Coccuveda Smells....... of Ginger Duck!!!

I am always on the look out for new local products to offer my merry band of customers and new this week is handmade Ginger Duck Soap!
Ginger Duck Soap is lovingly handmade quite near to the Scottish border beside the river Tweed. The soap is full of the natural goodness of olive oil and the finest of essential oils then finished off with botanicals or herbs.
Coccuveda is filled with all the lovely smells from the soap, I am not quite sure at the moment which one is my favourite I think it is either Geranium Rose and Rosehip or Lazy Days and Sundays. They are the perfect little treat for either yourself or a lovely thoughtful gift for someone special!

Smart Hostelries!

 Quite often while out and about I see the cruel results of the recession and many Pubs have been boarded up and left unloved and neglected. We in Rothbury are lucky enough to have some smart welcoming local Pubs.

The first Local pub/Hotel to reach my blog is The Queens Head, It is well established and is popular accommodation provider for visitors.
 From my TIC days, one of the most asked questions from visitors "Where can we hear live music?" Queens Head is the place, Rothbury Roots is a monthly live music session covering many genres from folk to blues from soloists to bands. The local accordion club meet here on a monthly basis too.
If that is not enough, I know some people travel some distance for a Queens Head Sunday Lunch!

Buttons Still on Trend

The trend for button accessories is still going on, button bracelets and earrings, long necklaces etc, I had a request this week for a black and white button hairband which I duly supplied but I kept going until I had a few more made! Perfect for summer.

Roving Rothbury Reporter!

Had a little bit of a gallivant yesterday,when you run your own shop days off are infrequent so when you do have one you tend to make the most of it.
The sun was shining so on our Sunday jaunt to Co Durham we headed in search of nice coffee and cake again. Bingo! We found it, The Carriages Tearoom in Bellingham.  I know it is a bit of a diversion to Durham, i.e a long way for a short cut, but it is a nice drive there in the sunshine!
 So The Carraiges Tearoom was a good find. Sitting in an old train carriage had  the quirkiness not twee which is an essential requirement, Coffee, I would score as 8/10, it was very morish. I strangely opted for a non chocolatey tray bake, which is unusual for me but I was tempted by their lemon and coconut slice, it was lovely soft almost fudgey in texture, I would give that a 9/10. The all important value for money factor, 10/10.
We had 2 americanos, a pot of tea for one, fruit scone and jam and my traybake and we had change back off £8! I was tempted to have lunch there but it was warm and sunny and we had puppy dog in the car so we didn't really have enough time for that.

So the Carriages Tearoom in Bellingham would feature in my Northumberland Coffee and Cake book, if I was doing one!

Iconic View!

This is one of the most popular scenes of Rothbury, the one that makes on to postcards etc, all green and colourful with the cherry blossom just adding the finishing touch. It seemed for a while, because of the blooming cold weather that the blossom was never going to give us a show.
 I am sure that a few weeks ago Newcastle had more blossoming trees than we did in Rothbury, the Toon obviously has a different climate to us.
We best enjoy the beauty while we can as I reckon the wind will be scattering it all over before too long.

Bank Holiday in Rothbury

Wow! looks like Rothbury is the place to be this Bank Holiday Weekend. Lots of things happening as well as all the lovely independent shops and cafes that are worth visiting.

On Friday the Cinema at Jubilee Institute

Music on Saturday

Tea on Sunday

Fun and Games on Monday

Northumberland Flag

One of our best sellers at the moment is our stained glass shield in the colours of the Northumberland Flag.
The don't seem to hang around in the shop for any time at all, no sooner has Juline brought them in, I Put them in the window then the customers flock in to buy them. so Juline if you are reading this, Coccuveda only has one left.

Rushing River Coquet!

The Coquet has not been flowing as full and as fast as this for a while, but I dare say we did have a lot of rain yesterday! It does make everything look bright luscious and green now. I reckon those that like fishing will be quite happy though.

Reusable Gift Bags

Lots of people like to give presents all nicely presented, which sometimes in reality the wrapping can add a few extra £s to the cost of the gift. What about a reusable gift bag as an alternative? I have a few jute bags in which I have decorated with felt and embroidered a message on, these can be filled with chocolates, toiletries, jewellery etc then the recipient can reuse the bag again for when they are giving a gift or can be used as a lunch bag

How was your imagination?

Way back in March I blogged about our smart new bridge, the picture showed Simonside with a snowy white top. I suggested that  you needed  to use your imagination and picture the scene with blue sky etc, did you picture this?
 A little bit of sunshine, a bit more greenery and the view of Simonside in the distance, all we need now is the temperature to go up a degree or 10 and as Pop Larkin from Darling Buds of May would say "Perfick!"

A Vehicle Free Bridge St!

The only advantage of having a car free Bridge St is that you can clearly see a clean sweep of the lovely Bridge St Independent shops.
 The cones have gone now so the parking restrictions on our side of the street have gone now too, so customers can park and shop with ease again. I still think the one-way system with parking at either side would have been better for us shopkeepers but obviously the council thought otherwise!

Atmospheric or Austere?

There was a wee bit too much rain yesterday to try and take a picture that was not many shades of grey, but early evening things started to brighten up and some blue sky appeared, so I am offering you this snap of Rothley Castle, I think the picture has a touch of atmosphere or does it look a bit austere? 

Rothley Castle is actually a folly, an 18th century Gothic folly, built for the owner of Wallington Hall, Sir Walter Blackett. Looks like there was a lot of blood and sweat involved in building no more than a folly, The views around here are magnificent so maybe a real castle might have been a better option than a folly.

I need my Wits!

Looks like Northumberland County Council are changing our one way system back to how it was before they started work on the bridge. Lots of work and noise going on today as they re-done the white lines, stuck the give way signs back up. It is a shame really as I think the one way worked well for the businesses in Bridge St as it offered more parking, reckon tomorrow the yellow lines will be re-painted. I will need my wits about me as I am so used to looking just one way when I cross the road I had best remember to look right, left and right again!

Roving Rothbury Reporter

I think I am a country girl at heart but I do love visiting cities, I love the buzz and excitement cities have and the architecture that defines the uniqueness and history.
This picture does not need any explanation to where it is as it is an iconic view. Newcastle is a great city that I am sure many people from other parts of the country don't realise, I reckon it is well worth a visit. I am quite fond of my home city of Edinburgh too, i don't quite manage to get there quite as often as I would like.

Sundays are family day so we head down south from Rural Rothbury to collect the troops in Newcastle then make our way in to County Durham.  This picture was taking at about 7.30 with the sound of the highland pipes somewhere, couldn't see the piper anywhere but there are a few pubs along the Quayside so he could have been inside to avoid a draught.

Who loves a good charity shop?

I think most people these days love to visit a good charity shop and here in Rothbury we have an RSPCA shop.
 Some town centres are now filled with charity shops, might be something to do with discounted rent, rates etc that are given to them. I think one shop per town is enough though

.Our RSPCA shop, because it is the only one, does really well in fact I would go as far as to say that it is one of the busiest shops in Rothbury, no sooner does pieces of furniture come in, then it has a sold sign on it in a blink of the eye.

I can be found quite frequently checking out the china, glassware and handbags. The book room is a popular spot and always sees a quick turn around of titles.
 Many a squeaky soft toy has been bought for puppy that she gets a good 5mins of pleasure out of before the foam insides are all over the floor.

Say it with textiles!

Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, so to add a bit of variety to my time in the shop I decided to dig out my bag of small bits of fabric and rummage for inspiration and ideas.
 In my rummaging I came across long forgotten mini blank canvases. Bingo!
The canvas provided the base for inspiration, then my imagination went into overdrive (helped by a cup of coffee and biscuit!)
 Here are the results, I wonder which one is the most popular!!!!!

Coccuveda in Bloom!

The weather changed to its' usual shade of grey again after the beautiful sunny day we had yesterday. Seemingly Northumberland was the sunniest in the country!!!!
I thought that I should make something bright and cheery to remind us of yesterday.

A bunch of colourful felt and fabric corsages

Heat Exhaustion?

What a lovely spring day we have had today, lots of happy smiling people around, many choosing to bare flesh  getting legs and arms out for a bit of an airing.

I think this bus has probably gone out in the sun for too long that it seems to have come to a halt and refused to go any further  so the bus paramedics have had to come to the rescue!

Roving Rothbury Reporter Again!

Bank Holiday Monday, the first I have actually had free for a number of years. My good friend was in Coccuveda so I was able to have a little trip.

A nice day out in my book is morning coffee and cake at a nice coffee shop maybe a walk and a picnic lunch, I am easily pleased you see. Being an independent business, I do try and support other indies and I know that there are some excellent coffee shops throughout Northumberland.

Today I found myself being slightly disappointed as the place we chose, we had been trying to get here for some time, was a tad beyond our pockets. The place itself was great, quirky just as I like and in actual fact we did sit down at a table but looking at the prices i just couldn't justify spending £3.75 on a slice of traybake, it looked nice but wasn't exactly a huge slice, black coffee was £2.60. I know small businesses have quite a lot hidden overheads but spending £8.95 on two coffees and one traybake between the two of us didn't seem like an affordable way to have a treat. So we decided to go elsewhere. It is a shame really as this place was really my type of place. Maybe they were hoping to attract the more affluent and well heeled customer rather than your ordinary Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs!
We did find somewhere else that was more reasonably priced that was nice enough but without the quirkiness.

Our picnic lunch was enjoyed in full view of

Our choice of place for a walk was here

Where else than in Northumberland can Darby and Joan and Dog go to such a wide expanse of beautiful sandy beach on a bank holiday Monday and have it all to themselves!  Is anybody going to have a guess as to where we were/

I've Been Duped!

I am sorry to have to admit this, I have been duped in a change scam! I am just as annoyed with myself for falling for this as I am with the blooming tricksters.

It is a bit complicated to actually explain the scam but I will try.

A couple came into the shop on Saturday, I was instantly wary of them, you know when you just get a feeling about people. They were in the craft part of the shop, at this point I was trying to keep my eye on them for shop lifting, the lady or I will call her FEMALE, was constantly pressing her phone rather than looking at the crafts, which was strange, the bloke was talking a lot, trying to be pleasant.

They chose to buy a little hand painted glass cube for £1, the bloke came to the counter while the female stayed in the craft area, again my shoplifting suspicions were roused even more! Bloke gave me a £20 for £1 cube, instinct thought is this a dodgy note, no it seemed ok, so I opened the till and got the £19 change
. Bloke talking all the time asking questions about what I was making, I am still trying to keep half an eye on female, so there is a lot of distracting going on. Before the till was closed he politely quibbled the price of the cube, saying " I thought it cost £2" as it was only £1 "I could have given you the right money" he had a £1coin and some coppers in his hand.
"Tell you what" he said save "your change, i will give you this and you give me £10 note" so while the till was still open he passed over £5 note and 5 £1coins, seems a fair exchange at this stage! so I passed a £10 note over, bloke still trying to be pleasant and chatty, female still on phone in the corner of my eye.
With the £5 note and 5 x £1 coins still in my hand he handed back the £10 note saying "you may as well just give me £20 back, you probably need the change more than I do!" So effectively now I had £20 in my hand so for a micro second it seemed ok to hand over the £20 note back to bloke, then they were gone I knew by the time they were out the door I had been scammed and the till was £10 down. Effectively he had handed me back £10 note for a £20!!

It seems this is a well known scam, if I haven't explained this in an understandable way, you can seemingly see examples of this scam on You Tube!

£10 I will never see again!

Memories in a Chemist

Looking in the window of our chemist shop in Rothbury you might expect to see toiletries, nappies or the usual chemist necessities, but we are lucky enough to get to see displays of historical local photographs. A local photographer has a wonderful collection of pictures that she is able to share with us, she changes the displays  on a weekly basis, this week it is sporty, pictures and memorabilia  of the old race course  and  photographs of the local football team.

Our Jubilee Hall

The Jubilee Hall or Institute is one of Rothbury's most important buildings.

Today it was our local polling station with a steady flow of local people eager to put their cross on the ballot paper, I think there has been a good turn out as I had to really push my voting slip in to a very full box.

Many other activities happen in the Jubilee hall from weddings and celebrations to weekly cubs and scouts, the local over 60s club to amateur dramatics and many many more activities.

Probably the liveliest busiest time is when it hosts the competitions and ceilidhs for Rothbury Music Festival!

Family Business

Rothbury has many excellent, unique and independent family businesses including Coccuveda of course! One such shop a few doors along in Bridge St is Bridgedale Antiques, their window definitely has to be one of the most interesting to look at, I have to stop and look  everyday and I still see things that I haven't noticed before. Bridge St Rothbury is a good Street for shopping full of creativity, collectables and beautiful pieces from times gone by.