The weather gods have certainly been on my side this week. You always hope for good weather and light when running a workshop but this week has been outstanding. Great light in the morning and evening with the skies clearing as the sun has set. The only disappointment had been that the aurora hadn't made an appearance.

Having spent a long but fantastic day in the Cheviot Hills yesterday, I had dropped my clients off and arranged to meet for sunrise this morning. After a few bits of admin, cooking diner and walking the dogs I was fit to drop and had climbed into bed ready for another early start. Just as I was dropping of my phone bleeped with an Aurora alert. Nothing to get overly excited about as it was only a Yellow Alert and in Northumberland, you usually need it to be an Orange. 5 minutes later the Orange Alert went off and could not be ignored. I quickly threw some clothes on, grabbed a camera and was on the road in under 5 minutes. Thankfully it is only short drive to the coast and a spot that looks directly North. There is always have a certain amount of anticipation when you set the camera off and wait for the exposure to end. Will the aurora be visible or have I got out of bed for no reason? Sure enough there is was in all its glory. My 2020 duck had been broken. A quick phone call to the group who were also in bed by this stage and one of them was on the road. Although the aurora had diminished slightly by the time she arrived, Juliet photographed the Aurora for the first time. I won't mention that in her haste to get to the coast she had forgot to put the memory card back into her camera!!! Thankfully we sorted that by swapping the card from my camera to hers. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together and lady luck is smiling on you!!!!

I eventually got back into bed just before 1am this morning and the 5.45am alarm came all too soon. I had hoped that we would get some light this morning but again it wasn't looking promising. That said the rocks at Dunstanburgh produce great images no matter what the light. However once again the light showed up and yet again we were able to image Northumberland in all its glory. We eventually got back to the car for 9.30ish and after a quick trip to the bird hide at Newton by the Sea, ended up in the Ship for Hot Chocolate after the most amazing 12 hours. Tired yes, but so elated.