Skirting the Castle
Jun. 22nd, 2025 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustSunday already, and our last night on the island: where does the time go?
Yesterday,durham_rambler visited the Castle: we walked out together, towards the blurred shape gradually emerging from the mist. When he took the right-hand path up to the entrance, I continued along the foot of the crag, out to the sea, to the stretch where I might have stood and watched for the sunrise, if I had been willing to get up at four o'clock. The mist thinned enough for me to pick out Bamburgh Castle to my right, and maybe - just maybe - the Farne Islands swimming ahead of me. Off to the left, the daymark on Emmanuel Head was bright (has it been repainted lately?). I thought I would walk along as far as the path down to the Castle garden, and was surprised to find that I was there already.
The garden was a riot of clashing colours, poppies everywhere and sweet peas climbing over everything: it was quite glorious, but far from the cool white, blue and silver I thought I remembered. I can't find any reference (here, for instance) to recent changes; they talk about reinstating Gertrude Jekyll's design, but that seems to refer to the layout of the paths and the shape of the planting, rather than the colours... Anyway, I'm not complaining, and I spent a happy half hour admiring it from every angle.
The promised rain arrived yesterday evening, and we had thunder and lightning overnight. And that's yesterday.
Yesterday,
durham_rambler visited the Castle: we walked out together, towards the blurred shape gradually emerging from the mist. When he took the right-hand path up to the entrance, I continued along the foot of the crag, out to the sea, to the stretch where I might have stood and watched for the sunrise, if I had been willing to get up at four o'clock. The mist thinned enough for me to pick out Bamburgh Castle to my right, and maybe - just maybe - the Farne Islands swimming ahead of me. Off to the left, the daymark on Emmanuel Head was bright (has it been repainted lately?). I thought I would walk along as far as the path down to the Castle garden, and was surprised to find that I was there already.The garden was a riot of clashing colours, poppies everywhere and sweet peas climbing over everything: it was quite glorious, but far from the cool white, blue and silver I thought I remembered. I can't find any reference (here, for instance) to recent changes; they talk about reinstating Gertrude Jekyll's design, but that seems to refer to the layout of the paths and the shape of the planting, rather than the colours... Anyway, I'm not complaining, and I spent a happy half hour admiring it from every angle.
The promised rain arrived yesterday evening, and we had thunder and lightning overnight. And that's yesterday.
