Deein’ good in the Dene with Dean!

Geordie pun alert!

After a delay due to rearranging the date to accommodate a lovely community mission a couple of weeks ago, we finally had March's social coffee run today. I wasn't sure how much interest there would be for a mid-week afternoon session so it was lovely to have Rae, Lucy and Adam along.

We met at Dean and Daniela's cafe and after a debate about the route we decided to go for the prettier (but hillier!) route, so we set off straight into Jesmond Dene. I should perhaps have confessed before we started that I sometimes get the paths confused in the Dene! Sure enough, we carefully made our way down some slippery steps. Our choice of the prettier route was then rewarded in Pets Corner by seeing the peacock with his tail feathers fully on display.

We then made our way UP and out of Jesmond Dene and into Paddy Freeman Park. Adam is relatively new to the area but I've lived just outside the park for 24 years, so when Adam asked who Paddy Freeman was, I was surprised (and ashamed!) to realise I have never thought to ask! We returned to Dean and Daniela's for refreshments and a bit of Googling, to find that Paddy Freeman was a tenant farmer who worked the land and mill of the Dene together with the land where The Freeman Hospital now stands, from 1795! So with a good run, a peacock sighting and a history lesson it was definitely an afternoon for deein good things!