What do you do when it rains?

Maybe venture out between showers - though you'd have been lucky today as it either rained or rained some more. Think, perhaps, that you might make it down to the bird hide so that you can sit out of the rain and watch the wildlife? Well even the wildlife had probably packed it's bags and gone off to the South of France today! On Newton Ponds I managed to spy two black-headed gulls and one very distant coot. The gulls duly posed in front of the hide and did what gulls do - which was not very inspiring. In the end I've chosen to blip the bluebells with our cottages in the background. (The camera didn't stay out long - much too wet.)

We had lunch at Grey's Inn in Embleton, followed by a trip to the Swallow Fish smokehouse in Seahouses , where we bought lots more food, and ended our afternoon out with a short drive down the road to Bamburgh.

Most of us have felt very sleepy this afternoon and some of us slept. Not me, though I might have felt better if I had.

It's still raining as a write this and I think it will be an early night tonight.

Oh and I've been reading Susan Hill's (of Woman in Black fame) short story, `The small hand' which is very gripping and brilliantly written. I've almost finished.