taskerdunham.blogspot.com ..read more

taskerdunham.blogspot.com ..read more

There is a new post at the new address: taskerdunham.blogspot.com ..read more

There is a new post at the new blog address: The Cats With A Bank Account The blog address for A Yorkshire Memoir has reverted to taskerdunham.blogspot.com (instead of taskerdunham.com), i.e. I have removed the custom address. If you are reading this, please check you have the new taskerdunham.blogspot.com address in your reading list or sidebar, or other bookmarks, rather than the custom taskerdunham.com which brings you to this page.  There is more information about why and how I have made this change here.  ..read more

I am attempting to remove the custom address from A Yorkshire Memoir. The address should revert to the original taskerdunham.blogspot.com (instead of taskerdunham.com).  This is to prevent the blog from becoming inaccessible when the subscription to the custom domain expires.  It seems to be working so far, but you may need to link through this holding page until you change the address on your blogger reading list or sidebar, or in other bookmarks.  ..read more

The flatland where the River Humber branches into tributaries was once an expanse of permanent marsh. It dried out gradually over the centuries with the construction of river banks and drainage ditches, making agriculture possible. Some areas were improved by a process known as warping. In warping, river waters are diverted into the fields to deposit layers of fine, fertile silt. It is carried out by building low embankments around the fields and filling them through a breach or sluice in the river bank. The water flows into the fields at high tide, and after being allowed to settle, is drain ..read more

Rosemary (Share My Garden) wrote about her visit to Tyneham, a village in Dorset abandoned in the Second World War because it was in an area needed for military training. The residents never returned. She also remembered, as a child, picking gooseberries in the garden of a house in a village abandoned to the rising waters of a new reservoir. Mardale Green It reminded me of a passage in ‘Fellwalking With Wainwright’, which has haunted me since I bought the book in 1985. I think of it often. Oh to be able to write like Wainwright.  I will never go to Mardale Head now without thinki ..read more

Imagine you received an annuity at a young age, never had to work, and had enough to fund your activities within reason. How would you spend your time?  Waterfall Soon after the death of her first husband, my wife’s great-grandmother married a wealthy bachelor who, although himself a translator rather than a writer, was very well-connected in London literary circles. Their dinner party guests included, among others, Maxim Gorky, H. G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad. They holidayed in Rome, Athens and Egypt in the nineteen-twenties and -thirties.  ..read more

Following Dave Northsider, who has repurposed an old oil tank to make raised vegetable beds, I filled this old half water butt with soil from the compost bin, and sowed a row of carrot seeds. It is 22 inches across, so I plan six rows at three-weekly intervals. As the fresh compost is full of worms, the wooden strips are there to protect the first row from digging birds. The bin spends the winter covering the monster rhubarb plant to give us a few tender pink stems in early spring, so this seems a good way to use it over the summer.  As I sowed the seeds, carrot fly lined the lawn, bounc ..read more

New Month Old Post: first posted 30th October, 2016. A song for dads to sing to their children.  What a super singalong on BBC Four on Friday!  It Started with a Kiss, or rather for us with a bottle of Chilean Shiraz. It was followed by a fabulous edition of Top Of The Pops 1982, from 15th July. After several weeks of watching the constipated faces of Brian Ferry and Martin Fry (get the look!), it was great to have some good tunes for a change. Following Errol and Hot Chocolate came Dexy’s Come On Eileen, the perennial Cliff Richard, David Essex’s Night Clubbing, and Irene Cara’s ..read more