What's coming up this weekend

It's me, I'm on the train. Yes, it's Friday evening and as you would expect, I am heading home to Gateshead for a weekend of rest. I wish! David is off to a magistrates training weekend in Durham so I have to give him a lift there early tomorrow morning. I could have prescribed a train journey but that would probably mean I wouldn't have the car this weekend! And it is a one off journey so for once I'll overlook the carbon footprint of the journey. I'll also use the journey back to check out wild food sources along the way.

David has kindly drawn up a list of things I need to do on the allotment over the weekend in his absence. I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday mornings. And a shopping list has been drawn up for me to take to the allotment garden centre in Hexham. I'm heading out to a tiny village on the Northumberland/Cumbria border called Halton Lea Gate. The area is proposed for opencast mining and I am now involved in a group that helps residents fight proposals. We are having our next meeting in the village tomorrow afternoon. I'll do the garden centre on the way back. And a bit of wild food foraging as well. I may even try and call in at one of the Roman Wall sites as well.

When I got on the train tonight, I got an email from my group leader Noel Rippeth, telling me that he had kindly arranged for 800 focus leaflets to be dropped off at my house. Fortunately they are not all for me. Some are for one of the five people wanting to be selected for Blaydon constituency. It's amazing how many leaflets I can pass on to keen candidates when a selection for a winnable seat is on the horizon. The candidate in question is coming to my house to chat about the constituency on Sunday evening. This is not meant to indicate my support for any particular candidate and any others who also want to talk to me about the constituency are welcome to call in. However, bring a bag. You will need something to carry the focus leaflets away with you!

And finally, I will be editing my next blockbuster video. Watch out for "Harrogate Conference" (rated PG). A definite oscar winner (not).

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