Postcard from Northumberland
Just back from holiday – a week of long walks on vast empty beaches and on hills where we never saw anyone else all day. But then, that’s Northumberland for you. We had a cottage in Embleton which had neither phone nor wifi signal so this was definitely a good time to reconnect with my creative flow and Get Writing! Rather than tie myself to a longer piece such as the WW1 drama I seem to be have been writing for ever, I embarked on a series of observations, tuning in to finer detail.
If anyone is familiar with Holy Island, they will know that looking South across to the mainland you will see the remote Ross Sands with Ross Island and it’s two navigation towers used to guide boats into Holy Island harbour. This location has always fascinated me and it is where we spent a bright chilly day with a 6 mile round trip to walk from the nearest car park.
Well worth it and I’d like to share a few creative thoughts I had along the way:
Postcard from Ross Island 5th December 2014
On the shoreline of Ross Island I found:
Anxiety
A copper beech leaf
A foam meringue
A Betty Boo balloon, bright pink, punctured
A Mercedes Benz hub cap, model not specified
A tangle of blue frayed rope
Long shadows
A red plastic fuel container with a black cap
Scatterings of exoskeletons from lives long gone
The camauflaged cry of a curlew
A wam hand (to hold mine)
Reassurance
