Sure, it was hard in our day, but I wonder if it was quite as hard for us, then, as it is for young struggling families nowadays? I thought, since we do try to consider those parts of a year…
Surely, surely the cobbles will be sorted by now . . .
We’re expecting to be back from our little jaunt to the Highlands & Islands today, ready to resume live diarising again. The past ten entries have all been facilitated by the blog schedule, having been pre-written over a conscientious five…
Old Stone Vets at Allendale
After we managed to divest ourselves of our daughter’s two lovely black cats, which went on to a new, permanent brilliant home as she embarked on a year plus surgical fellowship in Sydney, a question arose about vaccinations. We realised…
Pat Ashton-Smith, Textile Artist
Pat Ashton-Smith writes in to chat about her life on a hill above Allendale over the past decade. Pat runs bi-weekly embroidery courses at Catton Village Hall, and other workshops by advertisement, in addition to her own artistry endeavours in…
Greetings from Achiltibuie
Postcard from the far far north in the Highlands of Scotland. So many local folks we’ve chatted with, before we headed north into the misty glens, had visited Achiltibuie, that we just had to make this faraway outpost our primary…
A Tea Set’s Journey
Richard Skinner from Allenheads was stimulated by my musings on crockery in an earlier diary piece, to pursue a developing story that began for him when he and Barbara met Dick and Hilary Dorward during a holiday last year in…
Dales Agri Sales Agency
I dropped in to the Dales Agri Sales Workshop the other day to thank Charlie Halliday for donating the brilliant round and extending table to the Charity Auction — it fits perfectly into our dining room! While I was there,…
Cart’s Bog Inn at Langley
At lunch the other day in the Cart’s Bog Inn, I had a quick chat with Stuart Davison, who I discovered is expecting to be celebrating running the place for a decade in March 2020. I remember so well when…
Poetry: Practice of Life
It’s often said that, like acting, you have to live in order to be able to write. I loved poetry in my youth, but then decided I needed a lot more living to be able to appreciate it. In fact,…
Hair by Trudie
What if someone invented a service where the tea has just been finished, the kids are all relaxed, the dishwasher is loaded, the doorbell rings, and a friendly hairdresser walks in and proceeds to take care of the whole family’s…