Been and come back...!

Day 1

Excitement – we were on our way! It was raining for most of the route, but the journey up here only took about 2 1/2 hours instead of the anticipated 3+ so that was quite nice. The A1 gets very very quiet once you’ve gone past the Metro Centre!

Just before we left, we had a visit from Gordon (of “our lovely bathrooms” fame) he’s going to redo the downstairs loo for us whilst we’re away. How cool. A new loo, and we’re not even going to have to be there to see any of the mess!!

So we arrived and found the lovely cottage with absolutely no problem. The village is called Millfield and is just after Wooler on the A697. The cottage is in a little ‘steading’ just about ½ a mile outside the village. It was such a lovely evening (the rain stopped and the sun came out) that we parked up, quickly unloaded the car, and wandered into the village itself. There’s not millions there but enough – a pub, a village store and a cafe/tea room/ restaurant. We were going to go and buy provisions at the store, but found it had shut at 3 – we got there about 3:15! So much for us trying to boost the local economy; we’d deliberately avoided going to the supermarket on the way so that we’d spend some money in the village, so it’s a good job we’d got some stuff with us to start us off for the 1^st night!! The pub also looked shut, but the caff was open. We got a nice warm and chatty welcome from the staff, and we had a spot of lunch and a beer each – first food of the day for us. Starving we were! After our wander back to the cottage, the real business of the holiday began. I broke out the crochet – Dan got the fire lit, and the wine was poured. Chilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Day 2

Not an awful lot to say about day 2 - it was the reason why we come away - to do nothing but the things we enjoy. So, there was some cooking, lots of reading, some sewing and crochet. In the evening we went to the local pub in the village and had a couple of pints of Guinness and some food. Very nice. The walk home in the dark was quite interesting, and my torch wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be!!!

Day 3

Picture courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald

Out and about - we decided to head to Alnwick gardens. I'd watched a TV program from quite a few years ago about the Duchess of Northumberland's idea to turn the castle gardens into some kind of water garden. It was very very nice! The main cascade is amazing. 

After visiting the gardens we had a lovely lunch in a local Italian Cafe - very nice indeed. 

Day 4

Today we drove up to Eyemouth on the coast, in search of old fashioned fish and chips which we did in a pub called "The Contented Sole" right down on the harbour. 


It was bleak but very exhilarating on the seafront. Very errm, brisk! Think British summertime.

The fog was coming in quickly but we decided to drive down to Holy Island - somewhere I've always been fascinated by! So off we drove, into oblivion - or so it looked - down the A1. As we turned off the main road and drove the 8 or 9 K across the causeway, we could not see ANYTHING AT ALL. AT ALL. NOT A SINGLE THING. The fog was so think that the visibility was down to about 100 yards! So, we drove onto the island, and then turned around and drove back again! We were worried about getting stuck there in the fog!


On the way back we discovered "The Barn at Beal" a coffee shop and Bird of Prey centre. YAY Birds of Prey! We find them all over the place. So, after the coffee, we went to see the birdies. As usual, Dan bonded with a couple of the birds...they love him...doing the head bobbing, squawking and beak clicking thing.

The girls at the centre were very friendly and even though there wasn't an official 'show' they flew 4 of the 'special needs' birds that they'd rescued. Some of them didn't so much fly as bob along after the food lures! Between them they had a broken leg, missing tail, missing wing feathers, and just a bit mental. 

Day 5

Home time today - we were told by the owner that there was noone else coming into the cottage until tomorrow so we didn't have to be so strict about getting out before 10. In the end we got out about 10:30 after having done a minor bit of cleaning around the place - and we were home by 1:30. 

A brilliant, chilled week. A lovely cottage