Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....

Monday.
A sunny morning, although very windy, which made it feel colder than we expected. Because the weather forecast for the rest of the week is not great, we decided to take advantage of the sunny day to go somewhere new. 

A bit of research online had shown that there was a woolshop in Morpeth, which is a town that we hadn't been to before. Morpeth is about 40 minutes drive south of Beadnell, but because of yet more traffic lights on the A1 where they are cutting back the trees, it took us an hour to get there.

It is a decent sized town with a good selection of independent shops and some of the usual high street big names. We have finally sussed out the "disc parking" scheme. You go into almost any shop, and buy a parking disc, which looks like one of those cardboard clocks that go along with the disabled parking badges. You set the clock for the time you arrive in the car park, put it on your dashboard and that's it. You can then park, for free, for the time allowed in that car park. (Usually between 2 and 4 hours). 

The cost of these miraculous discs? £1.00. How long do they last for? Forever. Or until they come to their senses and realise just how much money they are losing out on!
Seriously, most of the "council" Carparks in the whole of Northumberland run the scheme, and once you have a disc, that's it. Job done.

We found the wool shop, and Sally got what she wanted from there. We then had a look around the town, and had a bite to eat at a small cafe called The Wheatsheaf, which was really nice.

We also spotted another cafe nearby which had a sign in their window saying that they were "almost award winning in 2016". This had us scratching our heads. Why would you make a big thing of not having won an award. 

The route back was always going to have been different, and I made sure we came back the scenic way via the coast road. We took in Newbiggin-by-Sea, which was a dump, and stopped off briefly at the village of Cresswell, which had a tiny car park overlooking the sea. It was too windy to get out, and we didn't stay very long.

Once back in Beadnell,  I set up our Amazon Fire Stick to work on the TV so that we could watch last week's episode of Broadchurch, so that we would be up to date in time for that evenings next episode.

We also went for a walk to the beach, getting back just before it got dark. There were only 3 other people on the entire beach, which is just how we like it.

Tuesday.
After a lie in, we ended up in Alnwick. I know that times are tough for the high street, but it was sad to see just how many empty shops there are in the town centre there now. 

We didn't spend too long there, but had a spot of lunch in a cafe called Copperfields, which was almost as good as the previous day's. I decided against going into Barter Books, as there is nothing I really "need" right now.

Sainsbury's saw us re-stocked with supplies, and once back at the flat we watched Casino Royale on DVD. I still say it is probably the best Bond film. 

We then went for a brief walk around the village, and then settled in for the evening.  

The weather forecast for today had predicted thunderstorms, which didn't happen, and now they were saying overnight snow followed by a day of rain.

Wednesday.

No sign of the snow overnight, but it had been raining, and continued to do so for most of the rest of the day. It had always looked as though Wednesday was going to be the worst day weather wise, and was probably going to be the "staying at home day" for the week.

As we had got the supplies yesterday, it was not really necessary to go out today anyway, so it did seem like a good plan to stay in.

In the end we just chilled out indoors, I read while Sally did some crochet. We were watching the TV when the breaking news of the terror attack in London was announced on the BBC news.

We went to Beadnell Towers for dinner, which is one of the two pubs in the village. Despite how many times we have been here, we have never been to either of them before. It was quite pleasant, but like the cafe in Morpeth, would probably not win any awards. 

Sunday 19th March 2017

A good night's sleep was had by both of us thanks to the very comfortable bed. The weather wasn't too bad to start the day,  It had rained overnight a bit, but the Sun was doing its best to breakthrough  the clouds. It was fairly windy, but not actually cold.
We began the day in Seahouses, where we had a bit more of a look around parts of the town that we hadn't been through before, and found some new'ish houses that need to be on our "possible " list when the time finally comes to (hopefully ) move up here.
We did our usual spin around the shop's in Seahouses, and got a few supplies from the Co-op  before heading back to the flat for lunch. Fishcakes and salad, which were very very nice.
After lunch we walked to the beach and spent some time walking and enjoying the sunshine. Back At the flat we watched a DVD and then the New episode of Vera, which we saw being filmed last June on the  beach at Beadnell. The scene we saw them filming only lasted about 30 seconds, but took several hours to film.
Not a lot to report really for today,  but we enjoyed our day nevertheless.

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It's March, so it's holiday time!

At long last, it's holiday time again. It does seem a long time since we were last away, but this holiday has suddenly crept up on us, and while it seemed a long way away when we booked it, it has come around sooner than we thought it would. (I known that doesn't make much sense, but I know what no mean!)

As has become the norm for us, we have come back to Beadnell, which has become our second home, and eventually, we hope, will become our actual home. It is a place we adore, and holds a special place in our hearts. There is rarely a day goes by when don't close my eyes and imagine walking along the beach here, or walking along one of the streets in the village. It always makes me smile.

It is our first time staying in this actual property, which is a one bedroomed apartment in the centre of the village. (Rather than one on the edge of the village closer to the beach). It is still only about a 10 minute walk to the beach from here, and will be even less when I can work out where the short cut down the public right of way is!

The apartment is very nice. Modern, well specified, sensibly furnished and layed out. Clean and comfortable. You can't really ask for any more.

The journey up here was uneventful, the weather wasn't great, and we did have heavy rain for some of the time, and showers for most of the way up. Amazingly, there were no roadworks around Newcastle.  This is the first time that has happened. Every other time there have been hold ips whilst getting through the roadworks on the A1 at Newcastle. This was a nice surprise.

Once we had unpacked and settled in, had a mug of tea, we took a walk along to the beach. It had just about stopped raining, but they appear to have had quite a bit of rain here, and there were plenty of puddles along our route to the beach. Despite this, there were quite a few dogs and their owners on the beach enjoying the bracing wind. We didn't stay long, and walked back the long way to the flat.

There is an enormous TV on the wall in the lounge, and it was quite startling to see the faces of the people on Gogglebox at such a large size. I definitely prefer our "sensibly" sized TV at home.

The weather forecast looks to be improving a bit, so we may be able to get out and about a bit more than we thought we would. Whatever happens,  it is nice to be away, and to have a break.