Belsay Hall and Warkworth Castle

The last week I have been going a bit mad at Grandad's. It is the holidays, I have nothing to keep me entertained or to exhaust me during the day. I have been going a bit insane so I have taken to going out on little adventures. Grandad has been with me for the last couple. The first was to Belsay Hall, Gardens and castle.

I had no idea when I choose to drive out to Belsay hall that it would take so damn long to get there or that

the road was a windy single track road in parts. It was exhausting. What on a straight road would only have taken 45 minutes tops, took an hour and a half and it horrid, tight and windy roads that leave you with a killer migraine from all the concentration required.
Belsay Hall is quite a gem though and worth effort, although thanks to my navman it tried to take me down a private property road. Woops. The grounds are extensive and there is a couple of hundred years worth of cultivation that has gotten it to the point it is at. The hall is a reflection of the time where there was a heavy desire to build in the ancient Greek style so there are columns in and out. The actual hall itself though was incredibly barren as the original owners gifted it to the trust on the promise that they not re-create what it would have looked like in the1700's. I actually liked that. I am a bit sick of going into halls where you can't get close to anything and it is all gloomy. Instead, what was inside was something very dear to me. Jane Austen's books come to life. The BBC costumes of characters like Mr Darcy were on display, including the very famous shirt that Colin Firth wore during the scene where we comes wading out of the water all water-logged and scrumptious. Mmmmm....

Outside in the gardens, I also saw something I had never seen before. Quarry gardens. The quarry had been

used to build the castle and hall and once it was done, nature had begun to reclaim it, helped along by a bunch of green-fingered gardeners. I loved walking through the shaded, impressive quarry and seeing the land healing it with trees and mosses and flowers and ferns. It was almost like stepping into another world.
Beyond the quarry gardens is the ruins of the castle. There was one room in particular, the grand hall, where I could imagine myself one day getting married, or in something similar, with a grand fire place and high windows and vaulted ceilings. It was very magical.

The second place I have been in the last week was to Warkworth Castle. I really liked it there. It was so much more than I expected it to be and it ranks up there amongst my favourite castles.

There was an event on at the castle to mark the anniversary of the battle of Flodden. When we arrived there was an assortment of medieval tents set up and a hoard of men and women in costume. There was a who-dunnit medieval murder mystery to solve and Bill Drills where they went through how they trained the soldiers back in the day given the general soldier's lack of knowledge and education. At one point they had a bunch of kids up and I wanted to be up there too. Sigh.
I was in a bit of a funny mood that day and I was a bit frustrated with Grandad because he loves to come and out and see the sights but then he has little patience to actually see them the way I want to. As in explore, walk, touch, read and absorb. It took a long time to drive out there and I was not leaving until I had seen everything. I know he loves to see new things, to get out of Consett and at 85 I hope someone does the same for me. He is like a big kid every time we head out on adventure. He gets all excited and chatty. He tells me stories of when he had gone here or there with Nana Milly, or Jim, Julie and dad. Or he tells me stories of his childhood and growing up, working for the grocer. The latest tidbit he shared was that when he was young, before working in the Iron works, he worked for a grocer and he and the lads would toss a coin on the horse-drawn wagon to see who got to deliver groceries to this beautiful girl who lived down the way, hoping that when they got to the house she would be the one to open the door.

I left Grandad sitting on a wall, admiring the ruins while I went exploring the castle keep, then we jumped in the car and drove down to the village for lunch. Where I got annoyed all over again. I don't mind sitting in the sun and waiting half an hour for a meal to come but when we were told that was how long it would take at the first pub we had to leave because Grandad couldn't wait that long, said it was a waste of time. Arghhh. So we went across the street and they said it was only a 15-20 minute wait which turned into half an hour plus wait not that Grandad realised it. I ordered a veggie stir-fry with rice and chips. It sounded lovely. What I got was one step from hideous. I have never had a stir-fry with all of the following: potato, carrot, peas, onion, peppers, mushroom, cauliflower, tomato, corn and asparagus (yip, asparagus!). The whole thing had been doused in Chinese 5 spice so all these conflicting flavours were gritty too. I had a bit of it before my taste buds rebelled. In the end I ate the chips which were the only nice thing on the plate. I shudder just thinking about it now. Urgh!

Gladiators!

"Look Jack, I'm flying!"

Well, I have certainly been having a boat load for fun (and with no boat to speak of!). Hayley and I went out to Housesteads Roman fort for a lunch picnic on the weekend. We headed to the supermarket, grabbed the food then I drove us out to the wall. I am proud to say that I didn't use my nav-man once. I feel like a proper local when I don't have to use navigation equipment to get from a to b.
We walked up the hill, through the fort and then, snagging a picnic blanket from the shop we jumped over the fence to the Northumbrian side and plonked ourselves down on the hill behind Hadrian's wall.
We looked out over the hills and fields and imagined the highland and Scottish hordes coming up with the hope of taking the fort. We also discussed the merits of a good ravaging by a Scotsman if we just happened to be there at the time. Hahaha.

There was this neat little rock outcropping a bit down the steep incline so I carefully negotiated my way down, avoiding nettles (go me!) and sheep poo, and then I stood on the rock, arms spread wide. It was a bit like flying to which I shouted out, "I'm flying Jack!" because you really should when standing, looking out across a distance. It was a pretty good vantage point so I then proceeded to try out my mad tai chi skills. Not too bad an effort I thought considering a) that is my ankle that has no ligament any more, b) it was an uneven rock and c) it was a really steep fall off it. Good thing there was only a light breeze. Also, in my mind, I felt a lot more elegant than I look in that photo. I felt sure at the time that my leg was sticking right out and I was prima ballerina in my posing. Oh well.

We sat for a bit and just enjoyed the scenery. It was simply stunning but what struck me was the difference between coming this time and last time a month ago. The weather has been glorious and the sun has shone for almost 4 weeks straight and it has made a huge impact on the ground. The greens are not as vibrant anymore. They are getting yellowed and parched due to the lack of rain fall. Not good for the farmers fields but I do love to drive past paddocks full of hay barrels drying out. Looks picturesque.

From there we made our way down to Chester's Roman fort where they were conducting gladiatorial battles. I have never been to anything like it and I can't wait to go again. I learnt some neat facts about the Romans that I didn't know before, especially about gladiator fighting and the commentators were great for a laugh. The gladiators all had fun names and inappropriate jokes abounded. At the end of the battles I got a photo with a couple of the fighters.

It was only supposed to be for the children but I told them I was a classical studies teacher and my students would love it. They were happy to help and told me that they ran school trips and the such. I smiled politely and told them I was from New Zealand so it would be a bit far to travel. Still, how jealous am I of the teacher in this country who get to take their students out to these sites to actually see history hand's on. They have no idea how lucky that makes them.
The fighting scenes they did were well done too. They used proper weapons and shields, the armour was true to the era and style of gladiators and when one of them was put to death at the end of the fight for losing they had a blood bag which they squashed as they cut their throat to blood sprayed out. Good times.
As the crowd we had to cheer on our favourite fighters and then when asked if the loser should die we had to shout out 'mite' with hand waving in the air and our thumb tucked down to our palm. If we wanted to see death we had to shout 'jugulum' and make a stabbing motion of our thumb to our throats.
I have never cheered so hard at anything. I had a saw jaw by the end of it, I smiled so much.