Category: Community
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Harry Hymer in the queue for joy
We’ve not had Harry Hymer out on the road for over a year now. But yesterday we booked him in for his MOT, and by mid-December he should be road-worthy again. That will be timely, since he may be pressed into accommodation service during the big move. In any event, there’s a lot of tidying, […]
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Joys of Writers Groups
Today I’m hymning the praises of writers groups; that is, groups of writers who have a common interest in becoming better writers. I’ve participated in four (no, wait a moment, five) groups of writers now, in addition to a writers retreat under the auspices of the Arvon Foundation, at Lumb Bank, Ted Hughes’ home. The […]
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Joys of written records . . .
Every few days, it seems, I trawl back through my adventures in daily diarising to retrieve some tidbit of information about this particular patch in the North Pennines. Although I know the diary inside and out, it’s useful to have some tangible pointer for illustration, when I’m relating this or that bit of relevant factoid. […]
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A helping hand
When our big kitchen dining table broke the other day, I wasn’t sure it could be fixed. But after I’d squished under with our son and we looked at the broken culprit, a piece of wood stay that had sheared in half, I thought maybe we might be in with a chance. The screws holding […]
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Luxury of warmth
It was down to 2º outside last night. The auguries for a hard winter are becoming impossible to ignore, and so many people are facing complete destitution, having to choose between eating or heating, or neither. How, one might ask, can we be complacent in our delight at the warmth we may personally experience, when […]
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Rediscovering the recent past . . .
I’ve had the unexpected privilege of a lovely writing job: in celebration of the upcoming twenty year anniversary of the Allendale Lions Club, my proposal for yet another blog, this time documenting recent social history, was taken up and now I’m plunged deep into the recent past. I may already have mentioned this role in […]
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Today we look for joy in the midst of sorrow . . .
I’ve been watching a lovely video, called Winifreda’s Return, uploaded last year to YouTube, of Garry sailing the family yacht/fishing boat of ancient vintage, a century old, and describing its history. Although he was a wonderful narrator, as the craft sailed the high seas, I think he was probably even more at home within the […]
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A slight act of selflessness . . .
I wondered why the marjoram label was regularly covered with compost. We noticed it buried again as we went out for a short walking interval between rainy spells. I moved to clear it off, but my hand froze mid-air. The cat droppings were a good clue. We made our progression around a new-to-us circuit, on […]
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Social joy of a community garden . . .
We decided to take a little drive over to the community garden, being developed from an ageing walled garden on the Garroch Hall Estate, to see how the extensive volunteer effort, coordinated and funded by Local Initiatives in New Galloway (LING) was doing. It took a bit of finding but we got there in the […]
Roads to Joy 