Jo and the tallest Christmas Tree

It’s lovely having Jo to stay. We have such interesting chats and lots of laughs. For 10am I walked her up Blaeberry Hill to Stephen the physio about her sore shoulder. She was impressed with his work and already feels better. He’d asked her where she’d met me and when she said Iran he said that figured!

While she was there I made a spiced carrot and lentil soup with added left over potato and green beans from last night. I put a bit of Cointreau and chopped oranges and pomegranate bits into the remainder of the cream and yogurt mixture, also left over from last night for pudding. I’ll grate a bit of white chocolate to go on top (Jo has a sweeter tooth than I) with more pomegranate seeds. We’ll have a tart with tuna, red onion, tomatoes and cheese served with salad for the main.

This afternoon we went to Cragside as Jo has never been. She’s not in the NT so it was £17 for her. It was a bit of a let down because a lot of the house was closed as it’s got “special” decorations done for Christmas. This was mainly lots of greenery with candles. However she was able to see the huge Italian marble fireplace (6 metres high and weighing 10 tons) which cost £1million in today’s money.

She was interested in all Armstrong’s inventions and the history of the house, the first domestic property in the world to have central heating, lights, a rotisserie, dumb waiter and hot water all powered by hydro-electricity. He was a visionary inventor, engineer and businessman. He owned the Elswick Works in Newcastle, which employed more than 25,000 people in its heyday. It manufactured Hydraulic cranes, ships and armaments. He died in 1900.

We had a look at UK's tallest living lit up Christmas tree, 160 years old and 138ft high.

We had a 5 mile walk up to Slipper Lake then on higher to Nelly’s Moss lake then back by Crozier Drive, getting home just as daylight was going at 3.30pm.

That you for your support re yesterday’s dilemma.