Nature Exploring at Newburn Riverside

These photos were taken on the 17th of September. A little while ago, yep.
Right now the only place, other than the rooms of our own house, that I go is in the car. I drive Mr H to work in the morning and then go and pick him up in the afternoon. Because I don't want him waiting around I'm usually pretty early picking him up and use that time to read some of my book but on this day something made me get out of the car.
My anxiety and just general fear of people has been pretty bad lately so I can't even have my car windows open when people are nearby so how I managed to go on this little walk on a sunny day is beyond me. I was going to just step out and grab a photo for my daily photos but my feet kept taking me closer to all the nature! It was only a 1.25mile walk but that short leg stretching session was much needed and did me so much good.

The route I took usually has many cyclists on it, therefore the birds are much more timid and could be heard but not seen so getting the photos of the robin took a lot of stealth haha. Thankfully by some miracle, I was lucky to not have to see too many other people but I did clutch onto my mask at all times ready to stick it on and run as far away as possible as soon as I did spot anyone! And while I'm mentioning that I want to question why people are so offended at that? Why do you care if I put a mask on 'even though I'm outside' or if I move as far away as possible to avoid any human contact? It doesn't affect you, but if I were to get ill because you sneezed while walking past me it would affect me a lot!

An interaction that was wonderful was with the horse, who was the sweetest soul and one of the only animals I've gotten to talk to in months...other than my 10 at home obviously. Aren't they beautiful?

As I said the majority of these photos were taken on the 17th of September, however the final 9 above were taken on the 30th of September when we took a super quick 15-20 minute visit, after Mr H finished work, to get our monthly portrait seeing as it hadn't been done yet and it was our last opportunity, being the last day of the month. With it being on a Wednesday, mid-afternoon and drizzling with rain, we were only passed once by a couple of cyclists...which of course we still moved fully off the path away from them.
Right now my area has one of the highest Covid infection rates in the whole of the UK so we are literally not going anywhere at all now. That means I don't know when I'll get to share any other nature walk photos. Boo :(

Until next time...

The First Walk of Autumn

I don't think anyone is aware, because it's not like I have often talked about it, but we haven't been able to get out for our usual walks this year because of there being so many other people (who seem to have just discovered the outdoors) out and about taking over all the usually quiet escapes. Just FYI, that first statement was obviously sarcastic due to the fact I haven't stopped complaining about it haha.

It's a huge miss for us, being able to get out and just breathe fresh air, spot the wildlife and photograph the changing seasons. We'd usually get out to the beach or woods multiple times a month and now it isn't once a month. These photos in this post are from Saturday the 12th of September when my car was in for it's MOT. We don't have any other vehicle, we don't live within walking distance to a garage and there is no way in hell I'm going in any stores/buildings or public transport any time soon...so we had no other choice but to walk.
With masks on (yes we were outside and any people we were nearby were only in passing but we will not be seen without masks in public) and camera around my neck we went for a wander. This is what we experienced.

Our nearest town is South Shields so after driving to the garage and dropping off the car we headed toward the riverside where the Ferry is. Considering how close to the town centre this is it was pretty quiet - pretty quiet isn't quiet enough for me haha. We found a huge grass hill, away from the benches to sit but after having come to the conclusion waiting with no books was going to drag we set off again.
We discovered a statue about a lady who sounded like a very interesting person, saw dragonflies, foraged for blackberries and just generally got to do what we do best. It was a lovely time together.
Oh and even better, my car passed it's MOT!

Until next time...