Country Diary

I am currently on my summer holidays, staying across the estuary from the coastal village of Alnmouth. We are accommodated in a solid Northumbrian timber and sandstone barn, converted into a picture-windowed cottage.

The outlook over the foreshore from these casements is sublime. Church Hill, a place of worship dating back a thousand years or more, hides the open sea from view. The dunes, battered by winds and seas and tides, shelter the saltings.