Drewton

Saturday Danielle and I walked near Drewton in the Wolds. Nice to share the area with Danielle. The dale we walked in was forested, which is unusual for the Wolds, with springs emerging to feed a stream in the dale, which is very unusual. This shot is higher up, towards the top of the Wold.

Vox Pop

Danielle was vox-popped at the Labour Conference yesterday
It is a beautiful day today. I am starting to write a big report, so can sit upstairs with the sun streaming in and the dog at my feet. Lucky.

Brum

I have been in Birmingham for another session of Alder Advice associates. Meantime Danielle is in Liverpool for the Labour Party conference which is the least awful of the three apparantly.
I then nipped into town for a meeting with fellow artists about an exhibition we are having in November.

Then Preston go and loose a two goal lead away to Wycombe and are loosing 3-2. Just looked again and they are 4-3 ahead. Phew...
Tomorrow is book group, so here is a picture of one of our number, Christie, doing a sky dive earlier this year.

Germany

Here is Rowan with her German exchange student, Mira. She will come to visit us in November. Yesterday we had Johannes and his wife, our German neighbours round for tea and cake which was good.

World Championships

The first cycle race I saw was the World Championships when they were at Goodwood in 1982. I was there with Mark, and fell in love with the sport. That day I heard the clunk of Sean Kelly's missed gear change on the last corner, and watched Saronni power away for the victory.
The next year I was in Switzerland to see Greg Lemond win for the USA on a great, packed, hilly lakeside course at Rorscharch.
1984 was the year of The Walk and we were in the Pyrenees when the World Championships were on in Barcelona. I thought of hitching over to see them, but in the end we watched the race in a hotel in Luchon as Criquilon won for Belgium.
1988 I got the train to Ronse in Belgium and watched Fondriest win for Italy.

Fast forward to 1991 and I am in the grandstand at Stuggart to see a great race, and Gianni Bugno win, that is where I took this picture of Gianni and his gold medal as he walked past me.
1993 and in the rain in Oslo I watch a young American, Lance Armstrong, win his first big race.
2001 and we are all in Lisbon where I see Oscar Friere win his second title for Spain.
So, you can see that I like this race.
Today I watched the most incredible performance from the British team as Cavendish won the World Title. It was the best race I have seen for a long time and incredibly tense; for him to win from such a pressurised situation was amazing. Back in 1982 the British team was, basically, a bit of a joke. Home-based riders who  all dropped out before the finale. I looked in awe at the Italian team who were well drilled and awesomely powerful. This year it was the British team of 8 that were the awesome ones. What a turn around, what a performance by, as the French call him, Le Cav. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/15052681.stm

Back Home

Rowan is happily back. She had a great time in Germany, and we have been hearing all about it. This is one of her photos of Koln Cathedral - one of the four figures is a replacement [can you guess which?]

Park Life

Entering a lovely park in Doncaster I came across this sign. The Council had gone to considerable expense to erect it, so what did it tell me?
One thing I could not do, two things I should do, line after line or unintelligible by-laws, and absolutely nothing about the Park.
I think that counts as a lost opportunity.

Ticino

1981 I decided to hitch-hike in Europe on my own for a couple of weeks. I took the ferry to Dieppe then headed south from there. I do remember the real highs and lows of being on my own - very intense experiences. I ended up in Ticino [the Italian speaking part of Switzerland] staying at the flat of someone who gave me a lift. This photo from a hotel room on the trip conformed to all my On the Road romantic notions of travel.

Germany

Rowan is having a great time in Germany by the sound of it. All her texts are in German, so we can only guess what she is saying but it seems to involve - a concert, Koln cathedral, a Haribo factory shop, an ICE train and much happiness. We look forward to her return on Friday evening.
I have done a trawl through my regular photos and picked out the best of them. Over the coming months I will post them. This is from Lisbon a long while ago.

Workshop

I am doing a photographic workshop in the new year. Here are the details, if you want to sign up contact Space 109 direct.

Friends Kelly & Paul were in York yesterday, so I took them to my show and then we went for a meal. They are en-route from New Zealand to Spain; great to catch up with them. Unfortunately Danielle was in Birmingham for the Lib Dem conference [work not pleasure she would want me to stress] so missed out on seeing them.

TTSS

Danielle and I left our empty nest to go and see the new movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/ which is brilliant.

We sat down to watch the movie, and Danielle produced some popcorn and M&Ms. I was just eating my first M&M when a hugely obese woman sat next to me - causing my seat to shudder and bend. After that I could not touch another sweet.
The photo is of Well Dale.

Germany

Rowan went off to Germany from school today for her exchange trip to stay with a girl her age near Bonn. I rang to speak to the family [who are Doctors] yesterday evening and they sound very nice.

It feels strange for all of us here.
The peace of the Wolds was broken by this sinister military helicopter appearing low above me.

Campione!

Two things have never happened in my memory - Preston North End be in the first division, and Lancashire win the cricket. I have no idea how the cricket county championship operates now, no interest in it, but I am pleased to see that Lancashire have finally won! Good. Next thing is for Preston to get double-promoted...

The photo is another from Warter in the Wolds. The blob in the sky is a Red Kite.

Back Again

My back has been dodgy since I put it out in May, so I have not played Badminton in that time. This week I saw a new chiropractor and he gave me the confidence to have a game and see how it went.
So I played Edward. The bad news was I felt restricted and definitely could not move properly. The good news was that I completed the 3 games we normally play, and I won!

I see the chiropractor again later this week, and will hope he can get my back back to normal. We shall see.
The photo is a snap from Well Dale near Warter. I suppose it might just look like grass to some, but to me it is a secret place of hidden wonder.

Bile Beans

This is an old advert painted on the wall of a house in York. What are Bile Beans?,
We use it as a reference point 'It is near the bile beans' etc

Euroland

Here is the last shot from Brussels [promise]. Danielle and Rowan outside of on of the many Euro parliament buildings.

High Jump

Ben won the Town Cryer competition! He vows to try and get an exchange with Cryers in the UK set up. Rowan won the high jump and 1500m at the York Open athletics meeting [that is her winning jump in the photo]. She did a new personal best in the high jump of 1m55, try measuring that on the wall.

Danielle was in Woodbrooke http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/ being a governor, I was back in the Wolds for some more photographs. I went to Well Dale, part of a system of dry valleys near Warter. All this ground was totally out of bounds before the Labour government brought in the Right to Roam and the concept of Access Land. It feels great to be able to walk here with without [much] fear of the landowner. The fact that the whole of the area is “farmed” as a pheasant shoot makes it feel even better to walk through it. My self-righteousness took a bit of a knock when Milo appeared with a pheasant he had caught in his mouth – luckily the bird got up, dusted itself down and skulked off. Milo seemed quite relieved to be able to leave it. I was the only person in the whole dale, just Milo, red kits, buzzards, pheasants and partridge.

Here Ye Here Ye

Danielle's brother Ben has applied for the post as Alexandria Town Cryer in Virginia http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hear-ye-alexandria-choosing-a-town-crier/2011/09/09/gIQA0O7FFK_story.html?tid=wp_ipad . We think he would be very good, votes have been cast, I will keep you updated.

The photo is of a very narrow house in Brussels.

Dear Diary

I am reading the second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries. He was a Labour MP up to the last election. The diaries give a great insight into how Parliament works [or doesn't work], and he comes across as a person who reacts to the whole thing in a way I would want to. These are the first [and probably last] political diaries I have read, but I am enjoying every page.

Rowan took this shot on her phone in Burssels. Don't know where she gets it...

Year 9

Back to school today, Rowan's first day in year 9. There are some new girls from China and Mexico starting, so that should be interesting.
The bottom photo is year 1, eight years ago.

Goji

We came across this strange bit of street-art [I think] in Brussels.
Getting things ready today for Rowan's return to school. Got a coat, had a final lunch in town at a great new vegetarian cafe in York http://www.gojicafe.co.uk/ .
Managed to watch the brilliant Chris Froome win a stage in the Vuelta [tour of spain] http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2011/20110907_171209_froome-a-tout-d-un-grand.html whilst doing the ironing.

electric cars

We came across these electric cars being recharged from the special sockets in Brussels. I have not seen the equivalent in the UK. Seems like a good idea.
But with the bike-hire scheme and the green cars, do not get the wrong idea. Brussels is still a terrible place to walk round, pedestrian priority is a distant dream. Felt nostalgic for the order of London [really].

Bike Hire

In Brussels they have a bike-hire scheme similar to the Boris Bikes in London. Yellow instead of Blue, but otherwise very similar.
Today Rowan and I did a 50 mile Sportive in the Dales north of Skipton, while Danielle helped with the Quaker stall at York Peace Festival http://www.yorkpeacefestival.org.uk/ .

15 Years

This week was our fifteenth wedding anniversary. As I am sure you all know, this is a crystal wedding. So we now have a pair of crystal wine glasses that we christened with a meal at home. Rowan was at a sleepover so we had the place to ourselves.
The photo is at the European Parliament in Brussels. It is an impressive group of buildings, hard not to think about where the money to build it all came from, but impressive nonetheless.

Musical Instruments

We visited the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels. It is housed in this fantastic iron framed art deco building. Each group of instruments has a socket for you to hear the sounds of the instruments in your headphones.

Metropolis

Before we left for Brussels I made Rowan watch Metropolis by Fritz Lang - despite the coercion she liked it a lot. Our hotel looked a bit like a set from the movie too.