Wimpishness

This morning I stood warming through under a hot shower spray and realised I was a wimp; I have given in to autumnal temperatures. I reflected on my subservience to chill factors....while heat played on my cellulite I realised
a) the dryer is up in the utility room and is festooned with tights and jeans while outside heavy, sodden T shirts hang sadly on the line.
b) I was so cold in bed that I have swopped the 4.5togs for 9.5tog duvets before October 1st.
c)I have brought the indoor plants in from the patio where they have spent the summer; to thank and reward me for the warmth they have all broken out into flower.
d)I have worn a jumper today!In fact I have installed shorts and T shirts on the ceiling shelf above the wardrobe and brought sweaters and cardigans down from on high.
e)We have had the central heating on and the lounge fire.



So days are getting shorter and the porch light needs to be put on earlier- there is the doorbell......




...and to think H1 braved the drift of rain to play golf while the Ladies dodged walking and went to the cinema at the Gate wherein Julia Roberts was (painfully) finding herself. Newgate Street seems so much darker and narrower between Darn Crook and Clayton Street.




We have attended a really interesting (honest!) talk on 'Diversification in Farming in Northumberland' (Think farm shops, Northumbrian cheeses AND Doddington's Icecream and it becomes more interesting!).
We have walked 6 miles back to Wallington from up near Cambo and managed to avoid any forecast showers.
I have read much of 'Miss Garnet's Angel' and wondered why I wasn't struck on Venice the twice I waded through the grafitti, muck and rain that greeted me there; maybe Angel Raphael wasn't guiding me inspite of my links with his/her celestial body at school.



I baked for hours and realised how wonderful friends are who make massive efforts to bake to help one; M, M, A and B all arrived laden with cakes and muffins to add to my trays which sold well at D3's Family Fun day.



I am thinking political , philosophical thoughts....

I wonder how new Labour leader Ed Miliband will handle 'the House' when the unions put him in while the party, MPs, and MEPs voted his brother in; apparently Ed is not married to the woman who has(&is) bearing his children and has not put his name on the birth certificates- what a role model for the country- I won't be voting for him.



According to letters to our MP which she has forwarded to me in response to my emails, it looks like the coalition Government will cut their financial input for medical research which charities fund; I have also signed a petition to plead with the coalition government as it looks as though (Early Day Motion 413) the coalition may stop funding free school meals; I know parents should feed their children but in the event that they don't, why punish the poor and vulnerable who have no voice? It seems the poorer echelons of society are carrying the can for what the bankers caused (& who are still getting big bonuses).

Where are my banners and duffle coat from the Sixties?

Plummet or plum it?

We have catapulted into autumn; temperatures have dropped- to 9 C last night; rain showers have been like stair rods; evenings have been the best & sunniest part of the day. Should I dig out the autumn duvets? I have even supped porridge and the Ladies went to the (free) Discovery Museum for a day to avoid rain and chill- surprisingly a day there was not long enough....



Still in Menorca mood we hosted a barbecue- I played boules & other garden games in my fleece; as the evening drew in we adjourned to the kitchen table for Cluedo- you will have gathered board games are our thing!



I thought I would take a photo of wor Jackie (Milburn of course) on the Boulevard especially for Menorcan P. who asked was he still on Northumberland Street- Hey up! St James's Park is silhouetted in the background!

We have looked like a weatherman and woman popping in and out to hangout/gather in holiday washing dependent on drizzly conditions. This intermittence has led to much reading- at last finished 'The Tenderness of Wolves'(so what was her name?), 'The Gift' by Cecilia Ahern (strange tale of Time) and '3rd Degree'(by James Patterson- not usually my type, very American cop, but quite intriguing). Now to Bookcross them........


We walked in showers around Horsley ; the hedgerows were laden with berries- rowan, elderberry, hips and haws; ash and sycamore keys are ready; acorns and conkers are littering the drove roads; leaves are colouring and falling. I was surprised at how some farmers have not harvested in cereal crops yet even though wheat, barley and rye ripened up so early this year. Autumn is the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' so we went fruitpicking; damson and plum jam now adorn the garage shelves alongside the jars of summer fruit jams.

I admit we have done a lot of gallivanting of late; after meals out (Zizzi and Pizza Express give offers which are too good to ignore!!) No wonder the style speaker at Eslington Villa tried hard to ignore my plaintive attempts to catch her eye when the ladies went to 'How to Create a perfect body in 5 minutes with illusion' Harrumph!

We 3 made a snap decision to go to the Theatre Royal after lots of excellent reviews on 'The King and I'; brilliant especially Anna.


That reminds me (!?) the Pope has been to the UK. I can't warm to said Pope so have not seen anything about his trip- eeeh! Heathen! I think I expected so much real world 'fresh air' from the 1962's Vatican Council that John 23rd pulled on the Holy See lot- and Cardinal Ratzinger has closed the window (standing behind Pope John Paul too)........


I cannot write a blog without writing about the Great North Run- I love it - it makes me feel so proud- not just of Newcastle upon Tyne but of all those people who have personal reasons for tackling a half marathon. I feel so choked as I watch the 54 thousand runners stream over the Tyne Bridge as the Red Arrows streak the sky above. D2 was working on a breast cancer charity tent on the Leas alongside the stewards, masseurs, St John's Ambulance, teabrewers and sandwich makers who volunteer for this event; how many people from all over the world come to run this for so many charities- and the costumes of the funrunners- bananas and sunflowers, donkeys and Darth Vaders, Buzz LightYear and pink bras- wonderful! Many of the locals from South Shields come out with icepops and misting hose pipes on hot days, boiled sweets, orange slices etc.



PS When is a pumpkin ripe and ready to take off the plant? Anyone out there know?

I cried!

The cases and I are sitting folorn and empty on the landing; they await manhandling into the loft to be hidden and discarded till the next season; I am there sorting out washing into piles of white cutoffs, shorts,and T-shirts into washing-machine sized heaps. I have fallen off the end of a lovely, lovely week with friends in Menorca and I admit I am sad.



It took so long for Facebook and offspring to reunite us after 20 years and nothing between us had changed. K and I can still talk for England!


We four (and Jack)



drifted (often with glass in hand) around a beautiful island.... bumping into Richard (Branson)...eating at D. M, and S's sister's expensive and superb Biniarocca hotel (where L gave us cuttings of the most fragrant plant- 'Ladies of the Night')



....drifted around Mahon harbour with 'the twins' in P's boat, passing cruisers, Admiral Lord Collingwood's house, bars (admittedly we didn't pass all these)



Good company, good food (4lbs on in a week!), good friends, white painted houses, much laughter, beautiful coves, great memories (what a memory K has!), fab music, adult playgrounds (which didn't interest P & H1)



and wonderfully good hospitality.



Goodness me! How I cried.. Parting is such sweet sorrow.....Supposing I don't see K, P, and J again?

More Bank Holiday fun

I cannot believe I didn't show you the first harvest of potatoes- grown by my own fair hand! Well with a little excited help from D3.



and to think we are about to exhume the second yield and you have not known of the wonders of harvesting. P has promised me some of his apples. With pots of jam on the shelves, patio pumpkins and sprouts,leeks and cauliflowers in boxes I am becoming quite the farmer and Nigella!













Fine weather saw R complete a 140+ mile cycle ride for charity while we all went scarecrow viewing at Rennington. We love the effort this village puts in every year originally begun to roof their village hall; this year it was for their beautiful church and the North Air Ambulance; it is only right that we eat scones and drink tea in order to support rural economy and such a wonderful service to the folks of the North. Isn't it?

After egg & cress sandwiches and sausage butties there we proceeded to the RNLI Fete at Seahouses; I have a soft spot for the Lifeboat men who put their lives on the line voluntarily to help those 'in peril on the sea'; when the maroons used to go up over the village , men would start running to man the lifeboat - it brings hairs up on your neck and a lump to your throat. The Boulmer rescue helicopter and 'Grace Darling' Lifeboat carried out winching 'survivors' up as we threw balls at china and into pails all to the sounds of a good group.


D3 won Rusty the goldfish while I (now an honorary grandmother to a goldfish) won a coconut.

Bank Holiday

Below me there are cries of "Rent", sounds of laughter and gaoled moans; the hissing of stacked,steaming pans of Sunday dinner & the last Christmas pud in the pressure cooker is intermingled with the chink of wine glasses; more laughter and screams.... we have solved the Mysteries of Old Peking and Baker Street and worked out Miss Scarlett did it in the Hall with the revolver; accrued letters lists of Topix have now been abandoned for high rising competition and thereat I picked up the vegetable knife- I don't like Monopoly- my sister when I knew her- and H1 later in my life are both cut-throat at this and unlike me , neither play to enjoy but play to win whatever the cost. So I'm out!

I woke up to rain pattering on the windowpane and leaves rustling on the beech trees.I am pleased this didn't greet yesterday as D3 and I did a fruitful car boot sale.



The ladies went to Seaton Delaval Hall in the rain earlier this week; I recall the 1970's medieval banquets with singing maidens, mead and platters of broth under the lead of a baron and his good lady. I am pleased the National Trust managed to pull together enough donations to save the hall from going out of public hands.



Pakistan has been drowned; collections are going on all over the UK to help. Will the money get to the poor? We hear tales of rich,indigenous people not contributing for their own people- and money going into the wrong hands- backshish makes folk reluctant to donate but Britain gives regardless.

At 8pm I am typing in growing darkness as the autumn nights are drawing in.

Land of far horizons

That is what the historian G.M.Trevelyan called Northumberland.




Cragside is ablaze with rhododendrons in May/June but it is a joy any time of year; National Trust so rather expensive for a family. We lost our lot in the labyrinth up beside Nelly's Moss lake. I like autumn there too especially Halloween events and Apple Day.



Lord Armstrong is my favourite Northumbrian- well so is Admiral Lord Collingwood-and Sir Bobby Robson- and St Bede-and Gertrude Bell- and St Benet Biscop- and Basil Hume and Grace Darling..... Armstrong was so clever- a water wizard and appreciative of others;so as well as Joseph Swan being first to create the incandescent lightbulb Lord Armstrong invited his pal Swan to Cragside to light his bulbs by hydro electric power.


We walked with friends above Wooler on Humbleton Hill- iron age camp , Gleadscleugh hill farm, Harry Hotspur raining longbow arrows on the heads of the Scots in the Battle of Homildon Hill; 'all around the purple heather' purpled for miles; buzzing and scented with honey.


If you visit National Trust Souter Lighthouse sup the broth and prepare yourself! Just when you think you have conquered your fear of the stairs winding up the wall, you realise the light still eludes you up the last ladder. We spelled our names in flags, tapped messages in Morse code and inspected the foghorn; peacefulness descended as we progged mats, embroidered and knitted in the lighthousekeeper's cottage. Ooh! and try Minchella's icecream at one of the kiosks along the Leas.

Carlisle and coast by rail

Eeh!I can't find the time to sit and write, blog, iron.... the housework will have to wait...(sad about that last procrastination).

Friends are so good to us; J fed us dinner, breakfast and provided packed lunch. J booked us a trip on the Carlisle /Settle railway which I would recommend for relaxation , views and a trip back in time and comfort.



Oh heck, already I am distracted by company bearing fudge (my one weakness to quote Dorcas) and chocolate raisins; we'd better eat them this week as I have a cholesterol test next week!



Back to the blog... Carlisle was decked out with flowers; the train was clean, offered magnificent views and refreshments were sold by the Friends of the Settle Railway; the tiny railway stations were beautiful and transported me back to childhood trips to Jesmond Baths and the fishladies from Cullercoats.... At Ribblehead we were booked onto the walking tour- there are two- we took the long walk up to the tunnel & below the viaduct with two knowledgeable guides.'The runaway train came down the track and she blew.....' Well it is the Royal Scot steaming at 30mph across the viaduct on the photo. After the return journey, we found a happy hour Turkish meal in Carlisle which provided a great end to a super day.


Have you ever travelled by train to the coast? This week's sun provided the Ladies with the opportunity to offload at Monkseaton to sample provisions at 'Brown Sugar' at Monkseaton station- watch your money as there is SO much to tempt passengers. A walk through Whitley Bay, along the front above beaches like Whitley Bay Long Sands, Cullercoats, King Edward's Bay to the priory passing the Park,the Grand and through Tynemouth(via Raspberry Bazaar) and with a salute to Admiral Lord Collingwood , ends at the listed Tynemouth station.





The Metro sell a book of walks from & to Metro stations at the Haymarket and Monument Travel shops.