I dropped into the Post Office yesterday morning to buy a stamp and post a letter, and Elsie and Jane had the fire blazing. How warm and cosy it felt. When I got back home from my errand, we sat…
Year: 2019
Free heat from the sun
It might look a bit (well, more than a bit) ramshackle, but the little shed we’ve made to house the hot tub pump, filter and heat exchange unit safely against freezing and rain, is robust and cheap. Nor are we…
The Community Bank
It used to be Tynedale Community Bank, but as I discovered, as Christina at Fawside was busily proofreading the latest iteration of the Allendale and Allen Valleys Pocket Directory, it’s now joined forces with the Credit Union for South-East Northumberland…
A Festival of Angels
From Seraphic Sopranos and edible Biscuit Angels, through Angelic Choirs, Angel Mosaics, Angels Amongst Us, and Angels from South African HIV Clinics, these few photographs represent some of the most moving submissions at the Angel Festival held in St. Cuthbert’s,…
The Allendale Wolf . . .
Wikipedia recounts the story from 1904 of the Allendale Wolf, also reprised in the pages of the Allen Valleys Folk Festival programme. The creature was the ‘large black cat’ of its day. [From early in 2000 until at least 2012,…
Allen Valleys Folk Festival
The programme for this year’s folk festival is the biggest ever, and the weekend looks like an exciting jaunt through contemporary folk music. The festival workshops are an annual component of the festival, as led by local tutors, and the…
Hadrian Clog in the Allen Valleys
Georgia Shorrock, who recently moved into Allendale, has been active in the Hadrian Clog Dance group for some time, and sends us this fulsome report on their activities: “Hadrian Clog has become a familiar sight around the Allen Valleys over…
MOT Time . . .
Three little letters strike fear into the hearts and minds of virtually every family in this patch: M and O and T. It comes around once a year, and today it’s our turn. Although our new-to-us little Fiat Panda 4×4…
The long and winding road . . .
that leads . . . to your door Our track is in a constant state of disrepair. That is to say, we repair it each year, and without fail next year renewed attention is required to the new ruts and…
Pots in the Byre
I dropped in to Steph Jamieson‘s annual ‘Pots in the Byre’ show at Broadwood Hall Studios, yesterday, just before the heavens opened and the rain came down in a deluge, to see some of the pottery displays. The day before,…