13 September 2015

Autumnal Colours In North Yorkshire

I have always liked autumn.  The weather is cooler than summer, or at least in theory - this year's been a washout.

11 August 2015

A Walk Along A Country Lane In North Yorkshire

Last night whilst Sophie was playing tennis with our son, Jamie, I went for a walk along the River Ure with our daughter, Poppy.  It was a beautiful evening with swallows and sand martins out in abundance and only a few others around.  The river flow...

01 May 2014

Axel's and Sophie's quirky guide to running a small business

Here’s our list of things we have learnt over the last 10 years of running a small start-up and a guide to the way we do business. It’s all rather homespun and certainly will never find its way into books on how to run a successful business nor in an...

26 October 2011

Roman Wall Blues

Off to visit my parents this weekend for my Dad's 75th birthday.  We live almost on top of the Roman wall outside of Corbridge.  I thought this poem that reminds you of what it must be like being a soldier away from home, whether Romans or Syrian arc...

02 October 2011

The Sound of Northumberland

I have been to listen and watch Kathryn Tickell twice over the last month, once in Ripon and then at the Sage with her new show, Northumbrian Voices with her band and her dad - actually her dad, Mike Tickell, also came to the show in the Holy Trinity...

11 August 2011

St Wilfrid's Procession In Ripon (30 July 2011)

Today was the annual St Wilfrid Procession through Ripon.  This celebrates our city's patron saint, St Wilfrid, who was one of the great northern saints and important people of early Northumbria.  He is very unlike the ascetic Irish (Celtic) saints t...

09 August 2011

Aldborough Agricultural Show (24 July 2011)

After a couple of weeks away, we return home to glorious weather; blue skies and really hot.  Normally, we are still away this weekend, so we generally miss the local show - the Aldborough and Boroughbridge Agricultural Show - which is gentle like th...

08 August 2011

Last Walks Along Northumbrian Coast For This Year (22/23 July 2011)

06 August 2011

Wet weather day in Alnwick (20 July 2011)

A dreich, gray day.  What to do: the girls went to Alnwick swimming pool and had a great time.  My parents went to Paxton House north of the River Tweed near Berwick.  We went to Alnwick to Alnwick Castle.

04 August 2011

Two trips to the Farne Islands (18 & 19 July 2011)

03 August 2011

Walk To Low Newton – Stinking Newton (17 July 2011)

02 August 2011

Walk Around Some Of Glenkiln Sculptures (16 July 2011)

Sometimes you come across something truly beautiful.  Something simple, yet seemingly perfect.  So it was the other day when, on the way from a week near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries & Galloway we turned off the A75 near Dumfries to Shawhead and the...

12 June 2011

Ripon's Flood Alleviation Scheme

Around a year ago, I wrote a few blogs about walking along the Rivers Skell and Ure in Ripon.  The rivers run through Ripon and circle around the ever looming presence of Ripon Cathedral on the mount at Ripon's heart.  The rivers bring the countrysid...

30 April 2011

Two Simple Chocolate Traybakes Made For Village Royal Wedding Tea Party

11 December 2010

Countdown To Christmas

It is that time of the year again when I start panicking that I have not got everything ready for Christmas.  What have you forgotten?  No presents bought that is for sure, but the thought and desire is there.  Soon, I feel myself say, there's still...

26 September 2010

Sunrise Walk For St Michael's Hospice

30 August 2010

A Sense Of Community

On Saturday morning, I went to Havenhands the Bakers in St James's Square in Boroughbridge*, then on to the Post Office before going to Ripon to watch the start of the Annual Raft Race in the Ripon Canal Basin.  On that short journey, I met several p...

28 August 2010

School Reports And Memories Of Mowden Hall School

I went to small, all-boys prep school in Northumberland called Mowden Hall School, which still exists and is now a mixed prep school.  In fact, my father went there the first year it moved to Northumberland after the Second World War.  It seems so ol...