the running wave

As the sun rises on the day that all our stuff gets packed up, back in the wood, and shipped to store tomorrow, I am thinking that these amazing Bass Rock skies are becoming rather addictive!

Top this!

As we are betwixt and between homes, we have been lucky enough to have been offered the choice of two North Berwick flats to stay in meantime.  One looks across the golf course to the sea, the other has running waves a few yards from the front door.  And with very heartfelt thanks to both parties, you can probably guess which one we chose!   This morning dawned quiet, softly grey, and a peaceful walk on the beach with the dogs before breakfast was a very good start to the day. A lone sailor started his day with a sail across the sea towards the Bass Rock. Later in the day, over the space of about twenty minutes, the light went through several changes as it recovered from heavy rain and a return to late afternoon sunshine, with a magnificent rainbow.   I think North Berwick has provided a pot of gold, and we shall enjoy it here!

We moved from the wood yesterday.  Lots of packing up and general chaos, so much so that Tilly couldn't bear to look!

Today Mr Gaucho, the dogs, our cat and I leave the wood.  We have lived here for six and a half years, and it's been quite a revelation.  I have always been a bit nervous of woods.  I suppose The Wind in the Willows did it - all those evil faces in the wild wood!  So I was a little apprehensive when we first came here.  The house is surrounded by trees, although not dark in any way at all.  We face south, to the sunshine.  It wasn't long before I came to love the presence of the trees - lime and sycamore mostly, with some beech, silver birch and others mixed in.  When the wind is wild, they shelter us from the blast, although the roar as the wind rushes through the trees can be terrifyingly loud- especially at night time !  The deer, badgers, foxes and occasional hare that pass through the wood leave their pathways, which always enchant me.  The birdsong is magnificent, with the dawn chorus starting at 3.15 am in late spring and early summer.  At night the owls hoot, a hauntin

We have been away for the weekend!  Only five miles from home, but friends invited us to stay, so we did!   I love the British seaside.  We do it so well, and nothing much has changed in the sixty plus years since I first set foot on a beach!  Windbreaks, buckets and spades, sandcastles, ice creams, looking for shells, flotsam and jetsam, poking about in rock pools and the seaweed, crabbing, burying some poor soul up to their neck in sand, flying kites, portable barbecues, and lots of messing about on the sand and amongst the running waves. On Saturday the sun shone brightly, all day long. Five musketeers, waiting to jump the next best wave to break over the sea pool wall! My favourite washing line! If you look carefully, beyond the washing line, you can see a boy jumping off the harbour wall, into the water - a favourite sunny day activity for North Berwick youngsters! Sunday dawned blue and sunny, but the grey from the west eventual