It did snow up in Sparty Lea and beyond into the ‘heeds, on Sunday morning, as predicted, but at 1:00pm there was nobody staffing the rope pull at Ski-Allenheads, and my foray, on what was probably the last snow day…
Month: March 2019
Crowdsourcing impact . . .
Today’s, Sunday’s, diary entry is a somewhat longer-than-usual meditation on contemporary strategies towards raising funds for good causes . . . It’s intriguing, what people care about. Or what they say they care about. I had thought that the Dalek…
New Breadmakers made at Allendale Bakery
Today, Saturday the 9th of March, is the first of the season of breadmaking courses scheduled up at Allendale Bakery in Sparty Lea, if the snowfall stays wet and gentle. For over a decade, Carrie Winger has been baking bread…
Allendale Brewery, a local treasure
It was a rainy, drizzly afternoon, but nice and warm in Allendale Brewery‘s offices upstairs at the brewery, and I settled down to have a quiet chat with Tom Hick, Owner/Director, who founded the business with his father Jim well…
Motorhomes galore
They’re all around the village, motorhomes skulking in their owners’ drives, or tucked carefully away in unobtrusive corners, just waiting for an adventure throughout the country, over to Ireland, or east and with luck this year, anywhere on the continent….
Spring lambs
The curlews have been heard early last week, apparently, (I saw one up at Elpha Green this afternoon) and these lambs emerged probably just over the weekend, from about the 1st of March, so such spring signs tell us that…
Chitting potatoes . . . and a link to the past
We use the ‘no-dig’ protocol to grow our award-winning potatoes (High Forest Show 2017) on a southern exposure in Sparty Lea. It’s taken us some time to figure out how best to grow any vegetables at all up here, but…
Parking, just as we like it
There are no white lines. There’s no designated ‘disabled spaces’. Vehicles come and go, seemingly unerringly finding a place for themselves, or waiting patiently until a space is vacated. Or they twirl around and around, on rare occasions (typically weddings…
Tranquility, but not just yet please
My brother emails me from the Near North, Ontario, just below Lake Nipissing where the northern half of the province begins, to wonder if the recent diary entries are not some sort of metaphor for my current state of health…
Detour of delight
Considering the speed with which they’re clearing the remains of the roadside trees at Redwell Corner, I can’t quite believe that the notified ‘4 week closing’ can be correct. After less than 1 week it’s looking pretty much gone! Meanwhile,…