The world is becoming a smaller place, with youngsters now routinely nipping off to Australia or Thailand for six months, when their parents would regard boarding the plane to Majorca as a great adventure, and their grandparents would regard a bus trip to Blackpool as akin to making the Grand Tour.
But while it is so much easier to see the world these days, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that home is best.
With the ever-spiralling hassle at the airports likely to get worse, with full body scans and strip searches, and the shrinking value of the pound, people are rediscovering the delights on their own doorsteps. And that includes those of us who have the undiluted joy of living in Northumberland, which remains probably the most unspoilt part of England.
There is something for everyone in its broad acres, whether it is miles of deserted beaches, where terns dive and ringed plover scurry, or the ever-shifting moors, where the haunting wail of the curlew mingles with the murmur of innumerable bees in their endless quest for heather honey.
Salmon and sea trout leap and splash in silver rivers and some of the finest sheep and cattle in the country graze on well-tended farms.
And if history is your thing, the entire county is studded with castles, bastles and pele towers, which bear eloquent testimony to the days when Northumberland was feared throughout the land as the Violent Kingdom.
Anyone visiting the county now can be assured they will not be greeted with the snarling steel-bonneted savagery of a Border Reiver.
Northumberland now offers the warmest of welcomes to everyone - and that includes some of the country’s top chefs, who regularly head north to demonstrate their culinary skills in converted castles, plush hotels and other up-market eateries.
The entire county is bursting with top notch places to eat, whether it is a tucked-away tea room serving still warm scones with lashings of farm butter, a friendly country pub with an imaginative menu, a cafe offering traditional fare - and lots of it - exclusive silver service restaurants, and a whole range of places offering exotic dishes from the Far East and beyond.
You can be sure of a meal to remember, and it’s more than likely that the food on your plate has been locally sourced.
There is nothing better than a generous portion of Northumbrian beef, lamb or pork to provide that feel good factor - unless it is a game bird from the moors, kippers fresh from the smokehouse or a chunk of salmon fresh from England’s finest salmon river, the Tyne.
And to wash it down, why not sample the delights of one of the award-winning micro-breweries which are now such an important part of the Northumbrian real ale scene?
With so much to see and do in Northumberland, not everyone has the time to sit down to a full meal, but there’s no need to miss out on all this fine local food. Call in at one of the county’s many excellent farm shops, and leave laden with the best in cold meats, quiches, pies or a tasty joint to roast when you get back home.
This special publication by Northumberland’s leading newspaper, the Hexham Courant, highlights the pick of what this delightful county has to offer.
But while it is so much easier to see the world these days, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that home is best.
With the ever-spiralling hassle at the airports likely to get worse, with full body scans and strip searches, and the shrinking value of the pound, people are rediscovering the delights on their own doorsteps. And that includes those of us who have the undiluted joy of living in Northumberland, which remains probably the most unspoilt part of England.
There is something for everyone in its broad acres, whether it is miles of deserted beaches, where terns dive and ringed plover scurry, or the ever-shifting moors, where the haunting wail of the curlew mingles with the murmur of innumerable bees in their endless quest for heather honey.
Salmon and sea trout leap and splash in silver rivers and some of the finest sheep and cattle in the country graze on well-tended farms.
And if history is your thing, the entire county is studded with castles, bastles and pele towers, which bear eloquent testimony to the days when Northumberland was feared throughout the land as the Violent Kingdom.
Anyone visiting the county now can be assured they will not be greeted with the snarling steel-bonneted savagery of a Border Reiver.
Northumberland now offers the warmest of welcomes to everyone - and that includes some of the country’s top chefs, who regularly head north to demonstrate their culinary skills in converted castles, plush hotels and other up-market eateries.
The entire county is bursting with top notch places to eat, whether it is a tucked-away tea room serving still warm scones with lashings of farm butter, a friendly country pub with an imaginative menu, a cafe offering traditional fare - and lots of it - exclusive silver service restaurants, and a whole range of places offering exotic dishes from the Far East and beyond.
You can be sure of a meal to remember, and it’s more than likely that the food on your plate has been locally sourced.
There is nothing better than a generous portion of Northumbrian beef, lamb or pork to provide that feel good factor - unless it is a game bird from the moors, kippers fresh from the smokehouse or a chunk of salmon fresh from England’s finest salmon river, the Tyne.
And to wash it down, why not sample the delights of one of the award-winning micro-breweries which are now such an important part of the Northumbrian real ale scene?
With so much to see and do in Northumberland, not everyone has the time to sit down to a full meal, but there’s no need to miss out on all this fine local food. Call in at one of the county’s many excellent farm shops, and leave laden with the best in cold meats, quiches, pies or a tasty joint to roast when you get back home.
This special publication by Northumberland’s leading newspaper, the Hexham Courant, highlights the pick of what this delightful county has to offer.
