While the hut was closed Phil and I took the opportunity to escape for a day.  We set off early for the North East coast with Hector,...

Any notion that I would document the story of the renovation of the hut with a daily blog update, was frankly bonkers.  I’ve never worked...

I’m not new to property renovation.  In fact I took on my first project at the age of 21, my very first home, a Tyneside flat.  Since...

In eight days’ time the hut will close for two weeks, while its guts are ripped out and the refit happens.  First it’s being tanked (like...

When Jennie gently asked whether I was going home to ‘spruce myself up’ before my meeting with Julian Smith, MP for Skipton and Ripon, I...

Riverbank Coffee Hut floods. This image, taken by Rob Seaward – one of our lovely customers, shows the scene in winter 15/16, with the...

I deserved at least a moderate hangover, but somehow avoided one.  I’d been to The Red Lion in Burnsall for dinner with friends.  It was...

Seven years ago, when my grandma died at the great age of 98, she left her treasured engagement ring to me in her will.  I love that...

I’m mostly having a lot of fun being self employed.  Of course there are some grotty jobs – and a few frustrations, but during the winter...

That nobody comes to the hut. There was one day in August, shortly after the hut changed hands, that it rained solidly from dawn until...

I love to decorate the Christmas tree but nobody much likes taking their tree back down… So perhaps it was a blessing that this year’s...

At midday on 8 August 2016, I walked into a small stone hut in a car park in the village of Burnsall, North Yorkshire and the previous...