May the potatoes rise up to meet you . . . Our potato plants are doing very well this year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over two years since I wrote somewhat lyrically about preparation and anticipation…
Category: Notes from Afar
A Tea Set’s Journey
Richard Skinner from Allenheads was stimulated by my musings on crockery in an earlier diary piece, to pursue a developing story that began for him when he and Barbara met Dick and Hilary Dorward during a holiday last year in…
Leaving so soon?
Not quite 48 hours by the sea, and now it’s time to return home. This mini-break was really only conceived as a test run, in relative safety and proximity to home. There are pets to feed, garden to tend, and…
Far-flung families . . .
It’s a truism of contemporary life, I guess, that family members often find themselves separated by great distances. And it’s not even necessarily contemporary — this diaspora has been going on for generations, centuries. My family history of the twentieth…
Triplets of renown
Got a PM the other day, oh, yesterday I guess, from Pierre Schryer, and that felt like quite a blast from the past! When ‘Northumbrian Music Nights’ was in full promotions mode (between ’95 and ’05 I guess), we were…