Here's looking at yew!

Today we went to one of my favourite places on the planet Cragside, near Rothbury, formerly the pile of Lord Armstrong, a Victorian industrialist and now in the care of the National Trust. One of its claims to fame is that it was the first house to be lit using electricity, generated from the water on the estate. We didn't get as far as going into the house today, which is stunning, but after a longish walk round the grounds there was barely time for a visit to the cafe. One of the innovations since our last visit is a hide, which is rather splendid and affords excellent views of birds and if you're lucky enough, which we weren't today, red squirrels. I got lots of nice photos but in the absence of a red squirrel, I decided to go for this great spotted woodpecker, as I think I'm long overdue for a really bad pun.