Collecting Thoughts

Samphire picking in Tyninghame Bay. To round off a lovely weekend, we walked to John Muir Country Park and into the Tyne Estuary - properly known as Tyninghame Bay. There were flocks of common terns, which got me very excited because I've been looking for them all year, and samphire by the ton, which got Dotty very excited because it's yummy and very very expensive in London!

There are a lot of squishy little plants called samphire, this one is certainly "marsh samphire" (Salicornia europaea) and although we munched it all the way home, it should be gently cooked.

L-R: Betty the dog, Teddy, Dotty, Katie, Malcolm, Charlie, Gordon. (Duncan had sloped off home already!)

I'm now winding down after a wonderful weekend full of love and friendship. Dotty's children have completely bonded with mine, needing dragged to the dinner table/off the beach/off their bikes/away from the duck pond/away from Wii Party... etc. They're immediately best friends. And us "adults" have had a very fine time as well, playing with our own toys. So there.

Now it's a week of work and Dotty will be back next weekend. Plan: sleep more, toy more, chum-a-lot!