chasing light

John Muir Country Park, 23 February

I was just settling to write my February rewind post (and yes, I know, we’re now nudging the middle of March and I’m a little late with this one…) and scrolling through photos to include when I came to this walk, from this bright, sunshiny Sunday afternoon in February, and realised that maybe I should share this one separately.

When we left home, the weather looked nothing like this. It was grey-skied, with the gloom of potential rain settled over us, but time and again we’ve driven down the coast to find an entirely different weather system happening at John Muir Country Park. It might be raining a mile or two inland, but we’ll arrive here to find a break in the clouds, the faintest hint of a blue sky, and the weather will shift.

Which is exactly what happened on this Sunday afternoon. We parked as the clouds split to reveal sunlight, and as we walked along the edge of Hedderwick Plantation, on the path between the fields and the woods, the light was suddenly blazing ahead of us. I shared this reel from this walk, starting on this woodland path and then crossing the narrow bridge to Hedderwick Sands as the sunshine illuminated the golden tones along the shore.

Remarkably, there was no one around. Perhaps people had been put off by the earlier gloom, but it meant we had this stretch of the beach to ourselves. Raf was off-lead, running free and happy, cantering back and forwards between us and the top of the beach, where the bank has crumbled thanks to erosion, leaving a tumble of grasses and vegetation along the edge.

When we reached the far end of the beach, at the point where the sand became too soft and mulchy to walk further, we simply turned back, giving Raf the freedom of a longer run. By this stage the sun was setting and the colour of the sand had shifted from golden to amber. A simple walk, but one that held the promise of the longer days ahead, and of evening walks here in this glowing light.

Hedderwick Sands, John Muir Country Park, East Lothian, 23 February 2025.

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