Lindisfarne Gospels done, Lumiere light shows and Locomotion 'The Great Goodbye'.to come

There has been some great events for our guests and visitors this year -we had people visiting Durham cathedral to see the Lindisfarne Gospels in the summer, and more booked in to see the Lumiere light shows in Durham this next weekend -but we still have some vacancies for the Sunday. As well as being enthusiastic about gardens and having National Collections of plants here, we are also very lucky to have the Railway National Collection 15 minutes away at Shildon, which we and many of our guests have enjoyed visiting. 
In February for 9 days, we are looking forward to a great exhibition celebrating the end of a year's 75th anniversary of the Mallard breaking the world speed record in 1938.
For the whole of that week we are planning an authentic 1938 railway menu for our 3 course evening meal for guests staying to visit the Locomotion exhibition, probably with me in a 1938 waitress outfit to serve it.
I shall be watching Poirot more closely for ideas to add to our dining room for the event, and look forward to hopefully having time off one afternoon to go and see it ourselves.

Things to do, places to go in East Durham

Things to do, places to go in East Durham

Yesterday we went to a meeting at Dropswell Farm Shop, east of Trimdon Village with some lovely people from the Durham heritage coast, Seaham hotel,Elaine from Durham Tourism and Mark from the newly opened Lookout cafe which Im looking forward to visiting next week. As well as a fantastic lunch and news on the latest Durham bottled spring water, we picked up some timetables for the Little Tern bus which is running free every weekend this summer to take you up and down the Durham coast.

We are planning a visit to Mark's cafe  overlooking the harbour, and trying the bus from Seaham down to Blackhall rocks and back next Saturday. Although there is plenty of weeding to do on the allotment, we are also planning a trip along the cycle routes on ex railway lines in the next week, taking a picnic, or if later in the week calling at Dropswell farm for tea on the way home. In two weekends, the gardens of Sedgefield are open for the NGS, and we will be there on the green with a plant stall, but also hoping to have time to visit the gardens. A walk around the nearby Hardwick country park would also be nice if we can fit it in.

Now our students have finished their RHS exams, and no visitors in the B&B, we have time to get some redecorating and sewing of new soft furnishings done if the weather is less than kind, and David has work to do in putting up a new wall in the classroom and repairing some containers which hold our National Collection plants. I'm sure the summer will fly over and we won't have had time to visit all the places we want to before term starts again in September.

We visited Bowes museum at Barnard Castle this morning and were given a tour by a very knowledgeable young lady of the latest exhibition based on Sir Walter Scott's epic Rokeby, which inspired Turner and other painters to visit Teesdale. We also went to see the costume exhibition and I was drawn to the Durham quilts hanging in the work area, and compared them to the ones we have on all the beds in the guest rooms. There was also an exhibition of local artists work for sale and I admired a good likeness of the Durham knocker, but it was too expensive to add to my Durham knocker collection -Dave says I already have a bigger knocker collection than is good for anyone.  It was all rounded off with an excellent sandwich and cake lunch, although it was a shame the shop was shut for stock taking, as I'd have liked to have took something back as I usually do when we visit. There is also a new play area and woodland walk which looked excellent, but as it was raining, we came home to put the washing out on the line and get on with the ironing.

Rokeby ,Teesdale Art and Durham Quilts at Bowes Museum