I can’t believe that I’m (finally) sharing my rewind post from March in the last days of May, but, as I said in my previous post, these weeks have passed and I’m not quite sure where they’ve gone. We’ve made the most of these light evenings with lots of weekday walks down the coast, and these walks always leave me wondering how we survived winter. The promise of getting outside in the evening completely shifts my headspace. Last winter was hard, so I deeply appreciate being able to wrap up a day by driving down the coast and standing below these big skies as the light shifts.

I’ve lots to share here from April and May, but first I’m returning to these last walks of winter, as the days were already stretching and we were feeling hopeful for the season that lay ahead. We started the month with a beautiful walk from Yellowcraig towards Eyebroughy and beyond, winding along the dunes as the light was glowing. I shared that post here, but wanted to include a few of my favourite photos in this post.

There was a walk along Ravensheugh Sands and on around St Baldred’s Cradle when we had a mixture of sunlight and haar (on the blog here), the soft light painting the sky in lilac by the time we reached the headland, while the biting wind was a reminder that we were still in March.

And there was more haar on a walk along Belhaven beach and on round the mouth of the Tyne estuary to Hedderwick Sands (on the blog here). It was one of my favourite walks of the year so far as the haar created this magical atmosphere of softly diffused light as the sun was setting, and everything felt so quiet around us, with only the sound of the waves.

I had a solo walk from Yellowcraig to Gullane on a sunny Saturday when the light was glowing along the shoreline (shared here), softening by the time I’d passed Eyebroughy beach, and I headed on while watching the sun set over the Forth. And there were frozen walks at Yellowcraig and John Muir Country Park below dramatic skies.

I look back on these photos now and it’s a reminder that we did make the most of this cold and wintry month. In my previous post I wrote about the feeling that, in some ways, we’ve been standing still so far this year. We’ve been paddling away, but… against the current. But these photos remind me that there’s been more. We’ve also shared these moments.

I also moved through this March remembering where we were in March last year, week by week, and sometimes day by day. Those weeks of vet consults, when we were trying to figure out a path forwards with Bracken. Those days of waiting on test results, and then researching those results, understanding that this was worse than we’d hoped. Of having decisions to make about treatment to potentially manage the disease, and all the worries and fears surrounding this. I carried those memories through these 31 days in March this year, and felt so grateful for these places and these walks. For being outside on these cold days, watching the daylight stretch by minutes each week, gaining an extra hour of evening light as the time change towards the end of the month shunted us forwards into the new season.

Carrying those memories while watching Raf run along these frozen beaches like a rocket, embodying happiness, and feeling so grateful for this too.