Skip to main content

Beautiful beaches and stunning castles

The beach was messy today - not untidy but uneven.... and uneven in a different way to before... that's what I like about the beach it's always different!  The tide was just past high and it hadn't been a very high tide compared with recent ones which is why I suppose the beach was undulating in different directions even within a square metre radius.  Contributing to the 'messy ' look were lots of pesky footprints above high water line - people dogs, horses, birds and probably a few less distinguishable ones who knows what frequents the beach on a dark moonlit night.

The sea was full of coal dust but there was very little evident on the sand but there were vast areas of miniature windswept pinnacles - tiny spikes with long trails where the wind had carried the grains of sand, close up up it would resemble a martian alien landscape.   On a larger scale there weren't many people evident considering it was such a nice day.  A few dog walkers and a couple of sunbathers catching the indian summer sun.

I sat sketching the sea trying in vain to capture the movement and waves in a bit more detail.. I keep trying but never quite manage it -

After the beach we went to explore Edlingham castle a lovely ruined building sat in the valley near Rothbury, climbing the remains of the spiral staircase and sitting up there surveying the landscape wondering what it would be like to be living there in a different century, trying to imagine the hustle and bustle of a thriving community and a fully intact building.


There's something compelling about ruins, the history but more so the outlines and mounds of stones and undergrowth that slowly invades. Edlingham Castle belongs to English Heritage and is very well maintained but still has a slightly unkempt appearance with interesting lichen and mosses slowly covering the ancient stones.  We didn't expect the weather to be so good so I didn't take my sketch book but we took loads of photos for future inspiration.  There is so much to draw- shapes, texture, silhouettes, colour and all the different combinations... I'm looking forward to experimenting..
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein.  We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows.  It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland,  it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers!  The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout.   It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers....  The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town.  Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now.  The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art....  Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...
2 comments
Read more

verdant lushness

Its a never ending island hop... today we hopped of the boat at Kingstown, on the island St. Vincents and Grenadine. Once through the usual port duty free - cheap booze and diamonds to go milarkey we were straight into the town... crazy noisy smelly chaos... refreshingly no tat shops for tourists, just local markets and street traders all vying for local sales.  Music blasting from everywhere, cars (very battered and often very pimped) all over the roads - parked in the middle of the street, loading, unloading, chatting seemingly oblivious to the total traffic jam caused behind them...  We walked through this mayhem - the temperatures were rising probably about 30 degrees - tourists evident by trying to walk on the shady side of the street - even when we turned off the main drag and there were less people it was still like carnival time with music blasting everywhere. Its very atmospheric and mostly promotes a good vibe although I have heard '3 little birds' everywhich way a...
1 comment
Read more