On the Wednesday of our holiday, J and I headed into Hexham to join in with the morning mini service at the bandstand in the Sele park. The churches in Hexham have joined together for years to run a holiday club for children and it always begins at the Bandstand. It was lovely to be part of, sing songs, learn a memory verse, watch the drama story and see the children being sent off to their teams. I briefly saw my friends Ruth, Chris and Jane.
J and I headed to Small World Cafe for a cup of tea and then I headed back to the house to meet CBC to book our accommodation for Switzerland as all we'd booked was our trains there and back! It took ages which was annoying as it was the first sunny day all week! At least we had it ready now though!
In the evening, we headed to Bouchon, the French bistro in town and I enjoyed the wonderful French onion soup and the Lamb dish.
On the Thursday, I forget what we did in the morning but C and I headed out for a walk to Dipton Burn which is what I like doing best in Northumberland- walking! We didn't meet a single person all the way! We saw a few interesting mushrooms!
Back at the house, we helped J finish off the amazing 3 course dinner she was making for Chris and Jane.
Friday, CBC and I headed to Housesteads which is on the Roman wall and is, my favourite stretch of the Hadrian's wall. We saw the famous Sycamore gap which featured in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
It is so picturesque but is much more popular to walk than our previous day so we had lots of people walking with us.
We ate a picnic in the woods by the lake side, sitting on a mossy stone.
Our final destination was The Sill, a Northumbrian national parks discovery centre.
We went to get a cup of tea in the cafe and I went to check on the bus times back to Housesteads. The lady at the desk told me one (the two hourly bus) was in about 20 minutes. The cafe were a little unhelpful and said they weren't sure if the tea would be ready in time so C got a takeaway cup and we headed to the shop and then looked in the shop. When we got to the busstop, it turned out the lady had misheard me so the ACTUAL bus WE wanted, wasn't for another hour! C went and sat in one of the deckchairs in view of the busstop and I headed into the exhibition which was a brilliant interactive historical look at the social history of Coquetdale valley. It was so interesting and so much so that, casually glancing at my phone for the time, realised I was MISSING THE BUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ran outside to see C anxiously boarding the bus (his phone was dead but he said he would have come back for me in the car!). The bus, the AD142 is really scenic but the Military Road is quite, rollercoasteresque!
Back in Hexham, I took 2 minutes to change into a nice dress and walked to my friend Ruth's house to briefly see her for 15 minutes. C picked me up and we headed to Corbridge to watch a wonderful concert as part of the Corbridge festival featuring French music by Ravel, Debussy, Lilli Boulanger and songs from the Great American song book. It was exquisitely played.
On Saturday morning, CBC headed out on his bike to ride to Bellingham. I jumped on a bus down to town to get the the other bus to Haltwhistle. My destination was Haltwhistle's outdoor pool which is a really fun place to go. It felt bittersweet to be in Haltwhistle again. The last time I'd been there was clearing out WOMOTM's house.
The pool was busy but not in a way that detracted from my enjoyment of swimming. It costs £10 for an adult all day session. I was lucky on the way back to JUST make the hourly bus back to Hexham. When I got back, I called Jane and asked if she wanted to go for a walk. The timing was perfect as a visitor was just leaving and they were plannning a walk so I walked up the hill to their house and we jumped in the car to drive to Letah woods where CBC and I had walked with Jane in May to collect Wild garlic. It was a serene walk full of gentle susurrations and calming dappled light and gave Jane and I a chance to talk as well as walk. On the way home, they dropped me on the Hexham racecourse road so I could have an extra walk back to the house. It was lovely to see a happy CBC who had enjoyed his ride.
In the evening, we headed out to try a recently reopened Chinese restaurant. It was NOT, however, amazing so enough said about that.
Sunday morning, I got out of bed at about 9.40am to hear my Mother in Law, J, tell me she was going to church at the Abbey. I took precisely 5 minutes to clean my teeth, wash my face and dress in my new Laura Ashley jumpsuit (charity shopped!) and jump in the car with her. The service was a beautiful service. Alas, it was RAINING again so after the service (we had tea and coffee in the nave), we headed back to C at home. I spent more time (forgot to mention I did this on Thursday morning) clearing out J's conservatory which was very cluttered, as she is hoping to move house soon, we went to the Errington arms for lunch and then in the evening, after more clearing, CBC and I headed back to Corbridge for the final Chamber music concert. We had free tickets for this as a friend of J's couldn't make theirs. We had super seats and enjoyed Schubert, Coleridge Taylor and a Venezuelan clarinet piece. Back home, I made omelettes and veg for everyone for dinner.
Monday was a day of intense clearing and disposing of clutter in the garage. We went to charity shops, the dump and the girl in Fardale animal Charity shops was ecstatic when I gave her about 50 bags for life as she had run out of carrier bags and wasn't sure what to do.
By the time we finished, it was getting late and the weather was mizzly and was obviously going to be miserable to join in so after soup and a bacon roll in Small World, we headed back to J's house. I made leftover pasta was dinner very late when J returned from watching a 2 piano recital in Corbridge.
Tuesday was a day of avoidance of packing and eventually heading back to Essex.
Sadly, our Northumberland trip hadn't been as full as walks and cycle rides and adventures as much as we would have hoped, due to the weather, but we had helped with clearing, met friends, had a few walks and adventures and had enjoyed being away from home!
What would be the rest of our holiday?
xx