Vegetable Gardens

I have a dream that one day I will be able to walk out of my back door to my vegetable patch to pick some salad leaves and to dig up some little potatoes to cook; everything as fresh as fresh can be.  We will eat what is in season and have a vegetable patch that is a beautiful to look at as it is productive.  My inspiration is my friend Ann's garden - her original allotment in the field next to her house in Shropshire and now her gorgeous Menorquian garden in the Balearic sunshine.  Feast your eyes.

The following pictures come from a variety of gardens in England and Scotland, including Harlow Carr RHS near Harrogate and the isle of Iona in Western Scotland.

And finally there are my efforts.  Has to be said that Fellside wasn't ideal for vegetable growing.

May Day

It's May Day.  In France there have been marches and celebrations by the workers but we seem not to do that here so these photos are from last July. They are of the Durham Miners' Gala which was established over 100 years ago and which celebrates miners' trade unionism.  the first gala was held in 1871 in Wharton Park in Durham

It developed into the largest unofficial miners and trade union gathering in the United Kingdom. At its peak the Gala attracted over 300,000 people - over 7 times the population of Durham city itself.
Banners would traditionally be taken on foot from its particular colliery into Durham, and the event was marked by large unions of men marching on the roads leading into the city.

The closure of collieries in County Durham, particularly after the Second World War, reduced the numbers attending the Gala. Nonetheless, even if a colliery was closed, the banner was often still marched. 

Most banners represent lodges of the National Union of Mineworkers in the Durham Area. However, other unions have also been represented, particularly in recent years, as well as Union banners from other parts of the UK, including NUM lodges of the Yorkshire branch, and South Wales. Unison were very well represented in the summer of 2011.

They are made of silk, are rectangular, and are painted by hand. Some are very old now and protected by plastic when being marched through the town.  Traditionally banners were draped in black cloth when there had been a death in the pit during the previous year. Following the closure of pits across the county they are draped with black cloth on significant anniversaries of disasters at the colliery they represent.

More recently, residents in former pit villages have taken it upon themselves to restore, or even create, banners.

Over the morning the banners are paraded past The County Hotel, where the Mayor views the parade and the brass bands from a balcony.  They are displayed at the racecourse where there is the tradition of speeches.  Last summer the speaker was Bob Crow, the leader of the RMT union.  Other notable speakers over recent years have included Tony Benn, Billy Bragg and Ken Livingstone.

In the afternoon the banners are taken to Durham Cathedral where there is a service.

Each colliery has its own brass band and these are another important part of the day.  They lead the parade of the banner of the mine.

It has been announced at the end of April that Ed Milliband, the Labour leader, will be the speaker at this year's Gala.  This is the first time that a Labour leader has addressed the meeting for 23 years. Read more here. There is also a video of the 2009 Big Meeting.

My Wedding Ring

One of the things that added insult to injury when I was recovering was that I got lymphodema in my left arm.  It's pretty common unfortunately, and actually a small price to pay, but it meant that I was told by various people that I would never wear my wedding ring again because of the risk of my hand swelling and the ring becoming too tight.

I didn't wear it for two years but then we found the most fantasic solution that kept me smiling.  Last Autumn we took a trip to Birmingham for a few days to visit the city which we had only previously been to for conferences.  Amongst all the brilliant things the city has to offer (museums, galleries, restaurants, the canal side, shopping) we spent some time in the Jewellery Quarter where there are still a few shops who will make besoke pieces.

I took my ring into a shop called Elements and explained the problem.  After chatting to Greg for a while he came up with some ideas based on things he had done previously, like a catch to open and close the ring but this would only work if my hand stayed the same.  The problem is that it is liable to change from day to day.  Finally between us we came up with the idea of a child's christening bracelet, which can be adjusted to fit as the child grows. 

Greg thought that this could be achieved with my actual ring by rolling it out and making two tiny bars so that the ring would slide through itself.  He had never done anything like it before but took my ring to have a go.  I left the shop really excited that we had found a way forward and trusting Greg to make it.  He had completely understood my predicament and was just as excited to make it work.

A week later he phoned to let me know that it had been completed and that he was sending it through the post.  When it arrived it was beyond what I had thought possible.  He had even managed to keep the two colours of gold from my original ring.  I have had it on since and there have been no problems with my hand.  I can expand or contract the ring as I need to.  How fantastic....

Nick's ring showing what mine was like originally with my new bespoke ring next to it.

I love my totally original ring but think that there are probably lots of women out there who would like to be able to wear their wedding rings so if this applies to you contact Element.

Harrogate Turkish Baths

I was introduced to this smiley location by Iona.  She had arranged for a group of her friends and family to go for a session to celebrate her birthday in the summer of 2008.  The baths are in the spa town of Harrogate and are amazingly run by the local council. 

You make your way through the different parts of the Turkish Baths, a journey of heating, cooling and cleansing, leaving you feeling relaxed and with a perfectly clear mind.  Taking your towel with you you move through the Steam Room, into the Tepidarium (the warm room), to the Calidarium (the hot room) and if you can take it into the Laconium (the hottest room) before rushing off to jump into the freezing cold Plunge Pool, with showers inbetween all the stages.  Finally you cool down on the beds in the Frigidarium and during the session you repeat this as often as you want to. 

 

Some people use this as a chance to catch up on their reading, bringing books or making the most of the magazines provided, while others are there with friends and use the time to talk and laugh and catch up, and some just want to lie back and relax.  The whole thing ties you into an experience that has been taking place since the Romans had their baths, through the centuries of Turkish Hammans into the twenty-first century.

 

 

 

Here's the link which will give you all the information you need to plan your own visit:

Harrogate Turkish Baths

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Ever since we first heard them playing 'Leaning on a Lampost' in the Russian style on 'Loose Ends' we have been fans of The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.  They are responsible for a great deal of smiling and laughing in our house as we listen to CDs and introduce them to friends and relatives who visit us.

I challenge you to watch this clip and not smile:

Lots more people will know them now following their appearance at the Proms when 1000 people brought their ukuleles and everyone played together:

Joyous.

This link takes you to their website where you can have a look around at dates for their future concerts, (Just Go.... you won't be disappointed), podcasts of other songs, their CDs and DVDs and even lessons in how to play your own ukulele:

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

Jaume Plensa at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

For more pictures click here

Taking a World Tour

360 Degrees in 360 Days

So where I have I been and what have I been doing since the last blog entry on this site?

It's been a hectic time of planning and arranging our world tour.  We are leaving in June for a trip that will take us 360 Degrees in 360 Days.  How exciting is that?  It's the most smiley thing we could be doing.  We could have waited until we retired and taken the 'trip of a lifetime' but why wait?  Carpe Diem and all that.

It's a trip of three parts starting with an overland section from Hammersmith to Sydney in Australia with a company called Madventure. We will be travelling by truck along the Asian Silk Route, through Mongolia and China into South East Asia, to Indonesia before taking a short flight to Darwin where we travel on through Australia's Red Centre and Blue Mountains, arriving in Sydney in December this year.

We will then start section two.  We plan to travel around Australia for three months seeing as much as we can and visiting relatives on each side of the country, mine near Brisbane and Nick's in Fremantle.  We will be travelling using Greyhound Kilometre Passes which we can trade in for tours like the one which crosses the Nullarbor Desert, or the Coral Coast Trip or the Great Ocean Road Tour, just to name a few of the trips we have planned. Kellie, the supervisor at the Rockhampton Greyhound Terminal has already gone beyond the call of duty in the help she has given us in planning this bit of the trip and will definitely be getting a beer or two when we pass through the beef capital of Australia.

Part three sees us leaving Sydney on a cruise ship that will take us home via the South Pacific Islands:  Bora Bora, Moorea, Hiva Oa, amongst others. We have gone for a little bit of luxury with the Oceania cruise.  It will take three months to get us back to Southampton. After visiting Pitcairn and Easter Island, we reach the coast of South America giving us a chance to do a side trip to Macchu Picchu before we travel through the Panama Canal, stopping at several Caribbean islands before visiting a number of places on the East coast of the USA and Canada.  Crossing the Atlantic in early June we arrive back in the UK exactly 360 days after we started.  We are still working on the plan for the five days that would mean we had been away for a whole year.  Current thinking is that we will walk back to London.... well, we'll see.

It's going to be fabulous.  Plenty of chances to Fill Up Our Eyes and to go 'Wow' every day.

You can follow our adventure on our travel blog: 360 Degrees in 360 Days