How long?

Met up with old friend Joanna in Leeds for a coffee. It is 30 years since we met at Liverpool. Great to catch up with news etc. Travelled to Leeds on one of the new trains which Rowan and I have christened growlers on account of they do.

http://www.tpexpress.co.uk/about/trains.asp

The photo is of a gravestone at Ohrid in Macedonia
overlooking Ohrid lake, a huge inland sea that has pelicans nesting around it.

Parsnips and the internet

I picked some of the parsnip crop - as usual they were twisted and buckled and nothing like the phallic feast that you get from Tescos. But they were a good crop. So what to do with them? Choice one, make a soup: this always seems a bit of a waste. Choice two - roast them: this would take too long and need something else to go with them. Choice three - put in a search on the internet for "parsnip recipe". I took choice three and found a recipe for carrot and parsnip latkes http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blv289.htm which was easy, and we had all the ingredients. They turned out really good.
The photo is of three shepherds in a Serbian village in Kosovo.

Train Strain

I have often waxed lyrical about the joys of travelling down to London for a days work from York on the train. The peace, the chance to do some work on the laptop, the pleasant staff etc etc. Sometimes though it all goes wrong. Today was such a day. A beautiful day, a table to myself, black coffee and croissant by my side… all seemed fine. Then we stopped just short of Peterborough. Experienced heads looked up; we knew that something must be wrong. Sure enough the sing-song Geordie announcement could not disguise the grim news “…..overhead wire problems……….. Wood Green…….. no trains in or out of Kings Cross…train terminates here”

Half and hour of trying to find out what was going on [not much] and I took the decision to get the same train I had come down on, back up to York. I had two important meeting today, so it is a bit of a disaster, they were very understanding [had heard it on the news]. Not good.

The photo is of gypsy children at Amfisa Greece

Standing in the rain

Another photo from my walk across Europe 22 years ago. This is a couple of kids who were standing in the rain watching in wonder as the strage traveller [me] was taken into their house bu Costas their grandfather, to eat and stay the night. They lived in the Pindos mountains of Greece. I want to revisit the route I took at some time, probably on a bike this time.
Rowan was in her school swimming team on Monday, and got on OK. Today she is doing fencing which she liked a lot when she tried it for the first time last week.

Lomnice

This is a photo of the village people of Lomnice in the Albanian part of Macedonia in 1984. One of the men was about to strap our rucksacks to his pony and take us up to a mountain pasture where we could camp.

I was in London yesterday on a new piece of work. Last week on my visit to the capital I met up with friend Christina whom I had lost contact with until she saw Danielle speaking at a conference a few months ago. It was good to catch up.

Sea Cruise

Rowan and I went on an RSPB 4 hour cruise off Bridlington to see Skuas and Shearwaters

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/s/sootyshearwater/index.asp

The weather was perfect, the sea swell. Rowan loved the dousing we got from the waves, I felt queasy and memories of my Danish fishing-boat hell came back: but it was fine. The birds were fantastic, but the highlight was probably the harbour porpoises

http://www.whaledolphintrust.co.uk/whales_dolphins/harbour-porpoise.asp

All in all I am glad to be back on dry land, but it was definitiely worth doing ... Danielle can go with her next time.

The Beekeepers On The Roof

I just had one shot to catch the sight of Danielle and Rowan in the evening light as they went to get our latest batch of honey form the hive on the roof. I am very pleased with it.
Danielle is down south for a girl's weekend to celebrate friend Jenny's 40th.... Rowan and I are happy to be up north.

Back

My back went bad at the beginning of August in Wales. Since then I have been seeing a chiropractor. He seems good, but you never know if you are helping your back, or just helping the Danish GDP courtesy of Mr Rasmussen. Today was test time. My first game of badminton since July. I asked Edward to be kind to me... which he was, so I won. First victory for a good while. I sense revenge in the air next week. And my back came through fine.
Danielle meantime was being interviewed for a position as a non-executive NHS board member foro the local PCT. She would of course be brilliant at it [it is something you do in your "spare time", not a job]. We will see.
The photo is from Kirlington Quarry last weekend

Hitch Hike RIP part two

There was I thinking that the demise of hitch-hiking was going without comment. There is a whole debate on the web -

http://www.socresonline.org.uk/6/3/chesters.html

The photo is of the Golden cake-cutters.

Family Affair

We spent the weekend at Mothers, so that we could all go to Alison and Geoff's golden wedding anniversary meal. There were 22 of use there, including Charles and Libby from the Reed side of the family who no-one had seen for a long time. Perfect weather, a marquee for the meal, a trampoline for the children. Great.

Toadstool

Went a cycle ride to Heslington Common, which is a heathland south of York, criss-crossed with bridleways: so good for exploring. Came across this evil looking toadstool.

Archbishop

Very busy work-wise at the moment. Got another short contract yesterday whilst down in London. I went to a lecture with the Archbishop of York [John Sentamu

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1658340,00.html

] speaking in the Minster.

http://www2.yorksj.ac.uk/default.asp?Page_ID=3578

Not something I would normally do. But Dianne who runs the University told me about it last week at the Blair gig [having seen the prime minister and now the Archbishop, I am worried about how establishment it is all getting. As long as its not the Queen next week]. Anyway it was a really good speach, he is very impressive, and got me to thinking a lot.

The photo is of the beach last weekend

Line Up

The Produce lines up for a photo shoot.
Danielle has since discovered that we may have another honey harvest from the bees on the roof; this is unexpected and welcome news.
Rowan is going to be swimming front crawl in the school swimming team; she's still worried about diving though.

Seaside

It is a year since Edward's wife Cindy died. To mark the day we went to the beach at Hunmanby Gap on the north sea. It was a lovely day and [unbelieveably] I went swimming in the sea [quite warm after a while]. All had a good time playing cricket and using Oscar's improvised railroad system [you had to be there]

Rowan and Crab Apple Jelly

As you may have gathered we have gone into producing jam / syrup /honey etc in a big way this year. Sometimes our enthusiasm gets the better of us: example being the Elderberry Cordial that looks great [deep color] but tastes "mmm very nice, I'll have it later". So expect to be offered some on your next visit, even if that is next decade.
The Rowan Berry and Crab Apple Jelly though is a triumph. We all wanted to be able to use Rowan Berries productively and this is the result. It is like crab apple jelly with a bit of bite: great. The photo is mid-production.

Hitch Hike RIP

There are no hitch-hikers any more in the UK. When I used to hitch all over the place, there was nearly always one of two people at the exit of every Motorway service station. Now it is rare to ever see anyone hitching. Yet there is no logical reason for the decline. There are [sadly] far more cars: it is no more dangerous than it ever was, transport still costs a lot of money. I'm just glad I had the opportunity to do it: there is nothing like being thrown into a car with someone you know nothing of, who may well not speak your language: and then get on with it. A great life lesson.

The photo is of Green Arrow at York station this summer, pulling the Scarborough train.

NRM

o I
Last day of the holdiays Rowan and I went to the National Railway Museum - a bit of a treat for both of us. When she was at nursery we used to go at least once or twice a week, and it has so many good memories [once I lost Rowan, asked the attendant if he had seen her "No, I haven't but she knows her way around better than I do, so I wouldn't worry too much. He was right]. The photo is of Mallard.

Start

Today is Rowan's first day in Year 4 [photo]. She is pretty excited by it. Today was also our crunch meeting with the architects and builders about our extension. We have decided to go-ahead, and work should start in ten days time ....

Work News

I was in London last week for the first date of a new assignment reviewing a Learning Disability Partnership – it promises to be a good bit of work. In the evening I met up with friend Paul, good to see him after quite a while. Looks like another piece of work in London might be coming my way, so it is getting pretty busy one way or another.

Cousin Sarah texted to tell me that I was on Channel 4 news in the audience at Tony BlairÂ’s speech yesterday: I have not yet been able to ascertain if I was doing anything embarrassing [yawn, pick etc]

The photo is of Danielle and Rowan on Hob Moor last week

Which Blair Project?

The photo is of Rowan with her winning badge and medal from the hillclimb.
Saw Tony Blair speaking on social exclusion and child poverty at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation event

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1865416,00.html

He was very impressive and spoke well. It was a good networking event as well, lots of people to catch up with.

Hillclimb!

Rowan took part in the Yorkshire and North of England childrens cycling hillclimb championship in Keighley yesterday. She was in the under 10s category, and was the best girl. Very proud of her. The downside is that the "I need a racing bike" campaign has started already...
It was a great event, put together by the volunteers, and all the kids really got into it.

Football Heritage

We took William to Preston whilst he was with us: let him see his roots. We went to the National Football Museum http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/index.htm [the photo is of a statue of the great Tom Finney outside the museum] which is still great but definitely showing signs of “we’ve had all this lottery funding but how are going to keep it up to date” syndrome [the last world cup mentioned is 1998 for example].

Ten Years After

Ten years ago we got married. The marriage was at the Quaker Meeting House in St Martins Lane London, we then all walked to Peg's club [RIP] for the reception. It was a great day, and a fare bit has happened since then.
We went out for a celebratory meal last night at Four High Petergate, a restaurant new to us,

http://www.fourhighpetergate.co.uk/home.asp

true to York form we saw some people we knew there, also on their wedding anniversary. It was a good meal: not as good as Vanilla Black though. The photo is from the meal

Rosehip Syrup

Full tilt on the produce front. William & Rowan helped me pick Rosehips for the annual syrup production. Rowan loves it hot in the morning, and it reminds me of long ago: good stuff.
Watched the movie "Dig" last night

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,,1518200,00.html

about the Dandy Warhols. As we both have a passing knowledge of the sordid world that is the music industry, we really liked it. A great movie, a sort of real Spinal Tap.