26th July 2008 Warm and foggy too!

The sea fret persisted on the coast so we decided that Cragside would be a good bet today, and accordingly drove inland through Alnwick, stopping for a cuppa at our usual viewpoint above Edlingham Castle.
As you can see even this far inland the mist has robbed all detil from the sky, but the temperature was steadily climbing.

As we were a little early, so we descended the hill and walked round the castle ruins, with the amazing "leaning tower" held up by cables sunk into the masonry.
The Tower was the last expnasion of the house and date from 1340 or thereabouts. Despite it's size this was only a fortified Manor House, necessary as the area was notorious for border raiding by the Rievers (Of which one prominent family was the Bells, ancestors of mine I'm afraid!)
At Cragside we headed for the formal gardens and enjoyed the summer flowers, very different from the spring varieties of our earlier visit.
I make no excuses for simply photographing the flowers, they were so pleasing. After walking round the gardens we waited for the shuttle bus to take us round to the visitor centre (and cafe) and I got into conversation with the driver who was interested in the two cameras I was carrying. It turned out that he was a local Professional Photographer who runs courses and does portarit photography: while I was showing him the bridge camera I took out the compact Flash card and found it wouldn't go back in.
Looking closely I noted that one of the central pins inside the camera was bent: not a problem as a little careful use of Pat's nail file soon bent it straight, but for a while I wondered what could have happened.
Then it dawned on me! you can't put the card in wrongly as it's on guide rails, but it only needs a speck of dirt to block one of the tiny holes in the card, and next time when you put it in, one bent pin will be the result.
There must have been something on my hand that got transferred: I shall check the holes carefully in future!
Later in Rothbury we saw his advert in a shop window, and the images looked first rate.
We finished the visit with a fine meal in the cafe, and watched the picnickers on the tables by the lake as the sun had come out by this time.

On returning to our camp on the coast we were surprised to find it still wreathed in Fog!