A local walk

                                                      The Common  (Autumn 2012)

We had a rare sunny day on Wednesday so it was a good opportunity to take a walk through the village and up to the Common.

         the village stocks

Workmen take advantage of the good weather and I stop for a chat with this tiler about the area, renovation work and how the old village has changed over the years. Now there are old and new houses and fewer of the stone built cottages left in the heart of the village.

I walk up a lane to the Common passing an old farmhouse and have another conversation with a council worker and his mate who are doing some maintenance work on a bridle path.

                                                                    rowan and gorse

                                                            silver birch and honeysuckle

                                                   silver birch and sycamore, ferns and heather

There were quarry workings for ganister until the early 20th century and there are left-over spoils all over the Common. Ganister is a hard, fine-grained sandstone used in the making of bricks that lined furnaces.

                                                

From the ridge there's a good view down to the village.

The pub at the top of the village hosts a family firework party on the 5th November.

The almshouses.  The community centre and Scouts' building (not included) are all in the parish church grounds.

Home!

Since Wednesday there has been more progress on the garden project thanks to hard work of my husband. Despite the damp weather he's utilised the unused paving slabs by double stacking them to make a neat paved area for the greenhouse and his pot plants. The area under the fig tree has a flower bed and I shall get some winter bedding plants to give some colour there. All the soil has been transferred to the vegetable plot. Hopefully my husband can now enjoy a rest and start planning what he'll grow there.

The garden in October

Yesterday we had a relatively dry day, although as you can see storm clouds were rolling over in the afternoon and by tea time another lot of heavy rain set in. It's been difficult to do much gardening during the recent wet weather so a fairly dry day was a welcome one in order to get on with a new project.

Do you remember our plans to re-arrange a corner of our small garden so that we could grow some vegetables in a plot rather than in between the plants and shrubs in the flower bed near the covered yard and also create a small seating area under the fig tree surrounded by plants in containers? We've started on this work (or to be more accurate, my husband has been busy and I've been watching and making suggestions)!

The small raised bed was too full this Summer as many of the plants had got too big and needed to be moved at the end of the flowering period. We were given a magnolia and a new box plant in August and we'll leave them in the pots until we decide where to put them.  The bench by the wall will be moved to make room for some tomato plants to be grown next year in containers.

The raised flower bed was cleared of plants.  The plastic 'greenhouse' has been moved to the paved area near the garage. Half of the paving slabs were taken up and stacked and the hard core underneath them dug out. This will be the vegetable plot.  A layer of soil was taken out of the raised bed and will be used in the vegetable plot.  The rubble and sand underneath the paving stones has been put in the raised bed and pressed down to create a foundation for the final surface layer. At the moment we're undecided what to use - cobbles, slabs, another type of paving material or small pebbles or slate pieces.

A few flowers and leaves give some colour in the rest of the garden this October.
     

'The Angel of the North', Gateshead, Tyne and Wear

                                                             Photo: 2011

We've driven passed Antony Gormley's now familiar sculpture 'The Angel of the North' several times in recent years when travelling to and from Northumberland but never taken a closer look. Our friend who was driving us to Alnmouth suggested we did just that and we readily agreed.  Nothing prepares you for the scale of the sculpture until you get close to it. Reading the information at the site about the sculptor's choice of image and location, the construction, transporting and installing of it was thought-provoking. I thought of the coal mining industry of Co. Durham and Tyneside and of those members of my own family on my mother's side who in past generations had worked in coal mines in towns north of Newcastle-on-Tyne.  

                                    Standing on the mound by the sculpture is my husband.

                                                  I'm standing near the base of the sculpture.