Why hello there

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder"
That has certainly been the case for me over this past 12 days. You have no idea how much I have missed writing, I don't think I have ever felt as big of an urge to write than I did after just one day away from any way to write my thoughts down. It's incredible, even when I wanted to be an author I never wanted to write that much, I have no idea why, but from the journey away I was desperate to write. So, this will be me making up for lot time!

So, on the 6th of July me and my mum set out, with a packed car, towards Low Gate (a small village very near Hexam). We drove for a bit with some amusing happenings, one when we saw a van for Bilabong Plumbing which I found hilarious because I always find silly, little things funny. At about 4pm we arrived at the B&B we would be staying at for a few days, I really liked that place. It was an old barn conversion and an alpaca farm. They also had 2 dogs who liked to great you every time you left or arrived and a few cats which you hardly saw. Once we arrived and got our bags in etc. we went into Hexam for tea. It was a bit early so we walked around for a bit and saw a street with the name Priestpopple (which amused me) before going to a nice indian restaurant for tea. When we got back to the B&B one of the owners asked if we'd like to go and meet the alpacas because he was just going to feed them, so we did. Alpacas are kind of a cross between llamas and horses with very long necks and very soft fur. That was our first holiday day and I spent a lot of it thinking "I need to write about this in my blog" so here you go!

The next day we visited one of my mum's cousins she hadn't seen in years. That was fun, I mainly just listened to everyone speaking but it was nice and it felt like I was getting to know my mum better. We had lunch there and then went to Corbridge; an old roman settlement. That was good, they have a good audio guide and I discovered that I really was interested in finding out more, something I don't think I would have been a couple of years ago. I still can't get my head around the fact that people lived there. The place we were walking through that looked like just stones were once houses, places where people had their whole lives. I don't think I'll ever truly be able to get my head around that and I can't help but wonder what the people who lived there would think if they knew we were looking round their town thousands of years after they made it. Once we had done the audio guide and looked round the museum we went in search of tea. This proved to be harder than it sounds and we managed to get lost and, again, have some laughs. My mum especially liked it when I told her to "go whichever way you want" I love my mum! We ended up going to a pub that was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. The food was nice but there was a lot of it and, having also had a big breakfast, I was stuffed! While we were eating a group of morris dancers appeared and started practicing in the middle of the road to get out so, trying to leave was fun. We discovered that morris dancers look very silly when you can't hear the music they're dancing to!

The next day we did more roman history stuff. We went for a walk along a bit of Hadrian's Wall during which I came to the conclusion that I am an old woman at heart, I certainly act like one! From there we went to Vindolanda which is a roman excavation site where they are constantly having digs. It was really interesting as this one was more of a village and fort so you saw where normal people would live. The people who are digging are volunteers and I it's now one of the many things on my I'd-like-to-do-but-don't-know-if-I-ever-will list. I can't actually remember much else about that day but I know that I enjoyed it!

That was our stay in Hexam. I was going to do the whole holiday today but I'm not going to have time so I will continue it tomorrow!