Friday 3rd July

We decided that we needed a weekend away from everything that’s going on here at the moment. We’d booked a pitch for George at the Barn at Beal site opposite Lindisfarne where we have stayed before. 

The views are gorgeous looking over the fields and tidal sands over to Holy Island. It’s also only up the road from where we’re storing George at the moment. The barn has a restaurant and bar which is handy. We arrived at lunchtime and after setting up we went for a bite to eat. The tide was in until about 5pm so we decided not to go over to the Island. Instead we sat outside. Natasha read and I did some painting. I did a few small 5”x7” watercolours, similar to my Caribbean ones. We spent all afternoon in the beautiful weather. Unfortunately, for painting, it was very windy. I eventually got fed up with the wind blowing everything around and we decided to go for a drink before a meal. The meal unfortunately wasn’t up to previous standard and the Timothy Taylor’s had run out, which was disappointing. 

We retired to the motorhome to watch the England match before bed. 

We woke to a beautiful, sunny morning and after bacon butties we took Luna for a walk down a farm path to the crossing point. The wild flowers around the small car park were stunning. I had taken my painting stuff but we then had a brief shower. Finding nowhere to sit we made a decision to go back to the site and take George across to the island before the tide came in. We could then spend 6 hours on the Island before the safe crossing time. We parked in the small, free car park near Vera’s  house. It had views across the estuary plus a view of the castle and watch tower with distant view of Longstone Lighthouse and Bamburgh Castle. Although very sunny it was also blowing a hoolie.  I painted from the motorhome for about 3 hours and did 10 small watercolours whilst Natasha read and slept. We took Luna on the massive,empty beach behind the dunes before crossing back to the campsite. I had made a chilli for tea which we ate watching the football and having a drink. 

On Monday we had some breakfast in the morning sun before beginning the process of packing up. We returned George to his current home and  set off back. It was a lovely break but we were straight back into real life. I cut the lawns whilst Natasha walked Luna and cooked tea. 

On Tuesday I photographed and varnished my recent Lake District/Northumberland paintings. On Wednesday I framed the 4 paintings for Beckstones Gallery and on Thursday I posted them for the August Exhibition. They had requested the j-pegs as they had the Cumberland Echoe interested promoting the exhibition. I also posted 8 more watercolours and 20 cards to Jetty Gallery anticipating them asking for them. 

My quiz last Thursday raised about £300 for Ian’s Hospice Charity which was good news but in the bad news section, after all the stress and work over the past 5 months we have decided to pull out of the house move…. More on this news next week as I’m too cross to blog about it at the moment.

The photo is the view from “George” across to Holy Island.