Alnwick

Amanda and I love Alnwick - which explains why we kept returning during the course of this holiday.   We stayed in a cottage in Alnwick back in 2007 so we could get in and out of the town on foot the last time - I remember spending rather a lot of time in Barters Book, which is a massive second hand book shop in the old railway buildings.   And I bought so many books that the exact amount has stuck in my memory ever since - THIRTY-FIVE!!!  

It snowed all week - it was early February - and we spent a lot of time trying to keep warm. Other things I remember include taking two hundred photos in Alnwick Gardens, even though there was nothing in bloom!   Mainly because they have some beautiful sculptures and fountains and we were playing about with new cameras and seeing what they could do.   And sausages.   We had sausages every day - either for breakfast, packed lunches or dinner.  And the one day we DID go out and eat in a pub, rather than cooking for ourselves at the cottage, we both had bangers and mash!   That holiday brings back lots of laughter-inducing memories!

Alnwick hasn't changed much since we were last here - the off licence selling mead has disappeared, which was a bit disappointing.   And we couldn't get into the Alnwick Gardens or the Treehouse Restaurant because of the boys.   But on the whole, it was pretty much as I remembered it.  Lovely little town - very bustling and workmanlike, exactly how I like my towns.

We were pleased to see that the wool shop was still in the market place!   We had googled wool shops and knew that there were two wool shops within fifteen miles of our cottage and, as it turned out, there were actually three - bonus!  We did think there should be another wool shop at Wooler.  Fancy having a name like that and not having one - it's almost against the Trades Description Act!  Amanda and I already had a conversation about wool on day one of the holiday - we had shopping lists for things we wanted to make for Christmas so had an idea of what wool we needed.  (Amanda and I came up with another business plan - a mobile pattern library/ wool shop - and people could ring us up when they needed wool urgently and we could drive to their work place or village - we figured we could become the UK's sixth emergency service.)

We spent some time in Barters again - well I did, Amanda was a little underwhelmed this time.  The weather was shocking and we both got soaked - and Barters is known for its comfy sofas, real fires, coffee and cake, so the world and his wife were taking cover in there.  I think Amanda turned tail and fled out of there.  There were lots of people sitting around on the big sofas and there were lots of very well behaved dogs in there too - I just wish that Finn would settle enough to take him into places like this.  

Only two books bought this time though - one on my shopping list and one Christmas present.   Perhaps I'm learning a bit of restraint at last!

Alnmouth

Amanda and I spent a week in Northumberland in February 2007 - it snowed all week and was absolutely freezing, but it didn't stop us getting out and about.  We knew - from that earlier week - that the beach at Alnmouth was stunning - although we didn't hang about much because of the cold - we spent more time in the village tea rooms and the church.  But, because we knew it was a fab, dog-friendly, beach, it was our first port of call this time around to give Finn and Sid a good run on our first day.  

To get to the beach car park, you have to drive through the middle of the golf course and then it's a hop, skip and a jump across the sand dunes onto the beach.  If you turn right, you head towards the estuary and the town, but, if you turn left, you head towards Boulmer - three miles away - and it's much more interesting with all the rock pools for exploring.  Unfortunately, that way led trouble - there was a dead seal on the beach and Finn does love to roll in dead things.   In fact for the first couple of days, my car smelt of Finn's favoured perfume - Eau de Dead Crab - which wasn't very pleasant.  

We went back to Alnmouth three or four times during our holiday and it was definitely best to avoid weekend dog walking and also when the tide was right in - with a huge expanse of beach to walk on, the boys had lots of freedom to roam.  But, when the tide was right in, there were still masses of people and it felt that we had a strip of beach the size of a seaside prom to walk on - much too restricting for us!  

On the first day of our trip, we struck lucky by finding a pub - the Red Lion in Alnmouth High Street - that let dogs into the garden - although what we didn't realise was that they were also holding a beer festival that weekend!   We were really lucky in finding lots of places to eat where dogs were welcome and would definitely recommend Northumberland generally for dog-friendly holidays.   But, blimey, it was cold again for sitting outside!

Northumberland

Amanda and I are just back from two weeks in Northumberland - we stayed at a sweet little cottage - Shunting Cottage - at Acklington, a couple of miles from both Amble and Warkworth.   In fact, the cottage is so lovely that we have both said we'd definitely go back and we've talked the owners into letting it to us privately rather than go through the holiday company again.  And Mum and Dad have said they're going up too!   Acklington is so accessible for all the usual touristy places - but very quiet too.  Although the railway passed about a hundred yards from the cottage, the noise of trains was never overwhelming.  In fact, the most noise we heard was from the cattle auctions in the big building down the lane from us.   (I've always wanted to go to a cattle auction and thought I might go and take a look one day - but when I told Andy this on the 'phone, he told me to be careful in case they sold me!  Cheeky blighter!) 

It took us six hours to drive up and we had the usual nonsense conversations en route, culminating in the one as we came past Newcastle.   Amanda's little gem was, "is that the Tyne? ..... it's not very foggy".   That about sums up the rubbish we spouted for the whole holiday actually!

The cottage was all on one level and we each had our own bathroom, which was fab.  It was incredibly dog friendly, with an enclosed back garden, and the owners had three Dobermans of their own - Simon, Norman and Brian - and they made friends with Sid and Finn through the back fence.  

The kitchen was amazing and I've measured up and checked out the tiles and the cupboards, and I'm fairly sure I can do something similar with my own kitchen!   It was very well equipped so we had fresh coffee every day when we came back from our walks.  And we had to go and get cake especially, as we even had cake forks!

It didn't take us long to make the place our own actually - there were books and wool everywhere!   How we managed to get it all back in the car on the way home, I have no idea.  

Away day

Lovely Shirley hosted our first Knitters with Attitude away day down at Carleton Rode, down near Wymondham and Attleborough.  It was a beautiful day - lovely and sunny and autumnal - just gorgeous, so we got to sit in the garden and knit for a while.  

Although to be fair we didn't actually start knitting until 12.45 pm.  We had far more important things to do first - drinking coffee and eating cheese scones!   We did a lot of chatting and laughing - and we have since had Shirley tell us that we kept her neighbours entertained with all the laughing and noise we were producing! 

We all admired the garden although some of us were more horticulturally minded than others - Shannon thought that a foxglove was something that you danced on Strictly Come Dancing for a start!   And Sid did his best to scarify every bit of the lawn, after he'd pissed all over it!   Shirley was really very taken with Sid, although Ken, Shirley's husband and now forever known as Mellors, was adamant that, if they ever got a doggy companion for Duke, then he definitely didn't want it to be Sid! 

And speaking of Duke, a very handsome and gentle boy, he moved around so much that this is the best photo I got of him all day!  He moves too quickly for my poor old camera to capture!

Shannon was on very good form - and even did some knitting. We have given her a pattern and some wool to make some wrist warmers, but I seem to recall Amanda and Mum righting the wrongs a few times.   Shannon was especially pleased when she had the same number of stitches at the end of two consecutive rows.   Amanda carried on with her blanket; Shirley did some more work on her dog; Mum was making granny squares, but assisting the rest of us with items from her Mary Poppins bag; I carried on with my shawl which takes so long as there were 500 odd stitches on the needles at the time; and Michele was knitting her beautiful purple top but had to stop because we weren't sure of the length needed. 

Shirley and Mellors have a beautiful house and garden and were so welcoming to us all - despite us running around causing chaos - Shannon was after some furniture; I was threatening to move into the garden room; Amanda was after moving into the library upstairs!   We never did get to see Shirley's stock of cross stitch kits, but this provoked quite a lot of discussion about our various stashes.  

Following lunch - jacket potatoes with every kind of filling imaginable, including tuna-bleurgh, followed by lemon and chocolate tarts - we sat inside and continued the nonsense conversations.   At one point we wondered what Shannon and Michele were talking about - apparently Michele likes to keep hers under her arm and Shannon prefers hers between her legs.  Knitting needles, in case you were wondering!   Shirley then came out with the gem - not unrelated as we were actually discussing Body Shop parties - that she likes to put body butter on last thing at night so she just slides into bed!  Classic! 

So an absolutely brilliant day - I loved it!  And thank you to Shirley for putting up with all our shenanigans and nonsense.  So it was just left for us to negotiate the ditch and reverse out of the drive without running Ken over and we were on our way home, chuckling as we travelled along the country lanes and back into Norwich.  I'm sad we left it so late to have an away day but hope we get to have some more - such a tonic to talk rubbish and laugh hysterically.  Let's do it again!