Last week I took out time once more to go and 'chill' up in Newcastle. Time alone with me, my thoughts and I...and of course my God. Once more I loved driving through the Mournes...I even took a wee walk up Butter Mountain...not quite reaching the top, even though it was just within reach!! Surveying the beautiful mountain scenery around me. I definitely think this is where God does some of His thinking and planning. Walking in the cool of the evening through the Mournes :)
I also did some more star gazing...when it wasnt raining...lying out in the garden staring up at the bright, clear night sky. I could do that for hours and never lose the awe and majesty of it all. And my time there was rewarded with lots of shooting stars. The first being the most spectacular, it just burst across the sky seeming like it was on fire just above me...awesome =]
Then there was the tree I spoke about the last time, as I watched the leaves appear in front of me in the warm Spring sunshine. It was now fully covered in thick green leaves and 'helicopters' ready to fall in the fast approaching Autumn. Makes you wonder why they go to all that bother...all that effort for the leaves to come out...then in a couple of short months they will be strewn across the ground withered and brown. But that's the cycle that tree's go through...blossoming life and then what can so often look like a barren death in the cold hard winter...but no...deep down in the heart of the tree that blossoming life is waiting and preparing to burst forth once more. So often our lives can feel like that...a barren wasteland, a desert but deep down if we search for it in our hearts and in our souls that blossoming life and spirit that God has placed within us is waiting to burst forth, with lots of help from Him...no matter what season it is!!
I‘ve decided to spend the next few days staying at our little house in Newcastle, on the coast just past the Bloody Bridge. The weather was amazing today and I’m looking forward to just relaxing, chilling and taking some time out.
Right from the moment I drove into Newcastle I could just feel myself relax. I just love the view you get of the Mournes as you approach the town from Murlough. I don’t think I will ever get tired of that view – it takes my breath away every time and today was no different, it was stunning with a slight heat haze hovering over them. Any time I’m away and I think of home that is usually the image that comes to mind first, there’s something almost steadying or grounding in that view...for me anyway, a little piece of my homeland. 
Although it does still make me a little bit sad when I drive past our old caravan park which is now covered in house's...so many memories of fun times there all dug up and covered in bricks and mortar...but they still remain where they are important in my head and in my heart.
Then as I drove through the town out towards the harbour with the window down there was a briny, seaweedy smell that was actually really fresh...maybe different...or else the sun just makes everything seem so much better!!
I love looking at the stars in a clear night sky and here the sky is so so clear at the minute. At home you can’t get the full effect of the stars because they are dulled by the street lamps, so when I went and sat on my rock staring up at the black night it looked like there were thousands more stars than usual. It was awesome. Sitting there on my rock with the distant sound of the waves crashing on the rocks, the wind idling in the leaves of the trees beside me, the occasional bleating of a nearby sheep and the vast expanse of the starry hosts above me. I could see the odd aeroplane pass over silently obviously miles above, the constant flash of the lighthouse at St John’s point, the plough...the only constellation that I can recognise and even a shooting star. Brilliant!
