It takes all kinds to populate a world. Every possible niche is filled, and diversity helps to ensure species survival. Today I’m thinking about the pleasures of social interaction, as well as the delights of quiet iconoclasm. We’ve thought, in…
Category: Healthy Living
A handful of spuds
Yesterday we dined like rural royalty on wonderful Scottish moules, an enchanting salad from the polytunnel, and the very first handful of potatoes from our little patch. Actually, there were only enough spuds for the one helping (I pulled the…
Rural loneliness; an easy trap to find oneself in
We were out an evening or so ago, just for a drink with friends, but Sylvia Milburn made the evening for me when she offered an opinion about how easy it is to become a virtual recluse. Because she’s absolutely…
Allen Valley Bowls Club
Penny Little emails me a few notes to help with today’s diary entry, which I will try to supplement with what I know of the past two decades, anyway. The Allen Valley Bowls Club was formed in 1953, on its…
Deneholme Wood and/or Allen Banks and Staward Gorge
To get to woodland now in Allendale, the easiest and best thing to do is to traipse cheerfully down the birch tree colonnade in the Recreation Ground to the new entrance to Deneholme Wood. Enjoy the wooded view before navigating…
Getting things ready for the job . . . and doing it
It’s beginning to feel like a crescendo of anticipation here, with the stuttering arrival of the various components required for a couple of jobs around the place. But first came the planning, putting the new systems together in my mind,…
Lord of the Dales Dance
One of the most popular hymns in English-speaking congregations, and possibly a featured request at the upcoming Hymns & Pimms at St. Cuthbert’s, is Lord of the Dance, written in 1963 by English songwriter Sydney Carter to fit with an…
Surprising Allenheads
Actually, on my reconnoitre around Allenheads yesterday, to prepare for today’s diary entry (recall that we’re featuring free things to do for the family, on successive Saturdays, having already diarised The River Path, Allendale Smelt Mill, and The Chimneys), I…
The Walk to the Chimneys
Images of the Allendale Chimneys and flue courses courtesy of Doc Phil Brown’s amazing collection, in particular his depiction of a walk around Allendale. Today’s entry is the third in our Saturday series of free things to do with the…
Getting ready for the family’s return . . .
It’s one of the recurring themes of this diary: the diaspora of our young people out from this rural idyll to the greater metropolitan centres of the world, and then, when we’re lucky, the return for a family visit. We’re…