By Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara

There is nothing better than a good walk in the countryside through the lanes and along the rides, over the moors or even through the woods.

Each time of the year holds something different - spring greens, summer bursts of life, autumn golds and even in this overcrowded little island of ours, there are still places where you can find peace and solitude.

Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery writes for the Ashington & Morpeth Extra

Last Thursday evening I spoke at a very well attended meeting organised by the Northern Public Services Alliance and the Hardest Hit Campaign.

The Northern Public Services Alliance is the trade union campaign to defend public services and campaign for fairer alternatives to savage spending cuts.

Sent in by Caroline Ball

Bad Apples North East are a community interest company based in Ashington offering music projects. On Sunday 31st of July we are having an "It's a Knockout" competition and family fun day at the Hirst Welfare Centre from 11am-3pm.

The teams competing are all raising sponsor money to enable Bad Apples North East to work with more young people in the area and offer more workshops.

Staff from Barclays Ashington, Revolution Bar Sunderland and a team of dancers are all competing against other local companies and our three Bad Apples teams made up of supporters and young people stepping up to the challenge.

By Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara

One of the hardest things to do in conservation is to try to repair the damage of the past.

Why this can be so difficult probably falls into two areas.

One is quite obviously the limitations of cost, and the second - which can be equally difficult - is trying to convince people that there is a problem which needs to be remedied.

How many locals or visitors knew that Ashington possessed one of the largest cellars in the country?

In the past, hundreds of people would stand and pass its walls and never realise. This cellar (pictured) was beneath the Grand Hotel and in 1932 William Harvey was the drayman. He first came to the premises in about 1916.

Mr Harvey had first worked as a drayman for four years with Bass & Co Ltd, then worked for 12 years with the Victoria Breweries.

A coffee morning on August the 6th, at Trinity Church, will enable the members of Ashington U.3.a to meet the public. There will be publicity boards and photographs showing the members enjoying the activities that their groups have to offer.

The kettle will be boiled and the cake stall ready at 9.00 until 12 noon. All are welcome!!!

By Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara

I stepped forth from the airport foyer to be greeted by over a dozen wheeling white storks directly overhead. What a sight; I was definitely in Portugal.

The sun was shining and on the way to the hotel, amidst the bouts of childish 'lads' humour I spotted numerous Mediterranean delights: hoopoes, a roller and several azure-winged magpies and a host of small birds.

One question I am often asked and indeed surprised by is 'What exactly is a proggie mat then?'.

I am surprised because I assume that everyone already knows what a proggie mat is. Then I realise that it is just one of those items or expressions that you grew up with totally unaware that there is another world beyond the borders of County Durham and Northumberland where people don't speak Geordie.

If you are a Geordie then you already know and no doubt your mother made them or had them made for her by a female relative, and it probably was the thing you wiped your feet on when you came in from the back yard or garden when your byeuts [boots] were aal covered in clarts.

By Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara

What would the world be, once bereft, Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

So wrote the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins but how apt these words are for describing a whole host of issues surrounding many conservation tasks that we all face.

The Chairperson of the 'Friends of Hirst Park', Lisa, is doing a sponsored Bungee Jump on the 7th August 2011 at 11:30 am. We are trying to raise money for the park and the events and activities that we plan to do. The type of things we want to achieve include but are not limited to;

A raised flower bed for disabled park users Our Halloween and Christmas events Shelving for the pavilion (for plaques etc.) and various other activities

If you would like to sponsor Lisa please contact the 'Friends' on 07703780386