An Urban Adventure in the Ouseburn.

Believe it or not this weekend was devised by our kids. Their mission was that they wanted to grab some photos by graffitis walls! It was semi unplanned. excluding the fact that we knew where there was quite a bit of public art. So we headed to the Ouseburn, for a slow potter around and see what we could find.

Urban Art in Ouseburn

We started our adventure behind Kiln. We’ve seen many bloggers and Instagrammers posing under this spot light, so it felt like a good starting point. The first challenge for us was to get them to pose for us. It was either Abigail and her iPad or Imogen and her phone. Luckily we caught a couple of spirited shots.

We continued down towards the Tyne Pub, passing between the new development on the Ouseburn. It was only 9 years ago that we used to live near this area and it has changed so much in that time. The Toffee Factory in the background, the apartments opposite, the lock gate (that I’m not sure has ever worked).

The lighting was kind to us and even though I’m not the best photographer, it created some great opportunities. I love the light glowing off Imogen’s hair in this photo.

Abigail, took the difficult route to the path form the river path. No broken bones, but a direct path to a graffiti wall.

I’ll admit that I’m not really a fan of this type of graffiti. To me it’s bright bold colours, but without meaning. The best I can hope is that the “Rest In Peace” is a tribute to someone.

Imogen chose to rock it fierce!

Next stop on our adventure was the Ouseburn farm. But on route we spotted a few cool spots.

This is a little alley in the new development by the Kiln / Tyne Pub. The brief to the kids was to simple walk towards the camera together. Mandy Charlton seems to be able go wrangle our kids into the location needed. I on the other hand lost interest on the 7th walk towards camera. The first 6 being either running, hopping, stomping or pulling faces.

The more locations we found, the more I felt like we should be creating a CD cover for The Hoopsters.

The Ouseburn Farm

While we’re in the area we popped into The Ouseburn Farm to feed the animals. Abigail loves animals, while Imogen likes the idea of animals. If it’s behind a fence it’s ideal and maybe that’s a city living issue we’ve created!

As we walked in Abigail spotted a selection of animal feed for sale. She grabbed some Sheep food and we headed in the farm. There was a Birthday party in full swing, which meant it was quite busy. A brief chance to stroke a guinea pig caught her eye. But we couldn’t see any sheep.

After a hunt about we were pointed to the cobble bridge over to the other side of the Ouseburn to the sheep field. Feeding the Sheep proved too much for the kids, but Catherine embraced her inner shepherd. She had her fleecy friends eating out of her hands!

Even the Sheep liked to pose for photos with graffiti!

And then the magic happened. Something that we weren’t expecting happened. It was too much for Imogen and she headed for safety on top of a park bench.

It was time to round up the sheep and put them to bed. As soon as it was safe to, the Farm workers, swung open the gate a corralled the sheep towards the Farm. Over the bridge, between the parked cars and back to the Ouseburn Farm. It was magical!

It was something that we never expected to see. If we were in the Lake District then this photo (without the bollards) would feel normal. However we were standing near the centre of Newcastle and there were Sheep running freely over a bridge. It rounded our day up with a little excitement.

The Ouseburn has so much on offer, be that as pubs, food, art, history or simply back to nature, It truly is a little oasis in the town.