A Jolly Floral Hostelry!

The Newcastle Hotel in Rothbury is looking very splendid at the moment, fully bedecked in it's summer floral regalia!

The Newcy as it is affectionately known, has a whole host of regulars both local and visitors.
I know of quite a few people who quite regularly head to Rothbury from Tyneside for a bit of the creative culture from some shopping and Lunch at "The Newcy"

Over my many years as a Rothbury resident I have frequented this Hostelry on various occasions, usually with work colleagues, sometimes for Christmas dos with turkey and crackers etc and other times just because we want/deserve a wee drink, we have also been known to soak the wee drink up with a few bowls of communal chips!

I would describe The Newcastle as a" proper" village pub with a welcoming friendly atmosphere with delicious honest pub food.

Thought Rothbury had escaped

Today has been a busy day in the world of Coccuveda, both customer wise and creating wise! I was so involved in what I was doing that 5 o'clock crept up on me. I had been photographing my new jewellery range (hopefully will go on my Coccuveda craft blog soon) so I was quite "in the zone" when I turned round I quickly thought that I had best not close the door and go home, I decided to stay put a wee bit longer!
You can see why!

Whilst other parts of the country had suffered violent thunder storms and torrential rain, Rothbury so far had managed to escape it, I thought I did hear a distant rumble or two but could quite easily have been a big log waggon passing by.
It has still been very clammy here so I reckon the atmosphere could have done with  good storm to freshen things up.
Hopefully It will be pack to nice sunshine tomorrow

Musical Window

An exciting weekend for us here in Rothbury with our annual music festival on the go. I think the weather is going to be a bit kinder to us this year so I reckon there will be a lot of refreshments supped ( of the soft variety of course).
So Coccuveda is sporting a musical themed window to capture the attention of all the musicians, competitors and music lovers. There is medals, stained glass musical notes and musical themed jewellery, something for all tastes.

A Puzzle

Just to keep you all interested in what is round and about in sunny Rothbury I might just throw in the occasional poser or puzzle .
So do you recognise this? I think this is probably quite easy  but I thought best start off with an easy one. Answers not on a postcard, but please like on facebook and leave your answer

Sorry Tale of a Puppy Dog's tail!

After our Sunday family outing, in the evening the weather was still warm and sunny so we decided to come home via the beach as I wanted to go on a sea glass hunt. We were a full family complement in two cars. We probably spent more time there than we intended but we were all enjoying the beach scavenge and puppy dog was having great fun in the sea.

I refer to our beloved pet as puppy dog but she is in fact 15 months  now and a bundle of wilfulness and energy. She has been to the beach before but has only been paddling in the water, this time however she has discovered swimming in the sea. She was having a whale of a time, enjoying all the attention she was getting, she would swim run out then go back in again as if she couldn't really believe she was properly swimming. As she has been a wee bit naughty recently, where recall is concerned, we had her on the 10 m training line so  that we could pull her back if she went too far.

 We had a good time.
Monday however was a different story. I never noticed anything up with puppy dog initially but as they day progressed we realised that she has been well behaved, uncharacteristically well behaved, and quiet. Then between us we realised that she was very glum and nobody had seen her wag her tail and she didn't seem to be able to comfortably sit down, her tail seemed to be tucked down all the time. We knew she had not had an obvious injury, we wondered if she could have been stung by a jellyfish or something. You could see from her eyes that she wanted to wag her tail, it just wouldn't work! Her legs would be dancing like normal, when her tail is wagging 20 to the dozen, but there was not even a twitch from her tail.

We done a bit of searching on google then things became clear puppy dog has Cold Tail or Lumber tail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limber_tail_syndrome  So all that lovely swimming in the sea has taken its toll on our waggy tailed dog. Hopefully over the next couple of days will see it back to full wag.
The thing is I don't think she will associate the sea with the sore tail so I am sure next time at the beach she will be game for more where as we will be trying to limit doggy to paddling only!

I am not posting a picture of a glum puppy dog who's tail has lost it's wag so here is a cute happy picture instead.

Roving Rothbury Reporter

We found another little gem of a place on this Sundays outing, The Parlour at Blagdon.

It is not far from the land sculpture of Northumberlandia, so visiting the two would be a good day out. With a tight Sunday Schedule only one of these places could possibly be graced by our presence, those of you that know me will understand that the refreshment option was higher up in the priority than Northumerlandia.
We were not disappointed. The Parlour is home to an ice cream factory as well as Poppy's tea room and a garden full of plants bringing a real flavour of Italy.

Sunday was another beautifully sunny day and many visitors were heading to the Ice Cream Parlour and were coming back devouring a colourful mix of flavours of gelato in their cones. We all opted for the caffeine fix, tea for two and an aromatic steaming americano was our drinks order and feeling decadent (must be the effects of the sun) we had two blondie slices that we shared between the three of us, bill was just a wee bit over £10 and well worth it.

As we had puppy dog with us we sat in the lovely patio area which was colourful and spacious,  we had no sooner sat down when a young girl came with a bowlful of water for our hot dog, so I think the service was top quality too.
Reckon The Parlour at Blagdon may well become a family favourite.

Hot Dogs and Ice Lollies

We have all been enjoying all the hot sunny weather recently, long may it last. Coccuveda is on the main thoroughfare for both the Rothbury First School and pupils heading to and from Dr Tomlinson's Middle school so there have been many lolly licking children cooling off on their way home.
I thought what about all the hot dogs, maybe they would like a bit cooling down.
Yesterday I got an idea from a vets site on facebook for a special iced doggy lolly .So In an empty ice cream container I put one of puppy dogs balls, some little bits of her treats and a bit of chopped up green pepper topped it up with water and a wee bit gravy for added flavour, then put it in the freezer. This evening it was ready for her and boy did she enjoy it!

Hot dog with iced treat = happy dog

A couple of hot dogs brought a lovely lady into the shop today too. Her dogs had gone through their  bottle of water so the lady asked if I could refill it for her. She was interested in my bead and wire projects all over the desk , turned out she was a jewellery maker/teacher on holiday from Leicester, so we had a lovely chat and she said that she is going to pop some beading patterns in the post.
Hot dogs have had benefits today!!!

Rothbury Rural Residence

Living in Rothbury offers a good quality of life, occasionally we bask in warm sunshine too.
There is a good sense of community and community activities should you want them. over the past few years there has been a few things that has tested us residents , i.e. snowy winters, floods and landslides but we always cope and deal well with what ever life throws at us.

The two schools in Rothbury are always high achievers with ofsted and give youngsters a good start to their education.
 All in all you are probably thinking that I would recommend living here in Rothbury. Yes, I would.

At the moment there are quite a few houses on the market from tiny little cottages to the grander, larger " I am a professional footballer with plenty of money" type properties. This property, however is a large victorian terrace over three floors with stacks of space for a growing family or could even be a lovely Bed and Breakfast business, the possibilities are endless. The current owners are downsizing so it is up for sale at a snip of a price .

Fine food, Fine service in a Fine Village!

Excellent customer service is something that is given quite naturally and genuinely to customers when shopping in any of the fantastic independent businesses that form the uniqueness of Rothbury.

We value each and every customer and hopefully give a shopping experience that has people coming back again and again.

Tully's of Rothbury is a lovely traditional village shop, delicatessen and Coffee shop that is a treasure trove of foods from local produce to fine foods from around the world. Anyone that has special dietary needs will find shopping a pleasure in Tully's.

Roving Rothbury Reporter, Murray mount or Henman hill?

Our life at the moment is seeing us quite frequently in the City, unfortunately nowhere near the shops though!

As yesterday was a beautifully sunny day, after our parental duties we thought it would be nice to have a wee drink (only one). A few years back we might have sought out child friendly pubs but these days that has changed to being puppy friendly places. Anyway our hostelry of choice, the Tyne pub just under the bridge at Ouseburn, had its very own grassy mound which was perfect for a refreshing cool drink in the sunshine and keeping puppy under control.
There was a nice buzz about the place a good mix of young people and those that are not quite as youthful anymore. If they had have had a big outside screen showing the tennis you could have almost imagined that you were there on the real Henman Hill/Murray Mount. The atmosphere might have been a wee bit tense though.

I also took a daylight picture of the Bridges over the Tyne, in daylight this time. The sunshine on the water made the Tyne look all twinkly and nice and clean.

Then we headed home, back to our country lives with a bright orange ball of sun directing us. The picture I am afraid doesn't quite capture the colour, it was bright bright orange.

Somewhere over the Rainbow!

Yesterday saw a couple of rainbows, one, was taken from the car with my head and camera poking out the window  and the rain pouring down. The second one was an LED rainbow lighting up the blinking eye/millennium bridge down at the Quayside.
The funny thing is about the real rainbow, the car radio had just played Somewhere over the Rainbow  we turned right onto the Durham road then we were driving under a spectacular rainbow right over the road. Strange coincidence, don't you think?