It was bright and sunny yesterday and the freedom of a day off and some time alone called me to the sea.  The same bit of sea that I watched the sun rise over last summer and the same bit of sea that calls to me whenever I need to simply escape.  I saw a wren dipping in and out of the boulders that stop the land escaping into the cold North Sea.  From here, to as far as the eye can see – there is nothing.  Take a ruler and a map, and if you drew a straight, horizontal line from here, after a while you’d come to Denmark.

There was nary a bit of sand in sight as the sea lapped at the sea defences.  It was high tide and brought a smell of salty sea with it.  This bit of the coast isn’t the prettiest, it’s not even that well-loved, most people visiting it to use it as a dog lavatory, but there is a fondness for me.  That beach and I go back.

You can probably tell I don’t have much to say.  Or rather – not much I can say in public.  Lots of things going on in the Real World, but mostly not things that would be of much interest to you out there in computer land.  So I’m biding my time until something more interesting comes around for me to talk about.

It’s been a long time since I have sat down at a computer and had the time to be able to pen a post.  Truthfully I struggle to remember which day it is at best.  When I’m not at work or doing the daily chores that are required to keep a home running, I am daydreaming about Spring and the future and what’s going to happen in 2009 that will make it great.  Almost 2 months after I started the new job, I am still adjusting to hardly being around the house.  I am not missing those days as much as I thought I would.  I feel I have more purpose now, there are more possibilities.

It’s almost February and even now, the nights are getting shorter and the days ever-so-slightly longer.  With each day, and the extra minutes of light they afford, Mr. VP and I are growing restless.  We’ve been sating our restlessness with the odd trip out (these have been few and far between due to some overtime I’ve been doing recently) but we’re both waiting for long days and warm evenings.  This winter has been a long one.

Northumberland has some wonderful vistas and so much unspoilt land.  Nary a person or a house or a disturbance as far as the eye can see.  But Northumberland isn’t always what it seems and it has secrets, a façade that not everyone sees.  It’s an enthralling place with a long, dark past.

Mr. VP said something to me today.  We were walking in the afforementioned Northumbrian countryside when he said “whatever happens, you and I are always at our best when we’re doing new things and finding new places”.  I kept on walking, yet realised he was right.  We are both gently-adventurous, not too gung-ho and not so adventurous that we’d take silly risks, but we like exploring and finding things together.  Northumberland was an “accidental” find when we first moved here (we were living much closer to the big city back then), it must’ve been a good 2 months before we plucked up the courage to go out exploring it, from the beaches in the North and the richness of the West to the small villages and mining communities of the South and East.

We’re still exploring it to this very day.  Different places and different people, but still exploring.  Gently humming Martha Tilston songs and wondering what new place we’ll find around the next corner and where it’ll take us next.

It’s usually only semi-light when I leave the house in the mornings.  Today was an exception as I didn’t have to start work until 10:30am, but usually the sun is only just peeping over the horizon as I make my way to work.  I wonder how many times I’ll see the sun rise, as I see the sun throwing up rays of light in my rear-view mirror.  I wonder which will be the most beautiful, the most serene, the loveliest that I’ll ever see.

I remember the sunrise last July – or was it August? – , I hadn’t slept for hours, and at 5am the sun rose over the North Sea, and I was the only solitary soul sitting there watching it.

I wonder how many Northumberland sunrises and sunsets I’ll see, and how many we’ll see together, Mr. VP and I.  I wonder where this road we’re on is taking us, I wonder when the next fork will appear.  We’re both aware that nothing ever stands still for long.  I wonder constantly, so much so that I am full of it.

I remember when we first moved into this house, it was a proper house and it was ours.  We slept our first night here and couldn’t believe how lucky we were, how lovely the place was, and how we’d fallen into a little centarian house, whose charm and warmth were matched only by its quirky features and lovely surroundings.  Of course it had its bad points, all things do, but it was still lovely.

I remember the first time we mowed the lawn, the frogs and the toads nestled in the long grass and the vegetables we grew that first summer.

I can smell the seasons turning, and though it seems to resolutely be Winter with a capital “W”, it won’t be long until the nights are shorter and the days finally longer.  We’ll be able to think about The Great Outdoors, about throwing windows open and turning central heating off.  When both of us will be able to shake the things going on in our chests (cough, splutter, cough, phlegm etc.).  When lighting will be provided naturally, free of charge.

But for now we’re looking forward to the future sunrises and sunsets that we’ll see.  In Northumberland, in our house, and together.

Once the Christmas tree had been taken down (which now resides in our back yard, waiting to be sawn into pieces and transported to the recycling centre), the decorations put into the loft, and the house returned to normal, it all seemed very quiet.  We didn’t wait until twelfth night, we did it all on New Year’s Eve, so that 2009 wouldn’t be hindered by 2008.

We managed to miss the coming of 2009 entirely, having Radio 4 on beside our bed, yet falling into such a deep slumber that 2009 slipped into being without our knowledge.

I am strangely craving light nights and baking, crochet and knitting.  Mr. VP still didn’t get his jumper for xmas, it is still sitting on the needles.  Though I am ashamed of my lateness for this particular item, what with work and everything else, when I get home my usual thoughts are eat/slump/sleep.  I will get ’round to it though, as I am really eager to do something crafty.  I’ve still got all of that lovely quilt fabric that I was hand quilting what seems like an age ago.

But for now what I need is a dose of “vim and vigour”, enough to sort the house out and get it clean and tidy.  Then perhaps, I’ll have the space and time to get down and do something crafty.