Several years ago, we saw the new green anti-rabbit/deer/sheep protectors standing tall on the river bank. It must have been a new environmental venture, with some tangible financial reward for the landowner, but we scoffed: they’ll fail; the sheep will…
Month: September 2019
Hexham, our market town
A village, even one as vibrant as Allendale and its surrounding communities throughout the East and West Allen Valleys, needs a market town relatively close by. We’ve already considered, in the diary, some of the cultural aspects provided in Hexham,…
Whitfield Village Fair!
Always the second Sunday of September, Whitfield’s Fair usually clashes with The Great North Run, the world’s largest half-marathon, that twirls around the bridges of the toon. But here in the Allen Valleys, Whitfield Village Fair is such a lovely…
Up at the High Forest . . . it’s show day!
Yes, after gathering up all our possible vegetables that could just conceivably make a showing in the local agricultural show, worrying about the scab on the potatoes, wondering how woody the radishes are, and will the beetroots withstand the obligatory…
All around the ?bloomin’ heather
This diary entry doesn’t work very well without a colour image. I’m not quite sure how it will work in the ‘book of the blog’ which is expected to be printed in monochrome; perhaps our imagination will have to be…
Barney Craig: Carrshield Camping Barn
The Carrshield Camping Barn, renovated out of the old mine shop of Barney Craig, is one of the components of the portfolio of Allen Valleys Enterprise Ltd, or AVEL as the Community Benefit Society is called. AVEL was created to…
Getting ready for the High Forest Show . . .
The posters are up, and the schedule for the show has been in the shops and outlets around the patch for some time. But today is reckoning day, by which time all paperwork for the entries to the show must…
New Wood Chippings for the Play Areas
The announcement went up a week or so ago: new wood chippings are expected [I’d thought, from Kielder Forest Products, but see Comments below]; the park will be closed while the delivery and spreading is accomplished; volunteers would be very…
A memento for the grands
For over a year now, I’ve sat myself at our kitchen table, looking through the big window out over the garden, thinking about things, life, the universe — you know, thinking. While I’ve been sitting, I’ve been watching the birds,…
The traditional Sunday lunch vs the World Diet Plan
This entry started life as an idea of writing about the cooks, mostly mothers it has to be said, who live their lives sustaining the family, who patiently work at cooking the family meals: breakfasts; packed lunches; dinners; day in…