Chris Galley

Today I’ve been campaigning for Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who is standing as the Conservative candidate against Sir Alan Beith in Berwick upon Tweed. This is (like Hexham) a massive constituency, it takes multiple hours to get from one corner to the other. My canvasss and leaflet round was based on the left hand side of the [...]

One enormous privilege I have already had out of this election campaign has been to take shadow cabinet ministers around the area. For a number of reasons I was particularly pleased that Nick Herbert was able to visit Belsay and then Berwick, speaking at farmers’ meetings in both locations. Nick is the shadow secretary of state for [...]

Somewhere under this lot is the track in to my home:

Frankly I could have taken this photo at anytime since I got back from my globe trotting on Christmas Eve. Not that I am going anywhere soon, since I am definitely cut off from the outside world (digital connectivity excepting). It’s now about 40cm deep [...]

The day ends at 8 pm, rather later than I had planned, with canvassing around Wigton and Caldbeck. In the last 10 days I’ve met 218 potential voters on the doorstep, though not all of them are able to devote 5 hours of their Sunday to the Primary – and I don’t blame them. I’ve [...]

Today’s picture is of Castle Sowerby church just by Hutton Roof. It’s quite an isolated and magic spot, with the view onto Carrock Fell behind. The church is dedicated to St. Kentigern, which is itself was unusual at least to my eyes.
The rest of the day was spent around Great Sakeld, I got very lost at one point even [...]

 This was indeed inevitable as a photo shoot, these have their home by Corby Hill. I’ve seen them before but they always been at the wrong end of the field, but not today. Other places on the SatNav today were Irthington, Warwick Bridge, Brampton, How, Castle Carrock, Lazonby, Patterdale, Penrith, Dacre and one of the Newbiggins [...]

The phrase “politics of the gutter” is a popular one, it was most recently deployed over the Damian McBride affair (though I personally thought it was closer to the sewer). Here’s my spin on it. This photo is of my next door neighbour (4 miles away!), Dougie, at my farm:
His father used to be one [...]

Today I’ve been to Lanercost, Brampton, Warwick Bridge, Shap, Penrith, Newby and Great Salkeld - all in one day. And also Great Strickland, where a herd of 100 dairy cows gets walked through the middle of the village twice daily for milking. The farmer considered himself lucky that he also had sheep - they are currently keeping him [...]

A trip out to the hills, and here are the photos. This one with Rupert is from Kirkstone Pass. I don’t think it is possible to exaggerate the beauty of Lake District, and this is one of the many amazing views.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And this is me in Patterdale with a friendly pony:

The day after the night before.
Today I had to do some “real” work for a change, so I lugged my laptop from Kelso, Langholm and then on to Longtown, meeting suppliers and their agents. This gave me the chance to go down the A7, a really beautiful stretch of road through the Scottish and then [...]

Today is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. That makes it the patronal festival for St. Francis’ church in Byrness. And it’s the day we are allowed to take our pets to the service, which also doubles up as Harvest Festival. I decided to take Rupert and Percy from my menagerie, and they [...]

I spent an interesting afternoon in the company of Cllr Joan Raine. Yet again my rugby game was cancelled by the opposition (it would have been our first ever fixture with that particular club, so they didn’t get off to a good start!). Instead I visited Kirkby Stephens – I am familiar with the Mart, [...]

This is the time to top the fields.
A lot of my land is subject to infestation by rushes, and yes that’s the correct term for it. Rushes, reeds and tussocks can be bad news since over time they will take over a field and reduce grazing options for the sheep. And if there were no [...]

A fantastic day for the Westmorland County Agricultural Show. This is the 21oth show, the society dates back to 1799, and even though the county exists no more, the County Show goes on in rude health.
I like this show since it can be seen as either a big small show, or a small big show. [...]

This was the day the falcons came to visit the farm, bringing with them Nick Fox and his merry troop of riders. Here I am with Rainbow, an 8 year old falcon (i.e. a female, males are called tercels since they are a third smaller than females).
There wasn’t much of a haul – the crows obviously found somewhere else [...]