It's time to go on holiday when the new school term begins

One thing I love about retirement is being able to go on holiday when I want to and not when my job dictates, nor my children's school holiday dates because they left school a long time ago. In September we enjoyed a sunny (windy) week on the Northumbrian coast, not too far from where I used to live as a student. It was bliss to hike a few miles along Bamburgh beach without shoes or socks while the tide was out. My first hike in bare feet.

We stayed in Alnwick and, for the first time, I went inside Alnwick Castle. Currently many people know the castle as the place where Harry Potter learned to fly on a broomstick. There were people in costume setting up a flying lesson (!) with broomsticks while I was there. I didn't try that, but I did press a tile from clay in the mediaeval style with a dragon design - it's still waiting to be painted now it has dried out on my windowsill.

Some scenes from ITV's Downton Abbey were also filmed in the state rooms at Alnwick castle. It's certainly impressive enough to provide a setting for that series. It is also the historic home of the Percey family. Henry Percey aka Harry Hotspur was the knight who determined the outcome of the Wars of the Roses by refusing to come to the aid of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth. Richard was killed as a result of lack of support, and Henry Tudor became king. The Perceys changed sides and pledged their allegiance to the victor.

My hair tells the story of the windy day. The weather was not so bright all the time. I spent the whole of a particularly rainy Sunday in one of my favourite places: Barter Books. The building used to be a railway station but the station closed and the train now runs to Alnmouth on the other side of the A1. However, the building still has a railway theme with a model train running overhead between the bookcases. It makes the sound of rainfall when the trains pass by but on that Sunday there was competition from real rain outside. I visited the wonderful buffet restaurant five times from breakfast through to a delicious evening meal. Spent all my credit on new-to-me books and sat in some of the cushty old armchairs to read and read and read. Pure bliss.

It was not my first ever visit to Barter Books but it was the first time I've spent a whole day there.

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