It was a long drive from Cambridge up to Northumbria. The A14 was crawling, and the A1 around Newcastle was bad, but apart from that plain sailing - if a journey of 6 hours can be plain sailing. Saw the "Angel of the North" just south of Newcastle - what an ironwork statue erected not that long ago there is called. Not overpoweringly impressive to me. Stayed in the Victoria Hotel Bambrugh which was fine. That like much of the area could date from Victorian days if not earlier. It was stepping back in time a little. From my room I had a good view of the castle in Bambrugh. Dined at the hotel - just simpler - and breakfasted.

On the Saturday I felt guilty as I got downstairs at 8am sharp and the staff were trying to have an early morning rest. I had gone up to Northumbria to go on a birdwatching day on Holy Isle. My bird watching is of a low-level, so by eye the kestrel perched on a telephone pole was an anonymous shape. Even with the binoculars I brought it could have been any bird to my eyes. In the telescope the guide had brought you could see the kestrel resplendent. The Saturday dawned very misty and stayed misty, making crossing the causeway from the mainland to Holy Isle more adventurous. This was my first time in the area and I had pictured Holy Isle as a rocky outcrop - instead there's an expanse of sandflats and marshes to cross before you get to rolling sand dunes then gentle hills where sheep roam.

Part of the attraction was to see Holy Isle - a castle on a high mound, a walled garden seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the eroded walls of the Abbey, tea rooms in the High Street. We did quite a bit of walking between beaches and harbours and bird hide - saw apart from the kestrel fulmars and teals and grebes and guillemots and cormorants and eider ducks and goldfinches and meadow pipits. I wouldn't be able to tell them apart by myself even now!

Lindisfarne Abbey

Lobster pots

Castle in the mist - the bird is an accident

Flowers of Parnassus