Worth a walk

Today was the Tuesday after a bank holiday. Therefore the rain stopped and the sun shone.

We took advantage of the weather to have a good day out. We started with a trip to a farm which specialises in ice-cream for a well earned cone.



We had expected that they would do sandwiches but as they didn't we ended up having fish & chips by the harbour in Amble.



The main event was a trip to Warkworth Castle which is a fantastic 15c castle and provided the kids with endless opportunities to play in the prisons and roll down the slopes.



Probably the highlight of the day was actually seeing a knitted royal wedding in the window of a house in Warkworth. Certainly worth the walk.




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A Progress Tour

I'm a very lucky person and I get to leave the country a lot. However, June half-term tends to be a staycation. This has been a lovely one. On Friday night I did something with my son that would never happen in any 1940s childhood. I took him to his first stadium gig - Take That's opening night of the Progress tour at Sunderland's Stadium of Light.








It was a fabulous show and he completely loved it.

The next day we went into Newcastle and visited the Laing Art gallery. It's got some fabulous paintings by the Cullercoats Artists and Ashington Miners. The most fun was trying to do self-portraits on a posh etchasketch:













Then we were straight off to Scotland to stay with friends in Bathgate. On Saturday we went to Dynamic Earth which is a fabulous museum covering the history of the planet via interactive exhibits. The best room is the arctic biome which has an iceberg in it - leading to lots of putting cold hands up each other's backs - and a video screen in the floor which looks like an ice hole with seals and penguins swimming below.

Yesterday we went to visit another friend near Dunbar and had one of the simple 1940s pleasures in life. Playing in the garden and walking through fields looking at an incredible view over the Firth of Forth and the Bass Rock which my iPhone camera singularly failed to capture well.







Now we are in rural Northumbria with another friend and her sons. There has been a game of hide and seek going on with the boys for about 12 hours and now they're playing board games happily as we sit in the conservatory nursing coffee. Bliss.

We have made excellent progress on our tour round my friends and their lovely lives.

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There be dragons

Life's been quiet recently as my bank account appears to have been pillaged by Vikings. Today we are having a cheap but enjoyable day watching Dragon Boat racing in a local park. I'm here to support a colleague who is racing in memory of a little girl who died of meningitis. It's stories like that which make you clutch your child that bit closer.

The weather today is crackers: blazing sun, gusting wind and sudden downpours all at once. We are picnicking and all around are wotsits that suddenly became airborne.




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Location:Roundhay Park, Leeds.

Nasty, brutish and short

Later in the afternoon. The knight is in full armour and about to practise on the quintain.




Meanwhile, Evan has qualified as a knight.




To be honest, I'd rather he were a merchant or monk for health & safety reasons.

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Alright squire?

Today we are at another new place, Bolsover castle, watching displays of medieval chivalry. My plan was to join English Heritage so we could spend the summer getting out to new place. So far it's great fun. This afternoon we picnicked whilst watching a display of horsemanship and have just watched a sword display.






There's nothing better than a bloodthirsty educational day.


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Counting in Devonshire

Today finds us in a New Place Altogether. We are in Exeter, a town I've never visited before. It's lovely.




The afternoon was spent in the Cathedral. I was supposed to be looking at bosses and learning about Bishop Leofric but it was MUCH more exciting doing the Easter egg hunt round the cloisters with Evan. We counted 35 but there might have been more. He won a Cadbury Creme egg for handing his entry in and I got nothing despite looking plaintive and pleasant simultaneously.

Afterwards I tried to kill Evan to death by taking him into shops that sell clothes for women which led to a plaintive 'can I go in the corner and read a book?'' I relented and we have ended up in the cathedral close trying two types of lemonade. He has Fentiman's Victorian lemonade and I have homemade with ginger and a Secret Ingredient. I was hoping it would be gin. But I don't think it is.




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Anyone for croquet?

Today finds us in the 1950s. Or, at least, in the Corfe Castle model village which was built in 1950 and which is a great afternoon out. Evan


and I have been playing croquet. I won. Later? Dorset apple cake and clotted cream. Smashing.



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Location:East St,,United Kingdom