A Day Out in Northumberland

It was a Bank holiday here in the UK today so we went to check out Northumberlandia. It is a park with a human landform sculpture of a reclining lady. It is fairly new and is due to change over time.

After visiting there we went on to Druridge Bay with the intention of giving Molly a good run along the wide beaches....unfortunately the tide was in and it was very busy.

She did get a good run on the grass though and was tired out went she went home.

And we also had our first barbecue of the year. Last year we had one early in the year and that was it for the rest of the year as the weather was just not good enough.

TAST 31 and Chillingham Castle

In case you were wondering why there hasn't been any posts recently it is because I've  had visitors this week. I've also only just done the Take a stitch Tuesday challenge which is Algerian Eye stitch. I've done a free style version of this stitch for my tatty scrap.

One of the places we visited this week was Chillingham Castle in Northumberland and these are photos I took there. It is a medieval castle and we saw a mix of styles in the castle including the torture chamber and there are formal gardens outside. It is allegedly haunted although I didn't see any ghosts.

Doorways and Rolling Stamps 53-55

This is to take part in the Three Muses challenge which this week is 'Doorways'.

I photographed this wonderful doorway at Belsay Hall, Northumberland way back in 2003 and it was an entrance to a room full to bursting of linen.  The nurse wasn't there. Some more photos of the room and another doorway into it shown below.

More rolling stamps - the first & third are made from fun foam, the second from wallpaper

Cragside House

My sister and husband came to stay for a couple of days. Yesterday we went to Cragside House in Northumberland,  a lovely Victorian house set in wonderful surroundings and built on a cliff ledge. The house was owned by Lord William Armstrong, a Victorian inventor and it has many early gadgets. It is also the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. One of the gadgets in the kitchen was the dishwasher shown in this advert.

He also planted millions of trees, some of which are the tallest in England.

This is part of a wooden panel in the house.

in the gardens there is a carved owl which is part of a tree

Day Out at Seahouses

Just checking my photos from a day at the coast. I like the flags on the photo above. We went to Seahouses, Northumberland and from there we went on a boat tour around some of the Farne Islands to see grey seals and birds.

If you look closely on the photo below, there are some seals, but they blend in with the rocks. [click the image for a larger view] And every time I tried to take a picture of a seal in the water it went under.  I'm afraid I don't make a very good wildlife photographer!

Limpets & Seaweed

I took pictures of these limpets and seaweed in July on the Northumberland coastline.