All these years I’d hankered over a cottage with sea views, yet failed to acknowledge that my needs were already met by the house on Holy Island. Now that the developers had started work, I finally recognised my stupidity in so rarely taking advantage of such easy access to the family’s shared holiday cottage. The huge new windows going into all the houses along the small terrace could only enhance their value as ideal viewpoints for Lindisfarne castle, Bamburgh, and beyond.

A group of us wandered down to the beach where we dropped our belongings near a sand dune, then headed off to play along the shoreline. Our party was rather unusual in that it comprised several pairs of twins, plus a couple of 1995 graduates (KW and CS), both of whom I hadn’t seen for a long time. CS was particularly entertaining with his mid-air gannet catching, and whale riding.

Unfortunately we were having so much fun that we failed to notice the tide creep up the beach and wash away our belongings, including AM’s camera! A further problem was that with the tide at its height, we were now stranded on the island overnight, and I would not get back home in time to visit Granny H in hospital.