Jim and Dawn were visiting this weekend. I decided to have a total break from work yesterday and felt much better. We went to Rothbury and after a short walk to some standing stones, we had lunch in a pub. Lovely fish and chips. Then we went to
Cragside. Cragside was the first house in the country to have electricity. They had hot and cold running water, electric lights, an elevator and electric spit in the kitchen, before most people even knew they could exist. All that was powered by hydroelectricity. The house turned out to be
shut. Apparently the 130 year old wiring doesn't come up to modern electrical standards and has been condemned. The grounds were still open and we had a good time walking around the formal gardens, pinetum, lake etc.
There were more wild mushrooms around the grounds than I've ever seen. We almost had enough photos of different types for a mushroom calender for 2007. We decided that this one was the 'perfect' specimen.
There were several art installations in the grounds. One was a four poster bed, floating in the middle of the lake. Something about it made it difficult to stop looking at it.
There was also a boat shape made out of little paper boats.
2 comments:
Looks like a cool place! You should have taken a boat and had a kip in the middle of the pond.
Wow those mushrooms look amazing!
I read about Cragside being rewired but had forgotten all about it until seeing your post. We are planning to go and visit when they reopen, give us a shout if you want to come too.
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