Hartlepool

Hubby and I have missed our short breaks away, we have always been travellers and often took our children away for a few days especially for their birthdays and between Christmas and New Year.

The last 18 months has been unbelievable for everyone, it is impossible to put it into words and does feel so surreal. For us taking  short breaks is our way of bringing life back - with caution.

We are very impressed with Premier Inn - a basic hotel chain that offers good clean comfy rooms. We know what to expect and are very confident with their policy of not housekeeping the room unless your stay is over 6 days (in which case you get a clean room and your room is deep cleaned). If we need anything such as clean towels or new rubbish bags we ask at Reception. 

That said we do take our own pillows, I use antibacterial on the chairs and headboard and we wipe every surface with antibacterial wipes - it may sound OTT but it gives me confidence to be away from home. 

So mid August we took had a short break in .... Hartlepool. I had seen their Premier Inn was on the harbour side so as everyone rushed south we drove north.

What a super location, boats in every view. We were right at the end of the corridor on the first floor, a long walk with the cases but an amazing view outside our window.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy has a base in Hartlepool with the stunning HMS Trincomalee it's feature ship. The dockside around the ship is full of buildings recreating the shops needed to support sailors and life in an 18th century seaport.

We had a super visit including a tour on board. It was very tight in places with low ceilings and narrow passageways. I'm very glad not to have been born in that era and thankful neither my Hubby or son worked on such a ship, I cannot imagine the noise, smell and danger when the cannons were fired.

Our hotel faced the museum and at night HMS Trincomalee looked magnificent against the setting sky. It would have looked very formidable at sea.

As well as visiting the museum we drove a few miles north for a stroll along the cliff tops. A glorious day with still waters. The beaches below looked similar to those at Berwick-upon-Tweed where we stayed in April, it's just under a 100 miles north from Hartlepool.

We also drove a little south to Middlesborough, a large industrial port that has one of the only two transporter bridges in the UK. Sadly it is not in use but we wanted to see it as it's an amazing structure.

We also visited the Tees Barrage used to control the tidal river. There's a foot and road bridge across and alongside is the Tees Barrage International White Water Centre although no-one was rafting when we were there. 

I was amazed at the Archimedes Screw that generates power and the fish ladder for the salmon needing to get upstream, along with spikes to stop the seals sitting on the wall stealing the fish.

Hartlepool is not known for being a holiday destination, it has very few shops in the High Street (but if there you must go to Sambuca for dinner, lovely food, good prices and a lively atmosphere). There a large shopping centre with the usual big stores and Camerons Brewery is nearby as well as a good selection of bars and restaurants along the harbourside.

We had a lovely couple of days seeing new things in quiet surrounds, thanknyou Hartlepool.

 

Visiting old memories and fulfilling a wish

My lovely Hubby treated me to a couple of days away in North Wales as an early birthday treat as we will be on holiday with friends on my actual birthday. 

From an early age St Asaph, Llanelwy in Welsh, was my holiday destination, camping in a field on Pen-y-clink farm with the scouts. I was only 11 months old on my first camp and I think the last was 1981 (although we did alternate with camping in Weymouth in the late 1970s)

This is a photo of me in the arms of one of the scouts at Caernarfon Castle on a day trip during that first camp in 1966, and of me at camp a little later. 

I also found a photo of a couple of 'end of camp under the flagpole' must have photos. I think the years are 1974 and 1976 but I may be wrong. All the photos were my Dad's but there were no dates on them.

This is the campsite and the farm as it is today, it was nice to see the name plaque on the fence. We used to get our water and milk from the farm. The water was in a huge metal milk run that we had to take down the lane to full up, it was hard work pulling it back up even on the trolley. The milk was fresh from the milking parlour in a smaller urn. 

I'm not sure it's fit for camping anymore ... times move on with campsites having plumbed in pitch services rather than milk churns, although it was nice to see that the field was not a new housing estate. 

Not far from St Aspah is Rhuddlan, we used to pass by to get to Rhyl for the day. There's a ruined castle there dating back to the 1200s, it is ruined due to being destroyed in the Civil War. It has always been known in our family as 'my tatty castle', it was so lovely to see it again ... even more amazing that our room looked directly over it, we hadn't requested it. 

Before checking in we visited Dyserth Waterfalls, it's quite an impressive drop. We did climb to the top via the steep stairway, with a rest halfway. The views were amazing, a bit hazy, but we could see as far as Llandudno. Unfortunately the river walk was closed due to needing repair but we had a lovely walk through the woods and down the lane to avoid going down the steep steps. 

It was so nice to be back in North Wales, if only one night, added to with our journey home being through Denbigh, Ruthin and the Horseshoe Pass. The weather was very misty, I think at 400m we were actually in cloud but you can see the road snaking down. After breakfast at the Ponderosa Cafe on the very top of the pass we travelled down into Llangollen for a very special birthday treat.

I have always wanted to cross the Pontcycyllte Aqueduct which carries the Llangollen Canal over the River Dee. It is only 13ft wide including one tow path (originally for the horses) and is 126ft high. There is only a rail on the towpaths side so it's quite precarious looking down from the boats. It is only wide enough for one boat and is just over 300m long. 

My birthday treat was a canal boat trip along the canal from Llangollen with Afternoon Tea as we sailed along. It was lovely if at times a little bumpy as the canal is very shallow so the boat bottom scrapes along, and narrow so the sides bump the walls. Our tea was super, of course we added a glass of bubbly each too.

Back in Llangollen we just managed to see the horse drawn trip leaving, this trips goes the other direction along the canal. On the way home we passed by the Aquaduct going over the small bridge in my photo, it is very high and amazing to have travelled across it. 

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We had a super two days, we love a road trip and it was so good to visit old places again. Thank you Nick for a lovely birthday treat! 

Cakes ...

This month I'm taking part in #commonthreadedstitcher on Instagram ... a month of daily postings about various things but mainly my stitching. You don't often see my crafts on here as I have a separate blog  - Aimetu's Stitching. 

Anyway yesterday's post was about our favourite recipe, mine is cake ... I love baking especially for others. 

Mine is for a simple sponge. My grandmother taught me this when I was very young and I proudly passed it on to our daughter. Many people I know use this basic recipe, it works every time. It's a recipe that can be easily scaled to any size, works well as a large cake or as cupcakes and can be made in any flavour 😋

My Sponge Recipe

2oz/50g butter

2oz/50g sugar

1 egg

2oz/50g self raising flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, beat in egg, sift in flour and baking powder. Fold everything together.

Increase these amounts depending on how many eggs you want. A 2lb loaf tin takes a 3 egg mix.

Bake at 180C or 160C fan - for a 3 egg I allow about 45/50 mins but in reality if I can smell the cake it's cooked.

Don't open the oven door if the cake still looks wet in the middle or it will sink. If you think it's done check with a skewer which should come out clean .... yum yum

I have hosted, and donated to, many fundraising cake days. I usually make a large cake, here's a collage of my favourites, some were for birthdays or occasions, they are not all sponge cakes.

Top: Chocolate Guinness 

Middle: Victoria Sponge, Creme Egg Cheesecake, Simnel

Bottom: Blackforest Gateaux, Gugelhupf, Coffee and Walnut

I also love making small cakes, especially on a theme. I have made many different cakes for the stitching meet ups with my friends. The raspberry cakes were mini red wine cakes made for a Hen Party: Boo cakes for Halloween: mini Carrot Cakes and Movie themed cupcakes. 

I have made a birthday cake every year for our childrens' birthday, although now they are 30 and 27 I no longer have a late night decorating a train or castle. I did however make a specially decorated cake for when I completed Clare's Challenge 50 - walking the route of the London Marathon in eight stages. 

Combining my stitching hobby and my love of baking we have a snowman Christmas Cake every year. A rich fruit cake decorated with my hand stitched cake band and a set of snowmen candles that I don't think will ever be actually lit. 

My favourite recent decorating was for the Jubilee in 2012. I made a crown cake to take to our friends party. With it being another Jubilee next year I might make another one as I did enjoy the challenge. 

I haven't been baking as much over the last eighteen months, looking at my photos I think I need to get back to it. There's a big Macmillan Coffee morning at the end of September so maybe I'll start by baking a few things for then. 

Morgon and Ventoux

It sounds like a solicitors or estate agents doesn't it - hee hee. In fact it was out latest online tasting with friends. 

Both wines were from Lidl as part of their French Wine Tour. Our first wine was a Ventoux, an area and wine Hubby and I know well however this was a new experience as it was Ventoux Blanc. 

We have tried and enjoyed many white Cotes du Rhone wines and as expected this was a lovely pale honey colour in the glass. It was hard to pinpoint the exact grapes used in this blend but white Grenache was present with its appley pear notes, maybe a touch of Clairette giving a white peach flavour and possibly Rousanne's delicacy. 

I really enjoyed this wine, it wasn't as dry as a Sauvignon Blanc yet had a lovely crispness. It had tropical notes but not overpowering, all in all a very enjoyable wine with a good body and medium length to its finish. 

It did make me think of our trip up Mont Ventoux, in the car, but I have evidence to show we did reach the Summit! 

Our second wine was Morgon, made from Gamay and not to everyone's taste. It is the grape used to make Beaujolais. We tried a little experiment with this wine trying it chilled and at room temperature. Many people chill their reds especially in hot weather and in hot climate countries as no-one wants to drink warm wine.

However I have found through tasting chilled and decanted wines that often the reduction of temperature also reduces the flavours and tannins ... the latter I'm quite happy to be softened. 

And so we decanted some of our Morgon and popped it in the fridge whilst leaving the remaining bottle at room temperature. 

I will say 24 was slightly high but it did drop to around 20 as evening fell. Hubby and I had a glass of each at the same time, we both found the chilled wine had less nose and less fruit, a bit thin in taste. The room temperature wine had much more fruit and slight tannins with a weightier and longer finish. It was interesting to see our glasses with the room temperature wine were emptied first.

However, and here's the thing, neither of us are particularly keen on Gamay. We don't dislike it, there are other grapes that we certainly do dislike, but it isn't a wine we would often select from the shelf. 

We have however enjoyed a very good Gamay, Duc de Belmont available at Majestic, one we would add to our order when it's available as it is not often on the shelf. 

We had a great tasting night, another hopefully soon, maybe next time from Aldi. I'm thinking a New World wine especially if there's a good selection of new vintages but we'll see what the shelves hold.