Brisk 4 mile trek around River Wear with family this afternoon. Nibbling wind gonna be biting soon . Brrrrrr! Not a bird in sight . Rowan berries stripped off trees. Dining elsewhere ! Many people strolling happy . Nice . Durham City Centre quiet. Cathedral mellow. Cloisters serene. Long Tailed Tits prancing in leafless trees. Visible for once ! Lads young men growing steadier with age . Parents bad example . Daddy growled at cutesy dog . He scampered off fearfully . Too happy . Frivolous! Darkening dusk silhouetted trees and birds on way back. Lowery cut-out mystery . Fiona slept into evening cloud fall on motorway back. Great afternoon out . Lot of love felt for family and friends. 

Xmas Day walkabout with Fiona downstream from Durham City . 6 miles of bliss . Coffee and Danish Pastry break sat on log on recently flooded muddy riverbank. Lovely. Two Goosanders floated by. Amazing sawbills with serrated beaks to catch and keep fish! Pacey walk on great path under steam puff cloudy sky . Two more Goosanders seen up close at Durham Center. Amazing . City solemn . Cathedral Evensong beautiful. Jesus' birth . Gods Day. "Blessed is the man who, with a face beaming with light, hath turned towards Him." I have turned and I beam! God bless Christmas and all the people who celebrate it!

Whitby windy winter wonderland we went . South Sandsend beach up a metre of sand from last time . Longshore drift current  faster. Long deep wide sine wave smooth trenches on beach for a mile. Soggy sand ! Friendly Turnstone bird 1 metre away. River Esk flood running over incoming tide . Brown sediment deep. Slashed out of Whitby Piers ends to make delta patterned  stain on sea. Marie Antoinettes coffee and cake indulgence. Indulgent!  Fiona glowing. Beautiful. Lads enjoying our company. Wind blowing us around South Pier.  But up Whitby steps! North Yorkshire Moors sunset thrilling . Blowy cloudy sun-beamed crepuscular rays heart warming. Gorgeous . Steps walk warmed us up. Seagull stamping ground. Imitating rain. Worms fooled . Seagull eats worms. Off shore wind punching sea curved marked wind ripples on way back. Flattening waves though. Long shore drift. Drifting! Great afternoon.

Well no Whitby today. To wet. Little to see. So to Inshanghai Restaurant in Durham City  we trotted to from a wet Shincliffe. River Wear at dusk dark swirling rising rain swollen torrent. Birds singing though. Popped into Cathedral for that feeling of the spirit. Choir singing . Beautiful. Tummies also making noise . To Restaurant through dark woods we went . Tummies topped up. Even darker riverside walk to Prebend Bridge . Missed seeing International Space Station . Looking up not good idea when riverside walking in the dark. Laughter . But no splashes! Owls hooting we're tootling . Another wholesome night with the S-Ps.

Sunlit strewn winter sky drew me and the Goodwife Fiona to Saltholme RSPB . Grey fluff cloud on arrival. Rain threatening. Breezy cold wind sweeping across dozens of Shovellers on lake. Broad spade like beak for shovelling! Canada and Barnacle Geese flocked on meadows. Lapwings and Golden Plovers viewed through Wardens scope. Magic detail. Oil tanker creeping down Tees. Top deck floating across the ground. Eerie! Birdwatchers well wrapped  against stiffening wind. Pure White Little Egret airily moving from place to place feeding.  In its element. Saltholme salt-marsh magic again!

 Magical Durham River Wear walk with Fiona in fine fettle. Mysterious ripple in River. Not Little Grebe or Goosander. Ripple to big and in wrong place. Ripple appears again 10 m away in pile of logs. Either large salmon or otter. Suddenly head big tail and whiskers appear for two seconds to look at us. Otter. String of bubbles behind it as it dives. Magic. 14 years of walking that riverbank and first Otter. Spruced up excited walk after this. Do we ever stop chatting these days!? Warm day but wintry sky. Fiona ill yesterday with sinusitis but better today. Sign of general improving health. Fiona fine fettle female!

Teesside Saltholme RSPB sojourn today. Wildlife saltmarsh eye in industrial storm of machine making and chemical brews necessary for our lives. Fiona fine fettle lady by my side. First encounter with a Merlin hunting low and deadly. Wonderful. Next up and over  Redshanks and Pintails . Thousands of roosting Lapwings and Golden Plovers down from freezing hills for winter estuary life. Spooked by Merlin so rising up in bird clouds and then down to perching safety only to rise again . Merlin in sky. Foxes on ground!  Clouds crowding to grey on cold South East wind moving West threatening rain. Cumulus to Stratoculmulus to pannus confusion . No rain! Waxwings searched for.  Not found. No visit to Teesside yet according to local birdwatching old guy. Hull yes. Teesside no. Berries not good enough?! Miles trod and cold felt .Coffee and muffin feast at cafe. We experience a lot but make do with little. Parsimony favourite lifestyle flavoured with fun and love . Friends family  nature technology and love of God fulfill my life .