I’m so delighted to provide Marjorie Anderson space for her lovely poem, a piece of work that set our Creative Writing class a-tingle last term. This poem, for me, develops the whole sense of the year ahead, and the year…
Category: Environment
Pennines Wildlife Rescue
I think that Tony has had a passion for wild animals for a long time, but certainly after his various tours of duty with the armed forces, this devotion to care for suffering animals has become an obsession. Together with…
Old Man Bottom
I suppose in every language, there are idiosyncrasies that will trip just about everyone up. Things like that verse in the carol ‘Ding-dong merrily on high’ where the line ‘And i-o, i-o, i-o, by priests and people sungen’, and you’re…
The Burnlaw community and the Bahá’í faith
In midsummer of 2020, the Burnlaw community will celebrate its 40th anniversary. I had a lovely long chat with Garry Villiers-Stuart the other day, both of us fading now into our later years, but still, I think, fizzing with the…
Whitfield Church of England Primary School
These days the lovely little school at Whitfield is a primary school academy, managed by The Good Shepherd Multi-Academy Trust. According to the school’s website, it was the first in Northumberland to be taken under this trust’s wing. I dropped…
The Elk’s Head and Whitfield Estate Partnership
I seem to have spent some time traversing the West Allen valley over the past week or so, trying to make this diary a more comprehensive recapitulation of the entities in the whole patch. The Elk’s Head is the last…
Remediation works on the West Allen at Carrshield
Throughout this entire year, but scheduled to be completed by Christmas, the work of the Environment Agency and the Coal Authority in reducing the absorption of lead, zinc and cadmium from the Carrshield tailings dam into the tumbling waters of…
Curiouser and curiouser
It was Lewis Carroll, writing for Alice in Wonderland, who coined the phrase to which, I imagine, the cheerful enterprise Curious Tent Hire owes its name. I had a lovely chat with Bryony Villiers-Stuart, who runs the growing company headquartered…
Higher Ground Repair Day
So I bustled out, after a lovely dinner, in the freezing cold (-3ºC by the little Fiat’s thermometer), venturing down the icy track to The King’s Head for a small informal meeting called by Jane Pryde of Higher Ground who’d…
Sinderhope Pony Trekking Centre
I called Lisa Collingwood-Philipson on 01434 685266 the other day to chat about the pony trekking centre up at Sinderhope that she’s run since about ’99. It’s no wonder the enterprise is such a success, since she’s so down-to-earth friendly!…