It was a challenging day, but this morning, with any luck, will see the final finessing of the cluttered Office into a place to display with pride. Imagine a home office with such a view of the valley beyond! Well, the reflection plays havoc with the view, and the internal bounce-backs are interfering with the sight lines over the East Allen, as the sun rises. But I know our job is well on the way to completion.

Still a lot to do, this bright morning, but I shall hope to get things moving, if my aching joints will allow, while a kind gardener does some magic on the unruly hedgerows around the place. What a lot of growth this season since I got everything neat and tidy this past February! I’m sure I recorded some days of joy over that effort too.

My Lego studio is all packed away now, in one of the sheds we had built to accommodate wood. There must be well over 50kg of LEGO components, which makes my collection an almost average size in the world of LEGO enthusiasts. My office spaces are turning into a proper writer’s studio too, with a few of my books looking back at me over the monitor. It’s also now a presentation space for our collection of travel memoirs in Harry Hymer. And a couple of microscopes, just to remind me of our biological careers.

But in the process of clearing this space, I’ve fallen behind in my other blog activity, a narrative of recent history with the Allendale Lions Club. The idea is to present 20 years of philanthropic service in 20 months of regular blogging, at a rate of 12 entries every month. That’s 3 entries over 4 weeks. Seems quite convenient. I’m bemused, however, that my own clearance yesterday was also the scheduled date to write a little piece on how the Lions Club members spent a day clearing the Dene below Allendale’s Recreation Ground. That clearance eventually resulted in the opening up of the fairy glen and an accessible path and bridge over the little burn at the bottom, thanks to the grantsmanship of our friends at the North Pennines AONB in the acquisition of funding for the Allen Valleys Landscape Partnership.

So big projects often start with a little impetus, and the impetus for me today is to finish the office tidying and then to enjoy the view, while I recover my writing schedule and catch up with things.

It’s a joy to be half-way there!