Not Hadrian's Wall, Northumbria National Park

So this is a rather inaccurately named post. The walls shown below probably aren't Hadrian's wall. In fact I will go so far as to say they definitely aren't Hadrian's wall. Nicky and I decided to go for a walk and neither of us had been to the wall so that's where we settled on. As we left Sunderland and headed towards Northumbria, it started to spit with rain, neither of us had brought coats... you can always rely on England's weather to ruin the day.

We drove for an hour and half, along what seemed to be treacherous mountain paths that were totally alien to me. Norfolk is FLAT, pancake FLAT, I cant drive up and down steep hills. It scares me. A horrible pant wetting kind of scared. One moment you're whizzing along at 60mph and then, suddenly, all you can see is the top of the hill and sky - lovely, blue, clear sky... but no road. My foot slams down on the breaks, the rest of the road reappears as we drive over the crest of the hill, but then its time for the descent. Its the kind of height where your stomach drops and your ears pop, and your lunch threatens to put in a cameo appearance all over the steering wheel and you have to close your eyes, because perversely it makes sense to your brain do that when your driving.

 However the countryside that surrounds the roads is absolutely breath taking.

Anyway, after my knee's had regained some of their former strength, and we managed to actually follow the sat nav instructions rather than just ignore them (what does the robot voiced lady know anyway?) we found a weird shrine thing that was supposed to be on Hadrian's wall. So we set about exploring. There were hundreds of sheep and lambs milling about all over the place, all of whom regarded Nicky and I with the utmost suspicion. It was about 7pm when we got there so the sun was starting to set but the views were beautiful, all that space and grass. It made the ridiculous journey worth it.

We didn't know what this was, but we climbed on it anyway. I hope it wasn't actually apart of the real wall, as according to the website you aren't even allowed to to touch it.

We didn't find the actual wall in the end, at least we don't think we did. Apparently we were going in the wrong direction. Even though we followed sign posts. We did see lots of other walls though, and they were quite nice too. And at the end of the day its only a 2ft high wall made out of old rocks.. just how special can it be? I'll probably go and find out one day.

A wall that wasn't THE wall.

Tea Dance, Harewood House

Inside I am secretly a 75 year old woman, nothing excites me more than an afternoon spent rambling around a national trust house followed by scones and a pot of tea.

This is handy really, as for the first 20 years of my life I lived in North Norfolk where there really isn’t much else to do besides the odd country fete or church spire to climb. Which is why I am so excited that the tea dance season is once again upon us!

During a lengthy internet seach for Zoo’s in the North East of England (FYI outrageously, there aren’t any) me and a friend stumbled across Harewood House family Tea Dance. 

It promised us all the scones we could eat and all dancing we could want (probably to diminish the effect the scones would have on our waistlines), with the added bonus of being a day away from Sunderland, we brought tickets immediately. For £5 each, we figured, there was no way we couldn’t possibly have fun.

We decided to go in traditional tea party dress (read O.A.P attire) and so spent a whole day tramping around Newcastle’s finest charity shops in search of clothes that were smart, yet hilarious, yet suitably pensioner like.

I finally settled on a 1940-esque green and white spotty tea dress – £5 courtesy of cancer research , while Nicky adorned herself in a tweedy skirt and embroided M&S shirt from Scope.

Harewood house

The morning of the 24th brought beautiful sunshine, Nicky and I loaded the cd player with all the treasures we had found in our charity shop binge and set off. 

Among the audio delights that caressed our ears on the journey were: The porridge men, The Platters (greatest hits), Bill Tarmey (Jack from Corrie apparently!) and Mr Akkar Bill. 

The drive to Leeds was pretty easy, we took a couple of accidental detours but eventually we arrived and went in search of food. As we ate lunch we saw some penguins (Harewood house is also a bird sanctuary), some ducks had invaded their pond, but they didn't seem to mind.

After lunch we went to investigate the 'Geopods', I thought they may contain plants or something, but I was mistaken.

Inside was actually a learning centre for kids, there was a huge shop that looked like the secret love child of the art attack studio and a small woodland which was stuffed with all kinds of 'educational' toys. There was also a cinema and a drawing room, where you could draw on the blackboard walls with chalk.

The Drawing room

A sample of the outstanding art works we saw:

After a couple more hours of exploring the grounds of Harewood (which are huge, green and filled with sheep), we headed inside for the tea dance.

The view from the walled garden

The walled garden

We were taught how to fox trot, waltz and do several other dances by a very persuasive lady who wouldn't just let us stand and watch, despite our frantic pleas. The man who was teaching us to dance was called 'Bill Shakespeare'.

Afterwards we were rewarded with several varieties of cake and a hot drink, there was also a raffle, which we didn't win.

All in all, it was a very nice day out, the weather was amazing, there was loads to do at Harewood - which is set in masses of beautiful Yorkshire country side, which caters for people of any age. There are beautiful country walks, a bird sanctuary, the geopods and a large adventure playground for children. We were lucky that the weather was so good, if it hadn't been then it probably wouldn't have been so much fun as most of the activities are outdoor based.

The stepping stones

The lake walk

The Leas, Marsden

So it was a choice between starting my 3,000 word essay or not starting my 3,000 word essay. Laziness and lack of motivation won, and I went for a drive instead. Since I brought my car up to Sunderland in March, I haven't really done much with it apart from drive to the nearest supermarket, so I decided to go for a drive up the as of yet unexplored coast road and see what I could find.

I was intending to drive to Tynemouth as I had been there once before on a rather miserable, overcast day and wanted to get some pictures of the ruined Abbey over looking the cliffs, but it was getting dark so I stopped at Marsden and walked along the cliffs instead.

I got there just as the sun was setting over the cliffs and the sky was changing from blue to pink to orange, which contrasted beautifully to the green grass and the yellow sandy cliffs. I walked along the cliff path - nearly getting hit by several cyclists - and then down to the beach. The tide was in, so there wasn't anywhere to walk so I climbed back up to the cliffs and sat on the grass for a bit watching the huge waves crashing against the rocks.

After a time, it go too cold to sit on the cliffs so I returned to the car and drove for a bit further (I really didn't want to go home and start my essay). I drove into South Shields and past the amusements and fun fair on the sea front and  the Roman fort. 

The thing that struck me most about Marsden and my drive was just how green everywhere is at the moment. I realise its spring but being stuck in the city most of the time makes you almost forget that grass and the colour green exists.

 It was nice to be out in the open countryside surrounded by fields for a change, but it made me feel a bit homesick for Norfolk.

Tynemouth Farmers Market

Today was another beautiful sunny day, so I decided to add to my sunburn and went to Tynemouth Farmers Market which takes place every third weekend in Tynemouth metro station.

It takes place both side of the tracks: on one side there is local farmers produce cakes, meat, jam and many other baked goods - all of which looked delicious, and on the other side there are lots of stalls selling antiques, clothes and jewellery.

There was a massive variety of stalls to visit, and the organisers had strung multicoloured bunting from the roof which looked lovely against the glass ceiling that showed the clear blue sky.

Roker Beach, Sunderland

Returning to this blog post 18 months after or more after I first wrote it, I realised its embarrassingly badly written - so I've deleted it and left the pictures.

When I lived in Sunderland, Roker Beach was one of my favourite places to visit.

Oasis Camel Centre

3/4/2010

Some friends and I went to the Oasis Camel Centre in Halesworth, Suffolk. As well as camelshere were also goats, Llamas, emu's, chickens and pigs as well as camels.




We went for a ride on the train but it got stuck in the mud so we had to abandon it half way through.



These goats had balls under their chin. Apparently they like them stroked.

Oxburgh Hall

2/4/2010

Today was a sad day - Ellen and I realised that we have visited every National Trust house in Norfolk.
We decided to look further afield and found that Oxburgh house is the closest house to us in Suffolk. So off we went! It rained for almost the entire journey, and I realised that jelly babies (our car snack de jour) are the most over rated sweet - nothing needs that much icing sugar.

Oxburgh hall and its moat

The gardens at Oxburgh hall

Ellen on the roof

Oxburgh house is famous for both its moat and its priest hole, Ellen was brave and got in the priest hole but I wasn't, and neither of us ventured into the moat because it was too cold.

After we looked round the house - standard issue national trust lots of patterned upholstery and portraits of uninteresting and unattractive dead people - we went for a hot beverage and a cake.

Dresser in the restaurant, I want one of these in my house. Sadly I didn't get to sample all the cakes

View of Oxburgh hall from across the lake/ flooded fields

After we had dried off from our roof top exploration, we braved the rain again and went for a look around the grounds. We walked through the woods and around the lake or the flooded field (could have been either!), either way I sunk up to my ankles in mud when I got too close to it. We also saw some bees!!I love bees, we didn't actually see them but we did see their little bee homes.

Bee hives

This picture illustrates our woodland walking expertise

We followed the number game around the woods, I think its designed for children

The daffodils were just coming out - a sure sign that spring is finally on its way

Cley Marshes Nature Reserve

1/4/2010

Ellen and I went to the Cley marshes, which has either just opened or we have ignored its potential to be a fun day out. Cley marshes is a RSPB nature reserve ( I think) situated - unsurprisingly - in Cley marshes.  There are man made ponds surrounded by bird hides for avid nature fans to sit and observe the birds that flock to the marshland. There is also an observation deck, restaurant and education centre that sits above the marshland for people who don't want to explore but would rather stay inside.

 Ellen and I we spent a couple of hours traipsing the board walk that interconnects the bird hides and feeling very claustrophobic as the surrounding corn-y stuff was taller than us.

The river that runs through Cley and the nature reserve

The board walk

The reeds

We then hid in the bird hides for a while and perved on some ducks sitting on nests. For the first time this year the weather was beautiful.

The bird hide

Inside the bird hide - it wasn't very comfortable!

Ellen inside the bird hide

The beautiful view from inside the bird hide