Isaac Holden is probably older than the ‘guysers’ and the bonfire on New Year’s Eve in Allendale’s Market Square, though he must have seen them during his last decade, but he’s maybe not quite as famous as Allendale’s Tar Bar’l…
Category: Anecdote
Curlews, lapwings — later black grouse, and more
[Sketches derived from apparently royalty-free images on the internet] So the large curlew is back on the Sparty Lea fellside, gliding through the air, and the lapwings have been skirling in the sky for some time now. Only after we’d…
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…
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…
Wait forever for a fuss . . .
. . . and three come round at once! Well, in Allendale time, three fusses in less than six months rates as slightly extraordinary, when there’s been no fuss to speak of for years now, that I can remember, anyway….
Snowdrops to keep us going
Still the middle of winter, though it’s been soft so far, but snowdrops bursting through the soil in their multiple clumps seem to tell us that spring is not far away. They could be great pretenders too, of course, and…
Walking the circuit . . .
Yesterday I alluded to ‘the circuit’ and wondered if anyone might comment on that somewhat obscure reference. Maybe it’s one of those things that everybody knows about, which often feel like the most fun sort of things to comment on…
‘My life as a farmer’
I was so hoping to be there, at last night’s crowded event in the Sinderhope Community Centre where Robert Philipson chatted about his life as a farmer in this valley, for the Allen Valleys Wildlife Group’s regular meeting. Unfortunately for…
Station Garage keeps us moving
If it weren’t for the perspicacity and patience of Howard Pringle and Thomas Robinson at Station Garage, early last autumn, we’d never have got away on our extended holiday in our ancient motorhome. First there was the matter of the…
Time itself . . .
Since we’re on the subject of Dr. Who and the timelords anyway . . . why not a short discourse on time itself? Trudge through any field around these parts, in the snow, carrying a plastic bag full of groceries,…