I know there’s a metaphor in there somewhere. The minute hand especially keeps falling off our big kitchen clock. I take it all apart, screw the little round nut back on, on top of the minute hand, and set it…
Category: Services
Apprehension in Sparty Lea!
It was on Sunday past, but we’ve only just got the goss about the police action in Sparty Lea. Carrie drove through the thick of it, on the way up the Sparty Lea bridge, but more details have come to…
Liz Conway, Bookbinder
Regular readers of the diary may recall the appearance of some pages of the tourist guide called ‘The Roman Wall District’ a couple months ago. A very tatty and bedraggled copy, we wanted to refresh it for convenient viewing by…
The Hexham Courant, our local weekly paper
Now published, and also appearing the same day in the shops, every Thursday, the Hexham Courant has been the local paper of record for many decades, having amalgamated papers from the surrounding towns and villages into its fold throughout the…
Langley Castle’s Hallowe’en
Not a view locals are used to seeing, of this iconic 14th Century castle, this is Langley Castle from the rear, with the new dining room extension. Wikipedia notes that Langley Castle’s most remarkable feature is included in the south-west…
Old Stone Vets at Allendale
After we managed to divest ourselves of our daughter’s two lovely black cats, which went on to a new, permanent brilliant home as she embarked on a year plus surgical fellowship in Sydney, a question arose about vaccinations. We realised…
Cart’s Bog Inn at Langley
At lunch the other day in the Cart’s Bog Inn, I had a quick chat with Stuart Davison, who I discovered is expecting to be celebrating running the place for a decade in March 2020. I remember so well when…
Hair by Trudie
What if someone invented a service where the tea has just been finished, the kids are all relaxed, the dishwasher is loaded, the doorbell rings, and a friendly hairdresser walks in and proceeds to take care of the whole family’s…
Electric Vehicle Charging Point?
I can’t remember a time since it was installed, under the auspices of the Allen Valleys Landscape Partnership administering a £2.4million Heritage Lottery grant secured by the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty quango, that the Electric Vehicle Charging…
The Charity Auction!
By Friday evening, Allendale Village Hall was filled to the gunwales with everything that’s anything under the sun. It felt like more amazing stuff than ever, more than the last couple of years certainly. Some decided treasures, some dross naturally,…