Back to School

Yesterday was Edward's first day of his new school. He looks so smart in his new uniform (I confess to shedding a few tears!).

Emily has entered Year 11 - her final year in uniform and GCSEs in the summer. It doesn't seem 5 minutes ago that she was in Edward's position - where does the time go??!!

This was such a sweet moment - Edward climbed onto Emily's lap to show her his new homework planner - that made me feel emotional too!

They both had a good start back at school. Edward loved his first day and was buzzing about it when he came home. It was such a relief to me - I felt all the tension from the last few days leave me and now I feel much calmer and more relaxed. Fingers crossed the rest of the term passes like this.

Hope you have had a good day.

M x

Back to work today

It wasn't so bad even though I was full of trepidation. But tomorrow . . . tomorrow my baby starts secondary school! That means another sleepless night for me. Edward has been brilliant all summer but now is getting slightly twitchy. He's had a lovely relaxing day today with my parents while I was working, but tomorrow is crunch time.

Everything is ready - uniform all freshly washed, ironed and labelled. Bag is packed with a pencil case bursting with new goodies. Shoes are polished. Edward is bathed and has washed his hair. We are ready!

M x

Day 6

After a couple of long days we decided not to go too far afield. We drove up to Bamburgh Castle (didn't go in) to have a look round the outside. It's rather impressive. The beach there is gorgeous and reminded me very much of the beach at Mont St Michel.

After Bamburgh we followed the coastal route down to Seahouses, which I found a bit disappointing. Every other shop was a fish and chip shop and there were lots of touristy tat shops. We did have a lovely lunch in a tea room though.

Mark couldn't resist the seafood stalls and treated himself to some cockles. He did manage to persuade Edward to try them, but he wasn't terribly impressed!

After Seahouses, we carried on to Alnmouth and spent a couple of hours on the beach. It's a very pretty beach and yet again Edward was straight in the water as soon as we got there. It was a bit more brisk than the afternoon we had on Druridge on Sunday, but still very pleasant and relaxing.

M x

P.S. Sorry about the mega postings today, but I meant to blog more this week and I ran out of time. Hope it's not too boring - only one more day to go! I am back to work tomorrow after six weeks off so who knows how often I will get to post!

Day 5

This was the day we decided to go to Alnwick Castle and Gardens. We'd been waiting to do this, but had to pick a day where the weather was going to be kind to us. It was a bit fresh but otherwise OK.

Emily and Edward decided to wear their ridiculous glasses for this visit, which guaranteed that we would get some strange looks!

We are fans of Harry Potter so it was very exciting to visit the location for Hogwarts and to see where the flying lesson scene from The Philosopher's Stone was shot. But aside from that, it is a truly wonderful place to visit. The State Rooms (no photos allowed) are magnificent, and staff were so friendly and very informative.

The Gardens are beautiful too with lots of water features, as well as gorgeous plants.

The Tree House is the largest one in the country and the children had a great time exploring and running across the rope bridges. I wasn't too thrilled when I was on it and they started bouncing up and down on it and making me feel sick!!

And finally, The Poison Garden. We had to queue for access to this part (and we queued for approximately 45 minutes!). You are only allowed to go in there with a guide and they only admit parties of about 20 at a time. It was, however, fascinating. Lots of unusual plants as well as common plants, but our guide gave us an insight as to how fairly innocuous looking plants can cause problems. Did you know that Laurel can let off Cyanide gas if not treated correctly?! I recommend a visit if you get the chance.

We had a brilliant day at Alnwick, if exhausting! There is so much to see and do. It is well worth a visit - I would certainly go again.

M x

Day 4

Cragside. A National Trust property. A beautiful house set in magnificent grounds. The house was the first house to be powered by hydro-electricity and was very progressive for it's time. It's well worth a visit and there is lots to see.

M x

Day 3

After such a glorious day yesterday, we woke up to a dull and overcast sky. We went to visit Warkworth Castle, an English Heritage castle about 2 miles from where we were staying. Edward had a great time exploring the castle and we hardly saw him!

After that we parked up in the village, which is very picturesque - lots of pretty buildings - very picture postcard. Unfortunately before we had time to explore, the heavens opened, and boy did it rain! We dived into a nearby tearoom - The Courtyard Cafe - which was lovely, full of little knick knacks and lovely Cath Kidsonesque table coverings. My mum was particularly taken with the pink paper lamp shades. Food was yummy too - Mark and my parents had "Singing Hinnies" - a cross between a scone and a teacake - they were enormous!

The rest of the day was spent back at the house as the rain was set for the day and it was pretty torrential. It did ease up briefly and we went out for a quick walk to the supermarket, but it soon started up again. So we spent the afternoon reading, playing cards and scrabble and cat-napping!

M x

Day 2

We woke to a glorious day on the Sunday - beautiful blue sky and very warm. We went to the market in Amble first thing (well after a delicious cooked breakfast!), then we explored the beach and jetty. Edward had great fun in the rock pools.

After lunch we went to Druridge Beach - 6 miles of golden sand - it's just like being in the Mediterranean. Edward didn't waste anytime going in the water and spent a happy afternoon digging.

Emily took it easy, basking in the sun, plugged in to her Ipod. She did play a game of football with my dad, but she would not thank me for publishing photos of it!

I was quite happy sitting in my chair taking in the beautiful scenery, feeling relaxed and warm, reading a brilliant book which I couldn't put down - The Girl who Played with Fire. A great afternoon.

M x