had a gravity towards the sea more than normal to mark another year
A happy combination...birthday boy Dave, his lovely big sister, Gill and a North East England seaside roadtrip...

...First seaside - Crimdon Dene

These are also the coastal villages around which I work...they used to be coal mining communities and as such still bare some scars (seen and not!) so it was fun sharing these places in a more relaxed way...

Next stop...Blackhall Rocks...I think it does!

Looking left...

...Looking right

Love the ships leaving Hartlepool harbour on the horizon

Just a short drive and we are in another old seaside mining village, Horden...

The history of Horden beach

On Northwards as we start thinking it may be dinner time...we find Seaham with it's harbour...

As a child my school bus use to end up in Seaham Harbour (not literally!) and I used to always feel like staying on just to end up at the coast...

Dinner time...has to be Fish and Chips...we stopped at Seaburn, strangely the resort where I spent my honeymoon night! (maybe that is why it didn't make it!) 

Not a lunch for the diet..but it was my birthday!

Marsden Rock peeping out over the cliff top...

Also it happened to be the weekend of the Seaburn airshow and so we were treated to a rehearsal jet flypast...I like to pretend that it was my Dad's birthday contribution (he was after all in the Royal Air Force as a young man...

Time was passing too quickly so we headed for South Shields...always a favourite for our family in the Summer...

Tynemouth in the distance...

British beach goers are always prepared...there will be umbrellas amidst the sun cream...

My old friend the sea

Surfs up!  

Tynemouth looking towards Cullercoats...

...then we headed home for the family birthday tea (including the derigare cake full of candels!)

Mam and her lovely friend, John

The beautiful picture my lovely sister Gill & her hubby Clive gave me for my birthday...

Thanks Gill x

In search of water (the quest for peace)

The Quest for Peace

In search of Water

It was with deliberate intent that I woke up this morning…

a head full of plans, hopes and ambitions.

With a challenge to endeavour to look into what inspired me from the word…WATER…I formulated an adventure.

To be honest I was already looking for an excuse to visit a place a friend had shown me. As they do not walk well I left my first visit already scheming to be back to explore more.

However

Already a seed of some doubt grew in my mind

Never a fan of forcing a plan there was a nagging feeling that I was too blatantly heading for water

BUT head I did

Once I arrived at the location I should have trusted the signs…mainly

Car Park Full

Clearly each of those car park filling cars was of course also full of people wanting to share my experiences

With blind faith and enthusiasm and dogged determination I continued and parked amid the throngs…and off I set with my camera firmly gripped but hidden in my pocket for fear people would intrude into my private world

I sneaked the odd picture

My eyes searched for subjects

Again something felt wrong

Then of course I relaxed and remembered

It is the journey

I was in search of water…seemingly my destination

BUT the journey I was having in that search was where the beauty lay

As they say

Life is not a destination but a journey

So I strove on with renewed vigour

…this is my journey…

There are some pictures which do fulfil my brief

And maybe two or three of those I like

The other pictures have there place

The journey...
...not too surprisingly it started in a forest and so we have a dessert of trees...

Autumnal path...

With some pretty tree walls with lovely wall lights!

Beautiful old roots...the trees boots!

Maybe this is how they came up with the idea of melting trees to make paper!?

More majestic walls and fabulous light...

Love the colours here

Crazy panoramic trick giving you some idea of something...but not sure what!

Love the next three shots - These are my WATER shots...
We have...
Tree in a puddle...

My total favourite...
The Clouds being the original home of the puddle....
Water at home

Love the colours in this reflection....
Reflections of what might have been...and was

A straight view of the reservoir I walked around...
Definitely Reservoir Dogs...I have never seen so many...

Interestingly in is called NewmillerDam
...and as I set off home listening to Classic FM...they played the Dambusters theme...

Love the viscosity of the water in this shot

It was a lovely Sunny Autumn day

Think this tree was leaning over for a drink

Another favourite shot...this guy had the best profile and a wonderful beard!

The overflow system in effect for the reservoir

Looks like the house is sinking,...great location apart from the thousands of people photographing your living room!

The first picture I took...looking hard...for I don't know what...

Some lovely little sculptures around the walk and aptly similar to my pic

Add caption

There were some very sweet benches around the walk with very lovely and slightly sad message plaques 

This is a great example...

Just to illustrate the ironic lack of peace and frustrating unwanted company...although there was some odd nice  signs of love and life hand in hand...

So now the day is done I packed away the forest back into it's kits form and headed for my next adventure in my Quest for Peace....