Roving Rothbury Reporter, Muddy Boots and Art!

Sometimes change happens! Sometimes it happens and there seems to be no logical reason or indeed no obvious benefit from it, but hey, it happens. Last week we went to the beautiful Breamish Valley to see the change to the former Northumberland National Park visitor centre at Ingram.
For many years the Ingram centre provided  an award winning Information service, a service that had been provided by many of my fantastic former colleagues. The building is now home to "Muddy Boots!"

Muddy Boots is a little oasis of refreshment, very welcome I should imagine for those keen walkers who like to explore the Breamish Valley on the hunt for Linhope Spout waterfall or indeed those that just like a gentle stroll. We arrived on a Saturday after 4pm, so was a bit worried that we may have been a bit too late to treat ourselves to some of their goodies, but it was still open and there seemed to be quite a few people, who had just returned from walking sitting down having a well earned rest.
The counter had a very plentiful array of cakes and slices all looking very tempting from underneath their glass domes. Considering the time we were there it was amazing to have such a choice. We opted to share a brunch bar with our cups of lovely hot coffee as it was Saturday and I had to save some indulgence points for a glass of wine(or two) later. The traybake was large enough to share anyway without feeling that we were having a meagre morsel each.

We sat ourselves down on the former Northumberland National Park sofas to enjoy our drinks, we had a stunning view, not just a view of the cosy red glow from the stove but a view of Cheviot through all four seasons! Wow, it was amazing!

The artwork was by a talented local artist Naomi Walker and  I loved it. 

Paint is not a medium that I have had any sort of amiable relationship with before but if anything was to inspire me to try these paintings certainly would.

 If my numbers ever came up and I had a house with enough bare walls to fill then I would have no hesitation in making this view mine for ever. I can honestly say that this is the best piece of art work that I have seen for some time! At least while it adorns the walls of "Muddy Boots" I can treat myself to coffee and cake in a room with a view!

Roving Rothbury Reporter Butterfly Cabinet

Sunday, had an earlier trip out from Rothbury as we had to be at Central station for 10.30 for an Easter homecoming. So we were able to pack in a woodland walk in the city as well as managing to squeeze in a coffee and cake stop at an establishment where people queue up on Sunday mornings to get in.!!!! What a busy life we lead!
 Who would have thought that just a couple of miles from Newcastle Central station you could take a very pleasant Sunday morning stroll in a woodland in the city

This old ruin is what is left of King John's Palace, it is thought to have been built around 1267

After our little stroll we had worked up an appetite for our traybake and coffee fix so on to  Heaton Road to the very popular Butterfly Cabinet. 

We had spotted this cafe the other week while passing and it had an enormous queue outside, cor blimey that must be popular if people are actually queueing up to get in here! 

Our timing was good as we managed to squeeze in before the crowds of hungry people started to build up. Wow, we were shown in to a lively atmosphere of many happy breakfast eaters, this is what people queue for. The breakfast menu was amazing and actually so was the lunch menu but we were only there for coffee and cake (this time anyway!) So only our eyes and noses were able to feast on the exciting breakfast plates being delivered to the other customers.

As we seem to be creatures of habit two  Americanos were ordered but we varied the cakes to rocky road and a blueberry muffin and as two were three this week the third order was

No, not a pint of frothy beer but a pint of apple and elderflower iced tea. It was all very nice and we thoroughly enjoyed the buzz in The Butterfly Cabinet so we really must get back to sample their famous breakfasts. After we finished and headed outside the queue had started to build up.

Must be a happy sight for the business owners!

Roving Rothbury Reporter," Fog on the Tyne" and the Wear!!

Yesterday we were on a mission , to replenish my marbles!!! So our Durham trip had to be via The Sunderland glass Centre, you might think that would be where we would have our coffee stop, but, been there done that and it  never warranted a report.

The voice in my ear had a plan though, he had read about a Pub with Patisserie in Newcastle. Quirky or what? A pub with cake, surely a winning combination, so we just had to give it a try.
Our first stop was therefore in Newcastle, at The Free Trade Inn overlooking the Tyne, a foggy Tyne.

      

I know the outside appearance doesn't suggest coffee and cake it looks more of a real ale type place, but in we wandered to a very friendly welcome and the vision of chocolate brownie under a couple of cloches.

Sorted! There wasn't a vast choice of sweetmeats, but they had two sorts of brownie on offer so that was good. We chose the salted caramel one as opposed to the cream egg one, didn't want sugar over load.

 The coffee was alright, maybe too small a cup for the price of it but the star of the show was definitely the salted caramel brownie, it was delicious, in fact might stick my neck out and say it is the best of what we have had recently!

 Puppy dog was even welcome inside The Free Trade Inn,  she did get over excited to see another dog so she was relegated back to the car.

It was unusual to have coffee and cake in a pub as opposed to ale but as I said before it is a winning combination, next time I will be having some ale though!

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We then headed off to get my marbles at Sunderland, not only was there fog on the Tyne but there was Fog on the Wear too! Lindisfarne, in their song say "The fog on the Tyne is all mine all mine!" I wonder who claims the fog on the Wear?

Now I have my marbles I had best get busy making some more of

for 

Rothbury Makers Market