Allendale | northumbrian : light

Yet another …

Posted on December 19, 2021 by northumbrianlight

… week gone by. After a dull and dreary weekend, the sun finally appeared late Sunday and from then on, the week mostly took a turn for the better. Monday was cold, particularly across the moors, but fine enough to get the Scrambler out. Tuesday felt a little like Christmas as I drove to Allendale Brewery to collect a hamper and crates of beer. Bright skies and frost appeared on most mornings such that the camera has spent a lot of time pointing at the sky. Thursday was even good enough to take the GS north, across filthy roads to Otterburn and then on single tracks to Sundaysight, Greenhaugh and Bellingham. Nothing is quite as good as being alone on two wheels in wild, empty places.

Sunday 12th December – the sun finally made an appearance, late in the afternoon

Monday 13th December – On the Scrambler to Stanhope and Wolsingham. Still some snow on high ground and colder than expected, but grand to be out again. No low winter sun, which is good thing on the bike.

Tuesday 14th December – To the brewery at Allendale to collect Christmas presents. So much better than depending on a courier who might, or might not, deliver to the right address.

Wednesday 15th December – Sheep migrating north in a golden, morning light.

Thursday 16th December – traffic jam near Sundaysight.

On the same day, on high ground between Greenhaugh and Bellingham, looking towards Sundaysight. The GS is filthy thanks to the lorries emerging from Divethill Quarry on the B6342.

Friday 17th December – Egger from Oakwood, on a cold December morning.

Saturday 18th December – a hard frost on a bright December morning. Flying high on the left is Turkish Airlines, Boeing 787-9 from Istanbul to San Francisco.

On the same day – a different treatment of the same scene.

Horsing …

Posted on January 28, 2020 by northumbrianlight

… it has been a quiet week in Beaufront Woodhead. If people on bicycles go cycling, those who drive go driving, those who golf go golfing, why do those who ride horses, not go horsing. This astute philosophical observation is not mine but my eldest’s. I was reminded of it at the weekend as I was briefly horsing about with the camera above Allendale – where is the logic in that!

This is a handsome beast but I confess I am not that keen on these over-sized quadrupeds. They are delightful to look at but, anything this big and this powerful which lacks handlebars/steering, accelerator and, most importantly, brakes, is not for me. My Ducati Monster has 147 horses but none of them have a mind of their own.

Have a grand week everyone and enjoy the horsing …

… can a horse/pony be doe-eyed

… there was another but he/she wasn’t getting a look-in

… above Allendale on a dull January afternoon.

… you know you are in tough company when he uses barbed-wire to scratch

Just some places …

Posted on August 5, 2019 by northumbrianlight

… the bikes have taken me in the last few days in search of images. The old rolling stock being put to an agricultural use sits in a field above Allendale. Thorneyburn is way over yonder in the minor key – between Bellingham and Kielder. Linnels Bridge and the Mill are on the road between Hexham and Slaley. The transport for most of this can be seen in the last. What an unpredictable summer it has been.

Old rolling stock

The gates at Thorneyburn

A cross at Thorneyburn

The Mill at Linnels Bridge

Linnels Bridge

Above Allendale and Catton

Golf, Golf in the Wild, Northumberland, Photography, Writing

December in Old England

Gallery | Posted on December 17, 2016 by northumbrianlight

December in old England has been mild and easy, the quiet before the storm? I am still playing golf, walking with the camera and, very occasionally, venturing out on two wheels. At heart, I am a fair-weather rider and there are plenty of reasons to keep the machines safe in the garage – ice on the roads, salt that creeps and corrodes and, not least, the wind chill factor when riding at 70mph into the face of a cold northeasterly.

Nevertheless the desire to be out eventually over-rides common sense and off I go – only ninety miles this month, better than nothing. These are some images from the month to date, including yet another timelapse sunrise across the fields. Northumberland has finally lost its autumnal glow:

The call of the wild …

Posted on April 5, 2016 by northumbrianlight

The roads are still salty, on most days they are uncomfortably wet and the air is still piercingly cold but, there is no resisting the call of the wild and the open road. Against better judgement I ventured out on two wheels on several occasions in March and was never disappointed. The still image is from a ride out to Carrshield and the video from a late afternoon ride to Allendale Golf Club – Home of Golf in the Wild. This is now accessible from the club’s website just in case visitors have difficulty finding the course – follow satnavs to NE47 9DH and you will be taken to High Studdon Farm.

“The course is tucked away in the hills of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and must therefore be discreet. The road south out of Allendale winds down the Allen Valley along the B6295 towards Allenheads, following the course of the East Allen River. A mile or so south of the town, as the road breaks free from overhanging trees, a sharp left turn is signposted to the club. The track is rutted, rabbits run for cover and depending on the time of year, will wear a layer of rich agricultural muck. The track climbs 167 feet in a third of a mile which is more or less the difference between the high and low ground on the course; it helps to be fit. The clubhouse sits at 1077 feet above sea level on the west facing side of Green Hill which peaks at 1374 feet – it is not entirely inaccurate to say the course is situated on the side of a mountain. A wind turbine installed in 2010 marks your arrival. On a plain 9-metre tower with dark coloured blades, it blends into the agricultural landscape in a manner reminiscent of the iconic multi-bladed windpumps of America’s central plains.”

An accidental selfie, captured by the GoPro – I am wearing a backpack, just in case you were wondering 🙂

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2015 by northumbrianlight

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas Day so a very Merry Christmas to all my followers, many thanks for taking the time to like and comment on my ever random thoughts throughout the year and all the best for 2016.

Our plan had been to be lazy on Christmas Day and eat at the Boatside Inn, just over Warden Bridge. Sadly, especially for the owners, the building was flooded in the recent storms and will not open again until the New Year. Consequently we are eating at home and chef will be catering for five, possibly seven – my normal limit is two 🙂

This year’s Christmas card reflects my passion for hitting small balls with unsuitable sticks in wild places – hopefully the snow provides a sufficiently seasonal touch. This is the second at Allendale, a place you can now fly over at Aerial Golf Caddy. When you have a spare moment between the main course and the pudding, take a look; you may begin to understand my obsession with the place (two of the best ‘flights’ are at the 3rd and 12th, both par 3s).

Northumberland, Personal, Photography, Travel, Writing

Memory …

Gallery | Posted on November 4, 2015 by northumbrianlight

Over the turbulence of the world
flies the bird that stands for memory.
No bird flies faster than this one,
dearer to me
than the dove was to Noah – though it brings back
sometimes an olive branch, sometimes
a thorny twig without blossoms.

Norman MacCaig – August 1984

Some photographic memories from an unsettling week:

Drifting under your window

Posted on December 5, 2014 by northumbrianlight

It was only recently that I became aware of the connection between Philip Larkin and Haydon Bridge, the next town along the Tyne, west of Hexham. For some reason I take some delight in his shared knowledge of the area. Since the by-pass was built a few years back, the town has returned to the pace of life which Larkin would have remembered. The second set of patio doors, overlooking the Tyne, is the back of 1A Ratcliffe Road:

Writer Philip Larkin and Monica Jones, his companion of 40 years, shared this secret love nest from 1961 to 1984.

“I thought your little house seemed … distinguished and exciting and beautiful … it looks splendid, and it can never be ordinary with the Tyne going by outside … a great English river drifting under your window, brown and muscled with currents!”

Philip Larkin April 1962

On this bright, frosty, December day, the Tyne was anything but brown and muscled – a sleeping giant. This is almost, but not quite, the view from the back of 1A Ratcliffe Road:

According to Wiki: “One of his better-known later poems Show Saturday is dedicated to the 1973 Bellingham Show, which they attended. They also went to the tar barrel ceremony in Allendale, and dined at Blanchland. It was a record of Tommy Armstrong’s Trimdon Grange Explosion which Larkin heard at the cottage that prompted him to write his own late poem The Explosion.”

“I am always trying to ‘preserve’ things by getting other people to read what I have written, and feel what I felt.” – Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

Like many of us.

Northumberland, Photography, Weekly Photo Challenge, Writing

Stobb Cross

Gallery | Posted on February 2, 2014 by northumbrianlight

Weekly Photo Challenge: Object – earlier in the week we went for a four mile walk across the high ground above Allendale – Hexhamshire Common. This is magnificent, wild, empty moorland with not a man-made object in sight – except, Stobb Cross, which seems to act like a magnet. We thought we were entirely alone, but no, sat at the base of the cross was another lone walker. Contemplating life, taking deep drags on a cigarette, he too thought he had found complete solitude, but then we popped up:

I admired his determination to be alone. It was long after we had drifted west that he finally headed east – if you click to enlarge the image, on the distant horizon you can just make out the solitary figure rising from the cross:

Travel theme: Connections

Posted on November 11, 2013 by northumbrianlight

As we travel, we make connections all the time. There is a connection with my previous post – when I climbed in the car and took this series of phone images the route was inevitably the one I use out of habit nearly every day.

There is a connection with one of my followers who uncannily observed that this road would be “precarious if icy” – suddenly it is there the next morning, an Olympic, winter sports grade, skating surface.

When I arrive at my destination, there is the wind turbine with the sun rising over the hill behind – it has a connection to the National Grid although on a day like this, what’s the point.

Golf is all about connections – hands to club, club to ball, ball to hole….or ball to rough, never to be seen again.

There is the connection with another recent post – More notes from the Madhouse – you have to be slightly unhinged to play golf in these conditions, some might say at all. Finally, to make one final connection – in answer to the question, Golf? What’s the story?……sorry Mark, I haven’t a clue 🙂