Almost Knitting With A View: St Veda’s Bay, Coldingham

After two lovely sunny days when we were busy with other things, a day out together yesterday had to coincide with a break in the weather: clouds and rain all day. As it’s the Easter school holidays, the holidaymakers and day trippers have returned to the Northumbrian coast in droves. We decided to head north of the Scottish border, where the coast is still lovely, but quieter. Daughter is on holiday and we are looking after her Labrador, Wren.

Most of the year we can let the dogs off their leads to have a good run about. but when it gets busy there can be conflict with non-dog owners (especially if they have a picnic) and inexperienced dog owners who have not trained their pets how to behave off the lead. Our two are friendly, don’t jump up and have reasonably good recall (though if Buddy can smell food or something particularly stinky to roll in he doesn’t always respond!

St Veda’s Bay is pretty well deserted in winter (we were there a while back) but things are starting to wake up a little bit. We drove down to the disabled parking area overlooking the sands so I could sit and enjoy the view and do some knitting while K walked the dogs.

Alas I’d forgotten to put the current sock I’m making back in the small bag I use – the yarn, pattern and first sock of the pair were there but nothing to actually knit! There was plenty to see though. I noticed that ramped boardwalks extending on to the sand have been installed – we subsequently found out that beach wheelchairs are available to use here. They have big tyres to negotiate the soft sand. Although I can walk short distances on a firm flat surface I struggle on sand and my trusty electric scooter just digs itself into a hole. Though I hate being pushed and much prefer the independence the scooter gives me, it would be nice to get to the water’s edge and peer into some rock pools sometime.

Brightly coloured beach huts line the bay.

One of these was providing shelter for some sea swimmers to warm up after their dip. There were a few dog walkers and families about and a someone was having a surfing lesson.

A horse and rider arrived to take advantage of the quiet beach. It was the ideal place to do some schooling, following their own tracks to execute perfect circles at walk, trot and canter in both directions. They finished with a gallop along the shoreline, splashing though the shallows.

Meanwhile out at sea I spied a couple of male eider ducks. The females are probably sitting on eggs now. There were some auks on the water and feeding too (either guillemots or razorbills – too far away to tell which). We are not far from St Abbs Head here: an important site for cliff-nesting seabirds

Meanwhile, K and the dogs walked along the beach, exploring the rock pools…

…and climbing up on to the headland to see into the next bay.

Wren, loves nothing better than carrying a stick; the bigger the better. Today was no exception!Maybe I should do a “Stick Of The Day” post while she’s staying with us!

When the walkers returned we got coffee from the little beach cafe. The bay really has everything you need to spend the day there. There are picnic tables , toilets, and well maintained paths and steps connecting the bay to a coastal path extending into adjacent bays. It is also great to see efforts being made to make improve disability access.