First Week Ends on a Sunny Note...

Another day of changing weather, but finally sunshine predominated! We boarded a coach this morning for our first day of field trips. First stop was Bellshill Farm

(see link under British Connections) to the right), owned and operated by John and Helen Renner, farmers extraordinare.

 It was squalling rain and blowing very hard, so we started in the farm classroom, with little hope of being able to actually walk about the farm lands. John and Helen spoke us about all aspects of their farm from crops to pigs to sheep. When we opened the classroom door, we discovered that the sun had broken through the clouds, and although the wind was still blowing hard, we were able to walk up into the pastures and see the breathtaking views of the rolling Northumberland countryside and the North Sea. We also got to see Spot, the resident sheepdog, who is 16 years old and still going strong.

Then it was back on the coach and on to Lindisfarne Island, aka Holy Island. The wind was still blowing hard and there were squalls coming in over the Cheviot Hills from time to time, but there were spots of sunshine with just a few sprinkles. We had our packed lunches from the dining hall, but some people also tried the crab sandwiches that can be purchased from cottages on Lindisfarne. We took a self guided tour of Lindisfarne Castle, which sits on a high point of volcano rock (Beblowe Crag) on one end of the island.

We also visited the Castle garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Not as luxuriant as two years ago when we visited, but it is amazing that anything can grown in such a wind assaulted spot. There was time for a bit of shopping in the village before we finished the day at the Priory Museum.




I've been trying to make sure that I get a picture of everyone up on the blog, but it's difficult to do that with pictures of only one or two people, so I am ending today with a group taken on Lindisfarne. This is the whole gang except for me, who was the photographer!  Now it’s off for fish and chips at the local chip shop. Life is good!!