Istanbul 1

The three of us went to Istanbul for half term week. Danielle was speaking at a big conference there, so Rowan and I went to lend support [and see Istanbul as well]. The conference also had Mary Robinson [ex Ireland president] and the present prime minister of Turkey speaking [2nd and 3rd on the bill obviously]. But most amazing to me was the fact that Mory Kante was playing to delegates at a private concert on Wednesday night - he is one of the five best known names in African music and there he was playing to us: weird.
The photo is from the Bosphorous with a palace in the foreground and our hotel [the hotelswiss, or hotelswish as Rowan christened it] up the hill to the left.

India Peru

My hearing [or lack of it] leads to plenty of misunderstandings. I remember being at a Sweet Honey in the Rock gig at Sadlers Wells long ago when one song really stood out for me as being fantastic. "I loved India Peru" I said. A look of puzzlement met me. It took me a long while to realise the song is "In the Upper Room" a gospel song about being in the upper room with Jesus. Still sounds good though.
The photo is of the frozen fairies at the Opera fire alarm incident.

Cars!

The Rail Fest had some 60's cars on show as well as the trains. Rowan was absolutely amazed by the Bubblecar - and so was I. It is hard to believe that these were ever allowed on the roads: health and safety zealots would die just looking at it. The photo is of Rowan leaning on a beetle [I'll try and dig out a photo of me leaning on mine when I was 18]

Rail fest

Danielle had to work on Bank Holiday Monday [she works very hard] so Rowan and I went to the National Railway Museum for their 1968 event which involved a lot of engines in steam that are not normally there.

Storm Damage

The winds over the weekend were quite high for summer, and coming from the wrong direction – the East – whereas most of our wind is from the south west. It seems the combination of the change of direction and the leaves on the trees meant that the wind did damage out of proportion to its strength. So, we ended up with a big chunk of Willow Tree on the lawn, and it bought down a piece of Beech Tree on its way down.

Rowan and I chopped it up, and were thankful not to have been standing under it when it fell.

Bees

Sunday we went to lunch with David and Margaret who live at Hartrigg Oaks. David and Danielle are going to do a talk on Beekeeping to interested people next month, so we went to see his hives in a local nature reserve.

Opera

The photo is of Rowan getting some parcours practice in Glasgow. Yesterday we all went to see Benjamin Britten's Opera Midsummer Night's Dream at Opera North in Leeds. It was a really good

production

- perfect. Halfway through the last act there was a fire alarm, which gave added surreality in seeing the fairies standing in the cold grey of Leeds.
After that we went to Akbar's for a great Indian meal on the Headrow.

Buttercup

The buttercups are out on the moor - a beautiful sight. The Hawthorne is in full bloom, the elder not yet. We could do with some rain here, it has been dry for a number of weeks. Monday is Bank Holiday so we should be OK though.

Glasgow 4

There were 12,000 or so women running in the race on Sunday - a pretty impressive sight. Mike knew the owner of a cafe en-route, so we had a good place for a latte and the Sunday papers while watching them go by...

After the Run

This is Danielle and Alison after the Glasgow 10k race. Danielle's time was 50 minutes, which is 7 minutes up on her last time.

I think I mentioned how strangely Google always thinks I am Swedish when I surf on the train. I thought I would investigate. I typed in "Swedish, GNER, why" and soon found out that the internet servers the train company used to set up the wireless system on their trains come from Sweden. Bizarre but solved.

Glasgow 3

This photo is from the Merchant City quarter of Glasgow which is full of amazing buildings like this. I have been working in Doncaster for the past 2 weeks and really enjoying the experience. It has been sunny every day and I believe it is always like this...
Danielle is interviewing for a new Headteacher at Rowan's school today - she will be exhausted but hopefully they will end up after the next round of interviews with the right person.

Glasgow 2

This is Rowan and Gabriel, one of our hosts in Glasgow. It is outside a music pub, of the type where people turn up and join in, which we went to on the Saturday afternoon. We did a lot of walking around the city, which is the best way to get a feel for it all. The sandstone buildings really are fantastic.

Glasgow 1

We all went up to Glasgow for the weekend to stay with a college friend of Danielle's and her family. The purpose was for Danielle and Alison to run the Glasgow Women's 10K race on the Sunday. The Saturday we all went to the Ubiquitous Chip for lunch - this is a really good Bistro that doesn't do chips. This photo is taken near the University.

Cuddle Tree

We call this the Cuddle Tree. It is in our street, and each May the blossom from the cherry tree gives the conifer a cuddle for a couple of weeks.

York Design Awards

Our extension had been entered into the for

York Design Awards 2008
by our architect Ric Blenkharn. We went to the awards ceremony last night at the Merchants Adventurers Hall where we didn't win but we had a good time. The photo is of Ric and Danielle in front of the display board with our entry on it. Ric [who is incidentally a fellow North End supporter] did win with another of his entries, so he was happy.

It's A Draw

All season long nephew William and I have been playing Guardian Pick the Score http://guardian.pickthescore.co.uk/ predicting football scores. The season is now over, and we ended up with the same score - the first time we have been equal all year [joint 2615th no less]

The photo is the current state of the herb spiral, which you may remember starred in the first ever blog entry in October 2004

Kingswood

Rowan really loved her Kingswood Activity trip. This is a shot of the aerial seesaw, which seems to do what it says on the tin.

Foundation Day

Beautiful day, and I'm stuck inside working all day - on a Sunday too. Had a great day yesterday at Foundation Day at the Mount School. Danielle made the speech and Rowan got the first ever Ambassador prize.

Gorgeous Gorse

Strange how the yellow of gorse bushes is one of the most beautiful of the early summer; yet oilseed rape still seems like an unnatural intruder. This gorse was on top of Terrington bank, just along from the Yorkshire Lavender place.

Treat Trip

Sometimes things just go right. Rowan was off on her outdoor residential course at Kingswood near Hexham for 2 nights. We had decided to take time off together. So in perfect weather we cycled through the Howardian Hills to the

The Star Inn

at Harome near Helmsley. This is a Michelin star restraunt and fantastic B&B. It was a real treat and we enjoyed it to the full. Great food, great everything.
The photo is of Danielle at the top of the fearsome Terrington Bank - riding well.

Tanglefoot

Friend Adrian and I went to see

Tanglefoot

at the Early Music Centre in York. They were a pretty good band - two tracks I downloaded from E-Music when I got home.

The photo shows how the vegetable garden is looking now. Last year was a bit of a washout with having the scaffolding over the ground until May, this year is going better so far.

Wildlife News

The photo is of a very optimistic Blackbird's nest. I left the bucket and the courgette seedlings on the bench overnight. By the end of the next day the bird had built her nest there: alas she has now abandoned it, probably for the best and it does mean that I can now plant my courgettes.
The warm sunny weather has bought out the butterflies in the garden. So fare I have seen Speckled Wood, Orange Tip, Comma and Blues.

Bees

We had a good garden day yesterday. Rowan helped Danielle with preparing stuff for the bees. Rowan is using a paint-stripper gun, which allows for all sorts of health and safety concerns, but no burns were reported.

Every Cloud...

Mowing the lawn Friday. The blade kicks up a stone, sends it fully ten metres at the heart of a 2x1 metre big glass window. Smashes it. Good news part 1: I had renewed the lapsed insurance the day before. Good news part 2: I got a photo of the glass which I think could be really good when enlarged to xlarge size.

Bike Ride

Ted and I went on another great bike ride today. From York north to Sutton Bank via a ridiculously steep hill [steeper than the adjacent White Horse Hill which is bad enough] then through the beautiful heather clad North York Moors, before dropping down to Northallerton and the train back home.

POTAP

This photo is for next year's show - but I have sold a copy already - which is very gratifying.

Playing badminton I have got "tennis elbow" which, with sickening inevitability, the Doctor diagnosed as being POTAP. I knew it.

50th Birthday Present

Well it has taken a long time for me to decide on what bike to get and to get it sorted out, but here finally is my 50th birthday present from my mother - a new mountain bike. It's a Cannondale and is great to ride. Only thing is it will never be this shiny and clean again. Rowan took the photo by the way.

Work

Work is going crazy at the moment, with 2 contracts in London and four in Yorkshire. It looks like being a blitz until the Summer holidays - wish me well.
A couple of people have bought this photo which was taken at Liverpool last year. It is particularly pleasing when shots get sold that I thought might not appeal to many people - this is one of them.