Durham Break

We had a lovely short break in Durham from Sunday -Wednesday..We were able to go and see our lovely little grandaughters  Hollie and Lucie who live nearby. They are growing up so quickly..

They loved their pressies we took them..looking forward to seeing them down here in Oct..

We went to the Beamish Museum on the Monday--the weather was beautiful...perfect for looking around! Its much bigger than expected though-good job there are regular trams and buses to take you to each section! You really need all day to go round here, so much going on!

So much to see and do there..

making bread..

This reminded me of my Granny Sankeys back bedroom...she had a bed just like this one--complete with the pot under the bed!

the 'smalls' or should that be the 'larges' lol drying by the fire!

the old privvie

loved the little porky pigs sunbathing in the sty's

On the way home we stopped by at The Angel Of The North--we have been by it many times with no time to stop so it was great to be able to go up close to it and see it...

We were not very impressed with our accommodation--at The Bay Horse, Brandon ---the carpet was filthy, the springs had gone in the sofa and the wall lights didn't work--also the electric sockets didn't work...glad we didn't pay the full price for it....but left appropriate review on Tripadvisor..shame it had great potential..

k

Winter Wonderland Workshop

We had 6 newbies in on Saturday--unfortunately  Derek and Karen couldn't make it... Chloe loved using oils for the first time and once she got used to 'bashing' with her brush instead of  stroking it on the canvas she did really well!

Beryl was quite convinced that she wouldn't be able to produce anything she could hang on the wall...however she soon realised that she could indeed paint!

Teresa was also sceptical about creating a decent picture,,but again following my instructions she created a lovely picture to be proud of!

We popped up to our local on Wednesday after being on the market--and got chatting to Maryanne and her hubby in there--he thought she should come along to a workshop and promptly paid the £10 deposit there and then! She wasn't convinced she could do it--as is the norm Ive found...but again she did really well..and loved her day out!

Chris also did really well...its amazing how different the paintings all turn out from each other...we had some lovely shaped ponds..something that can be hard to do...and everyone got a lovely sheen on their water.

First time for John using oils though he has done some sketching in the past--he cant wait to get home and start using oils now!

Lovely results..looking forward to seeing them all again!

This handsome chappie was sitting on the fence at the bottom of our garden when we got home-- Its so nice to see the buzzards in our area..