Journeying cross countries

Readers of my crafty blog will know that I spent a rather fabulous few days in Devon recently with some wonderful friends and a gorgeous new baby, and that travelling there meant the equivalent of a full working day sat on a train.

This could be boring you might think. But those said crafty readers will already know I had my knitting to get on with. What I also had though, was some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy from a track side seat.

It wasn't boding well for my journey, I have to admit; while the outward leg whizzed down to Devon in not much over three hours, the Sunday lunchtime return was scheduled to take well over four with a detour via Wales. Wales! My geography may be rusty but I'm pretty sure South Wales doesn't really sit en route between Torquay and Birmingham.

Anyway, on I hopped at Newton Abbot and within about 10 minutes I was treated to this:

Seeing windsurfers from a train... that's new

Hang on... that's the sea!

Look there's cliffs! And someone water skiing!

And boats!

So while I got myself a little over-excited at the sight of the sea, it seems that the main cross-country railway line runs not ten metres from the shore in this part of the world. From Newton Abbot (going east/north), the line runs along the Teign estuary, right along the coast between Teignmouth and Dawlish, and then turns up to track the River Exe as far as Exeter.

From hereonin, while the countryside was lovely, we were accompanying the M5, which is a slightly less glamorous than surfers and speedboats, so I packed away my camera and whipped out my knitting. On we sped through Tiverton and Taunton and soon we were pulling into handsome Bristol. "Not far now", I thought, but then no!, the train did a 180 degree turn (if trains could do that; in truth, I just started going backwards) and we were off on that weird trajectory to Birmingham via Newport.

After a short while, I realised I hadn't seen any landscape for a while - were we going through a tunnel? Then it dawned on me, we were travelling under the River Severn! Sure enough, we emerged at the Severn Tunnel Junction, having sneaked under water into a new country without me even realising it!

Having reached Newport, we changed direction again, and this time headed inland along the Severn Estuary, with some great views of the Severn Bridge.

Leaving Wales behind

Looking out to sea again

This time, we were finally back on course via Gloucester and Cheltenham to the new Birmingham New Street. So thank you Cross Country trains - I thought you were going to bore me to tears with the tedium of your extra long Sunday timetables, but you actually treated me to some wonderfully watery landscapes which kept me entertained all the way home.

It's squawk o'clock

Living almost as far away from the sea as it's possible to be in the UK, having the screech of seagulls as the soundtrack to my life is a constant source of amusement.

The Jewellery Quarter seagulls have become somewhat infamous; they are notorious for making a right old mess of your car and in the summer months negate all need for an alarm clock. It's some dawn chorus alright.

The gulls even have their own Twitter account and recently wrote a guest post on the Birmingham Favourites blog.

But lately I had observed some unusual behaviour from my noisy neighbours. It started with seeing a lone seagull perched for hours on the roof of the building opposite. No flying, no screeching, just standing, watching the world go by.

This continued for a couple of weeks, until (very) early one morning, we woke up to one almighty din. As I got ready for work I noticed that one seagull kept whizzing past the window and dive bombing anyone that walked past on the other side of the road.

Then after a couple of days it all became clear. Opening the curtains one morning, I caught a glimpse of a fluffy grey blob tentatively tottering about on that very same roof. Here was the reason for all that fuss: one little newborn seagull chick.

Since then, our daily soundtrack of screeches has been complemented by some gentle squawking; but it's lovely to have a little bit wildlife in the middle of the city. Even if it does mean I have to keep washing my car...

It seems it's not just Birmingham that has a big urban gull population - here's some more information from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service about the gull nesting season.