Mary Rowntree’s Victorian Tearooms

Exhilarated!
The breakwater

The breakwater

The sea was boiling today!  One of those “wrap up warm, good to be alive” days.  It was my final walk with the group before we split up for the Christmas hols, and we stayed local, on Hartlepool’s Headland.

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It was all just an excuse to have coffee and scones at Mary Rowntree’s Victorian Tearooms.  Wonderful to be inside, out of the cold, in this beautifully restored former church.

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This is just a quick thank you post to all who offered me advice and encouragement   when I was in despair at the weekend.  As you can see, the photo crisis is resolved, and I’m now hastening to put our Christmas tree up, finish the shopping, and catch up with all your blogs. (you know very well that it won’t be in that order!)

See you soon!

Six word Saturday

A hodge podge of a week!

In a week where the finals of the tennis in Rome were rained off and had to be played on Monday, my week was out of sinc from the word go.  Two of my passions collided and I left my walking group to their own devices and hovered near the TV.  Happy to say that Rafa won, so it was worthwhile!  It was a grey day anyway.  (I know I’m sad, but a passion is a passion)

Heat then wrapped around our blessed isle and on Wednesday, after t’ai chi, I met a lady friend, thinking we’d have a lovely walk on our Headland beach.  Well, we did, but it was enveloped in thick fog!  Normally it looks like this:

 

But not today.  Sadly I didn’t have my camera- sometimes it seems rude to be snapping away when you are enjoying someone else’s company.  I wished I had though because I would have loved to capture the eeriness of the lonesome sailboats wending their way out of the harbour.

More than that, I could have shown you the great conversion job that’s been done to the chapel, now Mary Rowntree’s Victorian Tearooms.  The project had lots of council opposition and had been ongoing for years.  The result is fabulous. Have a  look at http://www.stanlaundon.com/heruteu.html  It has some wonderful photos of Old Hartlepool and if you look down the left hand sidebar there is just one shot of Mary Rowntree’s.  If you click on it to enlarge you’ll get some idea of the place.

Thursday, as some of you know, I was Nordic walking and riding a steam train in North Yorkshire.  I couldn’t wait to write this post :  https://restlessjo.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/steams-up-in-north-yorkshire/ but here are a few extra shots if you don’t have time to read it.

Grosmont village

“The Green Knight” steams in!

All aboard!

Oops, silly me! You get the picture, anyway.

And finally, the picnic spot

I guess that’s worn everybody out with my week!  As usual I’m saying thank you to Cate of Show My Face for coming up with the idea of Six word Saturday, though I know I abuse it.  She’d love you to join in.  The details are in the link and in the banner at the top of the page.  Thanks for reading, and please, if you have the stamina, come back next week.