Saturday we arrived at The Huffy House in Bilton near Alnmouth. Went for a walk on the beach in the sunshine but couldn't remember where I had left my camera, so no pics. We walked north toward Marden Rocks and sat in the sun for a while, utilising one of those concrete blocks that still decorate British beaches and were intended to stop German tanks rolling ashore - or so I was told.

Tim loved the beach but couldn't settle in the house. It's dog-friendly, too. No cream carpets and sofas, but stone flagged floors - wood in the kitchen - and only one sofa to guard He is used to his own chair at home, so keeps trying to sneak onto the sofa when he thinks we're not looking. The big windows are clear down to floor level and he can see out over the terrific view we have which I think looks west but dh tells me is north. Hardly a house in view and then only in the distance but we can see the viaduct and watch the trains come swooping round the curve and slow down for Alnmouth station. 

We are here for four nights and arrived with cooked chicken to tide us over the first night. That and a bottle of SB white wine kept us happy indoors. We did take Tim for a stroll about eightish, but it was horrendously windy and the lane was waterlogged - a string of large puddles, most of them joined together. He pulled and tugged on the lead, but we didn't let him off to run free. We didn't know about traffic, and he would have romped through most of the puddles - not good in anyone's house! As it happened, we did not meet a single vehicle.

Off to bed early in the big king size bed and went off to sleep easily. Tim woke me up four times, once about eleven  and asked to go outside. I had to hold onto the door as the wind howled around the cottage and he trotted over to a tree, peed on it and the let off a fanfare of barks. H'm, that will make us really popular, I thought, and called him back. Besides which, my nether regions were freezing in the breeze!