Your Day (apart from gardening) - what took place?

Cooking a Chicken joint early along with stuffing.
Can't be cooking in the heat of the day in my tiny kitchen.

 

Prosecco tea in Baltic

It was a lovely day but the walk uphill to the bus station was rather hot. The quayside is always lively and the museum itself very well organised and entertaining.

I only realised how dramatically low the water level was when looking at this photo. Thankfully next week is promising some thunder, we need the water.

 

Yum ,yum ,I wasn't far off with my earlier pic was I !

 

Today not in the garden we went for a family bike ride. On the way back my phone rang, but I didn't answer. Then wife's phone rang. We knew without looking who it was. It was my slightly annoying friend. When my phone immediately rang again after wife's rang out, I knew he was outside my house.

I like when my friend visits, but he has a habit of turning up right on tea time and stays for ages and doesn't take the hint. So began an exciting game of escape and evasion. See, we were nearly home when this happened, and we knew he'd have to pass where we were no matter where he was going next. Furthermore, it's an open green where this happened, so we quickly formulated a plan to circle round the other way and get out of sight. We did so, and as we entered our street from the other end, we saw him waiting outside our house. So we had to hide round the corner until he'd gone.

I'm not entirely horrible, I'll phone him back after my tea has had chance to digest a bit, and maybe meet for a walk out.

 

Washing with cold water as opposed to 30c doesn't make any difference to the electricity bill. It's not worth doing.

 

A day bus trip with our work Social club (mostly retirees) to Abbotsford house abroad, namely in Scotland. Goodness me, the time difference is significant, its May in Scotland with Alliums and Hostas in full bloom



Anyways, the house was spectacular and made me to swear I'll re-read Ivanhoe and Rob Roy again. Sir Walter even hung a scull of an Auroch in the medieval styled entrance hall.

The journey up from Newcastle to Scotland is lovely, the hills going up and down and the heather just starting to bloom. I'm measuring how many years it takes for a child to stop saying "Look Mum, sheep!" , so far we are at year 14.

 

What a fabulous day out @Selleri , it looks an amazing place.

 

It is, we are so lucky to be living in this corner of the world with such treasures just behind the back door. It's only an hour's drive to the Scottish border and the landscape is truly beautiful. Add a dollop of history that you remember from school plus a walled garden and voila.

I must admit that no matter how much I like Scotland, the language takes a while getting used to. My Nordic accent is well understood but sadly I fail to understand back. The Baby is either embarrassed or gets giggling fits when I communicate with the local natives.

"Good morning dear, how are we today?"
"Two coffees and a slice of walnut cake please"
"Would you like to add a national lottery ticket into your bill?"
"Table fifteen"

and so on.

 

Oh don't!! My hubs has still retained his strong accent and we encounter the same issues.
He had to phone up about our electricity meter readings last week and he got a lovely Scottish lady on the line....omg !! She couldn't understand him and he couldn't understand her.....l was called in to take over. It would be more stressful if it wasn't so laughable!!.....at times!

 

Made 6x1lb Christmas puddings, i made 6 so that i could keep 3 for the 2023 Christmas, they keep well when i feed them with sherry afterwards.

With the clean greaseproof paper and 3 layers of cling film.

I'll cook the other 4 tomorrow.

 

Belsay Hall today. What a marvellous day out that was, and just a 30 min bus trip from Newcastle. I do appreciate the way it's so easy to reach these national treasures even if you don't drive, the bus was mainly filled with OAPs with a bus pass who got the ride for free. And the £6 for a return ticket for us was not too much of a rip off either

Belsay is a site of an old quarry, and the gardens built into the old sites are marvellous. There is a curious microclimate created by the 5m quarry walls that allows plants of quite exotic provenance to flourish.

The walk is enchanting. (And just to note, I don't actually have a bald patch on my crown or a tonsure, It's just my grays and I'm there only to show the scale of the quarry walls. )




Here's the castle


and the actual Hall, currently being renovated but still open for the public for the parts not actively worked on.



They have scaffolding all around the house and a Scaffolding tour for the kids including wearing helmets, climbing the scaffolding and sliding down- brilliant! !

One last thing, I have read about Ha has but never seen one. Well, here it is

 

That was a lovely, fascinating outing. Good value too.

 

Looks fantastic Selleri

 

That's my kinda day out too @Selleri . Brill and so educational for all ages.

We have a nearby N T house that has it's original Ha-ha still in place. I adore reading up on and visiting those old places.

A day well spent.

 

Having the boiler and fire serviced today. We don't use the patio door much to get out to the back garden, go through the garage.
But because of the boys the engineer comes through the patio door to get to the fire in the living room. For a few days hubby has been opening the patio door to make sure that it unlocks, today put the key in but it wouldn't unlock and the key is stuck in the lock. So have to keep the boys in the hall because the engineer will have to go in and out to check that the flue is working.
Hubby phoned the person that fitted the door and he's going to get a locksmith to visit some time and it won't cost us anything.