1. The spray makes the cars look like they’re floating on clouds.

2. It’s low tide so it’s a long, long walk out to the sea. The kite surfers, the scurrying pack of little dogs and the pretty shifting sands keep us entertained on the journey. On the way back, we come across a plastic ball (a lost float from a net presumably) and I tap it towards John, expecting us to kick it back and forth – it doesn’t reach him though, it gets caught in a furrow and rolls away from us. With the help from the wind, it keeps rolling – and rolling, and rolling. We watch it, laughing, for a couple of minutes as it becomes a little speck moving along the sand, seemingly ignoring the laws of physics. I bet it’s in Blackpool by now.

2b. I’d been wanting a roast dinner for a while and Mum provides a feast.

3. We chase Orion all the way home (except for over Saddleworth when the fog turns the world into just distant, soft red glows).