Category: Humour
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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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Cuckoo calling and schadenfreude
We clocked several new plants on our pleasant amble through the marshland yesterday. All identified with the iPlant app, beginning with ‘fox and cubs’ and moving on to the pink flowered ‘Endres cranesbill,’ the ‘bush vetch’ and the ‘blister sedge,’ and finishing off with the ‘long-headed poppy.’ The plants were a delight enough for us,…
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Clearing a path through the docks and nettles
Sometimes the easiest way forward is on your hands and knees. So it was with our two paths on either side of one of the potato patches/chicken runs. On the right side, looking out over the valley, soft fruit bushes (logan berry; blueberry; black and red currant) were once sequestered from the birds by black…
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The feeling of being needed
I often feel that I’m not needed, and that can be hard to bear, after insinuating myself into a variety of positions where it seemed only I could facilitate. We set up a robust swing for the grands, a decade ago, but found that a garden bench swing was also needed for ourselves. We did…
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Sometimes, the joy is better the longer the wait . . .
When my mower, aka Plough-poo-mulcher, bit the dust a month ago, I despaired. I could see that nobody here in the UK stocks a replacement part for the mowing deck any longer; it’s long been retired. But the John Deere brand is hugely popular stateside (apparently we can thank the invention of the mass-produced steel…
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Simple tidiness is more than its own reward
I’ve never been the tidiest person, so on the occasion (rare) when I do tidy the place up, and when I sit back and look at the space that’s emerged from a jumble of accumulated stacks of papers, I have to laugh at myself admiring the neatness! That huge expanse of white, upon which my…
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Great bar snacks . . .
Delighted to serve you, sparrow friend. Your presence has brought a little joy into our kitchen. Not so colourful as their colleagues the blue tits, the chaffinches or gold finches, nor so cheeky as our cock robin, nevertheless the chatter of the hedge sparrows and the dunnocks, when the wild bird seed is laid out…
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All the comforts
Up here on the high fellside, our beloved neighbour has developed his artistic hobby to a high degree, and intriguing birdhouses line the walls of our sheds. This one, a verbatim copy of my man-cave, the eponymous ‘Elf Hole,’ delivered with aplomb on my birthday, is meant to accommodate a friendly blue tit family. When…
Roads to Joy 