Sunset Beach, Hermit Island

Facing west...

Morning Hike, Spring Beach

Early morning on Spring Beach and a swim out to the bay edge and deep water... It was still and quiet, apart from us yelping with cold, and so so beautiful.

Paths on Hermit Island

Paths that cross rocks and under crabapple trees through wild raspberries and long grasses with the odd patch of poison ivy.

The deer roam through it all and wild turkey and chipmunks and skunks and garter snakes...

Hermione at Yorktown

Quite by chance we arrived at the beach to see Lafayette's stately French frigate leave the dock. It's canon boomed and it's sails wafted as it headed up the Chesapeake Bay to Mount Vernon.

We swam and did the Delly with the Y but they had no flounder... It had been a busy weekend of Revolutionary War celebrations.

Finished with B&J's ice cream as is tradition

Water in Ontario

Water, water everywhere and plenty of PIMMS to drink. The lovely Laurel Creek Conservation Area, Christine & Sam's hot tub heaven for dolphin-training and the Corus Quay 'beach' in Toronto, thanks to Doug.

Burials at First Landing

A great way to protect yourself from the breeze and the incoming sea mist...

Sanibel Sunset

A west-facing beach for true perfection at sunset with guitar plucking, tiny baby, a Moscow Mule and ancient watercolour set...

Shell Seekers, Sanibel

The shells were endless and at low tide the beach was full of folks collecting, even as I ran at dawn (making it to 8K by the final day). No Jun*nia but lots of conches (one with a reticent but totally live inhabitant who was swiftly returned to the surf) and scallops.

West Winds Motel, Sanibel

Living the '70s dream... with lawns to the shore and a sparkling pool, palm trees and shuffle board en route.

Texas Beach, RVA

Pottering along the shore of Texas Beach for shells and other things, after a full English breakfast with home-made sausages plus hash browns for local flavour.

Winter in Yorktown, VA

Still our favorite winter beach and this time introducing the newly arrived English gang to jellyfish-spotting, bamboo-felling and the good old Revolutionary War, lost on this very spot.

Beach-Side, Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, VA

The godchild and the godfather this side of the Atlantic...

Virginia Beach

THE cafe was not quite ready for us so we hit the beach to catch the breeze... No swimming this time!

On Location, Paradise Cove

Well if you see an Ad with a fabulous hole-digging Weimaraner and some young, casually and neutrally clad folk on a jeep, on a beech with bottles of coloured pop, surf boards and a guitar in hand - then this is their shoot. We think Gap but maybe not...

... and if you go to the University with the view then your sports team is the Waves and this is their mascot trailer.

Paradise Cove, Malibu

After a hard morning locating and then shopping at our favourite home goods store (Target!) it was down to the cove for some beach bar refreshment and a rest or a run... in my case dodging three film and photo shoots, one yelling 'Cut!' and thumbs-upping my progress as I graced the shoreline.

Yorktown, late Summer

A very British affair with Virginian support on wolf spider-monitor duty. The jellyfish had thankfully floated away with the chill - good riddance!

Weekend in Nassau

For crazy reasons which I won't go into here, I got to spend the weekend in The Bahamas, and not in Atlantis or Sandals with the other tourists, but in a slightly tired hotel and with an empty but still very beautiful beach. It's hard to think this is three hours away. With a snorkel, just a few metres from the shore, I saw brightly coloured fish as you'd find in a garden centre aquarium in England. My fellow residents at Orange Hill were equipped divers with photos of sharks they'd seen that day. The big discovery of the weekend was the Punch made in a shack on the beach with fresh fruit and hygienic only thanks to the alcohol in the amazing local brew Rum.

More Yorktown, VA

The water was full of jellyfish so the girls (and co-opted young man) captured and returned the sloppy, tentacled things to the outer bay.

Communal frisbee games abandoned when I twice hit the same family's picnic rug, with them on it! Restored all egos with B&J's choc chip cookie dough and lemon sherbet waffle cones.

Sable Points Lighthouse, Ludington

The final destination.