(no subject)
Mmmm holidays are much too short.
I have returned from the distant North, that was, in fact, not too distant. We spent a lovely week in a tiny cottage 5 minutes walk from Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Gardens, and Hulne Park. Alnwick combines beautiful stone buildings, little courtyards, elegant streets and a cheery small town feeling. We felt a bit as if we were in the south of France, despite being about 2 hours drive from home.
Alnwick is also home to one of the best and biggest second hand book shops in the country, Barter Books. Mmmmmmmmm. We spent a very pleasant afternoon browsing there, and wishing that they had a larger sci-fi/fantasy selection. Our haul was 5 Mr Men books at 60p a piece, some of the Allan Ahlberg Happy Families books, the Hilary Mantel French Revolution book (I have been inspired by medusa's lovely posts about the era), a David Brin, the Stainless Steel Rat, and Quiksilver! by Mannville Fenn for puddingcat's very late birthday. Not bad at all.
Hulne park was an unexpected joy. It was a bit like the parks in one of those french fairy tales, walled gardens, little river valleys with green lawns and flowering woodlands, glossy cattle and sheep, decorative wooden bridges, ruined buildings and absolutely no people. We saw two other people all day, and like us, they were interlopers. The Comtesse de Segur would have had us meet a talking toad, or a magic swan or something.
In contrast to our mostly blissful days, we also had lunch in the worst pub possible. It advertised itself as child and dog friendly, and I guess a dog poo scattered gravel yard, dotted with broken glass could have been friendly, but I'm not sure to which children or dogs. It was so poor it was funny, particularly the friendly group of people sitting near us who seemed to have had a brain bypass and were describing the yard as "almost perfect".
I have returned from the distant North, that was, in fact, not too distant. We spent a lovely week in a tiny cottage 5 minutes walk from Alnwick Castle, Alnwick Gardens, and Hulne Park. Alnwick combines beautiful stone buildings, little courtyards, elegant streets and a cheery small town feeling. We felt a bit as if we were in the south of France, despite being about 2 hours drive from home.
Alnwick is also home to one of the best and biggest second hand book shops in the country, Barter Books. Mmmmmmmmm. We spent a very pleasant afternoon browsing there, and wishing that they had a larger sci-fi/fantasy selection. Our haul was 5 Mr Men books at 60p a piece, some of the Allan Ahlberg Happy Families books, the Hilary Mantel French Revolution book (I have been inspired by medusa's lovely posts about the era), a David Brin, the Stainless Steel Rat, and Quiksilver! by Mannville Fenn for puddingcat's very late birthday. Not bad at all.
Hulne park was an unexpected joy. It was a bit like the parks in one of those french fairy tales, walled gardens, little river valleys with green lawns and flowering woodlands, glossy cattle and sheep, decorative wooden bridges, ruined buildings and absolutely no people. We saw two other people all day, and like us, they were interlopers. The Comtesse de Segur would have had us meet a talking toad, or a magic swan or something.
In contrast to our mostly blissful days, we also had lunch in the worst pub possible. It advertised itself as child and dog friendly, and I guess a dog poo scattered gravel yard, dotted with broken glass could have been friendly, but I'm not sure to which children or dogs. It was so poor it was funny, particularly the friendly group of people sitting near us who seemed to have had a brain bypass and were describing the yard as "almost perfect".