The End of the Summer at the Seaside

Last weekend, the Ginge and I went to visit my Grandmother in my second home, the Northeast. The run-up to the weekend was relentless and saw me finishing my textbook-writing and completing my degree with my viva (I got a first, so I am chuffed to bits) and the Ginge up to his eyeballs in editing for other textbooks. Why do we do this to ourselves, you ask. Sometimes, we wonder that too, but it is fun most of the time. Anyway, we most definitely needed a weekend off and there are few places I would rather be than up north. My Grandmother lives on top of a hill in the quietest house in the world. The views are beautiful, the air is clear and her amazing home-cooking is always on-tap (I'm sure I put on weight every time I visit, but it's worth it). She doesn't have a television, so you have to find your own fun by listening to radio 4, finding family in old photographs or playing old boardgames like Boggle and Coppit. It is a perfect haven for relaxation and comforting family time. We spent Saturday at the seaside, just along from South Shields at Souter Lighthouse and Marsden beach. The Northeast coastline is one of the most beautiful in the world (not that I'm biased) and holds so many happy memories of my childhood, but I had never been to this particular area. What a fascinating place! Lots of exiting geology to gawp at and rock pools to poke around in, but also something I have never seen before: a lift shaft down to the beach. A man called 'Blaster Jack' built a house into the caves, which was later converted to and still runs as a pub. In the 1930s, the brewery company running the pub built this amazing tate-modernesque structure, which still works as a lift. It was beautifully bizarre and eccentrically English! It was so wonderful to be by the sea where the wind blew all the cobwebs away and the sun warmed freckles onto our cheeks. What a perfect way to end and remember the summer, now that we are officially into Autumn. 

Weekend oop North

We just spent a lovely family weekend up in the North East of England. It's where mum grew up and where a lot of my family still lives, including my sister who is at university there. I love being there, not just because I get to see my family, but because we spent so much time there as children. 

It has always felt like a second home to me.   

We spent Saturday afternoon / evening walking along the Quayside in Newcastle-Gateshead and looking around the Baltic Flour Mill Gallery. It was so quiet and the light made the water so serene and calm. There was an excellent exhibition by an artist called George Shaw. If only I were a very rich person and could afford one of his paintings. 

We spent Sunday at the coast, at St. Mary's Lighthouse.

I love the Durham/Northumberland coastline.It is so rugged and dangerous, yet capitvatingly beautiful.

It was bitterly cold and extremely windy. 

We pottered around for a while, sticking our noses into rockpools and gazing up at the vast white lighthouse.

It was a fascinating old place. So bleak on a cloudy day. 

It was amazing to think that people used to live there.  

There was a weird juxtaposition between the beautiful, Victorian lighthouse and the natural beauty of the seashore with the garish, brilliantly tacky snack van. The chips smelled so good though! It would have been very hard to resist if we didn't have some amazing pies to munch on in the car. 

It was not, however, very difficult to resist the ice cream van. Too cold. 

                                    

We finished off the afternoon with a trip to a new National Trust House called Seaton Delaval Hall. It was marginally warmer than the seaside and had some really beautiful formal gardens. A lot of the house was falling down, which added a tumble-down charm to the place. We even saw the first few snowdrops of the year. 

The rest of the weekend was spent visiting my awesome relatives and eating delicious food. Not too shabby for Naomi.