I know that the secularisation of this day is all around us, since most things Americana get here eventually, but the significance of this day is possibly not known to many people. Certainly I didn’t know where the term came…
Month: March 2019
Dulcimer Workshop Weekend
Liz Conway writes to chat about the Dulcimer Workshop Weekend she invented quite a few years ago now, that took place this year at Deneholme over this past weekend, the 22nd – 24th of March. “This is an annual event…
Scheduling conflicts . . . surplus of venues . . .
It’s not a new problem, and as Allendale becomes ever more vibrant and fun to live in, more and more events and venues will jostle with each other to attract the attention of possible participants. This past Tuesday evening, for…
Ancient hens, empty nest
Far up on the fellside of Sparty Lea, we’re no strangers to clichés, but it would be nice too if we could develop a few independent thoughts on aging without resorting to the ‘tried and true’. Ooops, probably impossible. After…
Triplets of renown
Got a PM the other day, oh, yesterday I guess, from Pierre Schryer, and that felt like quite a blast from the past! When ‘Northumbrian Music Nights’ was in full promotions mode (between ’95 and ’05 I guess), we were…
Fire and Dough, Tuesdays
Best friends Ross Keady and John Nicholson bring their Fire and Dough pizza van to Allendale most Tuesday evenings, and folks just love them. Last Tuesday I chatted with John and Millie, both of whom can handle anything in the…
Quantum of uselessness
Well, it’s certainly not a quantum of solace, that’s for sure, but there doesn’t seem to be a better way to describe the forlorn ‘bus shelter’, which I know has a history, but which sits as a kind of useless,…
Friends Meeting House
A little row of gravestones stands in front of the Meeting House, dating back to the end of the 17th Century (a Meeting House was built on the site in 1688, replaced in 1735, and rebuilt in the late 1860s)…
Too much wind . . .
Obviously, it’s not Cyclone Idai, for which a great Disasters Emergency Committee fund has been set up to help the millions (millions! — millions and millions!) of people in Mozambique around the metropolitan area of Beira who have been flooded…
Post Office deliveries
Without the Post Office service, I don’t think we’d ever have survived up in the wilds above Sparty Lea. Folks in the village, of course, can easily pop over to the Post Office, and so do we, but our round…