Weekend away

Saturday 12th April

We've been fed up with the miserable weather lately, so to cheer ourselves up we decided to treat ourselves to a weekend away, but wanted it to be somewhere not too far away to give the hubby a wee rest from driving, as unfortunately i dont drive (apart from him nuts)
So I did a quick search on the internet and booked us into 'Hardwick Hall' in Sedgefield. I would strongly recommend this hotel..it has to be one of the best we've ever stayed in. Our room was excellent, and luckily enough was situated at the front of the hotel which looks out onto the Hardwick country park lake. This meant we were able to literally lie in bed and look out of the window and watch the swans and ducks out on the lake...cant get much better than that. We ordered breakfast in our room, and, while we were sitting there eating, a grey wagtail landed on our windowsill next to the table, the daft bird could see its own reflection and nearly knocked itself out on the glass, what a beautiful bird to see so close up. I even put little pieces of my toast on the sill when it flew off to try and tempt it back....but no I suppose that was expecting a bit too much. Saw our first sand-martins of this year flying around the lake. On and around the lake as we walked there was - mute swans - 8 cygnets - Canada geese – coots – moorhens – mallards – tufted ducks - robin – great-tit – blue-tit – song thrush – blackbirds.

Sunday 13th April

Another lovely day...but time to leave Hardwick and back to reality and home again. We dropped our case off at home, and headed inland for a couple of hours as it was still such a nice day (and we've not had many of them lately) so wanted to make the most of it while it lasted. So we tootled up to ‘Ewarty shank’ mainly because its normally very peaceful as not many people seem to wander up that way apart from hikers and numpty's who go hand-gliding..
Yes it was lovely and peaceful, we only saw one other person all afternoon while we were there hiking...but we did have 100's of sheep and lambs for company too.
Heard a few curlews while we were sitting in the car, as I believe they breed up there, but we never seem to be able to catch sight of them though. Pied wagtail was having a bath in the stream, and we saw our first lark this year.
On the way home called to boulmer and longhoughton steele for a little while and the sun was glorious there. The tide was out and suprisingly there was very little bird life about apart from a couple of - dunlins - shelducks - blackheaded gulls - eiders - 1 Whimbrel on the waters edge.
Cresswell - 9 mute swans - mallards - canada geese.
Now that its lighter in the evening we might be able to get out for a little while after work...weather permitting