Tea's up!

You'll be getting sick of these tea-dious posts by now, I suspect?  (Sorry, couldn't resist that!) But I'm sure that all of our regular's are aware of my tea 'fetish', I can't help it; I just like to drink tea!!!!

Hence........on our little run out yesterday (while our Benjamin's on nightshift so that we can use the car during the day) we called at a place that was new to us in Tynemouth. Here it is, 'No. 61 Guest House and Tearooms'.

It's between the Priory and the old church which is now called the 'Land of Green Ginger'. The tearoom part is right at the back; indeed, it stretches out right into the delightful back garden.

As usual, we were no sooner seated than the place started to fill up! (I think we should ask for commission wherever we go, as this has been a common occurrence for many a long year.) The young waitress soon took our order for tea, coffee, a muffin (ridiculously known to foreigners as an English muffin!) with ham and melted cheese and a cherry scone. All was quite delicious, as expected, I might add. Here's the muffin, half way through:

It seems that rabbit food is obligatory, wherever one goes; but I did manage some of the coleslaw which was quite palatable.

While we wandered around among the shops and cafes, we came across a shop in a house! I think it was called the Razzberry Galleries or Gift Shop or whatever. But it was a treat inside, jam-packed with lovely things. A little plus for me was that they had a portable CD player playing real blues/jazz music! It wasn't intrusive, just there in the background, and stuff that I didn't recognise, either. I cannot begin to describe the wide range of stock, so it'll have to suffice to say they had beautiful, new, ladies silk jackets, antique copper kettles and toys, and almost everything else in between!!! The four ladies who 'manned' the shop were most helpful too, I like people who help.

After lolling around near the Priory for a while, just watching the holidaymakers on the beach and seated outside the various eateries in the vicinity, we made our way back to the car and determined to carry on up the coast to see where we ended up. 

We made several detours from the main 'Coastal Route' to have a look at one or two small villages, or to see just how close we could drive to the actual beaches. It was all quite diverting (no pun intended) and we eventually found ourselves heading out of Amble and towards Warkworth, which is a delightful small town with its very own impressive castle. What do you think?

It crossed my mind that a very old friend now lived there, somewhere. We haven't seen him in the flesh for going on forty years, although we have seen him on the telly and in newspapers etc. He disappeared from our circle when he began to realise his political career, as a Conservative Member of Parliament, but he was never forgotten. One of the reasons that he will forever remain in the collective memories of the Chapel Folk of Windy Nook, is that he managed to 'gas' the pies which were meant for the Carol Singers when they returned frozen and exhausted after 5 or 6 hours of singing carols around the neighbourhood. We didn't even go out to start singing until midnight in those far-off days, so you can imagine how we looked forward to our hot pies etc when arriving back at the Chapel! Can you really imagine someone being daft enough to NOT light the gas? I think the incident even put some of our number off from ever voting Conservative!!!! Maybe I shouldn't tell you his name (the shame, you realise) but here's his picture: 

Mind you, in his youth (like yours truly) he had more hair and fewer chins.   

Never mind, as we approached Warkworth, I jokingly said to Freda, "Keep a lookout for Derek". Bless my soul! "That could be him there", I said, as we came on to the main street. A man was talking to some builders, with his back to the road, but he was the right sort of size and age. As we drove past, Freda caught a glimpse of his face, but only from behind his ear and forward. "It might just be him", she exclaimed. When I pulled over to the side of the road (on the double yellow lines, that is) and looked back, I thought that it could well be him, so I got out and made my way back along the road. Sure enough, there he was; about the same size and shape as me, I was absolutely delighted! Of course he didn't recognise me until I introduced myself, but then we were away, with him particularly eager to know how things were in Luxor. We only chatted for a few minutes, for as well as me being parked on the double yellows, he had to shoot off somewhere for 3 o'clock. I did threaten, however, that the next time we were in Warkworth we'd be knocking on his door for a cup of (can you guess?)...............

Tea! 

We started to slowly make our way back South, and suddenly! we were following the road in to Morpeth, and you know what's in Morpeth, don't you? That's right, and here's a different picture of the interior:

Surprisingly, the Cuwick Manor Tearooms were empty when we arrived, but of course that soon changed after we were seated! We enjoyed lovely refreshments, which comprised tea, coffee and a ham sandwich in stottie cake (with rabbit food, obviously). The ham was soooo thick cut, and there must have been five slices in the sandwich, even I could hardly get my mouth around it! (And that's saying something!!!!)