Seaham, Newcastle and Cramlington

It's lovely now that the weather is starting to change.  We had a lovely journey up to Newcastle on Friday.  One of my '57 things to do before I'm 58' was to visit the coastal town of Seaham, which is famous for its sea glass.  I had hoped to go a month or so ago when Kim was over from California, but the times and tides were against us so that had to be shelved.

It was glorious spring day.  The sun was on full beam, although there was a bit of a nip in the air, it is April still afterall.  It's lovely how the sun can make us feel more relaxed though isn't it and we drove northwards without a care in the world.

Once we got to Seaham we had a quick reckie before heading to the closest fish and chip shop for chip butties to munch in the car.  Not a bad way to spend a Friday lunch time.

We drove onwards to Seaham Hall Beach and took the steps down to the pebbled area.  There were a few scattered groups of folks sat on the pebbles, armed with buckets and trowels, looking for the infamous sea glass. I'd remembered to bring a container for my spoils, but as we were visiting on our way up to Newcastle, weren't planning on spending a whole lot of time there.  At first it was hard to spot the sea glass, you really had to bend down and ferret amongst the pebbles, but we managed to come away with a nice little selection which may find their way into a mosaic piece.  It's a lovely little pastime, and very relaxing, and I can see myself heading off up that way regularly for a day or afternoon in the not too distant future.

Northumbriana's profile

Once out of Seaham we called at Eileen and Richies in Newcastle for the late exchange of Christmas and birthday pressies, then we all piled into the car up and headed up to the reclaimed open cast site now known as Northumberlandia.    It's amazing what they have done there, and the new landscaping is such an innovative way to make good the devastation caused by open cast mining.  It was nice to wander around the various parts of Northumberlandia's anatomy.

 

Top of the world, or rather, boob!

Someone, not saying who mind, had the bright idea of pushing Eileen up to the higher reaches in her wheelchair.  I think she really appreciated being able to see the views across Northumberland, and, as you can see, was particularly excited to reach the top of Northumbriana's right boob. 

The trip back down  proved to be a bit more precarious than first thought mind with one little slip which almost saw her taking the quicker route down, straight over the edge.  We did managed to get her safely back down in the end though, and in one piece, albeit amidst lots of shrieking and laughter.

Next we went the short journey to Cramlington to meet up with Les at Pannuci's, a nice little Italian restaurant that we'd not been to before. It was really good to see  him, and he gave us some top tips of where to go when we are in Nice next month.  Didn't manage to see Micky though due to him being at work which was a shame, but look forward to catching up with him in at Jenny's wedding in August, if  not before.