Low Force

Just a bit up the road there are signs to High Force. Apparently High Force is the largest unobstructed waterfall in England. When we walked there I found it very underwhelming. Most of it is in fact restricted access due to health and safety. maybe I'll have another look sometime, but I took only 1 photo there just to take something, and then deleted it as boring when I got home. Low Force was described to me as a bit boring!!!!? The pictures above are of Low Force falls, absolutely stunning. The pictures are from my second trip there when I went back with ND filters for my camera to help capture them.

Raby Castle

Last weekend was the Raby Castle food fayre. Nicky really wanted to go as she loves the whole organic scene. There were plenty of stalls and as you can see also live demonstrations from the local chef of The Crown pub/restaurant...that guy can cook! 

I also wanted to go, not for the food but just to see the castle and grounds. It can be quite expensive to enter the castle grounds, and even more so to enter the castle (£50 for a family I think). However, if you go to one of the many events the castle holds you can get a bargain. The Food Fayre for instance was £6 entry per car!

Football Season

Nathan has started football training for the Barnard Castle youth teams. They meet at Green Lane junior school on some very nice pitches. I took him to the first session (just a short walk for us) and watched him train as the rabbits hopped around in the distance. The coach works them pretty hard, but it's paying off.

Link to website: http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/barnardcastlefc01/118210/Home

Staindrop Carnival

Apparently all the little villages have carnivals every year. We have missed quite a few, but went along to the one in Staindrop. The funniest part was when the girls were cuddling the rabbits and guinea pigs from the rescue center display. I asked Nathan if he would like to cuddle a rabbit and he informed me he would rather cuddle a giant spider. You can imagine the look of mischief on my face when later in the day we found a tent that had exotic creatures in it...including a tarantula! He looked very shocked as I called him over to look LOL.

Football Crazy

When we were in Merthyr, googling like crazy to find a place to rent here in Barney, one place I saw was not only within walking distance of work, but I saw playing fields with goal posts. I thought, that would be great, me and Nathan could nip over there and play football. It will be so much better than the 2 trees we used for goalposts in Cyfartha Park in Merthyr.
Yesterday I took the camera, because it seems at least once or twice a week we are here now playing football.

What I saw on Google: MAP

Egglestone Abbey

We have today been in Barney 1 month!
This is the local ruined abbey. The most exciting thing about it was actually us leaving it. What I mean was, as we were leaving, walking down the hill from this quiet exclusion there was a big roar, and about 20 motorbikes appeared followed by 2 support vans. What was even more bizarre was the motor bikers, who all looked in there late 30s early 40s were all dressed like Crusader Knights.

Influence

This is the Methodist church at the top of town. It's also the venue (the back hall) of where Influence Church meets http://www.influencechurch.co.uk/locations/barney/ We have all been meeting with the church there, and they are a great bunch of people. What's also nice is that because they meet at 5pm after a nice lie in on Sunday morning you have the rest of the morning/early afternoon to yourself :)

What the Dickens?

This is the Charles Dickens Lodge at the top of the town in Barney. it's named after the man himself, Charles,  who visited in 1827.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:

Charles Dickens and his illustrator Hablot Browne (Phiz) stayed at the King's Head in Barnard Castle while researching his novel Nicholas Nickleby in the winter of 1837-38. He is said to have entered William Humphrey's clock-maker's shop, then opposite the hotel, and enquired who had made a certain remarkable clock. William replied that his boy Humphrey had done it. This seems to have prompted Dickens to choose the title "Master Humphrey's Clock" for his new weekly, in whichThe Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge appeared.

Oh, and P.S.

William Wordsworth, Daniel Defoe, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hilaire Belloc, Bill Bryson and the artist J M W Turner have also visited the town.

On the way to work

Just a snap of the road I walk on the way to work. I got a job with GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), there are about 1100 people working on the site and it's the biggest employer in the area. I currently walk past the kids school (Teesdale), the sports center...which is right next to Glaxo's own sports center, then the Glaxo social club, then a short walk and I'm there. Apparently next month Bowes Football Club starts up (I walk very near the pitch they play on), and it's free admission to watch the games, so I've bookmarked that for the diary.

Surrounded!

Not the most exciting photo, but I took it for a reason...the distance.
Can you see in the distance there is fields and trees, well Barnard Castle is like a small Island in a sea of countryside that literally goes on for miles.

If you look at the map here, you will see I'm not kidding.

MAP