SEATON SANDS, MAY 31, 2020.

Beach Buoy decided to go to the beach in the van.
They arrived around 7-04 am.
It was mild.
It was foggy out in the bay.
The sound of fog horns seemed to rebound off one another.

Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog walked to the water's edge.
The equi-spaced 7 am club were already on their way south on the strand line.

Every now and then the sun showed a willingness to burn through the fog.

Then it would go to fog once more.
Beach Buoy paused to scan the bay from Hartlepool Headland in the north over the The Gares to the south.
Even in a colour photograph it looked as if an artist had sketched the scene using every grade of pencil from soft to hard.


Beach Buoy went up to the dune stack; stones in hand.
He paused a while and decided to head back to the van.
There was tea and toast to make!

On they way back they passed the Chocolate Pudding Dog and its owner.
Chocolate Pudding came over for a hello as the two dog owners chatted briefly.

The loudest of all the fog horns was becoming louder.
It was from a large ship coming into port; a ghost ship.
A Tees Tug sat just outside the river mouth  ready to guide the larger vessel to it's berth.

On the way back the sun finally broke through.

Beach Buoy made Tea and Toast as Stubborn Dog looked on.
A lady cyclist sat on the Promenade wall.
Her bike leaned on the wall as her ponytail blew in the pleasant breeze.

Another lady unloaded a horse from an unusually small  horse box van.
She mounted the White Horse and headed for the beach access ramp.
The horse's ponytail blew in the pleasant breeze.

Beach Buoy finished his breakfast as more Twitchers arrived to look at the Little Terns that were nesting just behind the Promenade Wall.

BEACH BUOY.

SEATON SANDS , BLAST BEACH, SEAHAM HARBOUR AND A BIKE RIDE! 30 MAY 2020

Beach Buoy wanted to see the sunrise.
Trouble is he went to bed at 12-50am
and had to set the alarm for 3-50am
He didn't find sleep straight away.
When the alarm did go off, Beach Buoy was in a deep deep sleep.
By 4-10 am they were heading on foot for the beach.
The street lights were still on but began to go out in a random sequence as they headed towards the beach.
To be honest he was tempted to make the short journey in the van, so that he could enjoy post-beach walk tea and toast in the snugness and smugness of the van.

They passed a bottle that had been left on a garden wall.
The owner of the garden seemed to have been having trouble with litter.
The wall had a small space between a raised area and a tree.
People must have been using the gap as a rubbish bin.
The owner had made a little wooden sign.
PLEASE DON'T PUT YOUR RUBBISH
IN HERE.
That'll work.
To be fair it did.
They left it on the wall

A Lone Gull on a nearby roof seemed to think it was funny and chuckled to himself.

Four more Gulls walked on Cricket Club Grass.
All four Gulls sounded like cats.

In the distance, Beach Buoy could see the the Wind Turbines were turning slowly.
It was a beautiful morning.
As they turned into the car park, a Silver Camper Van did the same.
'Bet they have tea and bread for toast' thought Beach Buoy.
The sea came into view  at 4-23 am
Five, yes five people were stood on the promenade
Ten, yes Ten others came into view on the water's edge.
waiting for the sunrise
Some of the ten were children, they ran up and down excitedly.

Beach Buoy ambled down to the water's edge.
It was 4-22 am 
Two figures headed in his direction seemingly wanting the same small spot of the enormous beach.
Beach Buoy moved south.

4-37 am
The sun showed up wanting  half of the world, not just a beach upon it.

The sun cleared the horizon.

Beach Buoy went up to the dune edge and sat on a driftwood seat.
He made notes in his beach book.
He was sure he could hear a nearby kettle boiling and smell the aroma of toast, drifting down from the car park.
To the north the seafront houses glowed in the bright morning sunlight.

One of the sunrise worshipers had decided to head south at the water's edge.

An aeroplane took flight.

A driftwood sundial confirmed that it was just gone daft o'clock.
They headed south.

After stacking the dune stack at 5-15 am, they headed down to North Gare Corner.
Three fishermen stood together but apart.
Their rods were angled in their tripods.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog had a sit and think down in North Gare Corner.
The fishermen gave up at 5-45 am.

Stubborn Dog watched them go, then he fell asleep.

This little fellow joined them, before jumping and crawling his way to a nearby rock pool.

They headed back.
The early birds (Most) had headed home.
The beach waited for a new wave of visitors.
The next shift.
It was 5-57am.
It was 6-23 am when the next shift began to show.

An old familiar dog with three legs ran towards Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog. It stopped just short, then headed back to its owner.


They were back at base camp by 7 am
making tea and toast.

Later it was coffee at Nose's Point, near Seaham.

A short walk.

More drink down at Seaham Harbour with Red Acre Beach as a back drop,

Odd vapour trails down over Roker.

They left the blues behind.

When they arrived back in Seaton Carew, Bech Buoy made sure that his mountain bike was road ready.
Its a white bike
It would  look lovely on the back of the van on one of those fancy cycle rack.

He paused at Newburn Bridge, scene of his Great Grandfather's heroics for which hr received
THE SEA GALLANTRY MEDAL

William Grainger
SGM
1864 -1946

He headed back.

BEACH BUOY.

SEATON SANDS 29 MAY 2020 FRIDAY

It had been a very warm day.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog had left the house on foot at 7-30 pm.
The wildflower beds were brilliant.

It was first time the car park had opened for the first time for weeks.

Trilby man...

Thankfully the beach wasn't too busy.
Someone had made a driftwood kite flying structure.

They headed south.
It was a gorgeous evening. 

Beach Buoy glanced north; plenty of space for all to share.

He picked up some stones for the stack.
Just as he approached the dunes around 20 Geese did a low level flight over the stack.
No chance of obtaining a photograph with hands full of stones.
He dropped the stones onto the stack and reached for the binoculars.
He watched them fly over to the village then take a sharp left (West.) 
They had gone.
He and Stubborn Dog sat down in front of the stack, binoculars in hand.

A large white ship sailed out of the River Tees.
Beach Buoy focused on the name with the binoculars.
DORE SONG.

It was 8-22 pm
The beach was silent.
Everyone else had headed north.
He soaked up the pleasant sun, the pleasant breeze on a pleasant evening.
He knew you had to find comfort and peace, as and when you could.

DORE SONG  cleared the wind turbines and headed south.

Stubborn Dog had fallen asleep behind Beach Buoy.
He was snoring.
Beach Buoy scanned Hartlepool Bay with the binoculars, from north to south.
Hartlepool Headland, open sea, The Sea Serpent, North Gare Pier with  the cliffs of Saltburn and Staithes beyond it.
Both resorts pleasantly  basking the pleasant evening sunlight.

To the north a figure headed south along the water's edge.
It was either a fisherman or a very lost snooker player.

Binocular time!
It was a fisherman.
He set up his gear just a few metres beyond Beach Buoy and his sleepy dog.

Beach Buoy left the fisherman to enjoy the beach as his own.

They headed north, squinting into the bright sunlight.
Their long sunshine shadows trailed behind them as if reluctant to leave.
Beach Buoy had visions of having to bribe the shady pair with the promise of an ice-cream each to have them up the pace.
The noisiest boat in the world left the river.

The tide came in and wiped the slate clean like a shaken etch-a-sketch.

A driftwood stick flew his  kite.

They crossed over to the car park.
As well as the cars, rubbish had returned.

Seagulls picked through chip wrappers, as they did so Beach Buoy could almost hear the gulls say.
' Bang goes the diet.'

BEACH BUOY.

 

SEATON SANDS, HARTLEPOOL 28 MAY, 2020.

May as well have a coffee by the sea when you can.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog parked up by the Crazy Golf, less than five minutes from base camp.
A VW T2 trundled by, it was cream and as smart as a carrot.
Every car travelling north set off the
20mph
SLOW DOWN sign.

A young man walked past with one tattooed leg; he did have another less decorative leg too.
The sun shone brightly.
The wind turbines turned out in the bay, thanks to the pleasant breeze from the south east.
Six teenagers crossed the road on their bicycles; four of them did a wheelie.

The tinted glass on the van's cooker and sink combination was acting as some sort of Camera Obscura.
The seagulls that were hanging on the updraft of the seafront houses, put on a show on the van's worktop surface.

Beach Buoy drank coffee whilst sitting in a back seat.
Stubborn Dog snored in the front passenger's seat. 

A man with a beard walked south.
He was wearing a black T-shirt.

EMPTY 
THE 
TANK

was the T-shirt's slogan.

Beach Buoy wondered if he was employed by a chemical toilet company?

A couple of kids led two horses down the road.

A Black Ford Fiesta driver figured there was enough room to park behind the van.
It didn't go well. 
Beach Buoy expecting a thump on the van.
The young driver was making turn 98 of his 100+ point turn.
Beach Buoy stepped out of the van, just to make his presence known.
The car drove off.

A feet first Motorcyclist, reckoned he would make a better attempt of parking in the space.
He did.
Beach Buoy headed for the beach with Stubborn Dog.
They walked south on the promenade.
A couple cycled by.
The gentleman was towing one of those dog carriers, like a little tent on wheels
Stubborn Dogs eyes lit up!
He looked at Beach Buoy as if to say...
"Well you flipping kept that quiet!"
Stubborn Dog seemed to find another few bricks to add to the weight that Beach Buoy was towing.
They caught up with the dog taxi couple. 
They had parked up at a bench near the clock tower.
The occupant of the taxi was out and having a sniff around.
Bless him, he looked like the oldest dog alive.

Twitchers were watching over the Little Tern Site.
A Lone Truck Tyre stood alone in the otherwise empty and locked Car Park.  

They walked to the water's edge and headed south.
A young lady and a fisherman had the same idea.
The fisherman took the lead, the young lady was in second position with her two sausage dogs, she had taken off her shoes, maybe for better grip in the Beach Walk Handicap?
Beach Buoy lagged behind in third place with a handicap of his own; Stubborn Dog.

The fisherman won and celebrated by stepping into the sea,
The young lady took facebook photos of her dogs.
Beach Buoy ambled.

A swimmer emerged from the sea and transformed into  jogger. He was gone in a flash.

They stacked the stack then sat on the dune edge.

They eventually headed back to a place Stubborn Dog didn't want to leave, which was now a place he didn't want to go to.

On the way back they beach cleaned a Chalice from the Palace. 
The Chalice had once allegedly held the pellet with poison...
and Beach Buoy just spent ten minutes on youtube watching 
that clip
from
That 
film.

They reached the promenade; it was 9-11 pm.
The twitchers had gone.
Kids still played on the beach with their buckets and spades.
In the almost empty car park, that lone tyre had fallen over;
too tired.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog headed north as a couple walked south, each eating a Sundae... on a Thursday!
BEACH BUOY.

SEATON SANDS, HARTLEPOOL. 27 MAY 2020.

It had been bit of an awkward beach walk last night.
Beach Buoy decided to wait a little tonight.
He parked up on the sea front.
He sat with a coffee and a Stubborn Dog and watched  the lockdown world go by for a while.
It was around 7 pm.
The tide looked high, the bay looked as full as a gun.
Walkers walked.
Cyclists cycled
Joggers jogged.

Beach Buoy sat in the rear seat of the van.
A slightly disappointed Stubborn Dog had the driver's seat as his own.
The little dog rested his head on one of the armrests.

Beach Buoy much preferred a low tide; more space and lovely reflections.
At the moment, tonight's beach looked a narrow one.
Figures were lined up on the water's edge like a broken fence, with just the uprights remaining.

Beach Buoy opened the side door of the van.
A blast of a refreshing breeze and a scamper of paws and they were off!

They headed south on the promenade to their usual beach access point.
Their sunshine shadows were already on the beach below them, walking the water's edge, dodging fenceposts and waving.

The breeze from the north east was lovely.

Stubborn Dog took every opportunity to show any sitting spectators just how well trained Beach Buoy was at scooping the poop.

Beach Buoy had a long held theory that Stubborn Dog was in fact a Cat in a Dog suit, owing to his reluctance to do as he is told.
Beach Buoy had searched for the costume's zip without success.
He now has another theory.
Stubborn Dog is said to be a Lhasa Apso, Beach Buoy is of the opinion that he may just be a large Shitzu....

They rested on the promenade wall, near to the Little Tern nesting site.

A dropped and now melted lemon top ice-cream lay nearby, looking like a decorators nightmare.

A young woman on the beach below struggled to pull a pushchair on the soft sands.

They continued south.
Beach Buoy could hear that slap of a joggers feet approaching from behind.
The promenade is eight paving stones wide
Each looking like a lane.
To avoid a collision, Beach Buoy claimed lane three and Stubborn Dog lane four, leaving the jogger lanes five, six, seven and eight to choose from for his overtaking manoeuvre; he chose lane Two....... 

They headed to the water's edge.
A disappointed looking lady headed for the dunes with her Husky Dog.
She had had to leave her sledge down by the Village Green as the weather forecast was way out.

They headed to the stack and added some stones.
They sat nearby for a while; allowed exercise; brain exercise. 

They would head back soon.

Two fisherman stood nearby, eagerly watching their rod ends.
One produced a flask and they met in no man's land, both still keeping an eye on their rods.

They headed back. 
The tide had started to pull back.
The strand line and the water's edge now maintained a socially acceptable gap of around two metres.

Two paddle boarders headed south, close to shore.
Beach Buoy wondered what fishermen of years gone by would have thought of it all?
Two blokes on a plank each.

Beach Buoy rejoined the promenade as he continued North to the Van.
A Cyclist overtook them.
The cyclist needed some help with positive thinking if he shirt was anything to go by?
The Cycling shirt was Dark Blue.
The message on the back of the shirt in bright white letters was...
FAT LAD
AT
THE
BACK
The cyclist was both first and last in one go.

Beach Buoy  noticed two VW vans; both white, both T5's.
Most probably one each for the paddle boarders thought Beach Buoy.

Beach Buoy then spotted his own white van; a T4..
there it was next to the disappointed eskimo's sledge.

BEACH BUOY.

SEATON SANDS, HARTLEPOOL, 26 MAY 2020.

Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog had left the house at around 5-58pm.
It was very hot.
Beach Buoy was glad of some shade as he passed underneath some leaf-laden trees.
As they passed the Cricket Club, Beach Buoy looked across to the large white sports domes in the distance.
In the bright sunlight they looked like white clouds that had fell to earth, too tired or too heavy to go on.

Elizabeth Way was crowded with parked cars, left  by beach-goers who were at a loss because the main car parks are still closed due to virus.
Cars also lined Tees Road.
An accident waiting to happen.

The beach was busy.

Beach Buoy headed to the water's edge.
There was a gorgeous cooling breeze off the sea,
from the south east.

A family sat a few metres from the sea.
A dogs head appeared from the deepest hole that Beach Buoy had ever seen a dog dig.
Maybe the Dog paused to check the risk assessment ?
There were definitely some access / egress issues.

It may not look like it from tonight's photographs but there were too many people and loose dogs to have a normal beach walk.
Beach Buoy didn't even bother going to the stack.
A family had set up camp nearby and it would all be a little awkward.

Beach Buoy just plonked himself on the soft sand and had a sit and think.
Stubborn Dog dozed off.
Even Beach Buoy laid back and pretended that he was on an
almost deserted beach.

They headed back.
Three firemen appeared from the dunes, they had beaten out a dune grass fire.

The evening was too nice to sit away from the sea.
Beach Buoy made a large coffee, grabbed a small dog and headed for the sea front in the van.

He remembered to take Biscuits.

BEACH BUOY.