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…
Category: Environment
Dog Poo-Bag Dispensers!
You know, I wondered what they were! And so timely too, since it seems like everyone is complaining about the mess on the pavements these days, and not just the pavements, on the green, in the park, on the paths…
International Birdsong Day
Apparently the single had reached #11 in the singles charts yesterday afternoon, so it might be in the top 10 by the time International Birdsong Day (today, the 5th, first Sunday of May) rolls around. I was actually casting around…
New gardening capacity
Getting a little professional help on the raised beds early in the week somehow seemed to stimulate all those creative gardening juices, and by Friday they were in full flow — so much so that after I got the new…
North Pennines Smallholders Association
Founded about five years ago now, and coordinated to a large degree from a smallholding in Carrshield, the North Pennines Smallholders Association grew out of a series of workshop events held by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty…
Cuckoo calling . . .
We know you’re eager mate, but 5:30 in the morning eager? That’s just too much “cuckoo-cuckoo” for us, even though we love to awaken with the fresh breeze wafting in through the bedroom window. It all started on Sunday, and…
The Dales Gardening Society
When I arrived at the Tea Rooms for a little meeting with representatives of the Garden Society, who were eager to help feature their group in the diary, Emma Harrison ushered me into the side dining room with a table…
Tweet-a-pedia to the rescue!
I could not quite believe it, upon interrogating Google to find out some useful information about our resident cock pheasant and his cheerful harem of three hens, expecting to be pointed towards a Wiki-pedia entry, only to find that ‘Tweet-a-pedia”…
Ancient hens, empty nest
Far up on the fellside of Sparty Lea, we’re no strangers to clichés, but it would be nice too if we could develop a few independent thoughts on aging without resorting to the ‘tried and true’. Ooops, probably impossible. After…
Quantum of uselessness
Well, it’s certainly not a quantum of solace, that’s for sure, but there doesn’t seem to be a better way to describe the forlorn ‘bus shelter’, which I know has a history, but which sits as a kind of useless,…