Sunday 29 March 2015

Baywatch




















Newbiggin by-the-sea is a fishing village on the south coast of Northumberland.  As a youngster I remember coming here to play on the beach and it seemed to my young eyes to be massive.  In just a few years the beach was all but gone, washed away by the sea.  There are just a handful of fishermen now who still regularly launch their cobles into the bay.

A large regeneration effort led to the man made recreation of the beach, and the village is all the better for it.  It helps bring the day trippers in and the museum on the bay explains Newbiggin's fishing heritage.

I took these pictures on an extremely windy, very cold February.























Saint Bartholomew's church sits at the northern end of the bay in what is not surprisingly called Church Point. From there you get an excellent views across the bay and down the coast towards Blyth and the off shore wind farm.

The large length of giant grey rocks stretching into the bay form part of the sea defence and it was popular with all of the local kids to climb across and do a little crab fishing.




















Another aspect of the regeneration was the creation of a new break water as well as an art installation known as "The Couple", a giant sculpture of a man and a woman looking out into the North Sea.






































































Sunday 22 March 2015

Jeepers, Creeper


Occasionally, we get visitors to the garden that we don't see very often.  The last time we saw a Treecreeper was more than two years ago.  Last week Terry spotted one motoring around the silver birch tree outside the kitchen window.

The speed in which it ascended the tree is quite startling.  The vertical surface doesn't present much of an obstacle for this beautiful little bird.  The curved bill is an ideal tool for discovering insects and spiders, it's main diet.  






Sunday 15 March 2015

Water Bed

Last weekend, our friend Ian stayed for a few days.  Ian is a great amateur photographer and he was one of the voices that persuaded me to start this blog.  He lives in northern Spain with his partner and his blog, Tales from Toriello is a great read. 

We opted to pay a visit to Whisby Nature Reserve as Ian had never been there before.  I managed to snap these photos in a quiet corner of one of the lakes.  What surprised me was how the swans pretty much ignored us and settled down despite the racket from the various gulls close by.











Sunday 8 March 2015

Showtime



























Following on from last week's post I said that I upload a some more images from the country show at Thorseby Hall.  These pictures are from the last couple of shows.

Thoresby Hall 


Sheepdog at work

Fastest dog competition


The Scurry Competition

























A Steppes Hawk
























Sunday 1 March 2015

Start Your Engines





























The Thoresby Country Show is an annual event that takes place towards the end of February. We love the sheer variety of displays, craftsman and stalls on display.  My only gripe is that the weather can be unpredictable at this time of year so you'll never know if your going to be wading through mud or having your face frozen off by the wind.  This year, it was the latter.

I'll do a more general post on the show next time, but the thing we enjoyed the most was the chainsaw challenge.  Half a dozen chainsaw artists creating a piece in thirty minutes. The pieces would then be auctioned off to the spectators afterwards.

We managed to get a good spot where we had a great view of one of the artists at work.
























Needless to say, we where impressed by the skill and talent on display, watching incredible birds appearing out of a large piece of wood.  I loved how much the guy wielding the chainsaw seemed to enjoy what he was going and the  Barn Owl was beginning to take shape in front of us.

There were bigger, more elaborate creations taking shape but what I liked about this one was the way the artist used the bark to help create the texture and colour of the wing.







A blow torch was used to colour parts of the sculpture.  We were impressed by the finished piece.

So impressed, we actually entered the bidding for it.  Amazingly, we won.



The light from the flash is a little harsh but I do like how it shows up every line and scratch.  It's an incredibly tactile object (and its also bloody heavy!).

Once the wood has dried out (we've been told this can take up to a year) we'll make a decision as to where "Oz" will sit.