We had a wonderful (late) honeymoon in Northumberland – and like on our wedding day, the weather has been kind to us. While there were stories from the rest of the country of storms and torrential rain – we mostly had sunshine and blue skies. It only rained on one day, so we were very fortunate. It was our first longer trip away with Zoly – and he seemed to have a lovely time; lots of walks, new experiences, time off lead, things to smell and potential friends to meet and play with. He was really good – coped with the long walks well and slept between us most nights.

On our last morning we thought that Zoly should have a good walk and be emptied out before the long train journey back to Bristol, so Mike took him down to Alnmouth beach for one last time while Matthew finished packing the bags and updated the visitor’s book. The tide was the furthest out that I’d seen it and the sand was very soft underfoot. There were some other dogs for Zoly to play with and he ran into the river a few times. It was a shame to have to turn back for the house.

When we returned to the cottage a small dove was wandering about outside the door – Zoly was fascinated (and salivating)!

Our train from Alnmouth was at 11 and we saw Jill the house-owner as we were leaving. There was an interesting information board, especially about the history of Alnmouth station. The routes we’d taken on some of our walks to Alnwick was along the proposed new heritage steam train route.

We changed trains at Durham and then Birmingham – Zoly was an angel on the train – and as usual had lots of pats and strokes compliments and admiring looks. Everything went smoothly, even though the trains were very full. We arrived back in Bristol at 4:00 and Mike walked Zoly home via Victoria Park to give him a bit of additional exercise before diner and Matthew took all our bags home in a taxi.

We expected to him some trouble persuading Zoly to sleep back in his own bed – but he wasn’t too bad – only two attempts to get on our bed, but each time we took him back to his bed and the second time he stayed there ’til morning. He’s a fast learner that dog!

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about trip and seeing some of our pictures. Hopefully we’ll be traveling by bicycle next time with a dog trailer for Zoly.

Today we planned to go up to Holy Island – it’s Good Friday and it would be a nice place to be today. However, the rain was tipping down, it’s a bank holiday so the already meagre bus services are significantly reduced and there’s also lots of engineering works on the railway! The more we considered various travel options the more unlikely it seemed that we’d get to Holy Island in time to cross the causeway and back at low tide and be able to return to Alnmouth in a day! We needed to make alternative plans. Zoly doesn’t like going out in the rain, which is odd because he’ll jump into the bath, the shower, ponds, water troughs – you name it! Apart of pubs, many dog-friendly indoor venues were not likley to be open today so we thought that we’d struggle.

By 1:00 the rain had eased to a fine drizzle (mizzle?!), so we thought we’d risk a local walk. We set off to Alnmouth – the river and the beach. The tide was coming in and we saw some beautiful big herons in the estuary.

The beach had a couple of other dog walkers although their dogs didn’t seem that interested in playing with Zoly. There were some children trying to skim stones and Zoly thought that this was a fantastic game – he went charging into the water after the stones and seemed to be quite disappointed when he couldn’t retrieve them from under the water. Unfortunately, he was wearing his coat – so that was absolutely soaked and covered in sand in no time. Once he was wet through we decided to let him play and run about – he adores the beach – digs in the sand, runs in wide circles, picks up pieces of seaweed or driftwood and rushes about and tosses them into the air then tries to catch them again. If there are other dogs about on the beach then he loves chasing games. He’s had a fantastic holiday and it’s sad that it’s coming to an end. We wondered if we’d have trouble persuading him to sleep back in his own bed when we get back to Bristol!

It was still raining and feeling cold, so we went into Alnmouth village to see if somewhere might be open and get some tea. There was a nice-looking café open next to the golf links by the beach – called Dandelion I went in to ask if they would let dogs in and they said no – even though their promotional material reads: “We chose Dandelion as the name for our new café bars to reflect the warmth of the welcome and the informal environment.” Well we weren’t going to leave Zoly outside, so we continued on and saw that the Red Lion Inn did welcome dogs, so we settled in there and had peppermint tea and chips! Zoly was well-behaved and was universally admired – they don’t know what they’re missing in Dandelion!

By about three in the afternoon the rain had stopped, although it was still grey, so we decided to continue our walk and head into the next village, Lesbury and walk up the Aln to the Lesbury railway viaduct that we can see from our cottage and cross the river by some stepping stones over towards Alnwick then complete the loop back to the house.

Lesbury is pretty – lots of honey-coloured stone cottages, a small church and even the new development looked attractive. The railway viaduct is about half a mile out of the village but it’s really spectacular with 18 arches – the viaduct carries the main east coast railway line from London to Edinburgh across the river valley, it was built in 1849 to a design by Robert Stephenson. The footpath by the river passes right under the viaduct although with all the rain the ground was very boggy.

We crossed the river further upstream by Bilton Mill using the stepping stones. We encouraged Zoly to get into the water there to get rid of some of the sand and mud on him before heading home.

We took the train from Alnmouth to Durham this morning.

We’d arranged to visit cousin Catherine, uncle Malcolm and aunt Sheila this afternoon  and we were meeting Malcolm outside Durham cathedral at 12:30. There was a 9:00am train arriving in Durham at 9:45 so we could spend the morning strolling along the banks of the Weir – the weather was glorious – a lovely warm and bright spring day. We had a lovely walk along the river bank path with its famous view of the cathedral and castle, the bridges, the rowers and a lovely little Greek-style folly – called Counts folly. Joseph Boruwlaski was a dwarf in the eighteenth century who retired to Durham. Having somewhere so close to the city centre where a dog can be off-lead and having fun in safety is wonderful.

Malcolm had been at a special service for bishops, priests and deacons from the Durham Diocese and when we met him he offered to walk Zoly so we could go in and check out the Lego Durham Cathedral! Aunt Janet had also suggested that Matthew search out the Bishop of Jarrow who used to work with her in Coventry and introduce ourselves to him!

Janet had given us a good description of Bishop Mark of Jarrow – so it didn’t take long to find him and Matthew had a quick chat about Janet’s work with the elderly in Coventry.

Then on to the Lego Durham Cathedral, which is brilliant and epic! When it’s complete it will be 3.84m wide, 1.53m wide and 1.7m high – it’s scaled from Lego figures – so that they look more-or-less the right size in the model. There will be around 350,000 bricks in the model and anyone can add a piece for £1. We bough 5 pieces and fitted them to the top of the north tower. There were lots of people making their contributions – so it shouldn’t take long to finish.

After the Lego Durham Cathedral we met up with Malcolm and Zoly in the college grounds behind  the cathedral – I wonder if there’s something about vicars and dogs and keeping off he grass signs?!

Malcolm took us on a lovely drive up to the fells around the Durham/Northumberland border, we passed  the Derwent Reservoir and stopped for a short walk along the river in the small village of Blanchland. I remember going to Blanchland when I was young – probably with Malcolm – to visit Leonard Paulin, who had been the vicar at St Alban’s church in Earsdon and who probably conducted the marriage of my Mum and Dad and who probably also christened me. He was a lovely, cultivated and gentle man and his last parish was here. Blanchland was built with stones from the remains of the twelfth century Blanchland Abbey and has a lovely uniform character as a result of the building stone used and the lovely scale of the buildings.

I think Malcom expected Zoly to have a play in the river – cousin Philipa’s dogs had, apparently – but the water was flowing quite quickly and deep in some places, so Zoly wasn’t going in! We didn’t stay long because I was a bit concerned about Malcom overdoing it, plus we were hungry, so we headed over to Malcolm and Sheila’s house in Castleside.

Lunch was delicious and there was lots to eat – very good for two greedy blokes! Carrot and coriander soup followed by vegetable curry, then fresh fruit salad. Heaven! They’d made sure that Zoly was well catered for too – four bags of treats! The lucky boy! We had a lovely time and it was so nice to spend time with them. We talked about Catherine’s wedding next January, teaching work, Richard’s amazing reviews of the his singing and a bit too much about incontinence for Matthew’s liking! Poor Catherine had a bit of a cold – so I kept my distance as I’m running the London marathon in a couple of weeks.

After a long time at the table Zoly had his dinner, we had a tour of the house then Malcolm drove us back to Durham for the train back to Alnmouth. Matthew wanted to watch the TV election ‘debate’, but I didn’t – he has more resilience than me on these sorts of things I think.

  If Pat Butcher were a plant

  Primroses announce the arrival of spring

Yesterday’s planned trip to Cragside, William Armstrong’s country house near Rothbury was postponed to today since the weather looked better. It’s only 15 miles from Alnmouth to Cragside, but getting there by public transport wasn’t particularly straightforward. There was a direct bus that left Alnmouth station (which is just around the corner from where we’re staying) at 08:40 – arriving at Cragsie at 09:15, but Cragside didn’t open until 11:00 – so there’d have been some waiting about! There were no more buses from Alnmouth until 18:10, by which time Cragside was closed! The next bus to Cragside that would arrive in good time left from Alnwick at 10:10 arriving at Cragside at 10:40. The only problem with this one was that we’d have to walk the 3 miles to Alnwick in order to catch it! It’s a lovely walk though, along quiet narrow lanes, by the river Aln and across fields – so that’s what we did.

As we crossed some fields two hares came racing towards us – they were incredibly fast. At first I though that they must be a couple of dogs because they were so big! It was an amazing sight. Thankfully, Zoly didn’t notice them before they saw us and turned tail. We were still tramping across the fields when I phone rang – it was my aunt Sheila who we’d messaged about making a visit. She and Uncle Malcolm were trying to FaceTime me – it was a bit halting without a Wi-Fi and slightly surreal to be doing a video call in the middle of a field, but we arranged to meet them tomorrow – we’ll go to Durham in the morning (exciting – I can see the part-constructed http://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/visit/what-to-visit/durham-cathedral-lego-build), then meet up with Malcolm, Sheila and lovely cousin Catherine in the afternoon.

There was only one other passenger on the bus to Cragside – so it’s not surprising that they’re so infrequent. The provider seems to be under threat, too – lots of SOS (support our Spirit) signs pointing out that they have no funding or subsidy and inviting passengers to donate to ensure the services continue. Apart from the infrequency, there seems to be lots to like about Spirit buses – they welcome dogs and even bicycles on board and the buses can be hailed as they approach – not just at designated bus stops. Once on the bus to Cragside we had  wonderful views into the Northumberland National Park and across to the Cheviot Hills – it made me think that we should come back here some more.

We arrived at Cragside and the parking attendant greeted us with the words: “That’s a Hungarian vizsla!” I was a pleased that she recognised Zoly – we’re often asked what sort of dog he is by admirers (of Zoly, not us). She told that she used to have a vizsla called Zeus and was delighted when I introduced her to Zoly. I don’t know whether it was seeing Zoly or our being brazen and walking in to Cragside a bit early or if it’s normal practice to allow people who’ve arrived by bus in for free – but whatever the reason, we weren’t asked for our £10.70 each admission and as we left our National Trust membership cards behind in Bristol, we were fully expecting to have to pay. So that was a good start to our visit!

On our way in we also saw some splendid carved owls. Our friend Ella back in Newcastle had told us that owls were her favourite animal – Ella showed me her owl rucksack and her owl keyring – so here’s a couple of pictures of the carved owls for Ella. There’s an extraordinary owl bedroom in the house – so that must have been the inspiration for these carvings.

Cragside was the country house of Lord Armstrong – a nineteenth century crane, bridge and later armaments manufacturer. Armstrong’s enormous munitions factories and warship construction yards hugged the banks of the Tyne in Elswick from Scotswood Bridge for almost a mile towards Newcastle. I remember as a child being thrilled at the sight of tanks on low loaders. The company was taken over by BAE and the factories were gradually run down then closed in 2013.

Armstrong became less involved in the day-to-day running of his company and in 1863 when he was in his fifties he bought some land in a steep-sided, narrow valley near Rothbury, had it cleared and supervised the building of a country house perched high on a ledge of rock overlooking a stream. He had a massive rock garden installed around the house, seven million trees planted and five artificial lakes were constructed, which were used to generate hydro-electricity. There are over 30 miles (50 km) of pathways to explore now zig-zagging up and down the steep valley sides, down on the valley floor and up on the flatter high moorland.

We had both been to Cragside as children – but we hardly remembered it and a lot had changed. The most startling new addition was the Archimedes screw, which from July 2014 has powered the lights in the house – effectively restoring hydroelectricity to the first house in the world ever to use it. It’s a massive device and carefully designed to allow fish to pass through unharmed. About 10% of the electricity that the estate needs comes from this one Archimedes screw – enough for all the lights and there are plans by the National Trust to use more renewable sources of energy.

We walked through the valley and up to the formal gardens with their beautiful glasshouses, rockeries and splendid views to Rothbury and the hills beyond.

We paused for lunch and a walk up to two of the high lakes and a detour to take in the recently restored flume, that fed water into the lakes. We wandered around the outside of the house and had our picnic lunch in the old stables’ courtyard.

We returned back to Alnwick – and yet again there was only one other person on the bus (a different person this time!) From Alnwick a pleasant walk back to the cottage in Alnmouth, dinner and another early night – we’re certainly sleeping long and well here in Northumberland.

The forecast for today was for very high winds for most of the day along with a fine-ish morning then a blustery and showery afternoon. We decided to postpone our original plans to go to Rothbury to visit the gardens at Cragside House and instead take a shorter morning walk south to Warkworth then head over to Alnwick and back to Alnmouth.

Zoly was really tired last night and we figured that he’d appreciate a less arduous day. We set out for Warkworth at about 10. The sun was shining but the winds were already really strong. The path from Alnmouth to Warkworth has been made into part of the National Cycle Network, so it was really well-surfaced and sheltered from the adjacent road by a hedge. At the start of the path there were some lovely views back over the River Aln to Alnmouth. Not far along the path we we came across a lovely bench – carved and painted with a plaque in memory of Michelle Turnbull who died in 2009. ‘Find me here, I am not gone’ – a beautiful memorial.

The main railway line to Edinburgh was over to our right and just south of Alnmouth we could see a level crossing with a house next to it. Mum had told me that my grandparents had lived in a house near Alnmouth by the level-crossing. This had to be it – there’s no other level crossing in the vicinity as far as we can tell. As we were looking, sirens began to sound and red lights started flashing; the gates came down and an express train went through heading north. While all this was going on my phone rang – it was my sister! All coming together this felt strangely satisfying – but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mam told me that it wasn’t this house!

From here it wasn’t far to Warkworth, but on the edge of the village the cycle path veered off to the left and towards Warkworth Bay. Going straight in into the village there wasn’t any pavement, so we were forced to walk on a very busy road. A Welcome to Warkworth sign asked: Please Drive Carefully, but this was entirely in vain – Matthew and Zoly were almost hit by someone in a car who started to drive towards them!. I’m always a bit baffled about why carful driving requires a polite request. In this case it was a completely ignored anyway – cars and lorries and buses were thundering past at top speed on a narrow winding road. This bit of our walk was not pleasant. Thankfully we arrived in Warkworth intact (physically if not mentally), and were greeted with a much nicer sign: ‘Welcome Cyclists’ in a hotel window. Also a funny notice screwed to a house wall: ‘Friends always welcome – family by appointment’.

We made our way up to the castle – on our way we passed a young woman with very bright red dyed hair, I assumed that she must be another local estate agent. Once at he castle we were delighted that we could go in – and for free – with our English Heritage membership cards and that Zoly could accompany us. The women staffing the shop made a big fuss of Zoly – one of them even went off to find some dog biscuits to feed him – we won’t have any trouble taking him back there!

The castle was just as I remembered it – small, but high and lots still intact. My uncle Eric and aunt Sheila live in a house that looks on to Warkworth Castle and when I was a boy I used to visit them and their two boys: Stuart and Neville. We would play in the shadow of the castle and I remember thinking that they lived in an impossibly romantic spot. I thought about calling on my aunt and uncle today – they were delightful, warm, friendly and kind to me when I was small. But they are quite elderly and both rather frail now – I was worried that dropping by unannounced with a husband and dog in tow would be too disconcerting, (I also had that ‘family by appointment’ notice in my mind!). I decided to stay away.

After the castle we had a look in the church – a nice Norman building with a leaning tower. The interior was not so attractive – full of clutter and a CD player playing Gregorian chant, which was rather off-putting too!

There were some spots of rain and the wind was cold by now. Given that our walk in to Warkworth on the road had not been pleasant, we decided to take the bus to Alnwick, pick up some groceries, have a look in the tourist information office, which had been unaccountably closed on Sunday and have some lunch in Barter Books. We also called in at a wonderful pet shop in Market Street and bought Zoly a new harness – he had lots of fun trying on different ones. He had lots of fuss in there, too! On our way to the bookshop, we passed the Conservative and Unionist Office, I was looking at some posters of their candidate in the window when a young man came out of the building, “She’ll be our next MP”, he said when he saw me. “I rather hope not”, I replied – but I fear that he’s right – the Lib Dem has a small majority over the Tories and is retiring at this election, so they’re bound to lose.

We had had a pleasant walk home though – the promised rain never really materialised, so we could have gone to Cragside today. Still, back early meant we could get on with some laundry, write some postcards and Matthew wants us to download and watch Paddington!

The general election here in the Berwick constituency has got off to a flying start. Well when I say flying, I mean flying in the kind of way of those people who dress up in fancy dress with wings attached and then launch themselves off seaside piers. In truth, you’d barely know that there is a general election taking place. We’ve seen one large ‘Vote Conservative’ hoarding on the gate posts of a not insubstantially sized house (it’s probably where their candidate lives) and then there is the previously mentioned Boris Johnson (that well known north east politician) ‘I’m backing the let’s dual the A1 campaign’ poster in the centre of Alnwick outside the Conservative and Unionist offices (no pictures of David Cameron there though, funny that).

But just when you thought the election was going to pass unnoticed, it all gets a bit exciting (ok I may exaggerate a bit). Today on our way back from Morrison’s we came upon Iain Gordon, an independent candidate with his very own ‘battle bus’ (ok battle Renault) in the centre of Alnwick Market Place. So what is Iain Gordon of the ‘Fair Society Party’ standing on a platform for? According to the Northumberland Gazette – ‘Explaining his party’s policies, he said that they are fighting for “£10 an hour minimum wage, 50p off a pint of beer, 50p off a bottle of wine, no taxation under £16,000, £20 per month for every foreign registered car on our roads, £200-a-year annually and free parking in hospitals”.

Unfortunately Iain Gordon didn’t get much time to convince many voters of these pledges (or potential candidates – he is apparently at present short of one for the Berwick constituency where Alnwick is situated as he’s standing elsewhere). Shortly after arriving in the Market Place a civil enforcement officer slapped a parking ticket onto his Renault for flouting the new (and ‘wholly unjust’ parking restrictions – that is according to yesterday’s Northumberland Gazette) that have been introduced in Alnwick Market Place.

The police soon arrived to escort Mr Gordon from the scene, his campaign placards left in a heap in the middle of the Market Place – I expect he’ll get another ticket for littering, the price of democracy eh?

What a night, they said it would be windy and they were not wrong. It huffed and it puffed and certainly tried to blow the Huffy House down. Fortunately it’s a sturdy stone building so we were safe inside from the worst that Mother Nature could throw at us.

The weather forecast for today was further strong winds and heavy rain showers from lunchtime onwards for the remainder of the day. We made the best of it by taking a shorter walk from Alnmouth to Warkworth. We were lucky to have sunshine most of the way, but the dark clouds were gathering fast behind us. The footpath from Alnmouth to Warkworth is also a very nice section of the National Cycle Network with a well surfaced path running alongside the road but separated by a hedgerow.

Zoly enjoyed a whiz around Warkworth Castle (we’re very impressed by English Heritage’s progressive approach to allowing dogs (on leads) on their premises) followed by a bus ride to Alnwick. After picking up a few preserves we made for Barter Books again to partake of the buffet room. You can tell that the Easter holidays have begun, the whole place was overrun by children (reinforcing my opinion that dogs are far less trouble).

Our walk back didn’t take long as the gale force wind blew us along. No sign of the forecast rain, just more sunshine – if it was a little fresh. The washing that we put on before we went out was done, and what better weather for drying it outside. I’ve pegged it to the line (with extra pegs) and so far (touch wood) it’s still there. I don’t expect that it will take long to dry, providing it doesn’t take off and land somewhere in South Shields!

The weather forecast today was for a fine, blustery morning with rain in the late afternoon – probably around 4 or 5. We decided to walk up the coast from Alnmouth to Dunstanburgh Castle then on to Embleton to catch a bus back.

Mathew made a picnic and we set off at about 10am. Alnmouth was beautiful, with bright blue skies, sparkling sea and the wind sending sand streaming and skiming across the beach.

There were really very few other people about – some dog walkers and a runner running along the sand with her dog. We were walking north with the sea on our right and the sun mostly behind us. There’s a very well-marked coastal path and we used that or walked on sandy beaches or across rocks.

We went through or past Foxton, Boulmer, Howick, Craster then Dunstanburgh and Embleton. We walked about 14 miles when the bends and curves of the bays and promontories are taken into account. Zoly walked much further than that, of course – he was trotting backwards and forwards, zig-zagging from side to side, chasing after other dogs and paddling in the sea!

The coast heading towards Craster was really undulating with the basalt rock outcrop at Cullernose Point where tall linear stone columns juts out to the sea. The path was surrounded by gorse bushes with the most incredible bright yellow flowers. There were clumps of flowering daffodils and primroses too – making it very spring-like.

We stopped for lunch in Craster at about 2:00 and had a little look around the village – lots of pretty boats and smoke billowing out of the herring-curing sheds where ‘smoked kippers’ are produced.

Dunstanburgh Castle is magnificent – even though it it is ruined. It was built in the early fourteenth century on a cliff-top promontory and we could see it in the distance as we rounded headlands, then it would be hidden from view, only to reappear again, all the time getting larger and larger. The ruined gatehouse is one of the most striking features and was the largest of any British castle. The landward side of the castle was protected by large artificial lakes – meres – that have largely silted up now and are filled with boggy plants

When we arrived in Embleton, a bus was coming towards us – and even though we weren’t at a bus stop we signalled for it and the driver stopped for us, What a result! Zoly climbed on to our laps and fell asleep almost as soon as we were sat down.

Back at the cottage and Zoly needed a hose down before his dinner, which he didn’t particularly appreciate. After he’s eaten he fell asleep for he rest of the evening. He’ll have to have a quieter day tomorrow we think!

We have been very fortunate in our decision to head north east for our holiday. While Bristol (and most of the rest of the country) seem to have been battered by wind and rain since the weekend, we’ve had mostly sunshine with just the odd shower. Today has been no exception, with glorious sunshine for our walk to Dunstanburgh Castle.

Mike tends not to be very keen on beach holidays, I’ve never persuaded him to head to the Greek islands and even on our excursions to Brittany we rarely spend very long on the beach.  The magic of Northumbria’s coast has clearly worked its charms on Mike (that and our four legged friend’s insatiable appetite for running wild in big open spaces) as we spent most of our day on the beaches and cliffs of the coastal path.

The sun, sand and wind in the dogs ears made for some lovely images. Of course we are clearly biased but Zoly does usually turn heads wherever we go and with the sunlight shining off his ginger coat, today was no exception. He was glowing a beautiful orange colour that wouldn’t have looked out of place as a spray-tan on the cast of Geordie Shores – he was our very own Geordie Paws!

We started out from the cottage and headed into Alnmouth. The wide white sandy beach in the sunshine was clearly a magnet for dog walkers and Zoly was in his element, going through his usual tentative slow crouch approach, followed by laying down with a ‘please play with me’ gesture to every dog he met. By the time we reached Dunstanburgh I think he must have greeted at least 50 dogs.

The sunshine (and perhaps a little of the sea breeze) has left my face feeling a little sun kissed this evening. It must have done Zoly’s beauty regime good too. There’s nothing like a few hours racing around on the beach to exfoliate those paws. However, sandy dog is not a good thing when said dog likes nothing better than to snuggle down under the duvet of your bed. As soon as we got in Mike took Zoly into the wet room for a hose down before lighting the fire for him to dry off in front off – this place is becoming less like the Huffy House and more like the ‘Woofy House – spa resort for dogs’ every day.

It has to be said that there isn’t an awful lot to do in Alnwick on a showery Palm Sunday. After a quick coffee, (but no soya milk available – Mike was not happy about that), a whizz around the small market (a white Primula Denticulata ‘Snowball’ purchased – let’s call it an anniversary present [to myself!]), and a glance at the Tory election campaign billboard (the highly imaginative [not] and environmentally destructive: ‘let’s dual carriage the A1’) – we sought refuge in Barter Books.

Housed in the (now redundant) Alnwick station, this temple to secondhand books is surely the highlight of any trip to Alnwick. It beats the Castle and (contrived and gimmicky) Castle Gardens hands down. Rails and platforms have been replaced by shelf upon shelf of secondhand books. Each lovingly categorised and displayed with love and reverence, (appropriate for a cathedral of books). In an age when the Internet has all but killed off the independent bookshop, Barter Books is a beacon of light.

As well as the wonderful books, the warm welcome is far better than anything you’d find in any chain store. Roaring coal fires greet you in the former waiting rooms, now converted to snugs, perfect for perusing you chosen books. The old station buffet has been lovingly restored (and extended) to accommodate the hoards of hungry bibliophiles. High above the shelves trains on a model railway clatter their way round the store and on the end wall an artistic arrangement of neon tubes means that the sun is always shining, even when (as this afternoon) the rain was hammering down on the roof.

Best of all though is the sign on the entrance that proudly announces that ‘dogs are welcome’. What else would you expect from the place where the original (and now much reproduced and mimicked) ‘keep calm and carry on’ war time propaganda posters* were re-discovered? Dogs are the ultimate calming influence – much more so than children, and if they’re let in, why not dogs too? Zoly was in heaven. At almost every turn there was a new friend to say hello to and admiring glances and comments from the two legged punters. The only down side was that Mike kept wandering off to look at books (how inconsiderate), leaving poor Zoly angst ridden until Mike reappeared from behind one book shelf or another. Fortunately today’s separation anxiety was a fairly quiet affair (no barking and just a little bit of whining) – that’s Zoly I mean (not Mike).

What’s even more remarkable though is that Mike only purchased one item – and it was for me. Returning to the cottage I was presented with an anniversary gift, wrapped tastefully in a Barter Books plastic bag. The contents ‘Something Wonderful’ Bryn Terfel signs Rodgers & Hammerstein, is now playing as I write this. I can’t think of a more appropriately titled gift to sum up our marriage.

* The ‘Keep calm and carry on’ posters were prepared by the government in case of a German invasion, but as that never materialised they were never used.

It’s been a busy year, what with welcoming a new member of the family (our puppy, Zoly) and our wedding – we didn’t get around to having any kind of holiday in 2014. We even managed to get married without having a honeymoon, (which Matthew wasn’t very pleased about – I mean the lack of honeymoon, not the marriage, obviously!). But we’re putting that right now – we did some research and came across a lovely cottage near Alnmouth in Northumberland. The owners of the ‘Huffy House’ (more on the name later) allow guests to bring their dogs and it’s situated close to a railway station that we could get to direct from Bristol (the Plymouth to Glasgow train stops at Alnmouth!). We’re booked in for a week and decided that as Zoly hasn’t learned to travel by bicycle yet (he will, of course) that we’d make this trip on foot.

We travelled from Bristol to Newcastle on Friday. It was going to be Zoly’s longest train journey, so we both took turns to walk him – Matthew at 6am out along the Towpath and through Greville Smyth Park then back for breakfast and out again with me to make sure that he was tired and ‘wrung out’ before we settled on the train. The poor thing, he was playing with some doggy friends in Victoria Park – running and chasing and wearing himself out – and I shooed him away from the dog bowl outside the café.

We’d arranged to stay our friends Michelle and Catherine and Iain in Newcastle so that we could get to Alnmouth on Saturday afternoon. They have an absolutely beautiful Weimaraner called Poppy and we wondered how Zoly and Poppy would get on when they met. We needn’t have worried – Zoly was beside himself with excitement when they met and was entranced by her all evening and the next morning. He was constantly wanting to play with her, chasing about, doing a bit of showing off and following her about wherever she went. Poppy is four years old and was very capable of handling herself.

On Saturday morning we took Zoly and Poppy for a walk on the Newcastle Town Moor and into Exhibition Park and then to a café in Northumberland Street (Poppy’s first visit there) – the dogs had a wonderful time on the moor – sniffing and chasing each other. We tuned heads wherever we went – two men with two extremely stylish dogs was a bit of a give-away! Lots of people asked us what kind of dogs we had and would smile and say something like: “Beautiful dogs” as we passed.

After we’d walked the dogs we returned Poppy and headed to Central Station for our train to Alnmouth. We arrived at the station with six minutes to spare… so while Matthew bought our tickets Mike asked at the information desk where the Alnmouth train was going – “Platform two to Edinburgh”. So we went to platform two and there was a train waiting – destination Edinburgh. We just made it – it left Newcastle almost as soon
as we got on – which made us think that perhaps something wasn’t right – it departed sooner than we thought it should. True enough the announcer on the train said we were on the Edinburgh train, next stop Morpeth then
Dunbar! Argh!! I ran up and down the train to find the train manager to check if the train really wasn’t stopping at Alnmouth (and to see if they could be persuaded to stop there since they were passing through), no – and no – we had to get off at Morpeth, run over to the other platform and return to Newcastle to try again
for Alnmouth!

Eventually we made it and finding the house was easy – and it’s in a wonderful setting at the top of a grassy ridge, with views to the Lesbury Railway Viaduct and on towards Boulmer and over to Alnmouth.

Michelle had made some soup for us (Thank-you Michelle – you were a super-star!), so we didn’t have to worry about getting any shopping in and once we’d unpacked and eaten we went for a lovely evening stroll to the sea.

So here we are on the North East coast between Newcastle and Berwick – about a mile from Alnmouth and three miles from Alnwick. We’re planning to do lots of walking with Zoly – up the coast, visit Alnwick, Cragside, Bamburgh, maybe Lindisfarne. We’ll keep you posted.

Our trip to Northumberland to celebrate our first wedding anniversary begins here!