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…
Category: In-Between Times
Getting ready for holidays
I don’t think we’re alone in spending a significant amount of time both thinking about, and then getting ready for a holiday. There’s always so much to do to prepare! But we’re starting a bit early this year, because we’re…
Half-way through the year!
In the normal 365 day year, which this is, not being a Leap Year or anything, today, day 183, is the fulcrum point in the middle, at 182 days gone and 182 to go. So in fact, when you look…
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…
Preparation, then anticipation . . .
For a Sunday homily, I guess I can do worse than to ruminate on the conjoined concepts of ‘preparation’ and ‘anticipation’. But it feels like I’ve been looking forward to harvesting these potatoes for years, rather than the usual months!…
Allen Mill — a walk’s half-way point maybe?
The big reveal, facilitated by the North Pennines AONB in the Allen Valleys Landscape Partnership, funded by the Heritage Lottery (2013-2018), opened up the remains of the old smelt mill so that the place became re-imbued with a kind of…
Ok, let’s have some sunshine
I was taken by a vox pop comment the other day about Chernobyl, the new holiday destination; one gentleman opined that he preferred natural sunshine to the radio-active kind! But it’s almost getting to the point that we’d settle for…
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…
An increase in vandalism?
People are certainly feeling angry about the vandalism and anti-social behaviour (thinking discarded dog poo bags) around the village these days. Let me think: what’s been reported recently (within the past month say, back to 7th April anyway), in Allendale…
Post-Lenten penance
Err, Lent is supposed to be finished by Easter Sunday. That is to say, having gone through the rituals of self-abnegation and small or large tortures inflicted upon ourselves to represent the sins we all carry with us, Christians are…