Tuesday 22nd June: St Abbs and Eyemouth

During the night there had been a very heavy dew and the top of the car was covered in hundreds of dead flies, and some pretty impressive live ones, too, like this specimen. At first I thought it was a mosquito, but somehow it doesn’t fit that description.

Interestingly our red car had hundreds of flies glued to the roof, whereas the grey car next to it had none.

.We were away early , just after nine , we found that using the A697 as far as Wooler then cutting across country to Berwick is a great deal faster than using the A1 as there is almost no traffic.

Having made good time we stopped for a cuppa on top Halidon Hill overlooking Berwick at five past ten. I was able to upload the previous day’s blog and images as we were under the main transmitter mast, for the district, which meant I could use 3G mobile broadband rather than the dreadful 56k dial up that is normally available, and while I was doing this Pat was exploring and found a series of historical panels on a stone raised lectern at the highest point in the little car park.

This one describes a mediaeval battle between the English and the Scots

.This second panel has a rather nice drawing to illustrate the action just before the main battle. There were also panoramic view panels with all the distant hills and out of sight places identified

.Pat then took this rather nice shot looking down onto Berwick ,you can make out the many Tweed Bridges on the right of the foreground and with Bamburgh Castle on the sky line.

Pat took this from the raised plinth in the hilltop car park. There was still a bit of morning mist but she managed quite well

.We reached St Abbs just after 10 AM parking as usual on the cliff top. The sky was clear and it was much less crowded than the previous day at Seahouses and Bamburgh. This panoramic view is three images from the TZ6 compact combined

.A prominent feature of St Abbs is the cottages on the hilltop behind the harbour. It must have been very busy in the old days when the harbour was filled with fishing smacks out after the herring. Fishing is still going on from the village, though now it is usually for crabs and lobsters and a little long line.

.This shot is a little way out on the outer harbour wall, really atmospheric will the lobster pots and the riot of colours of the boats.

For a change we visited when the tide was in, and the water was so clear you could see right down to the bottom of the harbour.

One thing noticeably missing was the large jellyfish that were all over the harbour last year when we visited

.This shot is actually another panoramic, two vertical shots combined, this time taken with the Nikon and prime 35mm f1.8 lens, the colours and shapes in the harbour make great images, just right for photo books and calendars

.Pat took this delightful view from the outer harbour wall, look at the lovely balance of tones and that great blue sky!

.Then she saw this old vagrant walking along the outer mole and shot him (Well somebody should! He makes the place look untidy!)

.It had been our intention to have dinner at the Oxford Farm shop, but we were having such a good time we decided to eat locally.

We had a lovely crab salad for lunch in the Harbour Tea room, which is unusual as there are no seats inside, which must make business a bit dicey in bad weather.

Somehow we always associate eating crab with summer, and we were provided with very fresh and very large portions, only a stones throw from where the crabs had been landed in the harbour, you can’t get fresher than that.

It was a really nice meal, and well worth £6 each, if we go there again I shall definitely have the same again.

.From St Abbs to Eyemouth, where we filled up the car, for a rare change the fuel was actually cheaper than at home, and we parked down on the harbour,

Here at least there is some inshore fishing down and we had to tread carefully to avoid the trawl nets spread along the harbour wall to dry.

As it was high tide there were only a few boats still in the harbour, but enough to take some photos.

Once again Pat has produced a very creditable shot, and one that is likely to end up on another calendar, and in our annual photo book.

.Just look at the wide angle distortion on this shot when I poked the lens down to get the boats in, had more time been available this could be corrected in the image editor, still I quite liked the shot, so here it is.

.By now the afternoon was well advanced to we retraced our steps, stopping in Wooler for a much needed sticky toffee ice cream as the afternoon temperature had climbed to 25 Degrees Centigrade.

Once again we used the A697 rather than the A1 to avoid the heavy traffic.

Fortunately we had the caravan set up to keep it cool for Garfield and it was nice to get out of the heat.

Lots of the people on site were loughing around and soaking up the sun, they do that from dawn to dusk.

Not for us ! We prefer to keep cool in the shade.

By now the afternoon was well advanced to we retraced our steps, stopping in Wooler for a much needed sticky toffee ice cream as the afternoon temperature had climbed to 25 Degrees Centigrade.

Once again we used the A697 rather than the A1 to avoid the heavy traffic.

Fortunately we had the caravan set up to keep it cool for Garfield and it was nice to get out of the heat.

Lots of the people on site were loughing around and soaking up the sun, they do that from dawn to dusk.

Not for us ! We prefer to keep cool in the shade.

Monday 21st June 2010:Seahouses and Bamburgh

It was a really lovely morning and we drove up to Berwick to do some shopping, then came down the coast to Seahouses for lunch, then a look round the Farne Gift shop where we picked up some bargains and some Edinburgh Rock for Kathryn.
No visit here is complete without a walk round the harbour. We were amazed at how busy the place has become, especially on a Monday!
Pat saw this strange duck in the harbour, and had to have a picture of course

People were basking in the sunshine and some were peering out at the Farne Islands
Others were more adventurous and buying tickets for boat trips
Impossible as it looks everyone this side side of the railings actually got into the boat!
Here is a tele shot of one of the boats returning, it looks a bit rough out there to me!
We then went to Bamburgh and parked down the Wynding where we enjoyed an ice cream
And I got this wonderful view of the beach and the inner farne, gorgeous isn't it?
And here is Bamburgh castle from the car park, you can see how busy it is from the number of cars.
Here is a long distance view for seahouses, its a great area!
Behind our caravan is the tiny river Font, very scenic
And teeming with these tiny fish (trout I think)It had been a wonderful day out and it was really hot back at site, we had to have all the windows open and fly screens up.

Sunday 20th June 2010, Moved to Nunny kirk

just to be different todays blog is reversed! This is a steam roller from a Vintage vehicles meet at Rothbury
Here it has reached the top of the hill
And here it is tackling the climb
Wallington House and lots of picnickers on the lawns
And on the steps too as it was a very hot day
This is one of the hundreds of beautiful roses in the gardens
Pat shot this pensive little lady resting under one of the trees
This clock is a but stange, it only has a single hand!
This is the inside of the impressive gateway cum entrance at wallington house
And this is the rear of the mansion
You enter Wallington House through this impressive entrance, We had made good time from Whitby and arrive on site by 11:00 AM but felt too tired to go a long way during the afternoon, Walling ton had the advantage of being only four miles from our campsite.

Saturday 19th June 2010: Nunnington Hall

The weather was windy and wet during the night and remained that way until we were well inland on our way to Nunnington Hall, where there was a least a brief sunny spell
This is the reception area and as you can see the previous owners of the place had the typical cruel streak and lack of respect for nature that so called aristocrats seem to regard as normal.

How anyone could take pleasure in killing such lovely animals is beyond my powers of comprehension.

There are some lovely rooms in this house, though they are heavily updated from the original 1650 model, as one can expect when the house is in continuous occupation for hundreds of years
Outside in the garden is this "Wishing tree" where supplicants tie a ribbon on one of the branches and make a wish, the last one we came across was in Paphos, Cyprus.
Here in close up you can see this has been a popular thing to do, wonder if any of the wishes ever came true?
The gardens here are interesting at any time of the year, just look at the size of this poppy!

Much bigger than my hand.

I took this close up of the marvellously intricate centre of the flower, absolutely amazing!
Pat goes for the roses and she really liked this all white specimen growing as a climber up the stone garden wall
Peacocks stroll around as if they own the place (perhaps they really do?)
Here is another of the roses that caught Pat's eye, once again this was one of the climbing varieties.
And look at the delicacy of this pink one, plus it had a delightful perfume
I almost forget there was a couple of Elwell paintings in the restaurant, this one is of the Beverley Arms kitchen, we had seen it before in an exhibition at the Ferens art gallery in Hull
Near the exit there were plants and other items for the garden, Pat found these ornamental dragonflies worth a picture.Considering the bad weather today we had a good time at Nunnington Hall it was a good choice for our last day in Whitby.