Cragside

It's 9.30pm and we've just left the beautiful white sandy beach in Alnmouth on the Northumbrian coast. We came here for chips right at the end of the day, and paddled in the freezing water and ran races across the sand as a pink misty light descended on the world and the lighthouses far out to sea began to flash their secret codes. 

We spent the day at Cragside House, a stunningly beautiful 19th Century mansion house set in a ravine in the middle of Northumberland National Park. The weather men forecasted carnage - terrible downpours all day - but we had nothing but blue skies and a gloriously hot sun. Yet another raging success for the BBC's finest! 

We travelled through the National Park on our way to Cragside. It's the first time I've spent any time in these parts and it's absolutely stunning. We had young Will in the car and stopped at one point to take photos of a truck load of sweet smelling pine logs which had been left in a layby. We could see for miles across the hilltops behind. 

I think I'm right I'm saying that Cragside was one of the first houses in this country to be fitted with electricity and the place is filled to the brim with Caractacus Pottseque inventions for turning joints and rinsing plates. Mez even spotted a curious machine which seemed to be a precursor to the Soda Stream. 

We came home singing ABBA at the tops of our lungs on the single carriage stretch of the A1 which runs from Alnwick to Newcastle. Travel further south and the next time the road becomes single carriageway again is outside our house in London. I love the fact that I'm on the same street that I live on, just 300 miles further north. And singing ABBA to boot. As the man who wrote A1: The Road Musical, I can think of no better way to end a day! I am radiantly happy as I write this.