bruce+sara's big adventure

This time, some two years ago, Bruce+Sara were trawling the English and Welsh countryside in the hope of finding a suitable property and, crucially, some land on which they could continue to explore and develop their ideas for permaculture living. They finally discovered their new home (a dilapidated barn in some 17 acres) in Llangurig, Powys in mid-Wales – within 300m of the river Wye - and exchanged contracts in January last year. Like us, friends of Bruce+Sara will have been following their progress via Bruce’s lovely FB photographs – but, this weekend, Moira+I were able to experience a little of their big adventure for ourselves. Of course, Bruce+Sara were the perfect, generous hosts and it was absolutely lovely to see them again, but it was also encouraging (and somewhat inspiring) to see how far they’d progressed in a such a short time (not to mention producing the adorable Gracie along the way!). They’ve made a wonderful job of converting the main barn (there are three other smaller barns, plus two massive open sheds!) and incorporating lots of eco-friendly design principles; they’ve created lots of raised beds immediately next to the main barn; they’ve started to convert another barn; they’ve got their own chickens; they’ve moulded some of the higher land to enable them to erect a large poly-tunnel, plus more vegetable-growing space; they’ve planted nearly 5,000 trees…. oh, and they’re also well on their way to establishing their own herb tea business!!
Moira+I are full of admiration and have returned home to Bristol feeling incredibly lazy….
We had a lovely time – lovely friends.
Photo: Moira, Sara+Bruce (+Gracie) walking "their land" – it doesn’t include the vast acres on the other side of the valley!
PS: I didn’t take very many photographs (but here are some) and especially regret not doing so (due to the drizzle) during our beautiful Sunday forest walk.
PPS: Bruce+Sara first introduced us to the concept of permaculture in the garden of their rented house in Bristol in March 2009 (as part of GrowZones).

the long goodbye

The Year 11 pupils at school are now on study leave preparing for their GCSE exams. Before they departed, the wonderful Quantock House and Sports Captains (Eloise+Demi+Dan+George) wanted to present me with a farewell gift from the whole House – even though I don’t actually retire for another eight school weeks. First of all they’d contrived to organise a whole Quantock House photograph so they could present me with a really good framed copy. Then they encouraged all the House tutor groups to contribute comments/greetings/drawings for a brilliantly entertaining “Thank you Mr Broadway love from Quantock" retirement book. There are lots of really lovely, heartfelt notes of thanks including these particular gems: “Thank you for being a good head teacher” (if only they’d paid me accordingly); “you were there when no one else was”; “you were my favourite teacher” (even though I didn’t teach); “heroic and stunning” (really?); “I hope you get a big villa” (the football team or a palace?); “thank you so much for helping when I had my stomach pains”; “no one will forget you” (is this a threat?); “I will never forget your great handwriting and brilliant fun attitude” (a wonderful combination!); “thank you for looking after me through everything”; “I would never have felt welcome without you”; “thank you for being there for me with my ups and downs”; “thank you for supporting me and showing me the light at the end of the tunnel” (did I?) and, finally, “you are, and shall always remain, a legend and by far the most amazing Assistant Head (?)… words cannot describe how much you will be missed”.
Money can’t buy this sort of stuff… very humbling (as well as funny, sometimes) and it reminds you of all the good things about working with young people in education (of course, I could list a lot of bad things too!).
It now feels wrong to have to go on working for another WHOLE term!
Photo: the cover of my lovely, big retirement book.

kielder challenge heats

Our Kielder Challenge team took part in the Regional Heats at Ashton Court yesterday. They were wonderful and we all had a really good day. They ended up Heat winners by a considerable margin and they were absolutely thrilled. There’s even a chance that they might end up at the national finals in the Kielder Forest, Northumberland in September – but only a couple of teams end up qualifying from the Region (and the Region is HUGE!). It’s just a brilliant event.
Photo: Gary, Andrew, Charlie, Charlotte, Chris, Polly, Megan, Roxy and Becky.
PS: Gary was a last-minute substitute for Alihan – who was ill; Charlotte was unable to participate due to an injured foot (she was on crutches) and Polly substituted as reserve.

kielder challenging

We’ve just completed the last of our training sessions in preparation for this year’s Kielder Challenge’s local Regional Heat – which take place in Bristol on 20 May. As I’ve mentioned before, four pupils from our school work with the four from Fosse Way (a school catering for young people with physical disabilities and/or severe learning difficulties) in a series of outdoor challenges. It’s such a rewarding event and SO good working with these wonderful individuals.
Photo: Chris, Alihan, Charlie, Roxy, Becky, Polly, Andrew and Megan.

centenary school photograph

We had a pretty disrupted afternoon at school today with pupils assembling for a whole-school photograph to mark the school’s centenary. The main photograph was taken in two separate sittings and, somewhat surprisingly perhaps, the arrangements seemed to go remarkably well. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather – it started raining 30 minutes after we’d finished. Sadly, the only staff members appearing on the whole-school version were the Head and Deputy Head Teachers – with a separate staff image taken at the end of school (to avoid complete chaos!). It’ll be very interesting to see the final results. Photo: just a few of the pupils waiting to be snapped this afternoon.

paul lewis at st george's

Somewhat pathetically, I decided to forego the second meeting of our newly-formed book group (even though it was at our house AND I’d read the book!) and, instead, attend a Paul Lewis piano concert at St George’s, Bristol. I’d watched one of Lewis’s televised BBC Proms last summer (a Beethoven piano concerto) and had been mesmerized by his performance. I’d missed out on seeing him in February due to Gail’s wonderful birthday celebrations and vowed then that I would try to ensure I saw him perform the next time he was in Bristol – and, of course, one of my “resolutions for retirement” was to be a more regular concert-goer (yes, I know I haven’t retired yet, but it’s important to get in some practice!). Last night featured Schubert’s piano sonata (no.18 in G D894, if you must know!) as the main piece. I’m not a particular Schubert fan but the concert was mightily impressive and I was utterly captivated by Lewis’s stunning, masterly execution. Not only do I struggle to see how anyone can play a musical instrument with such technical accomplishment, but also just how anyone can learn such complicated pieces “by heart” and play for over an hour. A wonderful evening.
Photo: you’re not allowed to take photographs during the concert, so I decided to take one of Lewis’s piano instead, before the concert started! As you can see, I had a brilliant seat in the gallery.
PS: Amazingly, during the interval, I bumped into Richard+Sarah (good friends and Felix’s parents – Felix being married to our daughter Hannah, you understand!), who had travelled down from mid-Wales especially for the concert.
PPS: I actually got back home in time to grab a glass of wine before the Book Group meeting had ended (we call ourselves “The Slow Readers Group”). They were pretty scathing about: a) my concert-going, b) that I was the only member who had cried reading the book and c) that I had taken so much pleasure in the change of font for different chapters featuring the two principal characters!

royal wedding day

This time last week, it seems that I was amongst the very few people in the country NOT to have been following the royal wedding. Instead, Moira+Gareth+Alan+I spent the day enjoying the beauty of the Somerset/Wiltshire countryside walking between Freshford and Bradford-on-Avon, along the banks of the Frome and Avon rivers (which also just happened to take in a pub lunch). A really lovely day amid stunning surroundings and rather nice people!
Photo: various images en route.

april-may books

More books (sorry):
Cities of the Plain (Cormac McCarthy): The last of “The Border Trilogy” books. I’ve seen someone describe the books as a “coming-of-age story” and I think they’re probably right (certainly not a “traditional western” as I’ve also seen them described!). Idealism and optimism of youth set against the reality and harshness of the “real world”. I found them quite magical.
Lent for Everyone – St Matthew (Tom Wright): As the name suggests, I’ve been using this as my Lenten study book. Even though I’m not a great admirer of Tom Wright’s writings (having previously been irritated and disappointed by “Surprised by Hope”, for example), I did find some of his insights into St Matthew’s gospel quite helpful - and his Good Friday comments particularly powerful. I certainly enjoyed the discipline of the daily readings.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery): I originally read this last Autumn, but I’ve just re-read it because it’s our Book Club’s latest book (even though I’m going to miss the meeting!) – and found it even more charming and uplifting this time round.
Will You take Me As I Am – Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period (Michelle Mercer): Mitchell’s “Blue” is probably my favourite album (if I was only allowed one, then it would be this one) - clearly, this could have something to do with it coinciding with my uni-days of the late 60s and early 70s (the album came out in 1971)! Despite its rather haughty attempts to contrast Mitchell’s writings with those of St Augustine of Hippo and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the book provides a fascinating (for me) background to the album – eg. going to live in the Matala Caves, Greece for a couple of years from Spring 1970, feeling somewhat “in crisis”. The book was published in 2009; Mercer’s not a brilliant writer, but the book’s well researched and informative. I adore Mitchell’s music but probably wouldn’t like her as a person (too much ego? selfish? arrogant?)… and I’d be much too boring to be her friend!
Editor (Max Hastings): I’ve long admired Hastings as a military journalist, but this is specifically a book about his time as the editor of “The Daily Telegraph” (not really my kind of newspaper!) between 1986 and 1995. Frankly, despite him not being quite as a right-wing as most of the Telegraph journalists he first inherited, the book shows him up to be a rather pompous, arrogant, wealth-seeking, old-fashioned Conservative who seems to pay scant regard to the real world or to the likes of you or me (somewhat outrageously describing the not-so-well-off as the “underclass” at one point!). Nevertheless, it’s a fascinating book (and very well written) – especially describing the political squabbles at the end of the Thatcher era and his less-than-complimentary views of the Prince of Wales.

ten tors

I helped out over the weekend with Ten Tors practice on Dartmoor. It was the last chance for some thirty pupils from school (14-15 year olds) to secure their places in the final team selection for the event itself on 14+15 May. All pupils had previously gained their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Awards as a pre-qualifier for consideration for team selection. I love watching the mix of the “gifted and talented” individuals (who seem to be brilliant/determined at everything they do) and those pupils who are often associated with poor behavior/attitude working together quite brilliantly. At least half the pupils taking part this year are girls and - this isn’t a sexist remark in any way - it’s amazing to see even the tiniest of them “lugging” their kit across the moor with comparative impunity!
It’s a very humbling experience to see them grow in confidence and self-belief.
Photo: If you think it’s easy, why don’t YOU try walking 35 miles over Dartmoor (often over very rough and difficult terrain) carrying a heavy rucksack containing a tent, a sleeping bag, cooking facilities, food, water, spare clothing etc?

more big six supermarket stuff

It was depressing to see and read recent news of the “Bristol Riot” over a new Tesco Express store. According to reports in The Guardian: “Police were left guarding a severely-damaged Tesco Express store in Stokes Croft as local residents complained that heavy-handed tactics had provoked a night of violent rioting. It seems that police were responding to reports that petrol bombs were being assembled in a squat opposite the new store and were acting because of the “real threat posed to the local community”. I obviously don’t know if this was true or not and I don’t condone violence in any circumstances but, in some ways, I’m not at that surprised by the turn of events (note: local campaigners have made it perfectly clear that they are against any form of violence and I’ve read a categorical denial from the four squatters who were occupying the building at the time). People feel completely powerless against the financial might of the big-six supermarket.
The sad fact is that it’s REALLY easy for ANYONE to get a change of use for such stores (Tesco’s agents made the original change of use application without having to mention Tesco’s name). Indeed, under current planning legislation, you don’t even need planning permission these days to obtain any change of use to A1 shop classification (or post offices, funeral directors, dry cleaners, travel agents for that matter!) from any other “A class” establishment (eg. banks, building societies, betting offices, restaurants, cafes, public houses, wine bars, hot food takeaways etc). The only planning application that a supermarket might need to submit (depending on the store’s location) would be for a new shopfront and/or signage – by which time the deal is already done. In Bristol, Tesco alone already has SIX stores within half-a-mile of the city centre and FIFTEEN within a two-mile radius of the city. We’re about to have a Co-op Express (or whatever it calls itself) open here on North Street in Southville/Bedminster – approximately 70m from a Tesco Express. Apparently, the Co-op is promising us that it will have its own in-house bakery. Just brilliant – don’t they know we already have FOUR bakers within 350m? Absolutely ludicrous.
Of course, this is all set alongside the “support” for local communities from our beloved national politicians. Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has stated:
“For far too long local people have had too little say over a planning system that has imposed bureaucratic decisions by distant officials in Whitehall and the town hall. We need to change things so there is more people-planning and less politician-planning, so there is more direct democracy and less bureaucracy in the system. These reforms will become the building blocks of the Big Society.”
Greg Clark, Minister for Planning and Decentralisation, clearly agrees:
“Most people love where they live, yet the planning system has given them almost no say on how their neighbourhood develops. The Coalition Government will revolutionise the planning process by taking power away from officials and putting it into the hands of those who know most about their neighbourhood - local people themselves. This will be a huge opportunity for communities to exercise genuine influence over what their home town should look like in the future. It will create the freedom and the incentives for those places that want to grow, to do so, and to reap the benefits.“
I’ve previously expressed my frustrations and fears about the big-six supermarkets taking over our local communities but, frankly, they’ll continue to do so unless some form of planning legislation is introduced to limit their numbers – but, even now, you feel it’s too late.
Be afraid. Be very afraid!

good friday

I’ve just been to a thought-provoking and stimulating three hour “preaching of the cross/Good Friday liturgy” service at St Mary Redcliffe. Last Tuesday, I sat in the church’s Lady Chapel for twenty minutes or so reflecting on my own spiritual journey into Holy Week (I’ve been reading Tom Wright’s “Lent for Everyone: Matthew” during Lent). The stained glass east window is absolutely stunning and provided a fitting backdrop to my contemplations. Our weekly “Ithaca” group has also been studying great friend Ian Adam’s excellent book “Cave, Refectory, Road” during Lent. This week, the chapter we were reading (“the way of rootedness – learning from the vow of stability”) talked about becoming “willing to be shaped by our setting, to root ourselves somewhere specific, to engage with a small piece of the world”. Well, I’ve been reflecting on this since Tuesday and think I might have discovered a couple of potential “rooted” places for me (Ian might not agree with having more than one such place, but I could envisage me ending up with three or four!!). I found the Lady Chapel very conducive to quiet reflection and my other “thinking” place could well be No.1 Harbourside (café/bar overlooking the harbour) – I drop in there quite regularly and think that it’ll become a regular source of “refreshment” as I enter retirement.

Photo: Easter detail from the east window at St Mary Redcliffe church.

mini irish tour reunion

Ken, Steve, Simon+I met up for a game of golf at Ogbourne Downs, near Swindon earlier on today (Barry+Christian were the only Irish tourists missing). Ken+I beat the Eyre brothers by four holes (or something like that) but we all had a lovely time and the weather was just about perfect. It was my first game of 2011 – in fact, it was the first time I’d touched a club since our Irish Tour in October – and, not for the first time after a prolonged absence from golf, I played “out of my skin” for the first nine holes (just five shots over the course’s scratch par!). The second nine weren’t quite up to that standard – although I did birdie the 17th hole! It was great meeting up again and the others are already talking of more golf trips to Ireland (I don’t think my pension will stretch that far unfortunately!).

Photo: Steve teeing off on the 12th, watched by Ken+Simon (the wonderful "long valley" hole is in the background).

london marathon 2011

I just love the London Marathon. Pathetically, I’ve even cried watching it on television. I’d been to watch it “live” twice before. I took Ruth, Hannah+Alice to the event some 20 years ago (blimey!). It’s simply a brilliant occasion and the crowds are just fantastic. This year, I specifically went along to support great friend Helen (from school) - I also hoped I’d be able to cheer on Rob (Deering) from our days in Thame. Pathetically, in the event, I didn’t see either of them (well, at least I don’t think so)…. afterall, there were nearly 36,000 runners. IF Helen was wearing a black baseball cap and a purple vest, I might just have seen her from behind at about 30m distance…. but, by the time I registered that it COULD have been Helen, the moment had passed and I wasn’t confident enough to shout out “COLLEY!” (as we’d previously agreed). As in previous years, I took my place at the northern end of the Tower Bridge. I arrived there at 9.30am; got myself a coffee from Starbucks; and stayed “at my post” for well over four hours. Along with the rest of the crowd, I spent the entire time applauding enthusiastically (and taking the odd photograph). The atmosphere and camaraderie amongst the crowd was simply wonderful. I take my hat off to ALL the runners – Tower Bridge marks the 12 mile point and, clearly, there were many who were already suffering (but obviously encouraged by the crowd!).

Photo1: the elite Men’s athletes (the winner, Emmanuel Mutai , is in the green vest closest to the camera). Phopto2: I particularly enjoyed the support provided by a group of spectators perched on the roof of the adjoining Tower Bridge Hotel – especially the encouragement provided by a couple of women using a megaphone (eg. shouting such things as “come on Bella, you can do it!” to very surprised runners as if it was the voice of God!)…. absolutely precious! PS: I also saw Denise Lewis at close quarters - but she didn’t seem to see me!

the clog and billycock

While we were staying with Alice+Co, she treated us to a meal at their favourite restaurant – The Clog and Billycock at Pleasington. It’s one of the four Ribble Valley Inns established by Nigel Haworth (of “Great British Menu” fame) and wine buff Craig Bancroft. Moira+I had a lovely evening. The food was excellent – wholesome and remarkably good value (you could get a main course for £10) – and I particularly liked the fact that the walls had been entirely decorated with photographs of all their local suppliers. Well worth a visit.

lovely leyland family

Moira+I have spent the past 4/5 days in Leyland with Alice+Mikey+Dan+Jemima. Dave was away drumming in a band (as you do!) and so it was an opportunity both to see them and to provide some child-minding services. It was great to have the opportunity to spend time with them all. Lots of boisterous play with the boys (who seemed entirely happy to launch themselves into mid-air from the backs of sofas – “safe” in the knowledge that granddad would catch them every time!); lots of singing to Jemima; and great to be able to spend time with Alice over food+wine once the children had disappeared to bed. Alice had booked a brilliant, free “gym” (complete with ball pools, slides and various other pieces of activity equipment ) for a couple of afternoons at Broadoaks. She invited some of her friends who also had children with disabilities and it was truly humbling to meet the children and their amazing parents. We aren’t able to get together half as much as we’d like to but this proved to be a really lovely few days. Lots and lots of laughter, songs and Cbeebies!

Photos: some of our memories. PS: Just hope that the “cuts” don’t result in the end of Broadoaks.

sad sad man

My family and some of my close friends already know that I’m a bit of a list-maker. Actually, I’m a LOT of a list-maker! This year’s SouthBank Arts Trail is only a few weeks away and I was well aware that I’d done absolutely NOTHING thus far to prepare for it. Yesterday, I thought I’d scribble down a few notes and come up with a rough timetable between now and 20 May. I found the folded envelope this morning with my so-called “scribbled notes” and thought.... “oh you sad, sad man”!

7% of the population attend independent schools, but….

Just 7% of the population attend independent schools, but the percentage of Vice-Chancellors who attended such schools is 24%; 32% of MPs did the same; as did 52% of the “top Medics”; and 54% of the “top Journalists” – and 54% is the same percentage of the FTSE 100 Chief Executive Officers who attended independent schools; as did 62% of members of the House of Lords; and 68% of “top Barristers” and 70% of High Court Judges. Just remember: “we’re all in this together”. Source: BBC website.

BABE's oxford luncheon

The long-standing, and hugely enjoyable, Barnes-Adams-Broadway (BABs for short) birthday lunch tradition continued yesterday in Oxford, but this time with added Eyre (sounds like an inflated balloon?) – lovely friends Diane+Steve joined us to make it a BABEs weekend! I hope you’re keeping up? This time we got together in The Red Lion, Gloucester Green. I must say that the prospect hadn’t filled me with massive anticipation as a venue – my memories of the place, from our Oxford days, were of a somewhat seedy, drinking pub! But it turned out to be a beautiful meal in delightful surroundings (and we effectively had a room to ourselves too, which was an added bonus). It transpired that the pub had been taken over and expensively refurbished by the owners of The Trout. Moira+I arrived in Oxford early so we could explore the Ashmolean museum/gallery. I hadn’t seen it since it had been remodelled and was hugely impressed. We’ll certainly be going back on a regular basis.

Photo (from left to right): Steve, Gail, Ken, Debby (sorry Debby!), Moira, Diane and Ian.

"these boys are from security..."

We drew the curtains this morning to find a rather sinister gang of men dressed in blue uniforms patrolling outside our house (see photograph of just a small proportion of them from our on-the-spot reporter!). Obviously, my first instinct was to grab our pistols and for Moira+me to make a run for it in a sort of Butch Cassidy-Sundance Kid style. Fortunately, we don’t have any guns, so I tentatively emerged out of our front door (without a white handkerchief, I might add) and demanded some sort of explanation from the only man wearing a suit. “You’ve got nuffink to worry about sir… it’s nuffink to do with your property… these boys are from security”. Did he expect me to say “oh good” at this point, I wondered? I queried if the police were aware of their presence. “Well, yes, they’ll probably be along at some stage”. I told the man that if they weren’t, then I’d be phoning the police myself because I thought we were due some kind of explanation. That’s when the man came clean (I put this down to my vast experience of getting naughty children to "own up" at school): apparently there had been a rave in the former bingo hall last night on North Street and the owners (Corals) wanted to ensure the place was empty and that the building “didn’t pose a threat to the general public”. As I write this, the gang of blue have just trudged off down the street. “Steve Broadway, Channel Four News… now back to Jon in the studio”. Oh, how exciting!

all things pig....

Moira+I spent a lovely evening with great friends Lal, Chris, Gareth+Alan yesterday. Eating, drinking+chatting with friends is definitely one of life’s great pleasures, but the evening was definitely a first for us – a pop-up restaurant created for just two evenings in St Aldhelm’s Church, Bedminster by Bristol chef and charcutier Vincent Castellano. A really impressive seven course “all things pig” dinner, plus live music, for £28 (bring your own wine!)… don’t worry, the cheeses and desserts didn’t contain pig! Really good to bump into foundation friend Brett too. A great idea and a really enjoyable evening.

Photo: Gareth, Chris, Lal+Moira in full flow.