I know a little church standing lonely on a hillside

I took the dog out for a nice long walk today. I remembered to take my decent camera with me too so I could hopefully take some better photos than the ones I normally take with my phone. I took quite a few , it was perfect conditions with frosty leaves on the ground, iced up puddles and a glowing orangey winter sun. Unfortunately I can't show them off on here yet because I can't find the cable to transfer them to my laptop. It must still be in one of the boxes that have remained unopened since we moved in June. Shame because in the distance of one of them you can just about make out Brancepeth Castle.

The woman who owns it or lives there now is called Alison and I used to go to New College in Durham with her. She was a bored housewife then and was learning how to be a painter and decorator in amongst us just out of school apprentices. I always felt bad for her because in our 4th year she won Apprentice Of The Year, but unfortunately because she had paid for the course herself she didn't have a national joint council number so couldn't be awarded it. Shocking really, what made it worse for me was I came second on points after Alison so I became Apprentice of the year by default!  I wasn't happy about that and  in protest didn't turn up to one of the ceremonies where you got awarded with a certificate and a book token. This got me into all sorts of trouble at work because bosses had gone to the do expecting me to go and accept my bits and bobs but I was a no show. I got my first verbal warning from George Tyson the big boss at the council then who told me the way I was going I'd be lucky if I was still there when I came out of my time.

He must have frightened me though because there was another awards ceremony this time at the Three Tons in Durham which I did attend and had a nice three course meal with my Mam, Shaun Meek and Maurice Wilkonson. Maurice wasn't happy with me because he'd turned up at the other one and seemed quite pleased I'd had a warning. After I was given my National Joint Council pewter tankard I went record shopping and purchased Seeds Volume 1 which was full of some pop classics which I would play over and over again I also bought the 12" of Gentle Sound by the Railway Children which would receive the same turntable treatment.