In April 2016 Sophie and I went along to the WW1 Vehicles & Steam fair at Beamish Museum. On checking their website we found that this year they were doing horses of WW1. The horses were not 100 years old of course, but there were people were all dressed up in period costume and showing how horses were used back then, so off we went to ride the trams and take photo’s of everything.
The Circle
The Circle is our favourite tram, and Sophie and I really want to sit on the balcony bit at the top there, but so far we haven’t managed to get on soon enough, we’ve only ridden in it downstairs.
We decided to walk anyway as we wanted to take pictures along the way.
Giddy~up!
It was great to see some big dray horses, I love their hairy feet!
They have lovely natures too
This next shot is the back of a field kitchen
Steam cooker
and this is the horse’s tail who pulled the kitchen.
and his feet, standing ver prettily I thought
tip-toe
can’t forget his lovely face too
blinkers
and off he went on his rounds
We’re in for a few reports from this day out, so stay tooned
But also took some of the obviously very old trees
self-propping treeBushed!Gnarly
On the way we came near to a road and could see this lovely building from it
GlimpsedCrennelated Castle
Rowland Burdon III, a merchant banker, purchased the manor of Castle Eden in 1758, and in about 1765, with the assistance of architect William Newton, built the house which came to be known as The Castle. The house has three storeys and a seven-bay entrance front. The central three bays are canted and the whole carries a castellated parapet. Last October it was put up for sale for £3 million, some pictures of the interior are at THIS LINK, if anyone’s interested it’s still up for grabs! 🙂
The whole of the dene was covered in wild garlic plants, I bet it smells great when they all bloom!
Garlic accompaniment
That’s the end of the tour, though there’s a full album, which can be foundHERE
All photo’s can be clicked on to embiggen so you can marvel at their wondrousness 🤣
Stay tooned for our next outing, back to Beamish Museum to see WW1 themed vehicles and horses.
Last weekend Sophie and I managed a day out at Castle Eden Dene, it stayed dry and it wasn’t too cold which was enough for us to get out and about. Spring hadn’t quite arrived, but some flowers were popping up, and there were plenty of mosses and lichens for my new lens to have a look at.
The Dene itself is the largest, and biologically the richest, of a series of deep ravines that have been incised by streams flowing into the North Sea through the Magnesian Limestone and overlying boulder clay of coastal Durham. It is the largest area of semi-natural woodland in north-east England and, because the steep valley sides are mostly inaccessible, it has suffered relatively little from human interference. Over 450 species of plants have been recorded in the wood, many of which are typical of ancient woodlands that date back to pre-medieval times.
It didn’t really look very inviting as we set off along the path
but I put my new macro lens to good use, discovering the little things you don’t normally see when just walking on by
loving lichen
Catkins are a sure sign Spring is on the way..
Hazel Tree catkins
Goat Willow catkins have separate male and female trees. Male catkins are clad in golden stamens; female catkins are spiky and green. Both secrete nectar – key energy for bees and butterflies in early spring.
Goat willow – Salix caprea
We walked up a main pathway to start with, and to the right of us people’s gardens were on the opposite side of a big fence, but bits and bobs poked through it here and there..
pinkaliciousvariegated ivya plant 🙂
we turned off the main path onto a track that led through the woodlands and found our way to Gunners Pool bridge. The bridge is one of sixteen that cross the Castle Eden Burn. It was fabricated in Hartlepool in the late 19th century for the Rev. John Burdon, whose family owned Castle Eden Dene, and is thought to have been erected in June 1877.
Gunners Pool BridgeLooking down from the bridge
It was quite vertiginious and I was glad to get to the other side
So on we go over the dinosaur rib cage and back towards the lake, alongside a rivulet where we watched a swan doing it’s thing
Oooh look at me!!!I’m so pretty!
Back at the car park we came across a hound meeting
Eau de Beagle
I think they were Beagles after googling doggy pictures.
Corporal BeagleyReflecting Penshaw’s Folly
Saw this cute little lad at the cafe while we had lunch
counting
and then after lunch, back to the lake for more birdy shots
We watched a seagull fighting a tern for some bread
OY! That’s my bread!gimme gimme!
Birds on a buoy
In the distance the sky did a thing over the standing stones,
And that’s the end of our day at Herrington.
all images can be clicked on for bigger versions so you can appreciate their magnificence so much better 🤣
Full album can be found HERE for more birds and stuff.
Stay tooned, though god knows what for, the constant rain has put paid to Sophie and I going anywhere since this day, but we’ll be back! Meantime I’ll be over at The Other Place, click on that and I’ll see you there 🙂
fraggle 