So, the good weather continues – as do the good restaurants! The Three Wheatheads is a favourite for Sunday lunch. Twice! This time with John and Maralyn.
Beach walks continued even when Glenda was shopping. Here I am on Cresswell beach while Glenda is bothering the shop assistants in Morpeth!
We visited “Pleased To Meet You”
at cocktail hour…
This is the modern-day incarnation of Morpeth’s Queen’s Hotel. The hotel where Glenda and I had our wedding reception! The manager gave us a tour of the function room upstairs. Very different now. Very sentimental!
Well, I think that completes the set – apart from St Cuthbert’s Church in Blyth…
Oh well… On our actual wedding anniversary we had planned to have a celebratory lunch at the French restaurant in Hexham. The Bouchon Bistro. Having set off surprisingly early, we had plenty of time to visit Wallington Hall, a lovely National Trust property. One of our favourites.
The clock tower over the main entrance. Last time we were here, it had been covered in scaffolding. The clock had been laid out in bits in the conservation room. Now all well restored.
Glenda admiring the view over the ha ha at the front of the house. The front door is cunningly located on the side of the building just out of sight.
As we walked in the front door we were met by two guides. One of them quietly explained our route through the house and gave us the backup leaflet. The other lady started talking about the resident ghosts – at least that’s how I think we started our conversation (I may have mentioned ghosts in passing)! The conversation went on for ages. Let’s call her Debbie to protect her husband’s reputation! Debbie was charming and very, very demonstrative. Once we got past her ghost stories and ours from Flyford (see earlier post). We got on to geography. Devon, Wales (she’s had two Welsh husbands), Northumberland and Scotland. Then shopping. I may have mentioned my aversion to retail therapy. Which is quite significant!
Well, Debbie’s husband, (we will rename him John) has similar feelings about shopping. But his shoes were literally falling to bits. Debbie marches him into a shoe shop. He tries on two pairs and gives up. At this point, Debbie asks the salesperson to bring every pair of brown shoes size 10 that the shop has in stock. At this point Debbie acts out the poor girl returning with 20 boxes stacked high. She’s staggering across the entrance foyer in front of 10 American tourists. Needless to say, they are rather bewildered. The house guide lurching across the entrance hallway, pretending to carry 20 pretend boxes of pretend shoes!
But John has vapourised! He’s left the shoe shop! A risky move! He was later located in the pub down the street with a treble G&T in hand. Debbie is now looking for a third Welsh man called John to marry!
Well this banter was still in progress as the Americans left the building having toured the entire house. And we still had 23 rooms to inspect.
By the time we got to the dining room for a final look, Debbie had rotated to that room…
… so the chit chat continued largely about the lady who makes all the “stuff” for the “seasonal table”. Amazing the range of substitute “foodstuffs” contribute to the display!
So we were very late leaving. Far too late to get to Hexham for lunch. You may recall that that was the planned highlight of the day. So we celebrated with a quiche and salad at the Blacksmithy at Belsay. And Debbie was the new highlight of the day – and, incidentally, we were officially classified as her most interesting visitors of the day, no, the week, no, the year!
We had another celebratory lunch another day at the Wittling House in Alnmouth with Bruce and Angela. This was followed by tea and crumpets at Foxton Golf Club. Except there were no crumpets to be had!
Another lovely sunny day – albeit rather nippy!
Our tour of Northumberland continues …
(Sorry about the time-lag!)
You’re back! Has this been a very loonngg trip, or are you home again?
Disappointing to have missed lunch at the restaurant in Hexam…….but an excuse for a return visit!
Happy Anniversary and as always such wonderful pictures! Our anniversary is next month but our reception hall does not seem as spectacular as your…