Alnwick Castle

The biting wind gave Lynn and me cause to change our walk from hills to valley. Instead of her coming to me I drove to Alnwick where she lives and we met at Bailiffgate. I parked outside the building where 40 years ago I taught. It had been leased by the Duke to the education authority as an overflow annex to the high school up the road. One day the pupils had to be calmed down after they spotted Rowan Atkinson prancing about in his Blackadder tights - they were filming at the castle across the road. Now there’s scaffolding up - the Duke is making a boutique hotel there.

There was also scaffolding up at the castle which I hope was camouflaged in my blip by the tree. We walked 4 miles through the town, under the A1 and through some woods were we picked wild garlic. (I hope to make some pesto and maybe some garlic scones. ). The last bit took us along the river to Lion Bridge and back to the car, just as the hail started.

After lunch I bagged up some blueberries from the tray Mr C got for £5 yesterday and walked round the village to drop them off to Linda, Carol and Chris. Walking up the hill to Carol’s the snow was quite heavy but by the time I got to Chris we were able to sit in her garden for 10 minutes in the sun before the next lot of snow. None of it is lying but it is extremely cold. 5 degrees plus windchill. Over 6 miles walked.

If anyone is thinking of making the Italian pie from Saturday’s Guardian - all I can say is I won’t be making pastry with plain flour, olive oil and WHITE WINE again.