Finding beauty in the gloom

After moving from the always Insta-worthy Northumberland landscape, Caro Giles discovers there's still beauty in the city if you're prepared to take time to seek it out.

- With Caro Giles

I've spent the last few weeks, since moving to the city, familiarising myself with the streets around our basement flat. Autumn has now fully chased summer away for another year, and I'm enjoying wallowing in the nostalgia of crisp early mornings. When I walk up the steps onto our street, chasing two daughters towards the car, the smell in the air and the slight chill on my skin takes me back to the endless school runs I did when we lived in Northumberland.

Although school has always been problematic for some of my children, I did find something reassuring in the drives back and forth from the house towards the sea. Heading out of the town each autumn, the road was lined with trees that burned brightly, leaves like flames that would soon fall to the ground. I watched the sea slowly appear beyond the fields where curlews and oystercatchers pecked at the scrub. Sometimes I would even run down to the beach once my daughters were safely inside the classroom, peel off my clothes and hurl myself into the waves. It's still too early for the wintery sunrises that split the sky open, but I know I will soon feel nostalgic for them too.