Apparently it’s anybody’s guess whether the shooting season really will start today; not only has the weekend weather been terrible, but grouse numbers are expected to be quite curtailed, compared to better years. Grouse moors are all around us, up…
Summer Sunday sighs
Supposed to be a rainy day today, as it was yesterday, though with interludes of brilliant sunshine, perhaps? But disruptive weather is predicted to occur all over England, with numerous events being cancelled. Anyway, it feels like an ideal day…
A truly terrible orchestra, but a sheer delight
Listening agog to a rendition of a classical favourite on Friday morning’s BBC Radio 3 by the so-called Portsmouth Sinfonia, reprised in a Youtube upload straight from the vinyl, I wondered why the sounds, still recognisable as music, but nearly…
The butcher is closed . . . but WMH Meats steps up
It must have been the end of July the butcher shop closed, since that’s the first notice from WMH Meats in Allendale area notices, that the Haydon Bridge firm would be delighted to take orders from, and deliver to, Allendale…
Cobbling it all together
Cllr Dave Crellin, Chair of Allendale Parish Council, shared this notice with ‘Allendale area notices‘ facebook group: “It’s nearly 20 years ago that work to relay the cobbles in Allendale Market Place was started. Funds were then not sufficient to…
Leaving so soon?
Not quite 48 hours by the sea, and now it’s time to return home. This mini-break was really only conceived as a test run, in relative safety and proximity to home. There are pets to feed, garden to tend, and…
A walk on the seaside
Minding Northumberland Guide‘s admonition not to attempt to walk across the mouth of the bay, with its wide expanse of sand, we’ll carefully skirt the edges, possibly venturing out to the water as long as we can safely keep ahead…
. . . on a summer holiday
Everything’s packed, Harry Hymer is prepped and the motor is warming up. We’re away for just a couple of days, not quite the ‘week or two’ of the song, but still. It’ll be a lovely little break, rain, shine, mist,…
Mr Robin is back
I’m no ornithologist, but I kind of suspect that the crowds of finches that gathered around the bird feeding pad, along with assorted jackdaws, collared doves, the blackbird family, and Earnest the pea cock shaking his tail feathers, might have…
The dangers of dead helium balloons
I felt so sorry for John Davison, now close to, no, past retirement he says, when he popped up on the BBC’s evening programme Look North, yesterday evening, to chat about the loss of his 15 month old calf due…