Sam the man

Me and Sam went for a ride out Rothbury way – stopped off at an interesting old castle and some unusual walls which are in the middle of nowhere. We went a fair distance in the end, and came back via Thropton for a nice pint at the Three Wheatheads.

It’s not all about Northumberland!!

I headed off to Dumfries-and-Galloway-shire this week for some training on trees and forestry, and although Dumfries itself is one to avoid, the Forestry Commission areas are awesome. You only have to check out some of the routes at Mabie forest, and Ae district, to see what I mean.

The photos here are of a new member of the alliance, Mark. He is pretty good at the technical side of mountain biking..

Tariffing/mensuration in the forest

Tree labels

Voych

Jump 1

Jump 2

Jump 3

Jump 4

Mark nearly clearing the road

Mark’s jump

Birds, birds, birds

Me, Claire and Lucy made a trip to the Farne Islands from Seahouses. A great day out, as you will be able to see from the following photos. Almost all of birds.

Birds on a rock

More birds on a rock

Lots of birds on a rock

Boat and birds

Rush hour on the Farne Islands

Birds on a rock

Sea kayaker clocking a seal

Lighthouse

Bird in a flap

Seagull hovering over its next victim

Puffin the mule

Me and Lucy roam Northumberland

Lucy’s on a three week holiday binge up the north, sticking to east coast like glue, and heading to a folk festival on Shetland.

Good luck to her. While she was here I showed her some of the delights of northumberland – Kielder, the Cheviots and other things. Some photos of the event.

The camping barn trip to Preston tower (and other places)

Hey ho, what a trip, what fun times. 12 of us went up to a great camping barn (www.bunkhousenorthumberland.co.uk) in the north, and went surfing, walking and played sardines. The roll call was:

• me
• Sam
• Phill
• Cath
• Butt
• Sandy
• Kate
• Anna
• Lou
• Lucy
• Lewis
• Tom

Here are some pictures from the event

Saturday night in Rothbury

After wild public acclaim of the Kielder footage, we decided to hold a guerilla gig in Rothbury, Northumberland on Saturday night.

The first video is the Rothbury Rap – check out our harsh lyrics exposing the system for what it is.

The next is a more sedate affair, with gentle melifluous sax tones and a steady guitar groove.

Edinburgh at dawn (and in the evening)

Sam and Claire went on a surf trip to Scotland, and I was invited to join them and other friends for a day in Edinburgh – me and Sam decided to do a dawny (5:30am) the next morning and get a few grimy city shots

In the evening we had beetroot pizza and fine wines, and a beer costing a tenner – we were with Claire’s friends Erica and Diana:

And here’s the street shots

The non-surf trip to Warkworth

The magic trio of me, Sam and Claire. Picked a bad day for it – magic seaweed gave 2 empty stars and predicted big winds. Check out the video to see the conditions….

The Kielder one

An amazing night spent at Kielder – the photos should speak for themselves. Me, Sam and Claire in on this one…

Also a video of our first guerilla gig available

First camping barn trip

For this one we roped in Cath from Edinburh and Phill from Toon.