Halloween

Elionwy has a Saturday job at The Moody Bakers in town: http://www.themoodybaker.co.uk/Barnard-Castle/
We were all invited to Dave's house (The Moody baker himself!) for a Halloween party last night. Great fun, a great host and my horse's head made for great visual difficulty.

Heart Of Teesdale Photography Competition

We went to the presentation evening for the Heart Of Teesdale photography competition. The top 25 photographs were on display. Elionwy had one of her photo's chosen! She took it on her iPhone. I had 2 chosen. I was a bit amazed when my name was called for 2nd place! and very pleased when my friend Nick was called as the overall winner.

Piercebridge

So, a friend at work told me about Piercebridge. How amazing it is. How there is a Roman bridge there as well as a Fort.
I was a little skeptical, because I've been to this sort of place before and only found mounds in a field and wondered where the remains were before I realised I was on them.
Anyway, we gave it a go this morning...and this is the famous Roman bridge:

I didn't even bother taking a picture of the fort.
I have to say I was disappointed. Nicky thought the history was really interesting though.

Streets Of Durham

The latest busker festival took place last week. This Australian performer was first on, and bored me so much I left before he was finished. It took about 30 mins for him to get this far in his act. It was supposed to be 'awesome' but after seeing him spent the first half of his act making awful jokes as he set up his table, which I couldn't help wondering why he couldn't have done this before he came on, I gave up.
Also, he managed to do his whole act with his flies down which was rather off putting.

The Resevoirs

Just past Cotherstone there are some signposts for reservoirs, so the last few weeks we have been ticking them off our walks. There are some spectacular sights up by these, they all have public walks around them. The top picture shows Nicky still walking up the 275 steps to get to Balderhead Reservoir. Just below it is Blackton, and then Hury Reservoir. Further up the road is Grassholme and Selset.

The Lakes

In the 14 months we've been here, we've not taken the hour drive into the Lake District. So many people have described it as one of the most wonderful places on the planet, we thought it was about time we took a break and made the journey.

OK, so it is stunning, but I had very mixed feelings there.

First, 20 mins after arriving at our lodge, Nathan went to play football and came back with a twisted ankle. This severely hampered our walking holiday, with us only getting out on 2 proper walks, leaving him behind.

So, we spent quite a bit of time just doing gentle visits to the main towns, Windermere, Conistone, Grassmere etc...and really didn't like them much at all. Windermere was more like Southend-On-Sea or Weston-Super-Mare. So busy, full of fun fairs, shops selling postcards, walking equipment and of course anything with Peter Rabbit on it (Beatrix Potter lived in the area). And it was sooo expensive! Like London prices.

Another frustrating thing was our Garmin Sat-Nav couldn't get reception. Apparently TomTom can. So we relied on the guide books left in the lodge...but none of these guides actually had any good directions to find the starting points, and relying on the signs was equally as frustrating as literally half of them seemed to have been allowed to grow over with hedges etc. I was told after it's something to do with nesting birds and they can be cut back in September?

When we did find the walks we wanted (Cat Bells & Tarn Hows) they were stunning.

So it was a good fact finding mission. next time, and there will be one, we will go somewhere more secluded. Buy a TomTom, and invest in a good map.

2015 Teesdale Calendar

A bit gobsmacked by this. Nicky came back with the 2015 Teesdale Calendar, and I have 3 photo's printed in it. (Raby Castle, Eggleston Gardens & Barnard Castle-night scene). I entered the competition a while ago and then as usual, forgot all about it.