England 2026 - A Poison Garden

Here's another in the series of "Digger's Day Out" jaunts.  Alnwick Gardens.

These are adjacent to Alnwick Castle, which would also be worth your while.  Among other things it was used as a filming location for Downton Abbey.  Also Harry Potter.  They offer special Broomstick Class on the open square where young Potter first learned to fly a Quiddich broom.

In both cases the pronunciation is "Ann-ick".  Not to be confused with a spot near Hexham that is spelled Annick but pronounced differently.  You get used to this after a few visits to the area.

Now I'll say up front that neither the Castle nor the Garden are a cheap day out.  You have to go into this as we did, with the knowledge that your travel dollars (or whatever currency) are helping to maintain something wonderous and worthwhile.  OK, on to the Gardens....

The centerpiece is this grand array of fountains and waterfalls.  It's the sort of thing that you really can't capture with a photo.  But here it is from the bottom looking up:

And from the top looking down. The structure you see on the end is a nice restaurant/garden center complex.  Very dog friendly by the way, albeit with ongoing discussions between dogs and the small groups of ducks that waddle around begging for scraps.

Every now and then the fountains fire up and do interesting things.

The garden proper has all sorts of plants.  Early in the season not all are at their best, but enough were that the gardener types in our group were impressed.  Me, I was just as happy to wander through the hedge maze and find a naughty monkey sculpture...

We all have our particular interests I suppose.

There were some side trips adjacent to the Garden that we did not visit.  For a small extra fee you can visit an area called Lilidorei.  This seems to be a gigantic play area for kids with a sort of fantasy theme and what claims to be the world's biggest play structure.  

If I had grandkids in tow it would be a tempting option.  For the kids of course.....

But we spent a small additional amount of money for something else, the Poison Garden tour.

I won't give you the entire itinerary and talk, that would not be fair to the very clever staff they have doing this 20 minute or so stroll through a special section of the Garden.  But essentially they have collected a batch of famous poisonous plants in one place.  Famous of course as they have been used in assorted real and fictitious murders, all of which are described in slightly tidied up form.

Rather fun.  After the talk was done I did chat a bit with the guide, letting her know I was a former ER doctor (or A and E in their parlance).  I knew a bit about several of these plants, especially the ones that have/had medical uses.  Small amounts of foxglove, good.  Large amounts, skull n' crossbones territory...

Our authoress was not in the group that visited Alnwick.  But to be sure, we subsequently had another of our Plot Idea chats.  What if a series of poisonings happened, and after a while it became evident that someone had taken the Poison Garden tour and was going down the row using each poison for a different crime????

Meanwhile, in the general category of "name yer poison" our friend who is an aficionado of such things discovered that the gift shop sold a Poison Garden Gin!

I'm sure this will merit a place of pride in her "gin closet".  I have on occasion teased her that it is more like a "gin annex".  Or should I say, "gin Alnwicks"?

Things I'm Doing This Summer - Baseball

I have my priorities.  This summer ranking high on the list are ball games.  The grandkids are on, respectively, softball, baseball league and baseball traveling teams.  And the youngest will be doing some sort of T ball when school is out in a few days.  

Not all games are well played.  The weather is not always idyllic.  But when things are perfect, well, there's nothing better.

The bench.

A new puppy, sunk into comatose sleep after hyperactive play with kids.

The parent and grandparent chair array.  We follow each other from game to game, from year to year, from sport to sport.

When my son was the age my grandson is now, I coached him on a traveling baseball team.  I was a good coach.  My son is better.

With Father's Day near, what better sentiments than: "I did my best.  It was pretty good.  You turned out great and will now do your best.  Your kid will turn out excellent."

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Addendum.  At last report my grandson's two teams - regular league and traveling team - are both undefeated.  The latter just won their second straight tournament when our lad came on in the last inning with the tying run on base.....and put away the batter with three straight strikes.  It's good to be focused and well coached.  It's also good to be left handed.

Digger's Day Out, Continued.

So how do you follow up on a visit to an honest to goodness Plague Village?

For us the next stop was bizarre antiquities.  There is an antiques centre in Morpeth that has some seriously weird stuff on display.  

I suppose your mileage may vary, but I never get enough of Bad Taxidermy.

This place had lots of it.

Bad Taxidermy is a favorite of mine on travels because I can realistically never buy any of it and ship it home.  I mean, how would you even explain a fully dressed mule deer?  And where did they get one in England???

An interesting side light to that question.  Small taxidermy is much more expensive than big stuff.

I really want a wild boar's head for the wall of my cabin.  I can't explain it, I just do.  They are much cheaper than little weasels and stoats decked out in silly little weasel hats.   Probably because of the "how do I pack it?" question.  And, lets be honest, the "what will my wife say" question.

More odd stuff:

And this really surprised me.  My English friends are appalled by the private ownership of firearms.  There are even laws against knives in the UK.  So when you go to the antiques center what do you find?  Cases full of bayonets and "Deactivated" submachine guns!

Across the street was a park area for which I had high hopes.  Why, there was a "Floral Clock"!

Alas, not planted yet.

And a statue commemorating EmilyWilding Davison, a Suffragette from Morpeth whose advocacy proved fatal.  She jumped out in front of a race horse - it happened to belong to the King - apparently hoping to throw a banner around its neck.  She got clobbered and subsequently died.  From what I can tell she was a bit of a nutter, also involved in a series of bombings.  I guess in a worthy cause you can still do some damned foolish things....

Aldi has a Sense of Humor?

Apparently they do.  Parody mugs featuring variations on their logo are pretty common.  Here's one we picked up at the Hexham Car Boot Sale:

And there are others...

When over in the UK I did a quick google search for others in this genre and came across a few with dubious taste.  "Alkie" for instance.  And also, well, one I really would like to show ya but it does not appear on any searches on this side of the Atlantic.  I guess you'll just have to imagine an image of Arnold Schwartzenegger in his most iconic, sunglasses wearing role, promising that 

"Aldi Back"

To their credit the Aldi company takes a very relaxed stance on any parody products that can't plausibly be confused with grocery items.  It's likely that whoever owns the IP for The Terminator sees things a little differently.....

England 2026 - Odd Pots

In the UK I stay at The Bowes in Bardon Mill.  Great pub, and a brisk but relaxing walk up to the excavation site every morning.  The first leg of the journey takes me right through a pottery yard, specifically that of Errington Reay and Company.  

They make most of the stuff, specializing in salt glaze pottery.  Other items come from elsewhere.  And every year I have to survey the goods - in some cases as they survey me - and ponder....

The garden gnomes are rather cheery.  I really like the pottery "Wellies" back behind them.

The rabbits on the other hand look conspiratorial.  The hillside back behind the place is a bunny paradise, on a post pint walk at dusk we counted nearly fifty.

At opposite ends of the yard there were two objects d' art that have to have come from the same place.  Although the herd of elephants is studiously looking down at their feet, this young lady seems to be shedding her jeans and her heavy sweater with abandon.  I did not turn her around, although decency might suggest doing so.  Did she have a tramp stamp/slag tag stamped into the glaze of her lower back?

Hey, not gonna judge.  But I do prefer this alternate version...

It just seems classier.  You can see her face, and she's looking resolutely upward.

Maybe the artist was going for something here.  Rising above adversity?  Growth and maturing?  The goddess Aphrodite emerging from the swirling seas?

Or maybe she's just trying to get out of a really big sweater....

FIRST Robotics - The 2026 Season in Review

Something cobbled together for the team's annual banquet.  Appropriately, for Team 5826, this was held on 5/8/26.  I missed it, being in flight for England where in any case it would have been 8/5/26 which would not have done at all.  8526 by the way is the number of a defunct team down in Texas that only managed one season of competition.

On to new challenges, and another major team rebuild.  You always have mixed feelings about graduating a batch of outstanding kids.  Darn they turned out well.  Darn we're gonna miss 'em.  And so the cycle repeats.

Vindolanda 2026 - Uphill and Down

When I retired at 60 it was with the notion that I'd do any darn thing I wanted for a decade, then slow down a bit.  It was a solid plan, and has mostly worked out.  Of course Covid swiped roughly two of those years, so I'm considering extending the "no limits" phase of my retirement years by a bit.  Of course, you need to do the occasional reality check.

I don't drive in the UK.  And when I go excavate at Vindolanda the local accommodations are finite.  My preferred home base is The Bowes at Bardon Mill.  It is down in the valley.  The fort of Vindolanda was, logically for a defended place, built on a hill.  

The linear distance is 1.5 miles for my morning walk, 2 miles for the evening return.  I am in no rush in the afternoon, and prefer to avoid the up and down trek that my shorter, morning walk requires.  The total end point elevation difference between start and finish is about 450 feet, but for the AM commute, its up and down a series of hills.  I figure it is closer to twice that once you factor in giving back elevation with those down hill stretches.  But is is a pleasant walk, and I do arrive on site warmed up and ready to haul barrows for the day.   Here's a few highlights of the forty minute trek.

Other than, I suppose, tipping over entirely the biggest risk  is right here.  There is a very busy motorway that crosses my route, and the only way to avoid it would be an unacceptably long detour that actually would add another 500 feet or so of total elevation to the expedition.   

So every morning and every evening I dash across it.

The mornings are the tricky crossings.  I'm on a time table, and there can be mist and such.  So I've added a blaze orange hat to my travel bag.  I wear it only for the Commute, once on site I switch to the hat bearing the image of my Spirit Animal, Bucky Badger.

With careful observation I'm always able to make the crossing without drama, but a year or two back an American volunteer on site made the mistake of looking the wrong way and did get injured.  He's back on site this season I was pleased to learn....

The next segment of the walk features these guys.  Despite the ominous clouds, their dark faces and curly horns, this is no big deal.  A simple "scram" gets them out of my way.  On the return circuit I walk through a pasture with cows, they can be a bit more difficult.

More critters.  About two thirds of the way up there is a single modest stone house.  No idea what the folks there do, but they have a new Jaguar parked at the end of a road far more suited to sheep.  They had a pesky old dog that has been barking at me for years.  This year there is also a young pup barking at me.  I bring along a few dog biscuits from the communal stash at The Bowes.

Eventually I glimpse Vindolanda off in the distance.  Alas, I have to "give back" about 200 feet of elevation as I go downhill and then up again to get to it....

The return trip is as mentioned, longer but more leisurely.  With a wider swing to the west I can avoid the ups and downs.  I usually walk it with my friend Pete who stays over that way.  Delightfully, given my nickname of Badger, there are badger dens along the way.  Oh, and the promise of a pint at journey's end.

Nothing like digging about in stuff nearly two thousand years old to give you a sense of time.  Many others have walked these paths before me.  Many others will do so after I'm gone.  But for now, Old Dogs and Young Pups are still afoot, and there's biscuits for both.....

Old dogs on tea and biscuit break.