Alnwick Gardens, Northumberland.

We visited Alnwick Garden last year as part of a combination ticket with Alnwick Castle. It really is quite breathtaking; who would have thought a garden could be such a fantastic place. I love the great outdoors but this place really is something special. You enter the garden into a Pavilion area with shops and cafes. Facing you, as you enter the gardens; is what seems like an endless waterfall and fountains.

It is called the Grand Cascade and it really is grand, it is a huge tiered water feature that has coordinated fountains going off at intervals and an overflow at the bottom, which ingeniously has small tractors where children can fill their buckets with the overflowing water and transport it around.

Holy Island, Northumberland.

This photo takes me back to Holy Island near Bamburgh, although the sun was shining bright it was Easter 2007, it was freezing cold that day. I was not at all keen about visiting Northumberland, I could not see what it could possibly have to offer me. However I fell in love with it! the unspoiled beauty, friendly people, quaint villages and beautiful beaches.

Holy Island is cut off from the world twice every 24 hours a day when tide is high,there is only one road in and out which during high tide is completely covered, thus cutting Holy Island of from the rest of the world.  It is the quintessential English village with stunning views, tea rooms and quaint winding streets.

I think this is a place we will visit again and again throughout our lives.

Chris and the Boys on Holy Island Beach.