The Big Garden and Croft

Jonathan: Discovered last night that the bike and loaded panniers is so heavy and wide that I couldn’t get it into the van, so cycled over to the buyers house, left the bike and walked back. Exchange of motorhome and payment now complete. Cycled up to the station, and found that the only way of getting the bike to the station ws a service lift in the Howard Centre, which you had to ask for – by going upstears. Instead someone helped me get the bike up the steps to the bridge from the Broadwater side of the railway. No … Continue reading →

Jonathan: Last day at work today. I bought some eatable goodies to share with close colleagues, and we went out for lunch at The Cork. Feelings all mixed up. Of course I never wanted to have to come here in the first place, last summer; but aside from the frustrating lack of work, it’s worked out well. I shall miss Welwyn GC, St Albans and Hertford. I shall miss the familiarity of Tesco at Hatfield. I shall miss the leaves on the trees – I shall miss the trees! I shall even miss the familar landmarks along the A414, the … Continue reading →

Denise: Today, the postie came with bags of Jonathan’s bits!!  Three big bags (feed bags I posted to him last week) that he posted on Saturday afternoon (how’s that for service!) with everything from a feather pillow to a carving knife, bicycle spares to a Mary Webb novel, and kitchen paper towels to tinned mackerel!  There’s another bag somewhere on route, and he now tells me there’ll be another three or four sent later this week.  And then am bodach himself on Sunday. … Continue reading →

Jonathan: Last summer – before starting work here in England – I worked with a small team of volunteers doing a very detailed survey of the huge Hallan cemetery near Daliburgh. With the help of Sandy (chief instigator of the project) I surveyed the position of all graves – with headstones and without – together with boundary walls, roads, buildings etc. That formed the framework of a database of all the graves and their occupants going back many generations.  Believe it or not, this information was until now stored mostly in the heads of successive sextons.  That reflects the importance … Continue reading →

Back at the blogging keyboard for the first time for at least a fortnight.  A week at home – scarcely time to think let alone distil those thoughts; then back at work in England and increasingly an environment that denies me the very things that inspire me … But now various threads are coming together, a sense of direction is restored, and here I am … And I think it’s been much the same for Denise, too.