Only in Britain do we really try to create seaside resorts on north-facing coasts at latitudes like 56º above the equator: but Redcar, near Middlesbrough, just about gets away with it thanks to having a really excellent beach that stretches for miles. Even when the sun is out, though, you still need to be quite hardy to make a day of it, but obviously this family have the necessary genetic qualities.
Ever further northward we travel. Only one shot in the near-14 years of this blog has been taken from further north and still been in the UK — that being the one in Thurso on 13/7/25 — but this is a status it will keep only 24 hours. Who cares anyway, Lybster harbour was a tranquil spot on a beautiful evening. Impossible to believe that 150 years ago the herring industry meant this was one of the busiest ports in the country. It isn’t now, for sure.
What ho, it’s Christmas. I try to get out on a walk on this day if possible: seems somehow more respectful (to myself, as much as anything) to do more than just consume. There’s even a Christianity reference here thanks to the well-sited church. Though what the giant cotton bud is doing out in the North Sea I do not know. For more pictures from today see my County Tops blog. And a happy Christmas to you all, whatever you were doing, however you celebrated it, in this particular time.
If one will decide to spend the weekend on England’s North Sea coast in November, one should expect some heavy weather; but today really took the biscuit. Storms washed over Scarborough in waves, every half an hour or so. Just as the foulness seemed to be gone, along came another bank of cloud and we were all drenched once more, with a foul wind to back it up. While on the castle headland this morning — one of the windiest places I’ve ever been, ranking up there with the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland — these lifeboats deployed; let us hope that whatever the reason, nobody had to be out there in the storms any longer than was necessary to get them back home.
Being 42 