Celebrating Father's Day a week early

Father's day this year happens to fall on a day when I'm at work. On top of that Mrs. Cool is doing a thing with the kids for her blog in freaking Italy so we decided to celebrate Father's Day a week early and make it last all weekend. I started by making a start on tedious the laborious task of removing the ivy from our garden. A word of advice, don't ever have Ivy, it gets everywhere and it's a bugger to get off. This ended up being a bigger task than I was expecting so I sacked that off and will finish the other half on another day.

Mrs. Cool has been desperate to head back to Brocksbushes in Corbridge so we can pick our own Strawberries. We couldn't believe it had been SIX years since we were last there. Brocksbushes is a great day out. You pay £1 entry and then pick your own Strawberries from the fields filled with rows and rows of Strawberries then you take you basket to be weighed and pay per kilo. Our basket was pretty full by the end and we only had to pay £6.95 which I think is a bargain. There is also a tea room and farm shop on site too so we picked up some burgers and buns for our dinner, Mrs Cool thought the burgers weren't as good as the home made ones I make (which I suppose is true) but me and the kids all enjoyed them.

Next up we headed to Wheelbirks farm in Stocksfield for some Ice Cream. The Ice Cream at Wheelbirks is truly incredible if you haven't been before it is worth the trip. There are so many flavours to choose from, I went for a scoop of Mint Choc Chip and scoop of Cherry Blossom, Mrs Cool had Raspberry Honeycomb, the kids being kids had Chocolate Ice Cream. As well as Ice Cream there is a restaurant serving light bites such as quiches, soups and sandwiches so there is plenty to choose from and there is a great outdoor eating area. It's also a working farm too with lots of animals to see so you can have a good day out for the whole family. 

The following morning was my fake Father's Day, the kids woke me up with my card and told me my present was still in the post and would be with me next week. Next they had made me breakfast with the strawberries we picked the day before with some yoghurt and granola. After breakfast we headed out for Sunday Lunch.

Leaving Cramlington in my short sleeved shirt, shorts and sunglasses I was pretty annoyed when around half an hour into the journey the sky turned dark and the rain started and quite quickly we were being pelted by pretty huge hailstones. It was so bad I had to actually pull the car over as we couldn't see anything in front of us. When the weather cleared a bit we finished our journey and arrived at The Coach House in Otterburn.

The Coach House is very nice and the hostess was really friendly. We ordered our food and had a chat about Mrs. Cool and the kids' trip to Italy. For starters Mrs. Cool had Northumberland Goats Cheese and Truffle Honey and I went for the Duck Parfait with Red Onion Marmelade, I always love a pâté or a terrine or a parfait for starters and this was really good.

For our mains Mrs. Cool went for the Roast Rib of Northumberland Beef with Yorkshire pudding. I was torn between the lamb and the pork but in the end the black pudding made my decision for me and I went for Maple Glazed Belly Pork with Stornoway Black Pudding. The Pork was falling apart but still with a good crisp on the edges and the Black Pudding was really amazing.

When we left the Sun was shining again and put on my favourite playlist in the car on the way home. Do you have any plans for Father's day? Do you like to go out for a special meal or do you prefer a chilled day at home?

Well, that's all for now.

S

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*Disclaimer: Sam was invited to The Coach House for a review on North East Family Fun