Today I walked with my walking group and I felt happy; They are such a nice bunch. We walked at Allendale Town starting at Allendale Bakery (there is a brewery there too!);the range of types of bread is large and we can vouch for how delicious it is!
I was thinking... (this bodes bad!).... what makes 'My England' for me? This was an article Bill Bryson had in the Saga Magazine last year (Yes you are right to question what one so young is doing reading a Saga magazine!!) and he received answers from lots of famous people.
For H1 'My England' (I know he is Welsh but he has lived in England longer than he lived in the Land of his Fathers) is when he hears the smack of leather on willow on a summer's evening.
To D1, Britishness is the strains of the entry music to Blue Peter and the use of 'sticky backed plastic' and 'here's one I've made earlier'.
To D3, 'my England' is standing in wellies as the Guy is thrown on the bonfire and the sky is filled with the sight of fountains of fireworks overhead while bangers crack and there is a smell of fireworks and autumn woodsmoke in the air.
To my friend M. England is Yorkshire pudding and gravy.
For 'My England' I am spoiled for choice..... walking in the clarts through the fallen leaves of Northumberland must rate high.... but it must be (don't laugh!) the pride I feel when with the sound of a siren I watch drivers checking their mirrors and manoeuvering their vehicles out of the way of the oncoming ambulance, fire tender or police car.
This week as you head east along the A69 back to Newcastle, just coming up from the Brocksbushes roundabout- look right and look for the 2 initials grown in a larch forest with evergreen spruce- these can only be seen in autumn- and probably in spring. Very much our England!
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