Thursday, July 15, 2010

Three Seasons in One Day

Today we woke to clear skies and almost warm sunshine.  By the time of our OUTDOOR tour of the Castle grounds, it was raining, complete with thunder and lightning.  The tour guide seemed unconcerned with the possibility of a lightning strike and continued on!!  Many of us also toured the inside of the Castle, where we especially enjoyed the library with all of the personal mementoes of the Percy family, and the newly restored state dining room which was being set up for a gala dinner tonight.  (No, we are not the invited guests.)

The afternoon brought a tour of  the Alnwick Garden, which I think the students found amazing. Even beaten by the recent wind and rain, the rose garden was still fabulous, with the Alnwick Rose developed by rose specialists David Austin a real standout.

The water features seemed to bring out the child in everyone (see the water graffiti above), and the Poison Garden provided a real exclamation point to the tour.

The Garden tour was  the first organized tour not accompanied by rain.  The sun actually shone for an hour or so, but it was paired with a brisk wind. Between the thundershower, the wind, and the sunshine, it felt like we experienced spring, summer, and autumn all in one day today..

Off to Bellshill Farm and Holy Island tomorrow, fish and chips tomorrow night!!

2 comments:

  1. Looks like you are having so much fun! Hope the fish & chips was good. Wish I was there! (I could post that last bit every single day....)

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  2. Hi Ann,

    David Almond spoke today--he was better than excellent.

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