kettle's yard

I have to admit that I’d never even heard of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge until Moira indicated that she was determined to visit the place during our brief stay in the city. It’s an amazing place with a pretty amazing story. In 1921, Jim Ede (1895-1990) was appointed assistant curator of the Tate Gallery in London whilst continuing to study part-time at The Slade. In 1936, he left to live in Morocco. During the intervening time at the Tate, he had tried to promote work of contemporary artists of the day, such as Picasso and Mondrian – but frequently came up against the more conservative attitudes of the gallery directors. He formed friendships with several of the avant-garde artists of the day and, in the process, he acquired many works of art that were under-appreciated at the time. The following examples give an indication of Jim Ede’s determination and vision: Ede was one of Ben Nicholson’s few admirers in the mid-1920s and ended up having some forty-four works by the artist in his collection (many of which had either been given to him by the artist or had been bought for as little as £3! Ede began buying paintings by Alfred Wallis in 1926 (you will be very familiar with this artist’s work if you’re a regular visitor to St Ives) – these arrived by post, perhaps sixty at a time and cost perhaps two or three shillings each (Kettle’s Yard now has a hundred of his paintings!).
In 1956, he returned to England looking for a place to live and to display his art collection and to offer “open house” tours for students from the university. He was searching for a “great house” but, instead, was taken by the “unpretentious charm” of a row of tiny derelict cottages in Cambridge. Ede immediately set about refurnishing and converting the buildings into an exhibition gallery and house; he donated the house and art collection to Cambridge University in 1966 and continued to live at Kettle’s Yard until 1973. During Jim Ede’s time and since, Kettle’s Yard has grown to become (with its house and exhibition gallery) one of the most important centres for 20th century and contemporary art in the country – which just shows how knowledgeable I am about such things!

Without doubt, Kettle’s Yard was the highlight of our holiday and is a “must-see” if you’re a lover of contemporary art (in a beautiful setting).
PS: checkout the website for more information (I could go on.... and on about the place/art!).
Photo: this group of images will hopefully give you a flavour of the house (the house remains arranged almost exactly as Jim Ede had it).

cambridge

Moira is positively in love with Cambridge (actually, I am too). Having lived in Oxford for a number of years and being absolutely besotted by the place, it’s somewhat embarrassing to acknowledge that we both felt that Cambridge was an even lovelier city. We’d both been to Cambridge before on a number of occasions – but the last one was an awful long time ago – and a visit was on Moira’s things-to-do-before-she’s-60 list! The weather for our visit was perfect (which helped of course) and the first evening we spent watching “The Tempest” in the grounds of Trinity College. The remainder of our time was spent happily sauntering in and out of colleges and through the streets, walking beside the river, visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum and spending quite a lot of time eating and drinking!
Photo: regimented punts on the Cam.

southwold

Have just returned from a few days away in Cambridge and Southwold. We had an absolutely lovely time and amazingly, given the weather in much of the rest of the country, were blessed by sunshine throughout our stay. Moira thinks the last time we visited Southwold was some 25 years ago and it’s still just as beautiful as I remember it. We spent two nights at The Randolph Hotel (not quite as exotic as the Oxford version, but it was wholly acceptable) in near-by Reydon village. I got up very early yesterday morning and arrived at Southwold beach a few minutes after the sun had risen on a perfect summer’s morning and I duly walked up and down the shore before heading back for a big breakfast! We spent a very relaxed time here. We pottered around the town, had an evening meal in the Crown Hotel/Pub, had a picnic on the beach, Moira did some shopping (while I read!) and we had a wonderful walk through the sand dunes to the Quay and then meandered back to the town across the Common and beyond.
The only problem about visiting the east coast whilst living on the west coast…. is, of course, the travelling!
Photo: Southwold pier shortly shortly after dawn.

PS: I'll also post some other stuff in due course about our time in Cambridge!

the world record fish+chip shop queue?

Moira+I are on our hols at the moment (Cambridge and Southwold). I'll try and post some catch up stuff when we return to Bristol but, just as fill-in, this is a photograph of PART of the queue to the fish+chip shop in Southwold yesterday evening (this shows perhaps just over 50% - I've cut off the end of the queue and it doesn't show all those who are lining up down the alleyway into the shop itself)! Needless to say, we ate at a pub down the road.

I understand the owners live in a palace, own a yacht and are chauffeur-driven everywhere....

hidcote manor garden

We tried to visit Hidcote a week or so ago but ended up in Cardiff (long story!).
Yesterday’s expedition was more successful. Moira+I have recently taken up National Trust membership again – we do this every few years, then let it drop – and were determined to re-visit this beautiful Gloucestershire garden (we think we’ve been there twice before, but simply ages ago). We had a lovely time and probably spent nearly four hours there. We’d also taken our own food and coffee and so the bonus was that it actually felt as if we’d had a very cheap day out (if you don’t count the NT membership and the petrol!).
If you’ve not been, we’d highly recommend that you go.
Photo: the manor house from the north-west.

eating from the garden… or not

We’ve really enjoyed working with our EarthAbbey friends on various GrowZone projects during the course of this year. This has included modifying our tiny garden to include various areas for growing food. Moira+I have little experience of such things so, as you might imagine, it’s been a huge learning curve for both of us. We’ve been growing/trying to grow the following thus far: lettuce (of various types), strawberries, chard, sprouting broccoli, peppers, shallots, potatoes and tomatoes. The lettuce has been pretty good; strawberries were fine (but really hardly enough for more than a couple of meals); the chard is just about ok (but fighting a constant battle with the slugs/snails); the peppers and shallots were a failure; the potatoes produced a pretty paltry crop of rather small vegetables; the broccoli seems to be doing ok (thus far).
What about the tomatoes I hear you ask (actually, I feel sure you won’t be asking such questions!)? You may have read my previous blog about dealing with our army of slugs and snails (in order to protect our ripening tomatoes)…. well, I’m afraid we’ve now discovered that all our tomato plants had “blight” and so we’ve had to strip off our tiny unripened tomatoes (see photograph) and Moira’s currently in the process of making green tomato chutney!!
It’s all hugely disappointing.
Now, I don’t want to over-dramatise matters, but our experience has given me much food for thought(!) – for example:
a) Our experience put me in mind of people all over the world who HAVE to grow their own food (and this includes farmers in this country too). We just shrug our shoulders and go out and buy food from the local shops/supermarket instead. For a farmer in this country, a failed crop could mean that his/her business has to fold. For someone in the Third World, a failed crop could mean much, much more – ultimately that his/her family starves to death.
b) Maybe it would have all been different if we’d attacked everything with chemicals to avoid disease and infestation?
c) Food in this country is incredibly cheap (we might not want to admit this, but it is in relative terms). If you can buy two large punnets of strawberries for £3, you might ask yourself: “what’s the point of growing my own”?
But, then I snap out of this negative mindset!
We’ve only just started out….
We’ve really enjoyed the challenge of trying to produce some of our own food.
We want to produce our own food organically.
I think we’ve become far more “in tune” with the earth, the weather and the seasons (sounds a bit of a hippie thing to say, but it’s true!).
We’ve learnt an awful lot through our “mistakes” and we need to be educated.
We need to discover what food is most suited to our “plot” and grow it successfully.
We WILL make this work eventually!

benefits of old age

Spent the day with Iris at Bristol Zoo yesterday. Really enjoyable day and, as a bonus, the sun shone throughout. Also prepared food and drinks beforehand so didn’t end up spending a fortune at the café. Anyway, the real point of this post was to underline some of the benefits of being over 60! I’ve recently discovered that, by showing my bus pass, I can get discount at the Watershed cinema AND Bristol Zoo (as well as on the buses, of course!).
It all adds up!
Photo: Iris and the lioness at Bristol Zoo (“females in profile”).
PS: Wonder if I can get a discount at Threshers?
PPS: They’ve introduced a fantastic aerial ropes course at the zoo (you have to be over 5 years/1.1m high) – it looks wonderful and kids+parents seemed to be really enjoying themselves: see http://www.bristolzoo.org.uk/visiting/attractions/zooropia.

home

Moira+I went to see this film by director Ursula Meier at the Watershed last night. The film deals with, amongst other things, family solidarity – it’s disturbing, but impressive; rather dark but amusing. It observes a family’s peaceful existence in France being threatened as a busy highway (after remaining uncompleted for ten years) is opened only feet away from their isolated rural house. They refuse to relocate and so begins the nightmare for this closely-bonded family – used to privacy and the silence of the natural world.

links golf

Played golf with good mate Jake from school this morning.
He only lives round the corner from Burnham+Berrow Golf Course and so, at very short notice, we arranged to have a game on the nine hole Channel Course there (although we actually played 18 holes, if that makes any sense). It transpired that this was the very course that my lovely brother Alan first introduced me to some years ago when Moira+I came down to live in Bristol…. we didn’t actually play there, we simply used the public footpath that runs across the course!
Anyway, the links course was really rather beautiful (and testing) and we had a very enjoyable, relatively inexpensive morning before being treated to lunch by Jake's wife Charlotte back at his house.
Very nice!
Photo: this isn’t one of mine (I didn’t take my camera), it’s from B+BGC’s website.

slugs+snails

Our tomato plants have produced dozens of small green tomatoes. We’ve been waiting for them to turn red and yesterday Moira asked if I’d noticed that some of them actually had started to change colour.
Brilliant!
But then she added that the red ones had also started to be eaten by the slugs and snails… Horror of horrors! I quickly checked and instantly “removed” perhaps ten snails from the plants/adjoining wall. How dare they? Before going to bed, I was out in the garden again – this time armed with torch! I removed another 20 odd slugs and snails. I felt like the Victor Meldrew of the gardening world! First thing this morning, I’ve been out there again and “dispatched” another 20 or so.
Suddenly, our tiny garden seems like a training ground for militant slugs+snails….
Suddenly, I feel as if I’m George W Bush organising an invasion….
There’s got to be a better way!
PS: I felt uneasy about taking photographs of any of “our” slugs+snails, so have resorted to Google, I’m afraid!

red arrows

I’m very much against Air Shows on environmental grounds, so I feel a little guilty about this…
I knew that the Red Arrows Air Display Team was due to appear at Bristol’s Balloon Fiesta at 5pm yesterday. As it was such a beautiful afternoon, I decided to walk up to Clifton in the hope that I could watch the Red Arrows from the suspension bridge. There were absolutely crowds of people everywhere - the roads were jammed in all directions by traffic trying to get to Ashton Court; people were lounging about on the grassy area next to the bridge; I noticed that the roof terrace at the Avon Gorge Hotel was a particularly popular viewing point and, of course, there were lots of people crossing the bridge to get into Ashton Court itself.
Suddenly, right on time, there was a tremendous ROAR from somewhere behind me and I just managed to react in time to take this photograph (they move bloomin' fast!). I have to admit, the Red Arrows were pretty impressive and they “performed” for nearly 25 minutes.
PS: by the time I returned home, supper was virtually ready(!) and we ate in the garden and watched all the hot air balloons fly directly overhead – very gracefully and somewhat quieter than the Red Arrows!

balloon fiesta

Moira+I got up very early this morning to walk to Ashton Court to watch some 76 hot air balloons make a mass ascent at this year’s Bristol Balloon Fiesta. Ruth+Stu+Iris+Rosa joined us in our dawn quest and we were very well rewarded by beautiful weather and blue skies. If you’ve never witnessed this early morning spectacle, then I really recommend that you make an effort to do so (but only on perfect summer mornings with very light winds, that is!)…. the whole atmosphere is SO much better than at the evening ascents. We returned home afterwards to eat lots of excellent bacon sandwiches and drink copious quantities of tea/coffee – and were also joined by good friend Angie (Wilf had to go on to work) and her daughter Orla and Angie’s parents (plus R+S+I+R)…. and, by the time we’d finished it all, it was still only 10.30am and the day was still young!
Photo: Iris’s friends Harry and Monkey enjoying the fiesta (note their thermos flask and cups!).

brean down

It was raining AGAIN when I got up yesterday. I was determined that the weather wasn’t going to deter me, so decided that I’d drive to the coast and take a lengthy walk along a beach in the rain, wearing my wonderful wet-weather garb. So I got dressed, made myself a flask of coffee, collected up my waterproofs and boots and drove off into the gloom. I decided to head off to Brean Down. Amazingly, before I’d even turned off the motorway, the rain had stopped. The sun was trying to shine. I felt strangely cheated!
So I ended up walking along the beach to Barrow and back and then climbed up on to Brean Down itself and walked virtually to the tip of the headland (great panoramic views – apart from the caravan sites!). By now, of course, it was a wonderfully clear, bright, sunny day…. and the waterproofs remained in my bag the entire time!
Photo: "mountain" goats on the down!

moon

Went along to the Watershed again last night - this time to see Duncan Jones’s film “Moon” (note: Jones is David Bowie’s son and formerly named Zowie Bowie!). It’s a very good film which evokes lots of parallels with “2001, A Space Odyssey” – with Kevin Spacey providing GERTY’s voice (ie. the robot) in lieu of 2001’s equivalent HAL character. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) has a three year contract to harvest Helium 3 from the moon for “Lunar”, a company that claims to hold the key to solving the earth’s energy crisis. He is the sole human superintendent of the mechanised moon-mine. It’s a film that explores the vast, lonely, silent reaches of outer space and the boredom of the daily routine. In the final days, his health begins to deteriorate…. sorry, it would wrong to tell you any more!
You need to see it yourself!
PS: Moira had to remind me that, if I took my bus pass, I’d be able to get concessionary rates!).

bread

I made my first loaf of bread yesterday.
All fairly basic stuff to start with, but it tasted pretty good to me!
Having broken my duck, I’ll certainly be trying my hand at this again in the future.
Photo: I wanted it to be a "crusty" loaf, but probably slightly over-did it?

coco before chanel

I’m in love with Audrey Tautou (it’s ok, Moira knows!). My favourite film ever is probably “Amelia” – featuring the aforementioned actress – and so I was very keen to see this film. It seems that everyone else in Bristol was attending the annual Harbour Festival but, instead, we decided to see “Coco Before Chanel” at the Watershed. I wasn’t disappointed and really enjoyed the film. As one might imagine, it’s beautifully crafted and very elegant…. and I thought Audrey’s performance was stunning. One of the reviews described it as “mesmerising” and I wouldn’t argue with that.

velvet elvis

I started reading this book by accident. Good friend Merry Carol was reading it and had suggested I might like it too. The other part of the title is “Repainting the Christian Faith”. To be honest, I’m not a great reader of “Christian books”. I’d certainly never heard of the author, Rob Bell. I read the opening chapter and was intrigued. I liked the way the book looked and was set out (sorry, but these things are important for me!), I liked his writing style and some of the things he was saying and the way he said it, for example (and yes, I feel I could have written this – so I realise it’s not earth-shattering stuff!):
“As a Christian, I am simply trying to orient myself around living a particular kind of way, the kind of way that Jesus taught is possible. And I think that the way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.
This isn’t irrational or primitive or blind faith. It is merely being honest that we are living a ‘way’.
I’m convinced being generous is a better way to live.
I’m convinced forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better way to live.
I’m convinced having compassion is a better way to live.
I’m convinced pursuing peace in every situation is a better way to live.
I’m convinced listening to the wisdom of others is a better way to live.
I’m convinced being honest with people is a better way to live”.
Rob Bell was born in 1970 and I read on the book's cover that he’d set up a church community in Michigan in 1999. I initially got the impression that this was just a simple small Christian group - rather like our lovely friend Ian Adams - and, like Ian, Bell had a simple powerful way of communicating his faith.
After about three chapters of “Velvet Elvis”, however, I started to realise that Bell’s situation was very different and the start of chapter 4 (or “Movement 4” as Bell describes the sections) revealed that his church community was huge! When I checked on Wikipedia, it said that, by 2005, some 11,000 attended his church in three “gatherings” each Sunday! Rob Bell is apparently seen by some people as the “new Billy Graham” and very much a figurehead to many Christians.
I’m afraid to admit that, once I’d learnt a little more of the background, my interest and enthusiasm for the book started to wane. I’ve now finished the book. I still found that there were things he wrote that struck a chord or made me question some of my own views but, by the end - perhaps unfairly - I kept getting a sense that the book was part of a “Rob Bell/Mars Hill Bible Church” industry.
What I think I’d hoped for, somewhat naively, was something that was a little more personal and a sense of shared thoughts between friends.

gratitude+guilt

A strange thing happened a couple of days ago.
A young woman (maybe in her 30s) knocked on our front door and pleaded for me to help her (actually she was on her phone when I answered the door). I’d never seen her before in my life. She’d parked her car a few doors up the road and her car battery had completely died and she hadn’t a clue what to do. Did I have any jump leads? No, I didn’t.
I suggested that I (well, Stuart and me!) could probably get it started by pushing her down the hill (once we’d turned her car around). She expressed huge doubts – not about our ability to push her, you understand – “I’ve never done anything like that before in my life”. So, I explained what she needed to do and Stu+I pushed and pulled her car into position (it was at the top of the hill). She appeared to remain very doubtful.
Anyway, we managed to “bump start” her virtually immediately and she vanished down the hill (at some speed!) – mainly screaming in disbelief and but also desperately trying to poke her hand out of the car window to wave her thanks, in a vague manner of means.
All very amusing.
But later, I admitted to Moira that I’d been very suspicious by the whole thing. Her attitude had appeared really rather strange…. why our house (she must have passed nearly ten houses before knocking on our door)? She just seemed to assume that I’d comply with her request. She didn’t seem particularly pleased that we’d sorted out her problem…. although I was perfectly happy to help, I told Moira that I was little put out that she just seemed to ASSUME that I’d assist.
Well, yesterday evening I had to eat my words…. there was another knock on the door. It was the young woman again – but this time she was armed with a box of (quite expensive) chocolates! She apologised for not being able to thank us properly yesterday… she was really REALLY grateful…. and I was left feeling VERY guilty!
PS: the chocolates have probably been doctored… I’ll probably be kidnapped over the next day or so in a drugged state and smuggled to some far-off land… I’ll try and post a blog regarding my whereabouts….

underage sex

I’m afraid this is probably going to come across as another of my “what-is-becoming-of our-society?” rants – so please accept my apologies in advance (Moira’s not too impressed either!). Young teenagers these days certainly know a lot more about sex than ever I did at the same age. Schools now provide a wealth of practical information and advice through their PSE (Personal+Social Education) lessons. In my day(!), school provided absolutely nothing and “everything” was learnt from peers and parents (not much of the latter in my own case) and, clearly, this wasn’t very satisfactory. I’m well aware that times change, but what I find so depressing is that I think children are now ALMOST given the impression that there’s nothing wrong with having sex when they’re 13 or 14 (there almost seems to be an acceptance that this will be the case). I’ve come across instances of parents accepting that their YOUNG teenage children will be having sex and their only concerns seem to be a) that the couple should take the necessary precautions and b) that they “shouldn’t do it in our house”. In my own experience at school, I’m certainly also aware of two recent instances where boys saw it as their “right” to have sex with their girlfriends whenever they felt like it and were either physically violent or used threats of violence to get their way.
It shouldn’t be like this.
We seem to have lost our way when it comes to standards of morality and individual values and there is a desperate need to redress the balance.
In trying to track down John Ware’s “Death of Respect” series on BBC iPlayer, I came across two programmes on BBC3 (I never normally watch anything on BBC3!) which appeared to underline my concerns. The first was called “Underage and Pregnant” and described itself as a “series which goes behind the sensational headlines to discover what it is really like to be underage and pregnant”. It dealt with the lives of two teenage twin girls; the first became pregnant she was 14 and the second became pregnant at 15. The other programme was called: “Pregnancy: My Big Decision” and followed “two teenage girls who are on the brink of making a big decision. Separated by age, culture and geography, but sharing the same all-consuming desire to have a baby, the girls go on a very personal journey of self discovery. But they are not going on their own - they are taking their Mums and Grans with them”. One of the girls is 14 and the other is 16 (the latter lost her virginity at 13).
I think both programmes are intended to be educational and, in many ways, they are. At the same time, however, they almost seem to take pleasure in making celebrities of these children (and what parents would be happy for their children to participate in such programmes for goodness sake?).
Here are some quotes from the programmes:
“Pregnancy is seen as a bit of a fashion accessory… at our school, there are at least 13 or 14 girls who are or have been pregnant or had a termination or have miscarried”.
“I just couldn’t be bothered to work when I’m older”.
“In Devon, 1 in 20 new Mums are teenagers”.
PS: Right, rant over. I’ll try to remain positive from now on (… if only this rain would stop!).

banksy

Moira+I decided to try to get into the Banksy exhibition at Bristol’s City Museum+Art Gallery today. Based on the experience of some other friends, we arrived in the queue at 9am (complete with coffee and newspaper - even though it didn’t open until 10am) and were walking round the exhibition by 10.15am. I thought it was brilliant. Amazing to see so many people walking round an art gallery with permanent smiles across their faces!
It was also wonderful to be able to go round taking photographs (although I won’t spoil it for you by posting stuff here – I’ll put some on facebook instead) and its absolutely FREE!
You must see it if you can (it finishes at the end of August).
Photo: just SOME of the people waiting to get into the exhibition (queuing up in Park Street Avenue) when we were leaving…. as, you can see, it’s all very good-natured.

drinking heavily at 13, dead by 22…..

I was depressed to hear about the death of a 22-year old man who died of liver failure; he’d been drinking heavily since he was 13. In yesterday’s Guardian, Joanna Moorhead wrote about her meeting with his mother who felt that her son had been badly affected by the break-up of her marriage; she also claimed that she didn’t realise he was drinking at 13 (which, frankly, I find hard to believe). He’d been refused a liver transplant because it was felt that he would return to a damaging pattern of alcohol consumption. In Moorhead’s article, paramedic Steve Evans is quoted thus: “I remember the moment I realised what a big problem underage drinking had become. It was a Friday in Widnes and we were called out to two 11-year old boys and a 13-year old girl who were unconscious due to alcohol”.
I watched the second part of John Ware’s “The Death of Respect” on BBC iPlayer last night (I blogged about the first one last week) and it touched on similar concerns. He spoke to a group of youngsters (perhaps 15-year olds?) in Stubbington, Hampshire. They were drinking on a street corner and, when Ware asked a couple of them how much lager they were likely to consume in an evening, one said 20 cans and another said “24, easily”.
Frightening.
Ware reckons that, in the main, young people of today are growing up without a sense of community (instead it’s a “me, me, me society”). In his view, young people were seeking “instant gratification and celebrity”; “this generation know all about their rights but precious little about taking personal responsibility”. He identifies a number of factors for our current plight, including: politicians and society in general for “allowing the fear of being considered judgemental”; for the decline in the traditional nuclear family structure (and decline in marriage) resulting in many parents “feeling impotent” in dealing with their teenage children; and a general lack of social responsibility and individual values.
Obviously, no person or family is immune to the hazards of such matters but, to my mind, the real fear is for the offspring of the dysfunctional families of today…. and all the implications.

rosa eve low

Ruth+Stu’s second daughter, Rosa Eve, was born at home (as planned) yesterday at around 10am. It all seemed to go incredibly smoothly – with Moira collecting Iris at about 8am – and everyone, thankfully, appearing to be in good health. Great too that it happened to coincide with the last day of term! It was lovely to be able to take Iris round to meet her new sister during the course of the afternoon (and to see her positive reaction to the experience!). Ruth+Stu seemed incredibly relaxed and had clearly enjoyed the home birth. They’d originally arranged to have Hannah+Fee round for a curry supper last night and decided to go ahead as planned – the only difference being that H+F ended up doing the cooking!
Iris stayed with us overnight and has been promised the opportunity to give Rosa her first bath later this morning!

ironbridge

Just returned from a three day visit to Ironbridge in Shropshire with a group of Year 9 pupils (a repeat of the Activities Week “Revolution” trip I undertook last year). 14 students and three staff (essentially, I was the bus driver) stayed at Wilderhope Manor and spent the remainder of the time learning more about the industrial revolution and dressing up in appropriate costume to experience the “Victorian Town” at Blists Hill.
We all had a really good time, despite the wet weather.
Photo: two pupils insisted on trying to ski/slide on wet meadows at Wilderhope Manor; this degenerated into “knee sliding” - whoever took this photograph was clearly very unprofessional in appearing to condone such irresponsible behaviour!

apollo 11

40 years ago today/tomorrow, I have vivid memories of sitting transfixed watching the first moon landing and the subsequent moonwalk (at about 4am) on television. I can distinctly remember thinking at the time that I was witnessing history. We take so much for granted now, but less than 10 years earlier the world was amazed that they were able to achieve “live” television pictures from half way round the world – now they were televising from the moon!
I’ve recently been re-living the sense of excitement/adventure by watching various programmes on BBC4. It now seems very strange seeing images of Mission Control at Houston and noticing that a) there’s not a woman in sight (they’re probably all at home doing the housework?) and b) that lots of the blokes appear to be chain-smoking! At the time, I remember thinking that one of the astronauts would fall, rip his suit and die whilst larking about on the surface of the moon. I also recall feeling a little uneasy by all the celebrations because I was convinced they wouldn’t be able to re-launch The Eagle moon module from Tranquility Base!
1969 was a pretty amazing year (I’ve previously blogged about Woodstock and Easy Rider). That summer I’d just been awarded an Architectural Student prize at the end of my second year at college. In the Autumn, Moira and I got together. I also seem to remember owning a great pair of bottle-green flaired trousers and a bright orange jumper (and also sinking in the annual architects’ punt race punting on the River Cherwell)! Those were the days when students KNEW how to be students!
PS: the moon landing seemed somewhat familiar territory because, in the previous year, we’d all become fascinated by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
PPS: My lovely brother Alan made a wooden sculpture to commemorate the landing (I think he’s still got it somewhere?).
PPS: On a more disturbing note, it was 20 years ago today that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was first put under house arrest in Burma.

respect

I watched the first episode of John Ware’s “Death of Respect” programme on BBC iPlayer last night. In it, he asks what has happened to British values over the last 50 years and bemoans the fact that Britons lead Europe in everything from “brand awareness and rates of obesity to public drunkenness, drug use, sexually transmitted infections and family breakdown”. Ware is about a year older than me and so perhaps it wasn’t all that surprising that I found myself agreeing with most of the points he raised (in a “grumpy-old-men-together” sort of way, you understand!). The school where I work has a very good reputation for being able to deal with behavioural issues (and clearly I can’t compare my experiences with those of some inner city schools), but I’ve certainly been appalled by the attitudes, values and manners of some of the pupils I deal with on a regular basis. Only last week, I heard one 14 year old girl (as in “14-going-on-27) verbally “lay into” her mother and effectively tell her that it was her right to be given a lift to and from school each day (even though she lives with very easy walking distance) and that of course she shouldn’t be asked to help out around the house (and that none of her friends ever had to do so either). This same girl has allegedly been “sleeping around” for more than year, has been involved in violent behaviour outside school and, on one occasion at least, has been picked up by the police in the early hours of the morning in an inebriated state. Somewhat predictably, one only has to meet the parents of many of these children and you realise why they are the way they are. Again last week, we were informed about two 15 year old boy pupils being taken into the pub by their fathers. The fathers got into an argument and started fighting each other; one of the men was apparently quite badly hurt after being kicked in the head by the other man whilst lying on the floor injured! One of the boys had to ring for the police and ambulance.
I’m well aware that there has always been an unruly element (even in my younger days, when we had Teddy boys, Mods and Rockers and the like!), but I do sometimes fear for our future society – when the sort of children I’m frequently dealing with have children of their own! I’ll be interested in seeing the second episode of Ware’s programme when I understand he’ll asking if it’s time we took a different approach to dealing with some of the dysfunctional parts of our society.

Photo: John Ware.

andy

Andy is one of those handful of people who refuses to join the facebook community (but secretly would love to…. it’s now become a pride thing, I think!). Having said that, he seems to have more photos on facebook than the average bloke (certainly more than me!). I’ve shared lifts into school with him over the past couple of years and he’s become a really great friend. He has a reputation for being a bit of a moaner (in an endearing way, of course!), but he has a wonderful sense of humour and cracks me up on a regular basis. Together, we’re thinking of forming our own political party – there’s not a world crisis or national problem that we can’t resolve in our 35 minute journey to and from school (admittedly, some of our solutions might be regarded as somewhat “unusual”, but heh!). He’s also president of the Bristol Self-Help Group – but his membership is currently under review after his failure to attend the last meeting. He’s also in deep mourning over the imminent loss of co-tutor Emma (but won’t admit it, of course).
Photo: I just thought you’d like to see some of Andy’s random facebook images (and I’ve tried to find some where he’s actually smiling)!

art in architecture

This seems strangely appropriate after yesterday’s post. I’ve just been searching through my old filofax (trying to locate something I thought I’d saved). Needless to say, I didn’t find what I was looking for…. but I DID come across an article by Jonathan Meades that I’d ripped out of a copy of “Building” magazine in January 2005 (a month before I retired from my architectural practice). Over the years, I’d long argued with anyone would listen that architects, ideally, needed to be artists and should have an ability to draw. I frequently used to attend “careers conventions” at various schools and this is the advice I would frequently trot out. Some people from my office disagreed with this contention. The Meades’ article came as a wonderful boost. In it, he bemoans the fact, in his view, that architecture has become a “controlled and artistically emasculated business”. He argued that the qualifications for entry to architectural courses was simply wrong and that the “current emphasis on mathematics and physics” was misplaced (I actually did Maths, Further Maths and Art at A Level!). Meades referred to a speech given by the noted architect Sir Terry Farrell (“painter of neo-romantic landscapes, illustrator, pasticheur and photographer”). In it, Farrell contended that architecture’s self-image was increasingly that of a branch of civil engineering and called for a reassessment of the way architecture is taught and of whom it is taught to”. He argued that a “background in the visual arts is of incomparable value to the future architect”.
Absolutely!

creativity

Many thanks to good friend Paul Brown for putting me on to this passionate, challenging and entertaining address by Sir Ken Robinson to an education conference in 2006 (it lasts about 20 minutes, but it's well worth listening to!). In it, he contends that schools kill creativity and urges the need to nurture creativity in education. Here are a few quotes:
“We get educated out of creativity”.
“The Arts are at the bottom of the pile as far as the education system is concerned”.
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original”.
“You’ll never get a job doing that”.
This very much reinforces my concerns at the attitude towards “Design and Technology” at our school. Whilst Art and the Performing Arts are well catered for (indeed there’s a new dance teacher starting in September), Design and Technology seems to be regarded as something that the “less able” students opt for (which, as a former architect, gets my blood boiling!). Indeed, from September, Design and Technology will cease to be a faculty in its own right (if I understand things correctly) and subject options are to be palmed off to various other departments or wound down. I’m not at all impressed.
Wearing my architectural hat, I particularly like this quote from Sir Ken: “Creativity…., more often than not, comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things”.

sleep furiously

Went to see “Sleep Furiously” yesterday afternoon at the Watershed. I went with an open mind…. the blurb described it thus: “This riveting directorial debut draws a lyrical portrait of a year in the life of the tiny hamlet of Trefeurig, the small farming community in Wales where Koppel’s parents, refugees from Nazi Germany, settled down and where he grew up”…. and thoroughly enjoyed it. Clearly, the word had got round because the cinema for the afternoon showing was completely, and very unusually, full (ok, it was only the small cinema 2 – but there must have been over 70 people in the audience). The film isn’t quite a documentary; it merely puts together simple scenes from country life in a rather beautiful, sometimes amusing, way. I suspect that, in years to come, it will have become one of those iconic films that reflect a past life.

Actually, yesterday was a rather a strange day in many ways. Moira had travelled up to Oxford the previous evening to attend a StillPoint weekend conference. I’d arrived home in the early hours of Saturday morning after drinking with school friends in Bath, actually got up reasonably early and enjoyed spending the morning drinking coffee and reading The Guardian. The previous evening, great school mates Becky+Andy had talked of us getting together for lunch at The Watershed (and Becky duly texted to confirm this – although Andy had to get himself from Bath first, arrived very late and then drank only Coke!?). Anyway, I’d already planned to go to the cinema in the afternoon, so it all made for very enjoyable preparation (Andy+Becky went off shopping!).

(almost) end of term drinks

The final weeks of the summer term are always rather strange at school. The last week is usually taken up with Activities Week and the penultimate week sees the disappearance of several teachers on camps and on trips to Germany, France and Spain. So, in keeping with tradition, most of the teaching staff got together last night at The Boater in Bath to drown their sorrows and to celebrate their impending holidays. A very enjoyable night (fortunately, as an old bloke, I can use the excuse that I need to catch the train back to Bristol before midnight – and therefore avoid being dragged into various clubs!). It’s also a sad occasion that involves saying goodbye to several lovely friends – including Mike (retiring), Jon, Pete and Laura (moving on to pastures new). I’ll particularly miss Laura next year (her classroom is only across the corridor from my office) but the real shame was that she wasn’t around last night and so, not having seen her at the end of school, I haven’t actually said my proper goodbyes.
Somewhat worryingly, this also marks the end of my fourth year at the school (the world of architecture seems an absolute age ago!). Blimey!
Photo: Sangeeta+Karin+Mike’s viking helmet (don’t ask!).
PS: I took my broken camera along, but this is the ONLY photograph that came out – I ordered my new camera two weeks ago and it STILL hasn’t arrived (and I’m getting REALLY frustrated!).

sports day at bath university

This year, the school experimented by holding its Sports Day at the Bath University Training Village for the first time. Just transporting the pupils to the facilities was a major challenge in itself (involving 10 bus loads of students and teachers). It proved to be a very good day for the students taking part (and it didn't rain!) – a wonderful opportunity to use world-class facilities. Our House is notorious for finishing last in this event over recent years and I had very high hopes that we might be able claw ourselves up from the bottom of the ladder…. but no, even though we started the day in second place, we ended finishing last again! We didn’t even get any points for being the best prepared House in terms of completed teamsheets+consent forms! Although I fully accept that the day represented a rare chance for pupils to experience such high-quality amenities, I was also saddened that the day was only experienced by less than half of the pupils at our school. Indeed, I’d previously written to the Headteacher and Head of the Sports Faculty to express my reservations – the day used to be for the entire school community (now it was the minority – with the non-participating pupils and the bulk of teachers remaining in school). I also felt sorry for those students for whom sports day represented the “one time” when they can excel and show off their talents in front of their teachers and peers.

In the event, only one of the school’s senior management team turned up to participate…. no surprises there then!
PS: You might recall that I moaned about last year’s sports day too (click here)!
Photo: Isabelle, Maria, Juliet, Dan and Kate (race officials!).

new citizenship/a new way of thinking

I’m currently reading Chris Sunderland’s book “The Dream that Inspired the Bible” and have been struck by the number of themes it shares with this year’s Reith Lectures given by Michael Sandel, Professor of Government at Harvard under the title “A New Citizenship”. Here are just a few quotes from Chris’s book and Professor Sandel’s lecture on “Markets and Morals”:
CS: “If young people today are asked about their dreams, many can only speak of fame”.
MS: “There’s now a widespread sense that markets have become detached from fundamental values, that we need to reconnect markets and values”.
MS: “A study of some Israeli childcare centres offers a good real world example of how market incentives can crowd out non-market norms. The centres faced a familiar problem - parents sometimes came late to pick up their children, and so a teacher had to stay with the children until the tardy parents arrived. To solve this problem, the childcare centres imposed a fine for late pick-ups. What do you suppose happened? Late pick-ups actually increased. Now if you assume that people respond to incentives, this is puzzling. You would expect, wouldn’t you, the fine to reduce, not increase the incidence of late pick-ups? So what happened? Introducing the fine changed the norms. Before, parents who came late felt guilty; they were imposing an inconvenience on the teachers. Now parents considered a late arrival a service for which they were willing to pay. Rather than imposing on the teacher, they were simply paying her to stay longer”.
MS: “Perhaps the best-known example of market norms eroding or crowding out non-market norms involves the case of blood donation. The sociologist Richard Titmuss compared the United States system, which permitted the buying and selling of blood for transfusion, with the system in the UK which banned financial incentives and relied wholly on donated blood. Titmuss found that rather than improve the quality and supply of blood, the commercialisation of blood led to shortages, inefficiencies and a greater incidence of contaminated blood. His explanation: putting a price on blood turned what had been a gift into a commodity. It changed the norms associated with blood donation. Once blood is bought and sold in the market, people are less likely to feel a moral obligation to give it out of altruism”.
CS: “The old way of thinking. Principle: the one thing that the world must pay attention to is market exchange. Wealth for all will follow if we get this right (primary values: money, property and self-interest)”.
CS: “The new way of thinking. Principle: we need to pay attention to the interconnected systems of the earth that sustains all life (primary values: energy, commonality and well-being)”.
MS: “One thing is clear: the better kind of politics we need is a politics oriented less to the pursuit of individual self-interest and more to the pursuit of the common good”.
I started scribbling some notes on this blog a few days ago, but noticed that it was also the subject of yesterday’s Leader column in The Guardian. This concluded that we should “heed Prof Sandel’s call to put the morality back into politics”.
Whilst I strongly agree with these sentiments, I also sense that we might need to put the morality back into humanity?
Photo: Chris Sunderland and Michael Sandel.
PS: Today’s “Something Understood” on Radio4 dealt with similar themes: “Buying and Selling”.
Note: Moira+I (and many others from around Bristol and beyond) have been involved with Chris over recent months following the launch of EarthAbbey – a Christian community dedicated to encouraging one another to journey towards a life more in tune with the earth.

mikey

I’ve just been crying in the bath.
I was listening to this morning’s edition of “Saturday Live” on Radio4. Fi Glover was interviewing Anne Crosby about her son Matthew, who was born in London in 1964 with Down’s Syndrome. Crosby talked eloquently about her feelings, about the consultant’s stark reference to Matthew as being a “throwaway child”, about her regrets at putting Matthew in the “monstrous” Normansfield Hospital when he was three and removing him less than two years later and about their life together. Anne Crosby written about her son (who died when he was 25) in this book, but you can listen to the interview by clicking here (it’s about 18 minutes into the programme).
It all provided an enormous contrast with the life of our own grandson Mikey. I know that Alice+Dave are devoted to him and, although it’s clearly very tough at times, I know just how much joy+happiness Mikey brings to them, to us and to all those touched by his life.
Photo: Mikey!

water music

Moira+I went to the harbourside yesterday afternoon to listen to a very impressive free concert in the Lloyds Amphitheatre space, raising funds for Water Aid. Apparently, this was the first time the space had ever been used for unamplified performance and it really enjoyable. There were over 500 singers from all over the West Country, included our lovely friend Gareth, and some of the music was just beautiful – particularly, for me, a piece from Georgia (as in formerly part of the Soviet Union). The sun shone, the singers wore blue+green (water colours?) and looked great and the music was captivating.
Not a bad afternoon!
Photo: the massed choir (and conductors) in the amphitheatre space…. although the image doesn’t do it justice.

twenty20 cricket again

My twenty20 cricket status has gone from “virgin” to “old hand” in less than a week!
A group of us from school (Andy M, Becky, Emma, Helen, Will, Andy W – plus his son and his mate and his two sons) went along to the County Ground in Bristol. This time it was for the Gloucestershire v Somerset local derby. Very close game which was won by Somerset in the final over. Amazingly, it had rained (quite hard) all day at school so I didn’t have high hopes of the game going ahead, but we arrived at the ground in bright sunshine and this continued throughout the game. Ironically (perhaps because the ground was packed?), there wasn’t quite so much banter as last time – but it was still a really enjoyable evening, with some 350 runs scored in 3 hours. We even had a streaker (male…. and, no, it wasn’t me!). I heard Helen announce that she really hadn’t a clue about cricket at the start of the game but, after three pints, she’d become quite knowledgeable!
Photo (and apologies for cutting off Becky’s head!): Emma, Andy M, Helen, Will, Andy W’s son and Becky in deep concentration during the game.

leavers day

Yesterday was Leaver’s Day and an opportunity for the Year 11 boys and girls to put on their “posh frocks” and celebrate the end of their GCSEs (and, for some of them, the end of school life altogether!). The money the pupils spend on this great day in the school calendar is amazing. Most of the girls seem to have bought two expensive outfits – one for the daytime celebrations and one for the evening Prom at the Cadbury House Hotel (some of boys did the same with daytime suits and evening DJs) – and then, of course, there was the limo hire! It seemed to me (huge generalisation!) that the girls really enjoyed the red carpet treatment on arrival at school in the morning (in front of all the other pupils and teachers) and posing for photographs, whereas lots of the boys seemed to be in their element “strutting their stuff” on the dance floor at the hotel!

twenty20

I saw my first “live” game of twenty20 cricket yesterday evening at the County Ground, Bristol. Good friends Pat, Becky, Will and I went along to see Gloucestershire play Warwickshire - Becky,Will+I all hailing from this famous county, you understand! It proved to be a really enjoyable evening (and the Warwickshire Bears won too!). The quality of cricket, especially the fielding, was excellent and England batsman Ian Bell was quite brilliant. It’s a very fast-moving game and it was all over in just a little less than three hours, with nearly 300 runs scored. The huge bonus, however, was the wonderful light-hearted banter between spectators. Once the Gloucestershire supporters sitting around us realised that we were supporting the Bears, the game took on entirely different character! At the end of the game, there were lots of handshakes and smiles - and vague promises to meet up again next year. I actually feel we’ll be back again this season as token Gloucestershire supporters to enjoy the fun all over again!
Very, very amusing and a great evening.
PS: Think my brother Alan+I need to get together at a twenty20 game some time – I’m sure we’d have a lovely time!
PPS: During the course, Becky ran off to get Ian Bell’s autograph at the end of his innings; she returned a few minutes later looking a little forelorn. “Well, did you get it?” we asked…. “no” she replied, “I didn’t have a pen”. Genius!

gerry+merry carol

A small group of us has been meeting every Thursday, over the past sixteen months or so, to share meals (and red wine!) together and to discuss various books and experiences related to our common faith. To date, our group has consisted of only six people (apart from various visiting friends and family members) – Alan, Gareth, Gerry and Merry Carol plus Moira+me. We decided to call the group “Ithaca” after Moira came across a poem by Constantine P Cavafy which seemed to have strong references for our own individual spiritual journeys. The group has become an important part of our lives.
Sadly, today has seen the departure of Gerry+Merry Carol – back to Vancouver, Canada (Gerry is Canadian and MC is from USA). Although we always knew that G+MC would depart these shores once Gerry approached the end of his Doctorate, the time has arrived all too quickly and we’re going to miss them both enormously.
Lovely, lovely people.
Photo: Gareth, Gerry, Merry Carol, Moira and Alan at our last Ithaca get-together last Thursday.

winchelsea+the red house

Moira+I had a lovely time with good friends Felicity+Chris in East Sussex over the weekend. On Saturday, we had a beautiful walk from Winchelsea to the sea (about a mile and a half away), along the shingle beach and then back across the Pett Level marshland. Still can’t quite get my head around the fact that the town was designated one of the Cinque Ports and had apparently become a “significant port” by the middle of the twelfth century. The town was built on a massive shingle bank and was thought to have first been established as a Saxon fishing settlement sometime after 800AD.
Yesterday, we drove to Bexleyheath to see the Red House – commissioned by William Morris in 1859; designed and built by architect Phillip Webb. I was familiar with the house and its significance within the history of the Arts and Crafts Movement, but had never visited until yesterday. The only way to see the interior was to sign up for a guided tour. This proved to be something of an ordeal! The experience felt like being shown round the house by Margaret Thatcher in her hey day – we were lectured (and I mean “lectured”) on a wide range of matters and all her opinions were offered as being absolutely definitive. At one time, Chris started to wander off and was treated like a very naughty schoolboy!

The house was impressive (if a little empty) but the woman was awful!
Photo: Felicity, Chris+Moira walking along Winchelsea shingle beach.

lost lives

I’ve been catching up on some very powerful TV programmes marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion on BBC iplayer. British military operations in Iraq have now come to an end and the last troops have packed up and left Basra. 179 servicemen and women will not be returning home though, having lost their lives whilst serving with the British Armed Forces. “10 Days to War” provided eight excellent episodes of a series of short dramas (see these two links). They included Tony Blair being given a TV grilling by a group of anti-war women and how the government tried to deal with questions of the legality and so-called justification of going to war: “the need to disarm Iraq, hopefully by peaceful means; if not we have to make sure that the will of the UN is enforced” (Blair). The last of the episodes focussed on Colonel Tim Collins (played by Kenneth Branagh), commander of the Royal Irish Regiment stationed on the Kuwait/Iraq border, rallying his troops just prior to engagement with an impressive speech (much reported at the time) that could have come straight out of Shakespeare’s Henry V. Absolutely fascinating and brilliantly executed.
I also watched two allied programmes entitled “The Fallen: Legacy of Iraq” (and update). The invasion of Iraq has always been controversial, but these films provide a voice for some of the people who have been most significantly affected by the decisions that took us to war. From how the withdrawal affects them and their hopes for Iraq and its people to whether they feel blame, anger or pride - for those who are still coming to terms with their loss, their thoughts on Iraq are powerful, varied and sometimes surprising.
The films also tell the story of Lance Corporal John 'Frenchie' Le Galloudec, a soldier who suffered severe spinal injuries after being shot whilst on operations in Basra. His friend and fellow soldier Corporal Rodney Wilson was fatally wounded trying to drag Frenchie to safety - leaving him with both physical and mental scars.
Powerful stuff which, at times, moved me to tears.

looking for eric

I realise that going to the cinema is not the most sensible thing to do on a beautiful sunny afternoon but, believe me, it proved to be WELL worth it! I went to see Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric” at the Watershed and really, really enjoyed it. It’s about an ailing Manchester postman getting his life back on track with the help of Eric Cantona (yes, Eric Cantona: ManU football legend) and it’s just beautiful. It’s funny (I found myself laughing out loud at various stages), it’s quite tough at times, but it’s also a poignant love story and, according to a review I’ve just read, it’s a “feelgood vigilante film” which (and I know you’ll find this hard to believe) just about sums it up!
Even if football doesn’t interest you at all, you really should see this film.
PS: Coming out of the cinema, the sun was still shining and people were smiling and I even gave the singing guitar player some of my loose change! As I crossed over the swing bridge by the Arnolfini, an old man fell off his bike. He wasn’t badly hurt but a couple of us went to his assistance, someone picked up his bike and others were clearly concerned…. eventually, we got the old man up off the floor and he smiled and said to the gathered throng “Thank you ever so much for all your concern. As you can see, I’m a bit of a learner at this, but it’s really nice that so many of you stopped to check that I was all right”. People beamed back at him and you could almost sense everyone thinking “aaaah, what a nice man!” before going on their respective ways. A very nice moment.
PPS: Also connected another section of roof drainage to the water butt, went along to the Refugee Week entertainment in Queens Square and attended Tim’s entertaining and thought-provoking “service” at foundation (busy day!).

we are not amused

I’m not someone who constantly knocks Prince Charles.
I actually think he’s a bit of a visionary when it comes to things like the Prince’s Trust and his work and words on organic food and climate change, BUT (and you just knew there was going to be a “but” didn’t you!) his latest intervention in the field of architecture has been utterly outrageous.
As you have probably read, the Qatari royal family has scrapped its plans for the £1b redevelopment of Chelsea Barracks in west London following a private letter from the prince to the Qatari royal household.
Brilliant.
Just a week before it was due to be considered by Westminster City Council, the site owners (an investment arm of the Gulf emirate) have withdrawn the planning application. Lord Rogers’ scheme for “548 apartments – half of them affordable, spread over 14 glass and steel buildings” is to be scrapped. Richard Rogers has been one the finest British architects for the best part of 40 years. He is noted for his modernist and functionalist designs. No doubt, Lord Rogers’ architectural practice won the commission in the face of stiff opposition. No doubt, the clients selected the firm on the basis of its past record and the quality of its work. No doubt the practice has been working painstakingly with the developers to help them to come up a design that met their requirements in terms of design, brief, cost and suitability. No doubt the practice has been working in close conjunction with the Westminster Council planners and residents (indeed, the scheme had won support from council officers and the government’s design watchdog). An awful lot of time, effort, expertise (and money!) has been expended on this scheme in the two years and a half years since the site was sold. If you appoint Lord Rogers’ practice, you clearly are NOT wanting to pursue a “more classical, traditional scheme”.
Yesterday’s article in The Guardian indicated that “diplomatic relations between Qatar and Britain were a key factor. An aide to the Qatari royal family said the emirate’s acquisition of the barracks site was as much about developing its diplomatic capital in the UK as it was about producing a profit, and senior Qataris had become concerned that opposition to the plans by ‘well-heeled and highly articulate’ individuals was damaging its attempts at ‘soft diplomacy’.”
Unbelievable.
Architect Peter Ahrends (designer of a modernist extension to the National Gallery that was scrapped in 1975 after the prince had called it a “monstrous carbuncle”) described the current decision thus: “We have been taken back several centuries to a more autocratic, medieval way of wielding influence”. Former Secretary of State for the Environment, Nick Raynsford said that Prince Charles’ behaviour was “almost feudal”. The president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Sunand Prasand, was equally appalled: "We are really throwing in the towel if we think in the 21st Century that we can't make beautiful buildings that can face a site of magnificent buildings across the road. They can be beautiful without being neo-classical." Lord Rogers described the cleints’ decision as “disastrous”.
Anyway, we MUSTN’T be concerned, because the developers have already appointed new designers to take matters forward…. they’ve appointed the “Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment”.
Genius!

magpie

I know we’re supposed to welcome garden birds in these days of diminishing birdsong, but our “own” local magpie is making me consider extreme options. Being an early riser, I’ve been aware these last few weeks of this particular creature’s incessant “song” – Iris does a brilliant impression! To get a “feel” of what I’ve been experiencing, click on this link (and continue to play it a hundred times at full volume!). I even heard one of our neighbours come into the garden this morning, clapping her hands loudly in desperate attempt to chase off our local pet. I think the magpie just found entertaining!
I’m very aware that the rhyme talks about one magpie “for sorrow” and I’ve just used google to discover that there are various things you can do if you meet a single magpie in order to ward off the bad luck. These include “taking your hat off and making the sign of the cross, spitting three times over your shoulder(?), and saluting the magpie with 'Hello Mr Magpie, How's your lady wife today?'”.

Good grief!
happy(?) footnote: I was wrong – there are TWO magpies. I’ve since spotted its (much quieter) mate…. joy knows no bounds!

easy rider

Thanks to Fopp, I sat down to watch my £2 DVD of “Easy Rider” last night with Moira+Merry Carol (although they lost interest and went on to read/made bread!). I can distinctly remember “almost” seeing the film, but didn’t actually do so when it first came out in 1969 – although many of the scenes were so familiar that it’s just possible that I did (hey man, like it was the drug-crazed sixties!)! At the time, I can remember feeling very envious of Oxford mate Ted Harris who looked a little like Peter Fonda. I enjoyed seeing the film (at last?) and was already aware of its brutal ending, but I’d forgotten about its wonderful the soundtrack: featuring songs like “The Weight” (Smith), “Wasn’t Born to Follow” (The Byrds), “If 6 was 9” (Jimi Hendrix), “It’s Alright Ma (I’m only Bleeding)” (Roger McGuinn), “The Pusher” and, of course, “Born to be Wild” (Steppenwolf).
Can’t quite believe the film AND the music is 40 years old!

black monday

I’m a Labour voter by instinct and so I’ve found the past days somewhat painful!
The Local Council elections and then the European Parliamentary elections have both proved disastrous for the Government. Recent resignations by cabinet members have only underlined speculation about Gordon Brown’s continuing Prime Ministerial role – and newspapers and television companies have just loved it. I actually feel a little sorry for Mr Brown as I think the Government has, somewhat unfairly, taken most of the flak for the Parliamentary expenses fiasco. Unfortunately, in my view, the Prime Minister hasn’t been helping himself by some of his recent decisions. I couldn’t quite believe it when I heard that Sir Alan Sugar had been offered a peerage and new role as the Government’s “enterprise tsar”. As Andrew Rawnsley commented in yesterday’s “Observer”: “Giving a peerage to the gruesome Alan Sugar is the sort of frantic, misconceived stunt that is Gordon Brown at his very worse”. Although I have to admit that I find “The Apprentice” tv programme absolutely fascinating (as you’ll probably be aware, the final was last night), I can’t reconcile Sugar’s new role with that of the Party - and I’m absolutely sure that I’m not the only Labour supporter to have same point of view - and can’t help feeling that Alan Sugar’s desire to make as much money as he can (whatever it takes) is not a million miles away from all those greedy bankers we’ve been complaining about over recent months!

woodstock

Everyone’s heard of “Woodstock”.
Well, I was listening to last Sunday’s ‘Listen Again’ version of the excellent “Guy Garvey’s Finest Hour” on BBC Radio6 Music and he included a lot of music from the infamous festival which is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Blimey! 40th Anniversary!!
You can listen to the programme until Sunday on this link.
If you’re as old as me, it’ll bring back lots of memories and, if you’re not, it’ll give you some idea of what you missed.
PS: …. and while I’m on the subject of anniversaries, an interview on the World Service at the weekend reminded me that it’s exactly 20 years today since troops opened fire on protestors at Tiananmen Square.

garden

Our garden is tiny (5x5m) and unexceptional. Moira’s “into” gardening; I’m into sitting in the garden (eating, drinking, reading newspapers etc). Three years ago, we erected a timber screen at the back of the garden (we felt very exposed to our neighbours at the rear!) and since then it’s developed into something of a green wall (honeysuckle and bamboo). I’ve previously blogged about the amazing help provided by our GrowZone friends (was it REALLY only mid-May?). Largely thanks to them, we’ve started to grow some of our own food. They also helped us remove the dominating pyrocantha bush and, since then, we’ve managed to remove the ramshackle fence and replace it with another timber screen (which, hopefully, we can use as a planting backdrop). Bruce has put together a great short film about GrowZones on the Earth Abbey website – which is definitely worth a look!