Birthdays, beaches and boats

Today is my sister's 33rd birthday. To celebrate, mum, Ian and I drove down to Seahouses to meet Jane and Tony. Seahouses is a village situated along the Northumberland coastline.

We had a picnic on the beach, which among other things, included prosecco, cake, singing and 'the bumps'.

We then headed out to Seahouses harbour and met Alan, skipper of the Ocean Explorer. As part of the birthday celebrations, mum had chartered a boat to take us out to the Farne Islands.

The boat trip was brilliant, we saw lots of wildlife including some shags (get your mind out of the gutter, they're birds), a baby puffin, gannets, guillimots, terns and a lot of seals.

The Farne islands are apparently resistant igneous Dolerite outcrops. You can see one of these outcrops in the background. They're pretty impressive. They are all owned by the National Trust, who are tasked with preservation of the islands and their wildlife.

The only island not owned by them is Longstone. This was made famous by Grace Darling, daughter of the lighthouse keeper, who spotted and rescued 9 people from the wreck of the Forfarshire on 7 September 1838. The lighthouse still stands and this island is owned by Trinity House (Lighthouse folk). Alan told us they were thinking of renting out the house attached to the lighthouse for holiday lets - so get your name down if you're interested!

A brilliant day was had by all and we ended it with an ice cream and a stroll along the beach. Marvellous.

Happy Birthday Jane!