National Trust Working Holiday in Northumberland!

Hello, am currently in the beautiful city of Krakow, acting like it's 1999 and writing this from an Internet cafe. Last week I took part in a National Trust Working holiday, which took place at Cragside, in Northumberland. It was hard work, but good fun [albeit incredibly muddy fun] and I met some interesting people, including a man who had done over 100 working holidays, which just goes to show how addictive some people find them. The group's main task was to clear overgrown paths around a lake, which basically meant chopping down every Rhododendron in sight, and then burning the buggers. We also had to pull reeds out of a lake, because they were threatening to take over, and chop down the odd tree to let more light in [although I must confess I was too much of a wimp to actually fell a tree myself...but I did saw through the odd branch]. Evenings were spent walking round the property like we owned the place [since the visiting public had all gone home] and playing jenga and bop-it [which I was surprisingly good at!]. We even got a day off, where we acted like extreme American tourists by seeing one island [Holy Island] two castles [Lindisfarne and Bamburgh], one seaside resort [Seahouses] and one idyllic village [Craster] in a day. Click to find out more about working holidays!

 

       Bamburgh castle

Getting ready to go in the lake...with my leader looking on. I have never looked more like my father! I only shared this because I'm committed to honesty on this blog...but I don't think I ever felt less attractive...oh well, it was at least satisyfing clearing the lake!

Yes, Cragside had a Labyrinth, a real one in which two people got properly lost!

And the labyrinth had a wizard in it, which is always good!

It was a bit spooky at night though...

As a side note, you would not believe how much of a struggle it was for me to upload these pictures following Polish instructions...oh the perks of travel! More Cragside pics to come!