A walk on the wild side

On Sunday we decided to go out for the day and blow away some cobwebs. We loaded up the car with walking boots, sandwiches and flasks and set off for Upper Teesdale to Cow Green Reservoire which is above Caldron Snout and High Force waterfalls. It was a bright day if a bit cold and breezy but we really needed to get out for the day. It's a bit wild up there, bleak in the Winter but full of wild life and rare plants.

The locals watched our every move with suspicion.

This is what we really went up to see - the rare blue Teesdale gentians.

There were other gentians out too, together with Spring viola's, some alpine plants and the mosses and grasses were really colourful. I was going to upload photos of these but Blogger is being so slow I ran out of patience.

Now here are the photo's I was trying to upload last night. My wonderful TextileChallenge house swap from Mariel. She has gone to a lot of trouble the stonework alone must have taken her ages to sew.

Closed but the dragon still strides along the cressellations and the King and Queen look out of the windows.

The back also has lots of stonework and the workings for my little drawbridge.

And here is its my "at the castle door" house with the drawbridge down and the knight ready to fight or welcome you. I just love it and my grandson enjoyed raising and lower the drawbridge.

Rose doll from Kari in South Wales has come to live with us, not sure she approves of us but welcome cariad (hope I've spelt that correctly).

We had a short visit to Newcastle Metro Centre today, not many in the centre wonder whether its the affects of the credit crunch or whether we just went on a slow day. There was a team from the Wii people trying to coax us onto the wii fit boards, managed to avoid that one. A fashion display was also being staged, that was a little more successful than the wii fit demo.

We couldn't really find anything we wanted to buy, well anything clothes wise for the holidays, so had lunch and returned home. The traffic was nose to tail until we got past the Angel of the North. I'm probably in the minority but I love the Angel and think the more rusty he gets the better his body shows up.

Mum's now home and is settling in, she's already phoned me three times I think she's missed having a phone and is making up for lost time. I must say I too missed phoning her and would often go to the phone thinking "Oh I'll just tell Mum that" and of course she wasn't there. Thank goodness though it wasn't permanent, she may be an old battleaxe but she's my old battleaxe and I did miss her.