Greetings from sunny Scotland!
AllendaleDiary.org was such a large part of our lives from our home in Sparty Lea, and I loved it so much I’ve kept it alive online, thanks to ourBen’s kind hosting.  I’ve thought its daily presentation of the events of 2019 could be useful for future historians, looking back at that year in the life of our community.  Little did we know that life would change so dramatically in 2020 with the Covid lockdowns, and we ourselves couldn’t know then that circumstances would mean we needed to live within a village.  Sadly for us, post-Covid, rural property prices skyrocketed, so we had to look elsewhere than Allendale.  We are now happily ensconced in New Galloway, not far from the border, and yes, we do think of the Allen Valleys often, and of our friends there.

I’m activating this lovely blog, much as I did to announce my follow-on effort several years ago, the eponymously named RoadsToJoy.blog with which I hope I was able to entertain for about two years.  I found that thinking about joyful things was therapeutic, good for the soul you might say, and naturally, I cannot bear to let that blog slide away into oblivion either.  But my attention swerved, finally, to a conscientious effort to create a real novel, incidentally an effort that grew out of one of Claire Lynn’s Creative Writing sessions in Hexham.  I’ve found such joy writing this book! 

I’m delighted to announce, now, that the novel, already receiving pre-publication accolades like a Finalist ranking in the Pen Masters Global Award for Literary Excellence, will launch formally on the 10th of September here in New Galloway at our Arts Centre (gcat.scot/arts/).  The launch, in which I’ll be interviewed by the novelist MargaretElphinstone.co.uk, will, we expect, be live-streamed and recorded for posterity on The CatStrand YouTube channel.

Incidentally, I’m writing under a pen name, Aldon Law, to differentiate this effort from my erstwhile apprenticeship in the science fiction (hard) realm.  I’d like to think this general fiction (historical, literary, cultural heritage, family saga) effort is much more worth the read than my science-heavy BiomeNE47.com series which, although prescient in idea, fell short in writerly craftsmanship.  I feel The Song Cannot Be Silenced is, after some eight years of gestation, a real novel, in effect a debut novel, at last.

My authorial website will, I hope, help to illuminate the setting, but I shall also be blogging about the continuing odyssey — there’s real creativity in this part of the book business as well, involving a host of different skills to learn — and so I hope readers who know my voice will be intrigued to follow the book’s travels, as the paperback, eBook and Audible books are prepared for publication, which will occur online and worldwide on the date of the book launch.

If you click along to AldonLaw.com you will find all the current news about the book I fondly think of as ’The Song . . .’ and I’ll be glad to welcome you there!  As a friendly gesture to readers far and near who have shared my words over the years, I’ll be opening a window of opportunity to download a free copy of the eBook from my author site, at some point this summer, so you might want to sign up to my author’s blog there to be sure to be notified of that complimentary offer. There’s also a Contact form on the site to start a conversation with the author directly, which might be useful for after the book is published.  Anyway, just to say, I won’t trouble the AllendaleDiary waters on this subject again.
all best wishes
Larry Winger
Writing as AldonLaw.com, launching The Song Cannot Be Silenced at The CatStrand, New Galloway,on the 10th of September.  Reading in the Local Writers Spotlight,  Wigtown Book Festivalon 29th September.

But it’s now some four years hence, March of 2023, and the Allendale Diary has not been updated really since I mentioned that I was moving on into joyful pursuits. I’m spending my blogging time on the eponymous RoadsToJoy.blog which repays my every foray with an often unexpected delight.

So the information in this ‘Year in the Life of a Northumbrian Community’ will, increasingly, be dated and no longer relevant. This AllendaleDiary.org website has been archived, kindly, by a family member, and the compiled, searchable pdf of the entire volume is available for sale, still, at a very reasonable price. All continuing proceeds from the sale of the hard copy book, and the pdf, are of course going to the Allendale Lions Club for their disbursement to good causes.

I mention these things because viewers sometimes think that this is a contemporary diary, when in fact it is a specific record of the year of 2019. Many thanks for your understanding, as you pursue any investigations within these pages.

Perhaps we don’t think that writing follows trends, but according to @thebookseller (yes, I’m gradually getting my head around the twittertariat) the zeitgeist is moving towards joy. Agents and publishers are looking for manuscripts that deal with that particular emotion. Certainly we could all use some more of that, couldn’t we! Well, that’s handy, then, since I’ve just launched a new participatory blog: RoadsToJoy.blog which celebrates life and feelings, with a special emphasis on rural joy.

But, as the long tagline of the blog notes, many roads may lead to happiness, but most travel through perseverance and despair. I’ve been stimulated, energised even, by the participatory monthly anthology at VisualVerse.org which curates some 100 pieces submitted from writers around the world, in response to an image. In the January ’22 issue, for example, one of my poems is published (at #12) which references some great folk nights back in the day.

So I thought, why don’t I create a platform for a shared experience, showcasing musings, memoirs, stories and poems, to which people working along on their own road, especially those of us who share the deeply rural lifestyle, could submit some sense of their own journey. And then I had to think of a name that might embrace the concept. I thought, this could be a bit like AllendaleDiary.org, but without the factoids. Concentrating on feelings. I don’t, yet, have any thoughts on creating a hold-in-your-hand book. But after thinking about words (and puns!) the title gradually settled neatly in my mind, and the RoadsToJoy.blog was born.

Anyway, now that the more journalistic diary is an archive, it could be great fun to help develop a dynamic relationship between readers and writers, and that’s where the Roads To Joy blog is heading. You can see what the blog is all about, check out the first few entries, subscribe with the button through the blog link and receive a bit of joy in your mailbox with every entry. And then, what a delight if you yourself would consider contributing a piece for public consumption! Joy experienced is joy shared! I’m working to promote this new blog rather farther and wider than I managed with the diary.

The best way to send anything through is by email, direct to me (larry.winger@btinternet.com or larrywinger@icloud.com) and I will do my best to apply a light editing touch, if I think it can be served on the blog and if it’s useful. I want to put the very best writing that we can into this new and developing service. Can’t promise it will be daily, but I’m pretty sure it will be regular.

all best wishes

Larry

AllendaleDiary.org (an archive of a year in the daily life of a Northumbrian community)

BiomeNE47.com (a writer’s journey through process and discipline)

RoadsToJoy.blog (a regular blog celebrating life and feelings experienced along a rural way)

It seems to have been seamless, the transition of these Allendale Diary pages from a fee-based web hosting service to an independent platform within the family, as it were. The serving of individual pages and everything associated with the online diary appears to be as functional as it ever was, thanks to the effort before Christmas, 2021, of the web designer in our midst. And so it’s likely that the online information that’s been a part of the community for the past two years will continue for a while longer.

Meanwhile, some browsers have taken up the opportunity to acquire the eBook for comprehensive offline study on their own devices without needing the internet. The Book of the Blog page holds links to the Amazon platform from which the complete eBook, a virtual facsimile of the entire online experience, can be purchased. That’s been another transition. Of course, the physical book is still available locally thanks to the kind service at the Forge Studios in Allendale’s Market Square.

Additionally, the diarist, that’s me, well . . . I think I’ve been reasonably diligent in the writing sphere, transitioning over this past year from a first novel to a prequel volume, and lately moving into a sequel (scheduled for completion by the end of April this year). Fiction turns out to be rather fun. If you’re interested in the craft of writing, and would enjoy a friendly interaction with the writer/producer of the diary, in a more creative writing context, do check out my writer’s blog and archive material at BiomeNE47.com/blog where you’ll be very welcome. I can’t promise to respond to every query, however, since my head is down and I’m working hard on my 1000 word/day target so as to reach my spring goal.

Speaking of transitions, and realising that my foray into the ‘hard science fiction’ genre (that is, sci-fi that’s based on a reasonable scientific premise, which in my case includes the newer genre ‘cli-fi’ or climate fiction) will likely be finished with the completion of my Biome NE47 trilogy, I’ve been exploring a new writing strategy since the autumn: historical fiction. My explorations in this sphere, as well as some tentative ventures into poetry, are also documented, and archived at BiomeNE47.com.

Hoping your own reading and possibly writing adventures are sailing on into the New Year, and with all best wishes,

Larry Winger, AllendaleDiary.org

Our potato plants are doing very well this year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been just over two years since I wrote somewhat lyrically about preparation and anticipation in the Allendale Diary, in relation to potatoes, but time moves along, doesn’t it! Although I didn’t realise it quite at the time of writing, the diary project was never just ‘small beer’ or, as they might say in North America, ‘small potatoes.’ Even while writing about the delights of growing them, I was very conscious of the potato’s status as metaphor. Well. I was reminded of this diary entry by a friendly editor of HappyDIYhome.com who came upon my musings, and who has published a very useful guide to storing potatoes.

Jenn Stark, editor and founder of this lifestyle site/newsletter/social media platform, who lives in New Zealand, was very kind about my thoughts on waiting for the big reveal of the harvest, and wondered if she could share the piece with their 100k readers. With great pleasure, of course, I agreed to reciprocate.

I’d been looking for an excuse anyway to send out a note to Allendale Diary subscribers, because the online blog is coming soon to the end of its natural life. When 2021 closes out, the diary will have been available for two full years online, all throughout the pandemic, its entries cheerfully documenting what life was like back in 2019 when it was just normal. For whatever reason, the diary pages still elicit a consistent century of views week in and week out. Meanwhile, although it’s been compiled into a big paperback, still available at The Forge Studios with proceeds going to charity (current tally is nearing the £1000 mark for good causes, raised locally), it seems like a shame to lose the electronic version entirely.

Happily, there’s a workaround, and that’s to present the diary in an eBook format. Using Adobe Acrobat Pro to combine the foreword, postscript, and all the blog pages collated by BlogBooker, I created a new pdf of the diary, which I then put through Calibre to render into a Kindle-friendly version. When the online blog lapses, I could try to serve it up on Amazon’s bookshelf where it can live in a slightly different incarnation. At that point, I can also enrol the eBook of the diary into Kindle Select for reading by anyone who subscribes to Kindle Unlimited, which may increase its reading audience worldwide. For all of this service, of course, Amazon will provide the storage, if I understand their publishing rules correctly, so that the project will have an independent life of its own after the blog hosting finishes. Incidentally, the new eBook is rather big: just about 2600 standard Kindle pages! As readers across the planet might delight in their vicarious experience of this community, I hope they may also come to know and understand some of the attractions of these North Pennine fellsides.

A prototype addition to the author’s bookshelf

At the moment, this has just been a preliminary exercise, but before I go ahead and launch this concept, it would be very worthwhile to have a set of opinions from readers and contributors as to the best way forward for the Allendale Diary project, which in so many ways has been a collaborative effort. Probably, as is the way of all things, the project will ultimately fall away into oblivion, but my thinking is that at least it could be preserved for another couple of years anyway. Perhaps generate more revenue for distribution to good causes, as was the purpose of the effort from its outset. Amazon’s sales figures are differentiated between products, so I can easily distinguish the revenue elicited by sales of my novels, for example, vs the revenue from the Allendale Diary eBook which would be earmarked for Allendale Lions Club disbursement.

Looking back on that year of diarising, it seems hardly feasible that 2019, the last full normal year before the Covid pandemic, should have been chosen for this ‘year in the life,’ but there we are. A comprehensive record of life in a vibrant community, before. And so, something to aspire to as well, as we hope to venture somewhere back into normality soon.

As I say, more than just small potatoes then. Though this year’s crop are very tasty indeed!

But, well, aye. Really. There are some parts of village life that a reportorial journal/diary simply cannot reach. So to try to encompass the missing gaps, a series of fictional novels is now live and available on the Amazon platform:

The development of this series is documented in the author’s ‘fiction’ blog: BiomeNE47.com which you are very welcome to visit. Meanwhile, especially for visitors to these Allendale Diary pages, there’s a free offering of the first ten thousand words or so.

Free taster!

Greetings as we look to emerge from the pandemic!  Ever so slowly, ever so hesitantly, but possibly sometime around the corner.   It’s been quite a year, hasn’t it? I do hope that everyone sharing in this list has made it through safely. One of the things I’ve been grateful for is that the Covid crisis waited until after an otherwise normal calendar year, which allowed us all to contribute to Allendale Diary throughout 2019, before it hit.

After I put AllendaleDiary.org  to bed, wrapped it into a big book, and distributed it locally, I was, as some of you may have realised, feeling rather bereft. But I found some consolation in working on a different project.   The timely lesson of Allendale Diary, to me, is that I should never hesitate before embarking on that exciting adventure I’ve been contemplating. Rather, one must make the very most of the time available.

The thing was, I’d realised, with the diary, that there were significant parts of village life that a piece of narrative reporting could not really reach.  The only way I could figure to access those parts was in a fictional, novelistic format.   So I put my head down and began.  I was well into it by the time lockdown was upon us, and so of course I just carried on through. Although the writing discipline I’d acquired throughout 2019 was a valuable lesson, cranking out some 750 words daily, it’s been a different kind of odyssey on the novelistic trail, but the project is now coming to fruition. If you’re interested in continuing to explore village life with me, through an extended series of novels,  I’d like to direct your attention to my new blog/website, BiomeNE47.com.

The first of the Biome NE47 series, Prequel,  launched on the 1st of June ’21 on the worldwide Amazon/Kindle/Audible platforms,  as an eBook and later as a paperback.     The second volume was published on the 1st of July. The third is planned for publication early in 2022,  as writing for it should commence in September.  Meanwhile, for a taster of the fictional experience in store, I hope you might enjoy reading these  Fragments of a Song,  a collection of scenes now served as an eBook, for free, via the ‘Free taster’ link up beside the cover image at the top of this post, through a link on the BiomeNE47.com site, or through the BookFunnel link just below.

The download will ask for your email address so that I can let you know, beloved readers of the diary pages, directly when free offerings of the novels become available.  My ambition is to offer the novels free to local readers who, I believe, will be the best critics and reviewers possible. Otherwise, I’m hoping that the independent route to self-publishing will be a reasonable commercial proposition, eliciting paying readers from around the world.  It must be about time somebody tries to immortalise life in this vibrant village, after all.

Download the free taster in eBook format (.epub or .mobi for Kindle) from BookFunnel, with my compliments!

The Biome NE47 series begins sixty years in the future, starting off in 2080.  Whatever will have happened around these parts by that time?  You might like to join me, the author, in discussions about the developing scenario, the crafting of the novels, and the otherwise lonely endeavour of writing.  The friendly blog details some of the odyssey from January of this year, when I began writing  Prequel.  

all best wishes

Larry

BiomeNE47.com

Although I’ve been watching the updates on my account with BookPrintingUK.com like a very impatient hawk hovering at the roadside in the afternoon sunshine, I wasn’t quite sure, after the ‘BW Insides Printing’ the ‘Trimming’ and the ‘Quality Control’ notices, just what ‘Sent to Production’ might actually mean. Within the hour, however, a ‘Complete’ notice appeared. Another hour later and the notice came in by cheerful email that the shipment of the first 100 copies of Allendale Diary was due to be dispatched by Parcel Force’s Express24 service. Which means that five large cartons of books should be delivered to our door this very afternoon!

So I expect I shall be excitedly working to deliver the pre-paid orders along to some 25 very-much-valued supporters, over the next few days — thank you very much!

Meanwhile, as abashed as I am to countenance it, the suggestion from Margaret Stonehouse and Carrie that we should have a little book signing event, didn’t seem that unreasonable, though I’m naturally a very shy person, of course. Even more so after being such a recluse up in the fells these past couple of years. But I was persuaded to be brave, and so, and so:

A Launch and Book Signing session has been scheduled for Monday the 10th of February, between 7 and 8pm at The King’s Head. Everyone’s invited and, of course, copious quantities of the ‘book of the blog’ will be available for purchase at £20; all proceeds after the printing costs are defrayed will be going to charity. I do already have some 10 additional copies reserved by friendly readers of the blog, some of whom have promised to be at the book signing that I’d tentatively mentioned to them. So it could be quite a lovely little session. I do so hope that regular readers might drop in!

Until I actually have the copies in hand, as it were, I won’t publicise the launch any further beyond the blog family, though it would take some strength to hold all 100kg of books! So you heard it here first, which is as it should be, I reckon. I’ll be in touch individually with those who pre-ordered their copies, so that delivery can be arranged.

 THIRTEEN LUNAR MONTHS AND ONE NAMELESS DAY
 

 UIL-IOK - THE NAMELESS DAY 
 December 23rd
 
 On orchard trees Mistletoe gleams greenish white.
 Hardy black coated Dale’s ponies shelter
 patiently awaiting their daily gift of fodder.
 Just an occasional flick of a tail.
 
 ****************************************************************
 BETH – BIRCH
 December 24 – January 20
 

 Lady-of-the –woods
 tenuously rooted in shallow soil
 sweet sap unrisen in lacy branches
 rods to beat the bounds
 banish the spirits of the old year.
 You silver the dark day with your grace
 remind us of the sun’s rebirth.
 A bay filly picks her delicate way through the copse
 where, dormant in green turf,
 wound-healing daisies sleep.
 
 **************************************************************** 
 LUIS – ROWAN
 January 21 – February 17
 

 Strongly rooted, bereft of scarlet crown
 and ringed with snowdrops,
 Rowan guards the darkening day.
 A mile away I see a white horse
 standing in a meadow
 at Candlemas.
 
 **************************************************************** 
 NION – ASH
 February 18 – March 17
 

 I am the world tree. I span heaven and earth.
 In groves on grassy knolls my branches lean inwards
 to protect the sacred space, portal into another realm.
 See my tight black spiral buds
 opening late into leaf.
 Listen to the dry rustle of my keys beneath your feet.
 Roan gelding, eager to gallop like the wind
 across an endless plain, tosses his head,
 takes off at a canter around his tiny field
 where windflowers grow.
 
 ****************************************************************
 FEARN – ALDER
 March 18 – April 14
 

 Peaty waters reflect alder catkins.
 On stick thin shaky legs
 a piebald foal shelters at his mother’s side
 breathing in the sleepy scent of golden broom.
 
 **************************************************************** 
 SAILLE – WILLOW
 April 15 - -May 12
 

 Grey mare sallies forth bearing
 Queen of the May
 Dressed all in white, flowers in her hair
 where ritual dancers weave the magic pattern 
 and the Beltane fire is lit again.
 Below a bank of primroses
 willow branches move with grace in the gentle breeze
 enclosing the space where lovers lie unseen.
 
 **************************************************************** 
 UATH –HAWTHORN
 May 13 – June 9
 

 Never bring indoors my branches
 smothered in heavy-scented creamy blossom.
 Below the May tree a man speaks salvation
 to hundreds drinking in his every word.
 Bearing symbolic trefoil of leaves
 wood sorrel flowers where his sorrel steed grazes,
 grateful for this pause in saving the whole world.
 
 ****************************************************************
 DUIR – OAK
 June 10 – July 7
 

 Summer turns at the high solstice. 
 Skittish dun colt tramples his golden flower
 nestling beneath the mighty oak,
 which, like the ash,
 courts the lightning flash.
 So carve a quartered circle, protect the tree
 that makes strong doors to keep out evil.
 Strong doors to keep out evil.
 
 ****************************************************************  
 TINNE – HOLLY
 July 8 – August 4
 
Lammastide.  Earth-mother reigns supreme
over games and sport and marriage.
A chestnut brood-mare avoids the prickly hedge
to walk among the sweet meadow flowers
balm for pierced fingers
beaded with blood-drop berries.
Bridewort broadcasts her heady scent.
Strewn meadowsweet softens
the hard boards of the bride-chamber floor.

 ****************************************************************        
COLL – HAZEL
August 5 – September 1
 

 Nine years in the making
 pale green trinity of cob nuts lies hidden
 among my divining branches.
 Lay my shiny brown kernel in the palm of your hand
 and wonder.
 Holding all wisdom, it is all that is made.
 The tawny cob nuzzles the treasure
 fallen beneath his feet.
 
 ****************************************************************
 MUIN - VINE
 September 2 – 29
 

 I stand In Autumn sunshine,
 absorbed in gathering blackberries,
 so beloved by the wasps
 that sting the unwary.
 They say brambles belong to the faeries,
 but I will transform my sweet black berries
 into jam and puddings
 and heady wine for cold winter days.
 I turn at a slight sound to see
 calm brown eyes of three Dale’s ponies
 gazing at me 
 hopefully awaiting a gift.
 
 ****************************************************************
 GORT – IVY
 September 30 – October 27
 

 Ivy’s tenacious tendrils 
 invade my boundary wall , evergreen.
 Bittersweet scarlet berries of woody nightshade,
 healing and harmful, brighten the autumn day. 
 The skewbald yearling whinnies
 as he greets me at the gate.
 
 **************************************************************** 
 NGETAL - REED
 October 28 – November 24
 

 Once my poisoned arrows flew the swiftest
 and in great armfuls I was cut to thatch your homes.
 Endings and new beginnings at Samhain.
 These are the days when we honour our dead,
 a time of bittersweet remembrance and letting go.
 Fine black horses, their heads tossing black plumes
 once formed the funeral cortege.
 Horseless carriages now take their place.
 The destination is the same.
 
 ****************************************************************
 RUIS – ELDER
 November 25 – December 22
 

 The sun stands still.
 Golden rays penetrate deep into the cave,
 And funnel through pierced holes in rock.
 Pick my last berries with solemn rites,
 be warmed by my heavy wine
 and dream the dark days away.
 (May no nightmares disturb.)
 Then prophesy, divine the future
 and with my purple wine regenerate 
 body and spirit 
 of sacrificial victims.
 
 ************************************************************ 
 UIL-IOK - THE NAMELESS DAY
 December 23
 

 Just an occasional flick of a tail.
 Patiently awaiting their daily gift of fodder
 hardy black coated Dale’s ponies shelter..
 On orchard trees Mistletoe gleams greenish white.
 
 **********************************************************  
 Marjorie Anderson
 

Well, let’s see . . . a fair bit of work has gone into the compiling of all the components for the big ‘book of the blog,’ but it’s all finished now, and the proof came back by 1st Class post on Wednesday from the printer. It looks like quite a delight, to be honest!

In fact, there was only one minor modification to make to the proof copy, which was actually the printer’s error: for reasons known only to them, they decided to print the ‘Afterword’ right after the ‘Foreword’ and before the actual blog contents. But fortuitously, that extra bit of time meant that I could spend that much more ruminating effort before pressing the big ‘Print’ button (100kg of books — in slightly archaic terms, that’s a quintal — is not something to embark on lightly!). And so I was able to add another two salient paragraphs of thanks and clarification. Now the final ‘Afterword’ is in the printer’s hands, with careful instructions as to its proper placement, and printing can commence.

I shall be delighted to be distributing the pre-ordered copies to subscribers as soon as they arrive (perhaps by the middle of the week commencing on the 20th, if the printer’s schedule can be relied on), and there are intimations of a book signing (how very grand, man!) session in early February, so watch this space!

Some readers have kindly wondered if I might not be feeling slightly bereft, after the daily discipline of diarising has been let go, but I’ve been happy to develop other projects to be getting on with, thanks very much! And it looks like great fun to be getting the whole blog out in print and into readers’ hands. A tangible thing, in other words, which somehow makes the whole process feel that much more ‘real.’

Meanwhile, thanks so much for your patience, and apologies to those of you who have intimated that they are themselves feeling slightly discomfited without their daily dose of Allendale Diary (maybe I can garner in some more useful contributions over the coming months before the 2nd Edition, if it should be required). So the blog space is always open — at least until the end of 2021 — for additional words!

Fingers at pen or keyboard, then: ready, steady now, and go!

There’s a variety of new ideas floating around these valleys, some of which may come to fruition in the new year ahead. If they do, then the work begun this year will have laid the foundation for those projects of the future. Hence, it might be a good idea to diarise just a few of these incipient ideas. Allendale and the Allen Valleys are rarely, so I’ve found, short of ideas!

Thus, for example, at the delightful craft fair held earlier in Decembert, we admired the potential for a new village hall in the old Barney Craig mineshop building, that now has an in-built revenue potential with the ‘camping barn’ facility upstairs. The two, albeit very damp, rooms with vaulted side cupboards below the camping barn could function very well as artist studio spaces. But the intriguing attraction for me was to consider how the big space at the end of the building could become a real village hall. The two immense concrete structures in the centre of the floor would have to be dealt with, and electricity supplied for kitchen capacity, but I understand significant grantsmanship is already under way to this avail. So the Carrshield community looks ahead to the future.

In the same way, as we’ve discussed, ideas for a Repair Café/Repair Day have been developing in the context of Higher Ground and the Medway building. Watch that space too for future announcements!

We’ve mentioned a ‘Welcome Pack‘ idea in a previous diary entry. A small ‘steering group’ has coalesced to develop this idea, with some synergy possible between the entries in the Pocket Directory, and the activities of a group from the Allendale, Whitfield and Ninebanks churches, along with the Get-Together folks, I think, who are investigating whether a ‘Living Dales’ community event might be tentatively scheduled for May of 2020. The funny thing about a ‘Welcome Pack’ is that work on such a project can actually help keep us all informed about what’s going on in the community; as we introduce ourselves, so we get to know each other better!

News has also reached the diary of a revived ‘Sustainable Allendale’ now renamed Sustainable Allen Valleys‘ effort, as announced briefly in Allendale area notices. The Paddock Pop-Up Refill Shop, while a private enterprise, I believe, nevertheless operates with the same ‘sustainability’ ethos as SAV, and has had a couple of well-received days in The Forge’s Studio 6, over the past month. Doubtless more will be heard of this sustainability effort over the coming year.

The Allen Valleys Tourist Forum (it used to be called the Allen Valleys Tourism and Visitor Network) has been rather quiet for several years, but I’ve heard there are serious efforts to revive it, in parallel with, or as well as, to renovate the AllenValleys.com website, again. With so many local holiday cottages and AirBnB enterprises (the Pocket Directory lists some 29 Bed & Breakfast establishments, and in another listing, some 41 self-catering Holiday Cottage enterprises, a few of which may be duplicated between the listings) . . . in totality, these individual enterprises offer quite a significant accommodation provision in these valleys, and a revivified Tourist Forum could be a useful effort in these parts. Unfortunately, the history of these umbrella tourist forums is quite daunting: they’re always popping up, and then foundering, everywhere you look! So time will tell if a new cohesive effort can work for the benefit of everyone. I think the basic conceptual problem is simply that these individual enterprises are, by definition, competing with each other for visitor custom. But I’d be happy to be persuaded that the accommodation providers could work together.

Meanwhile, on the tourism front, a Planning Permission notice has been lodged for 10 camping pods and large clubhouse next to Park House Lodges, Catton. The closing date for comments has now been extended to 31st January 2020. Apparently there are a variety of different views about this further development. Reading some of these on facebook’s ‘Allendale area notices,’ you’d think that folks weren’t quite aware of just how much accommodation provision is already offered in the valleys.

On another continuing development front, the Parish Council has the bit in its teeth on attending to Isaac’s Well, in 2020, creating an outdoor meeting place, looking at useful information signs and street furniture, eliminating the challenging drainage onto paving slabs that can create a glacier to trip up the unwary. All good contributions to village life, sociability, and the health benefits of walks (Isaac would be very proud of the walking parties that might meet at his well), I’m sure. But it’s all a bit tricky because the well itself is a listed building, as it were.

In Allendale area notices, there’s been a recruitment post from The Golden Lion for workers to help in a revived butcher shop. That would be a lovely thing for the new year, wouldn’t it! And there are rumours flying around about a take-over of The Crown at Catton. Where would Allendale be without rumours! Watch these spaces too in 2020!

One thing that’s pretty much inevitable, if our health sustains, is that this year’s diary will be compiled into a large paperback, so that by about mid-January 2020, every entry from this exciting year will be conveniently available to hold in our hands.

Meanwhile, from this perspective it’s a cheerful thrill to be looking forward to a new year ahead, as the embers of the old year die down. In much the same way, perhaps, as we’ve mentioned about the folks of the future looking back on us with some wonderment at what’s seemed insignificant to comment on, in these diary pages, there will doubtless be new activities even by the new year of 2020 that we can’t even imagine growing out of this year.

But that’s the delight of the future, isn’t it? Unknown, but no less beguiling for all that.