ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 37TH OF 2026

 Good evening, I'm late today but we've just come back from a week away, so time to clock the positives from the last 7 days.  I'm going to split the week as I may not have much to share for the week ahead as it will be a catch up week. 

So last Thursday night we headed to the Crucible in Sheffield to watch King Lear, this was our first unabridged version of this play and it was mesmerising. 

Then on Friday we set off for the Durham area for a week's break. The journey up really wasn't much fun, an awful lot of traffic and people trying to get to their destination as fast as possible.  We were relieved once we had arrived.  

However, we had to be back out again in the evening to go to Kynren for their evening show.  It was the main reason we had gone to the area and is something we've said for a number of years that we would do but never managed it.  So finally we got to enjoy the show.  

We arrived early and had a wander

We enjoyed speaking to the people in the Viking Village. 

This horned sheep is an endangered breed, but I loved how quirky it looked. 

The woodwork was stunning

then in the evening we took our seat and were told the history of Britain (there or thereabouts, there were definitely mythical elements, but it was fun nonetheless)

and it finished with fireworks. 

As we had taken all our food for the week, we decided to have a chilled out day on Saturday, where we sat, book read, used the hot tub and generally relaxed and it was very much appreciated. 

Sunday had forecast a wet day, so we headed to Bowes museum to see a Vivienne Westwood exhibition on its final day. 

I loved the shoes

the jacket on the left was her take on some medieval armour

they deconstructed the pattern to show how many pieces it was made of. 

I was also amazed at this outfit cut on the bias. 

We also enjoyed a Norman Cornish exhibition.  He was an artist from Spennymoor who captured scenes of his local area, without realising at the time that he was capturing social history. 

This sketch was a chipshop van that trundled around the streets, it is parked up now in the Beamish open air museum, near the replica of his home that has been built. 

There are lots of people sketches, particularly in the pub

the way he caught the facial features was amazing. 

On Monday we headed out to Beamish as it was forecast for a nice day.  We've been to Beamish before on a couple of occasions, but we've never done the 1950s town which has only recently been built. 

The tram goes around the whole town, so we got off in the 1900s town as usual 

The 1950s town is a short walk away.  We were wandering around a terraced house with Norman Cornish artwork in it, when I realised it was a replica of his house from Spennymoor. 

There were some new built houses in the 1950s town, these kitchen wall cupboards reminded me of the home we lived in when I was young.

and this satchel was similar to a haversack my Dad used to use to go into town and get the week's fruit and vegetables each week. 

The fireplace below is very similar to the one we had in our home when I was little and the one my Grandma had in the pub. 

They've even build a cinema which we assume is a repurposed theatre.  The size of the cameras to play the films were huge. 

The outside of Norman Cornish's house. 

There were also buses running around the site as well. 

We had a lovely day, had some tasty chips cooked in dripping and the sun shone for most of the day definitely a win win. 

Tuesday and we fancied going somewhere new so we went to Wallington Hall.  The photos of the exterior really don't do this place justice if I'm honest. 

The house itself is an absolute gem, the paintings in the original internal courtyard are sublime. 

You can see how the paintings are situated in the courtyard. 

The rooms around it are beautiful as well and then we headed outside for a wander. 

First off these dragon heads which you can see as you approach the house and carpark. 

Selfie time

Then in the woods we found this tree that had obviously fallen during a storm, which had been ornately carved. 

On the side were more faces

so we grabbed another selfie.

We wandered the woodlands which was lovely and then went over to their second hand bookshop and found a few books before we headed back to our cottage. 

I'll cover Wednesday onwards in my post next week. 

If you've made it to here, well done and I hope you are having a good week. 

Hugs