Melanie Pepper writes through a migraine to get these notes to me for publishing during my hospital hiatus — thanks Mel! “The North Pennines AONB Partnership opened up permissive access to the woods, and installed a new bridge and new…
Author: LarryWinger
The May Fair and The Golden Lion, revenant
Yes, it’s May Fair Saturday today! But first, we need to deal with what we might call ‘Pubs in Transition III and IV’ as it’s been quite a climactic week at the Golden Lion, all in all. Monday morning, a…
Babies & Toddlers Group(s)
I had a lovely chat with Kelly Murray the other day, about the Babies and Toddlers group(s) in the Allen Valleys. MONDAYS: Catton Village Hall 10-11:30ish £1.50 contribution per family TUESDAYS: Whitfield Village Hall ?times and contribution? WEDNESDAYS: Allendale Fire…
Gate or grid . . .
We put our first farm gate in nearly thirty years ago when we moved from the suburban wilderness to the richly endowed countryside. We knew we’d bought the track, but it leads through some 25 acres of sheep grazing land…
Fawside . . . on our side
Fawside is the friendly community development organisation at the heart of Allendale village life. But it’s a quiet group, and not many folks are quite aware of its thirty year history, or of how it fits in with everything else…
Our beloved library . . .
Mystery, History and Romance, writes Joan Morgan, noted local author, of this beloved institution . . . . . . and everything else from Science Fiction to the life of Barack Obama; it’s all there in our small but perfectly…
The things we don’t talk about . . .
We have them, all right, but we don’t talk about our emotions very much. We don’t talk about being angry, or being sad, or being so glad that our hearts swell up and we’re in kind of an exalted state…
Terry’s Bench
Just at the junction of Catton and Allendale, where the road sign says Allendale on one side, and Catton on the other, sits a lovely, hand-carved bench with a recent history. Liz Conway writes to chat about the bench: “My…
Allendale’s oldest Book Club
Liz Sandison writes to chat about the Book Club at Arnison Close: “I believe there are several Book groups/ book circles flourishing in the area but this one was the first! It was begun in 1981 by Sue Bates who…
Allen Valley Striders
Derek Todhunter, Chair of the Allen Valley Striders, writes to share a report on the group: “Allen Valley Striders is the name of the local running club which meets three times weekly at the Allendale Sports Club Pavilion in Catton….