After experiencing two days of toast arriving after my cooked breakfast was served I had a cunning plan. I ordered a piece of toast to come with my cooked selections. On this occasion the table toast arrived before my breakfast so I need not have ordered a piece to come with my breakfast!

When we had eaten we headed off to Cragside. I wasn’t completely convinced of the choice, I knew the pleasure drive, one of my favourite aspects of Cragside was closed due to fallen and hanging trees. It might just have been open if we left it a couple of days… Despite this I went along with the plan, the Dahlia beds in the formal garden are always spectacular at this time of year.

On arrival at Cragside, more parts of the estate were closed than we expected. As always we chose to visit the formal garden first so that we could enjoy the garden in relative quiet before other visitors make their way there.

We had been informed by a National Trust volunteer and colleague of Mr C that there were new visitor arrangements for non National Trust members. National Trust members had complained that they had to queue whilst non-members were paying at the gate. The new arrangements for non-members is to direct them to the formal garden carpark to buy tickets or join the National Trust.

On entering the car park we found that the new arrangement had left no spaces for garden visitors to park. As it was a quiet day we ignored the restrictions, in any case there was an absence of volunteers in the car park to sign up new members. The new system clearly isn’t working; when we arrived we joined the members queue and the non members queue was empty. I think the Cragside team could learn a lesson from the entry system to Stonehenge, it is much more efficient.

When I entered the garden I was disappointed, the dahlia display that I had been looking forward to was not present. The formal flower beds had been planted with other things that were bland and nondescript in comparison.

On the upper lawn in front of the glasshouse there was an installation of sunflowers, one of several installations at Cragside that are part of the National Trust ‘Women & Power’ exhibitions celebrating the anniversary of female suffrage in 2018. 4000 sunflowers were planted to represent the women that worked at Cragside and Armstrong’s munitions factories in Elswick. On the lawn there was another artwork of a giant pelvis…

Inside the house we found that the flow of visitor access had changed and that it was now a two way flow around the house. For me this didn’t work as it seemed to cause bottlenecks. The upper floor of the house was however an unexpected delight, new rooms had been opened you could enter into some of the other rooms rather than stand behind a rope as was previously the case.

We decided to have lunch in Rothbury rather than at Cragside, but before we left we had a quick look around the National Trust shop. We had intended to have lunch in a Rothbury tea shop but as we were parking I noticed a bakery directly in front of us. I suggested an ‘in car’ picnic. Mr C loved the idea so we purchased freshly made rolls, cake and a drink which, after travelling a short distance, we enjoyed with spectacular views over the Simonside Hills and the local golf course.

After lunch we visited Rothbury All Saints Church. During our visit we were treated to organ music and learned from the organist that he was practicing ‘difficult’ music for a wedding the next day. We then made our way to the graveyard in search of Lord Armstrong’s grave. The location wasn’t immediately obvious, but after retracing our steps we found it.

We still had some to spare so we headed to Flodden Field in search of the ‘Cherry Pie Tree’ that I photographed several years ago, inspiring JD to turn it into a painting. We failed to locate the tree.

Instead we encountered a tractor with a broken wheel and cows very slowly crossing the road to their pasture…

Those slow cows led to us running out of time so we headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our evening meal in a nearby local pub just over the border in Scotland. We found that the pub was really geared up to locals having a drink at the bar. The experience was a little quirky but my meal was delicious.

Our hotel duty manager had ordered us a taxi and it became apparent as we were chauffeured to the pub (due to listening to the driver on the phone) that we would need to arrange a return time with him. He had one timeslot where he was able to fit us in for a return journey to our hotel. Obviously we accepted his offer!

The bed and quilt were soft and cosy which led to a very good night’s sleep. The breakfast was delicious, although the choices arrived in a strange order. My cooked breakfast items arrived at the same time as Mr C’s porridge. The toast arrived after my breakfast meaning there was no toast for my bacon and tomato, which I intended to have on top of the toast. The toast arrived after I had finished my breakfast.

After breakfast we checked the weather forecast before deciding whether to travel north into Scotland or south towards Cragside. The weather looked more favourable in the south so in bright sunshine we set off towards Cragside. As we travelled I noticed an unusual sight of many large birds dead on the road; I think they were birds of prey rather than partridges. I found it quite upsetting.  We travelled over open moorland where the wind was strong. The high sided vehicle in front of us was swaying from side to side and veering all over the road.  We passed Cragside in order to visit the town of Rothbury first.

In Rothbury we visited a shoe shop and Regatta outdoor clothing shop and reminisced about a ladies clothes shop (no longer there) of which we have fond memories. Whilst we were in Rothbury the wind became a bit stronger but in intermittent gusts as it had been on our visit to Bamburgh the previous day. We made our way to Cragside and found that it was closed due to to Storm Ali. I was annoyed with myself for not checking to see if was open before we travelled.

We decided to visit nearby Chillingham Castle, arriving a little too early for the gates to be open. We drove around the corner in order to consider our options. By this stage the wind had become violent. We decided to turn towards Berwick and perhaps Paxton House or the Chain Bridge Honey Farm. As we headed back, the gates to Chillingham, were now open and we had a momentary waver before deciding to stick with our new plan. We were really uncomfortable with the way the trees were blowing in the narrow country lanes. I watched some telephone wires swinging wildly in the wind and made sure they were not power cables.

As we drove towards Berwick, the roads were littered with more birds and also tree debris. At one point near Chillingham, a branch got stuck under Mr C’s car causing us top stop to remove it. We were also turned back due to a fallen tree blocking the road. Travelling through the country lanes to the nearest main road was quite alarming; I have never experienced winds so strong that trees were whipping around violently and bending fully across the country lanes. We were relieved when we got back onto a main road but even then conditions were not pleasant and something fell from a tree and clunked on the top of Mr C’s car.

Considering the extreme weather conditions, we aborted all plans and headed into Berwick to have lunch in in a tea shop that was run by the former business owners of accommodation we have used on previous visits to Northumberland. We were rather hassled when we arrived, especially because at that moment Mr C realised he didn’t have his mobile phone and wondered if he had dropped it whilst removing the stuck branch from beneath his car. For lunch I chose an open crab sandwich; it was delicious!

By the time we had finished lunch, the wind had whipped itself up into a complete frenzy, making it difficult to walk back to the car. We returned to the hotel, passing debris and fallen branches along the way. As we travelled we noticed an ominous brown mist/cloud. We realised that it was the top soil being blown off farmers fields.

Back at the hotel we retired to our room to play one of the board games I had packed just in case… The surface of the quilt made it difficult to play the game due to the pieces sliding into each other. The weather didn’t improve and, on occasions, the floorboards in the room were moving so we dined in the hotel rather than go out as we had intended.

After dinner we had a chat with a fisherman who owns a nearby holiday property where he stays during the fishing season. He considers the Collingwood Arms his local even though his main home is many miles south of it. I know what he means; this area of Northumberland feels like home to me too, I felt it the first time I visited the area.

First thing after breakfast we set off to visit Brinkburn Priory, which is a place neither of us have visited before. The Priory is in a lovely, tranquil, shady setting but I thought that the nearby dilapidated manor house detracted from the setting as did a group of photographers with tripods getting in the way of our outside shots. The priory had been booked for a wedding at 12pm and the bride was walking about the grounds in curlers and what looked like night clothes. As we were leaving we could hear sounds of organ music as a choir rehearsed for the wedding.

We headed off towards Rothbury where we hoped to find some prehistoric rock carving that were nearby. I think we must have been on the wrong road because we failed miserably to find their location. We carried on to Rothbury where I hoped to visit a nice clothes shop that I have frequented before. I was sad to see that it had closed down, although I did visit the nearby shoe shop and purchased a pair of shoes of a type I have been trying to find for some time.

We deliberated on where we should go for lunch. Cragside was nearby but we elected to go to Wallington instead as we had only been there on one previous occasion. After lunch in Wallington’s tea shop we visited the house so that we could enjoy the gardens at our leisure. We enjoyed the house with the sun lighting up the rooms; on our previous visit it was raining and this made the rooms rather dark.

We took the short walk to the walled garden where we noticed that many of the garden statues had gone and that there was scaffolding around the glass house. We meandered the garden in the sunshine making up for our last visit which had been cut short due to the rain. We sat outside for afternoon tea and a shared flapjack next to the garden’s seasonal cafe. After finishing our tour of the garden we headed back to Alnwick via the scenic route. I called in at Barter Books quickly to pick up the book on prehistoric rock carvings that I had seen when we called in briefly on our day of arrival only to find that it had gone! It seems that rock carvings were off the day’s menu.

We went back to the B&B to freshen up before dinner at Lilburns. The food was excellent and if we had been staying in Alnwick a little longer we would have returned for another visit. Mr C decided that he wanted to visit the nearby real ale pub before returning to the B&B for the evening. It was an interesting experience… We were greeted by the sight of a giant leek placed on a table near to the pub entrance. It transpired that the annual garden competition had taken place recently and that although large in proportion this leek was not the winning specimen!

I am leaving my computer to run for now but if it doesn’t settle down I will have to kill the process and re-install. But I really could do without the hassle…

On a lighter note I will leave you with a few photographs from Cragside Formal Garden

Breakfast in the Vermont was as excellent as usual, although the arrangements had changed since our previous visits. There is still the buffet arrangement for cold breakfast items but all cooked food is prepared fresh to order. We were pleased to find there was the perfect table with five chairs so we were all able to sit together.

After breakfast we set off for Cragside in light drizzle, which wasn’t too worrying because I knew it would be sunny in the afternoon. My companions, however were not convinced and there were a few grumbles about the rain. On arrival at the  Cragside Estate we headed to the cafe for a cup of tea before taking a tour of the house. Whilst we made our way around the house the rain stopped and the sun came out. When we finished the house tour, it was time for lunch where the five of us discussed what we would do next.

The sun was shining brightly as we followed the leisure drive, stopping off at Nelly’s Moss and The Labyrinth along the way before finishing up at the formal garden. My brother and his fiancée were impressed with Cragside; they had never been before and the leisure drive had won them over. The formal garden looks different again at this time of year. Both the leisure drive and the garden visit made my mum’s day, she had not been able to do either of these before because her previous visits had all been coach trips. We drove back to Newcastle via Alnwick taking in a view of the castle and The Percy Lion (who’s tail is still broken) to be able to fill up the car up with petrol.

That evening we dined in a Peruvian restaurant which was a first for me. My brother’s lady is Peruvian and she had spotted the restaurant as they arrived in Newcastle the previous evening and was excited about trying it out. I was quite adventurous and chose fish with sweet potato which is raw marinaded fish. It was light and refreshing and also delicious. To follow, I chose sliced pineapple soaked in rum. The restaurant is called Solano’s after the Newcastle footballer. Interestingly there were three other English and Peruvian couples dining in the bar that evening (which the proprietress told us was unusual). The Peruvian cook came out to chat to my brother’s lady and later in the evening, Solano’s brother came into the restaurant and she also had a chat with him. There is a connection with the restaurant although I couldn’t quite follow what it was because part of the conversation was in Spanish

We returned to the hotel for a nightcap before retiring to our rooms for a well earned rest.

Rothbury as viewed from Cragside formal garden.

Rothbury is a small market town which straddles the River Coquet. The town has a pleasing mix of old stone and newer brick-built properties. Although technically a town with a proposal a year or so back to install a town mayor (defeated) everyone still tends to call it a village and it has a village feel about it. Shops, hotels and houses are clustered on the sloping banks of the river which bisects the village with the majority of the commercial properties situated on the north side. From all sides the views are magnificent – Cragside, Blaeberry Hill, Simonside, and in the far distance, the Cheviots.

Rothbury has something to offer throughout the year: In spring clear fresh air, fast flowing streams and crystal clear river. In summer a sheltered and warm central area,with a variety of small specialist shops.

Rothbury has had a turbulent and bloody history. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Coquet Valley was a pillaging ground for bands of Reivers who attacked and burned the town with terrifying frequency. Near the town’s impressive All Saints’ Parish Church stands the doorway and site of the seventeenth century Three Half Moons Inn. Follow the Heritage Trail for a deeper feeling for its history.

A mile to the east of the town lies Cragside, the first house in the world to be lit by hydro electricity. To the west you pass through some of the most exquisite and peaceful countryside in Northumberland. To the south is Simonside, the Sacred Mountain and to the north lie the bleak Alnwick moors.

Kahlil Gibran

After checking the weather forecast we decided to visit Cragside because the weather was going to be favourable. On our way there we detoured via Rothbury in order to find a cash point.  Whilst we were in Rothbury Mr C insisted on locating for me the nice ladies clothes shop that I visited last time we were there.  Our shopping expedtion resulted in a lot of banter and laughter between us, the staff and the other customers.  I am not sure how that happened but it is a regular occurrence  Ultimately I left the shop with a nice two piece outfit with jacket cardigan to match.

After the detour to Rothbury, we continued on our way to Cragside and its formal garden which is always our first port of call when we visit.  The garden was spectacular as always and I noticed that the Dalhia bedding was different this year.  I gave myself a personal challenge of photographing the garden with my ‘macro lens’ to provide a different perspective from my previous visits to the garden.

After the formal garden and a walk to one of the four 150th anniversary featured artworks, it was time for lunch in the tea shop.  After lunch we had intended to visit the house but it was rather busy so we elected to do the leisure drive.  After the leisure drive we found that the house was still too busy so we had an enjoyable walk around the rock garden whilst we waited for the house’s congestion to subside.  Eventually the house was quiet enough; we entered and re-acquainted ourselves with our favourite house features.  Then we returned to The Coach House where once again we had interesting conversations as we dined and later enjoyed coffee in the lounge with other guests including a group of Aussies. The other guests retired just before Leona (then Toby) arrived and we all sat up chatting a little too late.

I have more than one favourite place. I have managed to incorporate several of them in this photo. Gardens, countryside, Cragside and Northumberland.

More favourite places can be found here.