Summer by the sea – red valerian growing in the dunes on the seafront of my local stretch of coast at Seaburn, Sunderland in NE England as the season of spring gives way to summer.
Today, on 21 June, the summer solstice, the sun rises at 04.26 and sets at 21.47, making it the longest day of the year.
What's not to like, apart from the nights drawing in once again, although hopefully a while before we begin to notice it!

#sunderland #seaburn #coast #seascape #summer #solstice #landscape #photography

With a few days free between terms, I took a trip back to the homeland. To spend some time in Seaburn, near Sunderland, with the spring sun shining out across the strand and a balcony view in the middle of it all.

Deliberately choosing to do very little, it was a chance to walk slowly for once, taking in the beach and piers from Roker all the way to Whitburn. Reconnecting and renewing with every step.

The tide ebbs and flows and erodes as all things, but I remain grateful. The seafront of my childhood, sometimes neglected, renews in itself, and despite the alienation of the modern age I can still return home. To hear the lilting, happy voices of my native (yet supplanted) accent. To share the promenade with dog walkers and joggers going along their way. To feel at peace among my people.

Not much has changed across the decades, even if I have.

A glorious morning capture of Seaburn Beach before the clouds spilled in from the west.

#Seaburn #Beaches #NorthSea #Spring