When I saw the sea at Es Comu for the first time, I gasped, and stopped in my tracks.

Sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true.

It had been a long time since we'd been somewhere hot with a beach.

We were used to the silver grey seas of Scotland, or the inky black water in the Lake District.

I wasn't expecting this.

We had walked through a pine forest to reach Es Comu beach on the north coast of Mallorca.

Sandwiched between two holiday resorts, this length of coastline is protected, and you have to work a little bit to get there. It's probably only a 15 minute walk through the pine trees, but you're walking on sand, and it's hot.

But my goodness, I felt like I'd never seen colour like it.

It reminded me of when David Hockney talked about moving to Los Angeles after living in Yorkshire. The colours & the light can be so startlingly different in different places around the world, it can take your breath away.

When we returned home, I tried to capture the vibrancy of the blue through embroidery.

Making art, for me, is often about capturing something transient, whether it is a flower, the light as the sun is low in the sky, or the colour of the sea on a bright Mediterranean beach.

Capturing a moment or a memory forever in a way that a photo simply cannot.

I wonder when we'll get back that blue, blue sea again?