We were so relieved that the burgeoning hydrangea at the corner of our property has found a new lease of life ever since I trimmed out all the leaf rot, but the intensity of its blue this ye… Read More
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Roads To Joy is a blog celebrating life. Many roads lead to happiness; most involve perseverance through despair. This blog seeks to reveal the variety of feelings experienced by folks in a deeply rural community, in the North Pennines of England, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Contributions include stories, memoir, poetry associated with a striking image.
Emojis can be icons for text passages that are too long to fit into table cells. Image courtesy ChatGPT4.0This is fun! After a somewhat restless sleep, spent half-awake, half-dreaming ab… Read More
The SongWave Choir taking applause after our rendition of U Našeg Marina, a klapa song from the Dalmatian coast of CroatiaI’ve been involved in serving up several video clips of… Read More
Image Generated by ChatGPT4.0 in response to the specification: a desperate storm at sea, a small yacht and a lone sailor struggling to survive
So the SongWave Choir have finished their w… Read More
We didn’t think the lovely orange ball tree (Buddleja globosa) was in quite such a flurry of blossom last year, but the intense cold, for these parts, seemed to have prevented lots of… Read More
So when you wipe out on water skisgliding across a placid lake in north Ontario —well. You let go of the rope. First.But not before half the lake’s been forceddown your throat… Read More
It’s been a bit breezy these past few days, here in the GlenKens, so we’ve been enjoying the wind chimes rather a lot. Compared with our previous life high up on a fellside of t… Read More
I’m holding a few emotions, thought processes, musings and bewilderments, in separate compartments of my mind, just at the moment. On the one hand, deep sorrow, but in another compart… Read More
The garden is beginning to burst forth with blossom on every bush. The sun is shining, and the days are long. Perhaps I should be taking pleasure in this delightful ambience, but the truth… Read More
After a prolonged wet spell, when we yearned for the simple protection of a veranda over our heads, so that we could enjoy the outdoors in relative comfort, May turned dry and the friendly b… Read More
It’s been a long time since we took ourselves out for a walk in the woods just two doors down from us. Blame health issues and renovation challenges, or just inertia, but we finally s… Read More
The incredible floribundance of the mallow in the front garden, pruned last autumn with what felt like devastating ruthlessness, has given way in our amazement to the solitary, somehow unfea… Read More
Oh! The peonies are out in full floral abundance, this morning. Acquired as tightly wrapped buds from the grocery store, as one does, they sat in water along with the luscious-smelling sto… Read More
I’ve been doing a small, daily gesture for our neighbour, which involves opening a dodgy greenhouse door in the morning as the sun begins to heat the air inside, and then closing it ag… Read More
I’m a great fan of serendipity, of synchronicity less so. Serendipity, it seems to me, implies a grasp of something that can be used creatively, while synchronicity is more of a retro… Read More
So yesterday I finished printing all of the programmes for our exciting concert presentation on Saturday. It was a labour of love throughout the day, which mostly involved wrestling with th… Read More
Clearly, one needs to be of a certain age to be interested in getting together with a bunch of similar-aged gentlemen of a Monday morning to discuss a panoply of topics that might concern on… Read More
ScreenshotForever is a long way, but early yesterday afternoon we stood on the western seashore of mainland Scotland and looked across the Irish Sea, beyond the granite island of Ailsa Craig… Read More
Sometimes I wonder if the best meanings are most often conveyed through metaphor. I know I’ve not been able, for example, to make any sense of the venality of so many contemporary pol… Read More
In bright sunshine, our cat lurks beside the table that we’ve strewn with breadcrumbs for the cheeky robin or two that indulge our offerings if laid out on a surface. The garden nook… Read More
These days, as we’ve been dealing with all the ramifications of major kitchen renovation, we’ve been veering between delight and despair. Sometimes you have to catch the smalles… Read More
It was to be a fund-raiser with a difference: yesterday the 10th of March, 2024, was Mothering Sunday here in the UK, and the idea was that mothers might enjoy a little indulgence, while li… Read More
So I was out in my dressing gown at 7am yesterday morning, dropping a tray of cat litter into the bin before the dustmen arrived, and therefore I managed to catch a glorious sunrise which di… Read More
We sat together, my beloved and me, in our warm upstairs room, looking up over the hills behind the house, as the cat, bemused, looked back at us from its perch on the windowsill. The setti… Read More
Yesterday I exercised a while, enough to run out of puff, before I had to run off on a small variety of errands. I trimmed the errant and rampant mahonia back, at the side, so that I can ge… Read More
Over the past couple of months, we’ve had the opportunity of visiting both west and east coasts of the British Isles: west to the Mull of Galloway; east to Whitley Bay north of Newcas… Read More
I could, I suppose, have used any number of project images to illustrate the delight of a project that’s been resolved, completed, finished, and the different sort of joy there is in a… Read More
One doesn’t usually associate clock maintenance with large rubber mallets, a stiff piece of hardwood, and assorted mole grips, nor does one expect to see a small tortoiseshell butterfl… Read More
Snowdrops, when they appear, are such a delight, but nowhere more so than when they’re in one’s own garden, as the dreich of January flushes itself out.
And with these harbing… Read More
I’ve borrowed a clipart image from the blog of fellow Canadian Mobashar Qureshi, who relates that two salient words of advice have kept him going: Keep Writing.
Indeed. Th… Read More
Our new builder friend, who’ll be a neighbour just as soon as their own house build starts two doors down, is working with us on a few jobs we’ve been thinking about over these p… Read More
Work has commenced here in our Holmview garden, in a fair few places. The gate that was a barrier has been taken down, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier entry here on my pursuit of… Read More
The strong steel gate in our new-to-us driveway has served primarily as a barrier, to keep the friendly family dogs safely within the garden, over the past year. But it’s also bee… Read More
So Monday morning is our regular Men’s Coffee Morning at New Galloway Town Hall, and after finessing yet another file for the cheerful printer, I moseyed along down for a cup of co… Read More
I seem to gravitate to prolonged projects: diaries; novels; long-running blogs; more novels; social histories; even a lengthening set of joys. My personal joy this morning is the c… Read More
Our Harry Hymer, beloved classic Hymermobile of 1997 vintage, went in for its MOT last week, and failed. The issue was the accumulating rust around both front jack points, indicated on… Read More
Both perspectives, it seems, are golden: the golden years we may have experienced, and the golden future we might hope to inhabit. Today I’m musing on the simultaneity of the… Read More
Among the eclectic variety of seasonal songs, delivered with appropriate gusto by the SongWave Choir over our weekend of concerts, the lower voices shared in a Humberside version of the caro… Read More
Maybe it’s that time of life, the time when we all wonder how much we actually have left, or maybe it’s just a set of happy coincidences, or maybe it’s all part of my never… Read More
For whatever reason, I’ve been identified locally as the guy who loves to fix things. Or let’s say rather, who loves to see things working correctly. I don’t mind… Read More
It was a misty morning, and there were icy patches on the tarmac as I hopped it down to the Men’s Coffee Morning. I thought, as I passed this scene, that it was quite remarkable, and… Read More
Choirs all around the area are presenting their seasonal programs, often in a participative setting, where carols are enjoined and rafters rattled with enthusiasm. It was a busy weekend for… Read More
I was going to sit here, after our festive lights have come on in the dark late afternoon, and write about the joy of singing. Or the joy of participation — we’ve got tickets fo… Read More
Cold outside, and getting colder! Awakening to -8ºC the other day, and pretty much freezing thereafter in the early mornings before the sunshine arrives, we’ve been struggling to… Read More
The first Sunday in December is often, but not always, also the first Sunday in Advent, the start of the Christmas season. But I believe that December’s first Sunday is always the tra… Read More
I had a little epiphany yesterday late afternoon, as darkness fell. As you walk down the road towards New Galloway’s Town Hall, you can see two clock faces, and they’ve been lit… Read More
In normal times, I guess, family and friends are just ‘there,’ part of our lives but busy with their own circumstances too. It’s when crises arise that our support network… Read More
There are two bells in the New Galloway Town Hall tower: the larger one is bonged either by a hammer engaged with the clock mechanism, or by its pendulous clapper when the stout bell-ringin… Read More
Yesterday I took a dear visiting friend on a brisk walk through the temperate woodland just a couple doors down from us, and after we’d looked at the vast vista out over Loch Ken, we p… Read More
So, in much the same way as I trundled along down the High Street of New Galloway back in March with a For Sale sign on my back, shifting it from our new home to the small cottage we were pu… Read More
I’m to mow the lawn this morning, with our lovely rechargeable battery- powered Bosch mower. When I looked out of the kitchen window, the delight of the glistening droplets caught my… Read More
The huge poppies lining our front path have in a few cases grown taller than me! Apparently, were we to be assiduous gardeners, we should be culling rather a few of these rampant plants, bu… Read More
©2023 Larry WingerA couple months ago, a call came out through the WriteOn writers group based in New Galloway from a previous member who is now chairing the Dumfries and Galloway Arts… Read More
I’ve often had cause to remember the adage, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But sometimes, as with our beloved Harry Hymer’s side front bumper, it is most definitel… Read More
I’m not a great fan of surprises. I feel confused by them, not sure how to react. But when I’m somehow complicit in the surprise, the dénouement can bring great joy. So… Read More
We’ve been waiting weeks for the giant poppies in our new-to-us front garden to bloom. These plants are just about taller than we are! Three have opened all at once, in the past coup… Read More
A good friend, after our concert yesterday afternoon, exclaimed that though the music was about love, it was also about loss. She was absolutely right, and I wonder if that commingled pair… Read More
This past Saturday we embarked on a little trip to a nearby National Trust for Scotland property. Well, we’d not quite clocked that Threave House and Gardens were an NTS premises, but… Read More
You wouldn’t know it from the concrete blocks of the patio, but the glass-topped table has a telltale reveal: rain fell last night.
It does feel, as Portia opined in her famous &ls… Read More
I’ve often realised, as the creative writing sessions have accumulated, and I’m apprised of the errors littering my newest submission, that I have been too easily pleased. The c… Read More
On Friday, two days ago, at the end of the new-to-us garden, an incredible peony blossom opened. Earlier in the day we’d listened to a wonderful, beautiful song by Michael Marra, Happ… Read More
Whether it’s just a case of schadenfreude, or relief that a particularly excruciating period of politics is over, sometimes the demise of a charlatan is a good enough excuse to indulge… Read More
In 1883, James Faed the Younger presented a large painting titled ‘The Town Park’ to the Royal Burgh of New Galloway. This painting is stored with great care in the main hall, b… Read More
The Korean dogwood tree, at the bottom (or top, if you consider the gentle rise from the house back up towards the field) of our new-to-us garden, is in full bloom.
But you’d never… Read More
There are so many meanings, phrases and idioms associated with the word hook. This morning I’m exulting, just a little, in being off that hook, which is another way of saying that one… Read More
From the midst of challenge, joy is often just there, just within reach. We had quite a challenging adventure, the other day, in Harry Hymer, our ancient motorhome, but we got home safe and… Read More
It’s been a busy week. Productive, on the whole, but busy, and scarce time to look out for joy.
But with rather more jobs accomplished yesterday than I’d thought likely, it w… Read More
How blessed are we, we exclaim, to enjoy the spring flowers as they erupt around us?
The wilds of the North Pennine moors did not lend themselves well to bounteous, delicate blooms. Co… Read More
It seems scarcely feasible that only two months ago Harry Hymer was stuffed to the gunwales with endless ranks of chattel, clothes, and everything that hadn’t made it into the big truc… Read More
Moving into a new place brings all kinds of joy, as well as disappointments. The posty finally delivered the correct phono connectors to plug the ageing cassette deck into the big beast of a… Read More
Sometimes the beauty of a single, solitary bloom is enough to take your breath away. This lonely tulip in our new-to-us garden was one such.
I’m reminded of the William Blake poem… Read More
This limbless lizard certainly lives up to its name! When I lifted the old carpet section laid out on our compost box, I revealed this fellow. I ambled back to the house, retrieved my phon… Read More
So the corollary to the aphorism about the rolling stone must be that the sedentary one does gather moss. Our gardens, front and back, have accumulated a rich, thick, mossy carpet. App… Read More
Our new home is a kind of retro chic. Or possibly, rather more ‘retro’ than ‘chic.’ We are finding, however, that we can accommodate the technology of fifty years p… Read More
You begin to realise, as you learn more about the area around Dumfries, that Robert Burns is quite the most important figure in these parts. What we may not appreciate, especially if we&rsq… Read More
While we consolidate and settle in, another parameter of life is returning: a sense of a routine, a schedule. Since we are such creatures of habit, the disorientation when the routine has… Read More
My old friend Simon Smith has embarked on a project to curate his favourite songs in a daily blog, Simon365, throughout the year. This piece is my homage to his effort — I’m in… Read More
We are all getting older, Kali cat and us, losing a few of our wits along the way, but still enjoying the sunshine. Kali is especially good at seeking out, and finding, the warmest place to… Read More
This month’s VisualVerse.org stimulus reminded me of nothing so much as the times I have spent with pondlife under a dissecting microscope. And then I remembered what we call the enc… Read More
When you move, in my limited experience, you tend to leave one garden in place, and pick up the next in your new residence. I have heard that some people so love their gardening efforts tha… Read More
I can’t think of anything conveying much more symbolism than a suspension bridge over the Ken Water to the graveyard on the bank beyond. We are, each of us, suspended on a kind of bri… Read More
I think that moving is especially fraught because everything is in disarray, all around, and it feels like you just can’t settle down to a normal task. It’s all just accommodati… Read More
Our new-to-us garden faces west, so that the sun rising in the east illumines the space beyond the shade of the two extension peaks. I’m sure that there must be a quiet haiku to devel… Read More
A couple years ago, I attempted to write a humorous poem. I’d have to say, I’m not renowned as a comic turn, though I have experienced a few exalted moments of shared laughter a… Read More
The daffodils at the top of our new-to-us garden nod towards the dawn of Easter Sunday. We seem to have been imbued with a surplus of joyful moments, this weekend, with more to come.
Yes… Read More
I could never feel right by embarrassing her, except by relating the tale, but we have never seen a cat in such excited ecstasy before, and when she’s happy, well, she drools. Three m… Read More
The two specimen plants outside our front door seem to have perished in the heavy December frost. There’s no sign of life, anyway, as this supplementary example, still mouldering in t… Read More
So we are unpacking at a steady rate. When you’re packing up to move, things start out well, and then, in my recent experience anyway, things deteriorate into a frenzy of desperation:… Read More
In the midst of moving-in frenzy, getting things sorted, arranging so many things in a bid to be comfortable in our new home, we were able to take a short amble around the lovely woods next… Read More
A roe deer was a welcome visitor to our garden at dawn today, and she looked directly at us while I fumbled for my phone camera, bringing it into play only in time to catch her white bum! S… Read More
As age creeps up on us, it can get harder to deal with rejections, failures, lack of success, whatever you might feel despondent over, but on the other hand perhaps one’s skin gets to… Read More
We saw the delightful sculpture by Canova, the second one he’d created of the Three Graces, by commission, at the Victoria and Albert Museum some decades ago. In researching for this… Read More
The snowfall was off and on last night, and the flakes began to fall again late this morning. It’ll put folks off the resumed LING Lunch, perhaps, but for those of us who know a bit m… Read More
We put in a bit of practice, this morning, shifting things out of the New Galloway Town Hall and into Kitty’s Tea Room across the road, preparing for lunch service commencing again on… Read More
sunlight and shadow
two deer bounce through the marsh
spiked gorse, its seed pods brown and empty
decorated in yellow flowers
moss-laden branches and beardy wisps
a rusty tin can
hazel stra… Read More
The red kites have their circuit, and we have ours. It’s a bit of a longer walk, all along the dyke until the passage through the field leads to home, and especially in the cold and b… Read More
We spent a lovely hour yesterday ambling through the knitwear exhibition at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh, from Chanel to Westwood. It was a delight to see that the curators appreciated… Read More
It’s intriguing, it is, how a shared set of thoughts becomes something else altogether when someone else thinks along with you.
My notes on our walk a couple days ago raised a com… Read More
It’s a commonplace, isn’t it, to sleep on a problem, hoping to awaken with a solution. As we went to bed last night, I was wrestling, somewhere in my subconscious, with a poetic… Read More
For my joy this morning, I can’t do better than to relay some contemporaneous notes of our afternoon walk yesterday. Who knows, one day these notes may find their way into another poe… Read More
