Otterburn

I love Northumberland.

From the coast to the national park, the landscapes are gorgeous and varied, and a great subject for photography. I'm no doubt a little biased by growing up there, but after taking a few groups of London friends up for country cottage stays I don't think any have been disappointed.

As with much of the UK, there's a good range of castles and stately homes to visit (I even got married at a National Trust property, Wallington) but it's the scenery that gets me.

This photo is from a rather rainy drive up and round the Otterburn military firing range. As it's within a national park, when the military isn't training the public can drive around most of the land and the landscape is well worth it. It has a beautifully rugged feel to it, while the heather, grass and rocks poking through create a lovely colour palette.

Also, it's not often you see a road sign warning of tanks.

The weather hadn't started too bad and at this point was still just a heavy drizzle, but by the time we were deep into the range (and passing weird road signs for tanks) the rain and wind had picked up hugely. After giving Liz a bit of a scare by trying to take photos on top of a ridge in near-gale force winds, we made for home but I did come out with some nice atmospheric shots of the park in the wet.