blizzards by the river

My pals and I went for a snowy walk by the river at Barnard Castle, it was very splendid, quite cold and the snow flurries meant we had to keep moving but it all looked pretty spectacular, a bit like Narnia and we kept expecting Mr Tumnus to appear.

hard to tell but it tis blizzarding in this picture

Its a lovely place to wander down by the river,even when the weather is bleak and mid-wintry, it will look fantastic once the greenery arrives especially with the wild garlic and bluebells. It makes up quite a bit for not having the beach so nearby.

After a couple of hours battling the elements we felt we had earned lunch in a cafe so we wandered back by the castle and up the high street to try a different cafe in our quest for the best cafe in Barney.... this one scored a very satisfactory 8/10 and served delicious soup and scones just what we needed on a wintry day.

there was alot of water under the bridge..

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Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

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Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

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