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Thursday, 31 December 2020

NEW YEARS EVE 2020. SEATON SANDS, HARTLEPOOL.



Beach Buoy woke at 6-21 am.
He ambled downstairs.
He noticed an extra glow of whiteness as his passed the front door, on his way to the kitchen.
He made a detour to the living room window.
There had been a hard frost.
The van's windscreen was frozen.
He boiled a kettle for coffee now, coffee later and a hot water bottle to lay on the van's dashboard to help shift the frost.

He placed the hot water bottle on the dashboard and returned inside to drink the first coffee of the day.
He readied himself and Stubborn Dog for the beach.

The van was loaded under the gaze of a full moon.



They set off for the beach.
Beach Buoy had placed the hot water bottle on top of his beach gloves; the fingerless ones.
He was hoping that they would be warmed nicely once that they had arrived at the beach.

Beach Buoy recalled being a child, in Dad's Ford Escort work's van.
That morning was a cold morning too.
Beach Buoy's Dad had a hat that had been left in the cold van overnight.
Beach Buoy asked his Dad why he was driving to the beach with the hat on his knee cap?
"To warm it up." came the reply.
It always puzzled Beach Buoy why he hadn't just put it on his head?




They reached the car park at 7-47am, still under the gaze of that full moon.


They headed for the water's edge.
The non-tidal part of the sands was frozen solid once more.
Beach Buoy had pulled up two hoods, always a good guide the day's temperature.
The Village Church Bells rang out for 8 am as they crossed the strand line as if in celebration of their achievement.

Beach Buoy would like to thank Stubborn Dog and his tow rope!


Beach Buoy's exposed finger ends were becoming painfully cold as he made notes and took blog photographs.

He pulled at the fingerless gloves with fumbling digits.
He managed to place his fingers inside the body of each glove.
Each hand was now in a fist, ice-cold fingers pressed against warmer palms.
It felt like Beach Buoy had won one of those supermarket trolley dash-type prizes.
He had ran directly over to the frozen fish finger section and there he was now on the beach, holding them unboxed, in each hand  looking for a trolley.
 


The moon seemed to be becoming larger as it lowered in the sky.
All to do with having things near it to compare the size, as it moved closer to buildings.
In the open sky it is just an dot on an enormous  dark canvas,
when closer to the horizon it can look larger.
That's what Beach Buoy seems to remember hearing on the radio once?





The sky to the south looked promising.
Pay off for the freezing temperature was an almost clear sky.






One part of the low cloud looked remarkably like the beautiful Bamburgh Castle.








Screams came from the north, as swimmers entered the sea.



It seemed as though the Sea Serpent had taken pity on the early morning bathers and turned the heating up on the North Sea for their comfort?
Or maybe he just fancied a warm meal?
Full English?



Beach Buoy gathered up three fairly large sized, loaf-shaped beach stones to stack Stubborn Dog stack.
These too came from the frozen section!
They stacked the stack.



They stood at the stack.
Others had come to the beach.
Some stood taking photographs. 
Beach Buoy stood and photographed the standing.
By now "Bamburgh Castle." had now become mouse with very large orange-tinted ears.




A large orange-tinting sun had rose.
The last sunrise of a garbage year.
Tomorrow is a new dawn hopefully?








They slipped their way down the frozen dune edge, back to the softer part of the sands.
The low sun made it look as though Beach Buoy could reach up and almost touch the village itself.
Not all thing are as easy to reach.

A couple passed towards the Pier, each with a coffee in hand.




The gorgeous sunlight reflected in the beach pools and cast long shadows from small rocks.






Beach Buoy took photographs as he headed for North Gare Pier Corner.
He was hopeful of some finds after all of the disturbance, with recent rough seas.
It was noticeably colder in the shadow of the pier and the Sand Martin's sandy dune edge.



Beach Buoy managed to find a couple of bottle tops and a piece of a small bottle that had the letters TEAU at the end of one of its sides.
It has been suggested that it could have read as Chateau?
Perhaps an old perfume bottle?






Beach Buoy headed back to the north.
Finds in Bag.
Stubborn Dog on tow..... again.....


They walked back via the water's edge.




The tide was going out.
The sea had carved its name with pride upon the undulating sands.

A jogger passed, ducking and diving as though he was dodging unseen obstacles; that's life.





They stuck with the water's edge as far as The Magnificent Seaton Carew Wreck.

Here is the point in the blog that Beach Buoy reached last night.
He tried to add a link and lost everything on this post.
Things have changed with the blog from a user point of view.
A new updated version.
It has caused a few problems for Beach Buoy with other aspects of the blogs's layout.
Sometimes the spacings may come out a little irregular  and links difficult or more difficult to add than once had been
So it may be best to do a search for 
The Seaton Carew Wreck 
should anyone require more detail and information?
Beach Buoy will try and figure out the blog link and spacings issues.





Another view of the wreck.
The Bus Station Clock Tower can be seen in the distance.
This will help as a guide to location should anyone wish to see the wreck. 

They headed back to the van.
Coffee.
Heater.
Promenade watch.
















People came and went.
Beach Buoy and Stubborn Dog went.



Later they went to a local park.
The pond was frozen.
Danger 
 THIN ICE.
That lifebuoy could come in handy.
People don't always wave when they are drowning.






BEACH BUOY.