Days of Gratitude - Rivers and Benches and Seals, Oh My!

Three more days of gratitude.  And more days that will (maybe) eventually get their own blog posts with lots more photos and a little more description.

I've had some bad days.  A week of feeling pretty damn terrible.  I've had to force myself to get out but I know that if I get to the right places it's a lot better for me than staying at home.  Quiet places.  Places in which I can hear and see and smell and touch nature.  I like Newcastle city centre but built up places, with the noise and haste and everything else, can quickly threaten to overwhelm me.  Stick me into nature and my brain is happier - even when my body moans about being too hot or too cold or tired or hungry!

So these are three days on which I got out, for different reasons, and saw something pretty.  The first day, I wanted to walk even though I was tired.  The second day I went out because I wasn't coping with being home and just had to wander for the sake of my own sanity.  The third day I forced myself out, decided to get the Metro to town, decided on the Metro to get off, change trains and go to another town for charity shops, decided on that Metro to visit Tynemouth and see the sea, and then decided to go somewhere different.  Who says autistic people can't be spontaneous?!

Docks on the Tyne, at the mouth of the Don

8^th May

Grateful that my knee held out and I could walk for a while at least.

Just to the end of the Don and then up the river to Brockley Whins but on this day that was quite enough.

The river Don, as it approaches the Tyne

St. Paul's Church, Jarrow

Jarrow Bridge, leading to nowhere.

Every wall of the underpass under the main road is filled with art.

9^th May

Felt so naff by the evening.

Grateful to have been able to go for a little wander and sit for a while and listen to the birds.

Grateful for the friend who sat with me even though she is a long way away physically.


She sat here, on the bench next to me, and kept me company.  I wasn't coping well on my wander and she told me to find a bench and sit down.  My brain eventually focussed on finding this bench that I've sat on before.

St. Nicholas Nature Reserve at dusk

St. Mary's Lighthouse

10^th May


Grateful to have got myself out for a random trip.

Not knowing where to go several plans happened before deciding to go here.

Grateful to see seals. Beats sitting at home binge watching TV.

Also grateful that the tide times for St. Mary's Island, Scilly Isles, weren't far off the tide times for St. Mary's Island, north of Whitley Bay.  Because I didn't notice I was looking at the wrong place on my phone when looking times up on the Metro just before the station I had to get off at.  I'd have been a little dissapointed to walk up and find the causeway covered.

Honest, there is a seal in the middle of this photo

Sensory Garden.  Always good to see a sensory garden.