Link Lunch

Had lunch with a group of Quakers who help run the Link group

http://www.yorkquakers.org.uk/friargate/link

which is for 11-14 year olds at Quaker meeting in York. Edward and I usually play badminton at this time, so we decided to have some wine and really go to the other extreme. Anna Semlyn is one our number, I have not seen her since she was very active in the York Cycling Campaign. She wrote a book on cutting car use

http://cuttingyourcaruse.co.uk/

a few years ago. I asked her how many copies she had sold, and was amazed that the figure is 70,000 and counting. Very impressive.

The photo is from Alnwick gardens from the summer. I am trying to decide if it is any good or not - jury out at the moment

Outdoor Railway

We went for lunch at some friends in Skelton on sunday. They [or rather he] has an outdoor railway in the garden. This is a proper electirc one, unlike our play-train one. Very impressive

http://www.lgb.de/english/index.htm

Their two sons showed no interest, Rowan a bit of interest, and the two dads lots of interest. There you go.
The photo is of the railway at Montrose Basin.

Shildon

Danielle had to work at the weekend, so Rowan and I went to the railway museum at Shildon

http://www.sedgefield.gov.uk/locomotion/

and had a great time. We went by train, changing at Darlington, it was just like old times. The photo is of the oldest electric engine in the UK, it used to operate in the the North East.

Theatre

We all went to see a version of Midsummer's Nights Dream at the Mount last week. It was performed by a community arts group from Sheffield. Danielle and I found it pretty awful, but the good news was that Rowan really liked it, and , along with the other kids in the audience, she loved the comedy of the rustic mechanicals. As I have never found anything by Shakespeare remotely funny, this seems like good news in terms of Rowan's dramatic appreciation.
The photo is an updated version of Rowan running for joy on York station, I took it yesterday, about 4 years on from the previous one.

The Palmour Crest

Rowan is doing something about family crests at school. She was very surprised to find out she had a Palmour crest. At the moment she when we are dead and gone she will be one of only four Palmours in the UK - all female.

PNE

For the first time in my living memory Preston are top of the second division

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/table/default.stm

All my life they have been in the second division or lower [much lower] and now they are on the brink [well six months away] of being automatically promoted. I think I might have to get a season ticket if they make it. They are joint top with Cardiff who my friend David supports, so it could be a great double [but probably won't be]

The photo is of a strange thing on the beach at Montrose [I don't know what its standing on either]

Treecreeper

Rowan went to her Running Wild on Saturday - she is still enjoying it a lot, they were looking at tracks of wild animals this time. I saw a treecreeper

http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/t/treecreeper/index.asp

in the woods. I have never seen treecreepers , or nuthatches, at our house, so it was good to see one within a few miles. The photo is of a ploughed field nearby.
I harvested the last of the parsnips yesterday, and made a good soup with them. They have done well, but the potatoes have been grim - worst crop ever I think.

Extension News

Here is a photo of the frame for the extension. It looks good, and seems to complement the existing house, without being overbearing. The next stage is to get the timber up there, it is going to be made of cedar cladding. Much excitement here.

'Tis Done

The BBC weather had said it would be sunny and windy: so it was, of course, still and rainy for much of the day.
I had to ask all our neighbours [8 houses] to keep their cars off of the road for the morning. They are such a great bunch of neighbours, that no one even moaned about it. Then at 8.10 the crane arrived. It was huge, that is it in the photo towering over the house. Really dramatic - and it worked. The frame for the extension is now in place. A huge relief, and a great feeling

Brod

I read this article in the Economist last week. It struck a chord, the village being talked about -Brod - was on the route of my walk across Europe 22 years ago. This photo comes from that village. It was the first place we came to after crossing over the snow covered and deserted mountains from Macedonia. It always struck me as a strange place that was neither Serb nor Albanian. It is hard to believe it is in now such a state, it was so vibrant and welcoming when we walked through it.

The minorities within the minority

Nov 2nd 2006 | BROD
From The Economist print edition

Kosovo is lived in by others besides dominant Albanians and minority Serbs

HAMDIJE SEAPI, a local Gorani official, excuses himself to go to the funeral of a woman from a neighbouring village. He did not really know her, but since her village was all but abandoned in 1999, somebody has to. In his village, Mlike, there were 1,380 people before the Kosovo war, but now there are barely 400, 70% of them over 65. “Before, we were somehow like shock absorbers between Serbs and Albanians, but now we have our backs to the walls.”

The Gorani are among the smallest of Kosovo's minorities. Before the war, say officials, anywhere up to 18,000 of them lived in Gora, a rural sliver of land squeezed between Macedonia and Albania. Now a mere 8,000 remain. They are Muslims, living in villages in the remote south and speaking a language close to Serbian and Macedonian. At school they have always been taught in Serbian. Many of them were loyal Serbian citizens, serving in the police and as officials until the end of the war in 1999.

This has incurred much enmity from Kosovo's Albanians. Since 1999 Serbia has continued to pay Gorani teachers like Serbian ones, and they have continued to use the Serbian curriculum. Now the Kosovo authorities want to force them to change. If they did, Gorani children could not go to Serbian secondary schools. Serbia pays its teachers in Kosovo at least twice what the Kosovo authorities do. As a result of this dispute, several hundred Gorani children are now locked out of their schools.

In the village of Brod, locals still burn manure for fuel. Hakija Cuculj, a member of the local council, says that since the UN took over in Kosovo it has redrawn local boundaries so that Gorani are now outvoted on everything by Albanians. Immediately after the war many Gorani left for Serbia; now they go farther afield. Mr Cuculj's son works in Italy and sends home money. “People are just living in uncertainty,” he says. “They just want to survive.”

There are no reliable figures for anything in Kosovo. But a rule of thumb is that some 90% of the province's 2m people are Albanians. At least half of the remaining 200,000 are Serbs. The biggest minority after that are local Slav Muslims, many of whom, since 1999, have chosen to identify themselves as Bosniaks (ie, Bosnian Muslims). Then come Roma, some of whom are called Ashkali and some Egyptians; Turks; Gorani; and, finally, a tiny number of Croats. Since the early 1990s most Croats have left, many to settle in places in Croatia from which Serbs have fled. The Gorani are now the smallest of the small.

Dante Quartet

We took Rowan with us to the BMS gig last night

http://www.bms-york.org.uk/index.htm

which was the Dante String Quartet.
We all agreed that the Mozart and Verdi were a bit bland, but the Stravinsky and Tchaikosky in part two really picked up. It's great that we can share these things now [and saves on the babysitter]
The photo is of the lighthouse at Montrose.

The Day of Steel

The photo is of Bad Bargain Lane, where I cycled the other week. Its name is listed as "self explanatory" in the York street name book. Well it beats me. Monday is going to be The Day of Steel when the frame for our extension is errected. It will involve a crane, lots of neighbours being asked to move their cars, lots of lifting and shouting. We will vacate the premises for the day. Tuesday feels like a good place to be.

Lets Extend

The Extension is finally started. The first stage has been digging holes to put the concrete bases for the
steel pillars in. There are six holes, three on each side. This photo [which I shall repeat as the work continues] shows the three on the east side. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath...

Global warning

Rowan sat down and drew this global warming picture unprompted last week, so here it is [click on it to make it bigger]. She was at her school council today [a rep for her class] and seemed to really enjoy the experience.

Sustrans

One of the great things that Sustrans

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/default.asp?sID=1089651611859

have done, is build up a national network of cycle routes. This means that when we travel we see Sustrans route signs [like the one in the photo at Montrose] and I get to thinking about a possible route back to York. So next year we may be cycling from Montrose to York, if all goes to plan.
Sustrans have achieved so much over the last ten years that it is hard to imagine the cycle landscape without them.

Guitar

After re-discovering Escalator Over The Hill, I delved into a Carlos Santana – Alice Coltrane album “Illuminations”.

http://www.amazon.com/Illuminations-Santana-Alice-Coltrane/dp/B000006ZUV

It is a bizarre mix of strings, harp, guitar and Sri Chinmoy chanting: but I love it. One of my favourite albums. It is so good, that it is out of print [quite an achievement these days when you can get pretty much anything on re-issue – except this album.]

Santana, Hendrix, Neil Young, Rory Gallagher, Roy Buchanan: four of my favourite guitarists. Santana is one of the two who are still alive, I better get to see him soon.

The photo is the last from Montrose beach

Busy Saturday

Rowan was off to a party at the MegaBowl [a truly horrendous ten pin bowling alley] Then we had a nice family afternoon [Mary Poppins / digging potatoes / cups of tea / jam tarts] before going for dinner at friends. Rowan had a great time playing with Douglas and Elizabeth, we had a great meal.
The photo is of a stall holder at the farmer's market at Montrose

Freedom

Rowan and Danielle have been reading a childrens book called Slave Girl about slavery in the US. As it relates to her great great great great grandparent's generations it has added interest for her. She seemed to have got the message, when we went for a walk on Montrose beach

NTHell

The photo is of Montrose Beach. Danielle has an article in Charity Finance magazine this month [OK, so it's not the most seductive of titles] which is good for her. Rowan was in a swimming match today, the general feeling [from the teachers] was that "we were robbed", Rowan was happy to agree. I have just endured two days of NThell, with my internet connection down. They fixed it and all is well with the world again.... for now.

Kippers

There was a Saturday Farmers' Market on in Montrose. It was really good. One of the stall keepers thought I was an actor in Lord of the Rings [make your own joke about which character] so we had to buy some soap from her. Tthen these kippers were being smoked, and some of the Best Scottish Raspberry Cordial in the world [ever] was on sale. Good fun.

Montrose

Once a year we use our free 1st class GNER tickets to go and visit somewhere on the GNER network. Last year it was Glasgow and this year it has been Montrose. We knew very little about the place before we went [on the coast south of Aberdeen]

http://www.montrose.org.uk/

but had a really great time. It is a beautiful sandstone town with a broad high street. Saturday we went to the Scottish Wildlife Trust bird reserve on the Basin [a lagoon behind the town] and had a great time. The photo is of one the lovely streets in the town, all give a spruce up with Lottery money [what a grey place Britain would be without the endless lottery grants to "heritage" projects]

Bark

The photo is from Kirtlington
Went a quick spin on the bike this morning after the days in London. Great to get in the fresh air on a perfectly sunny frosty morning. I cycled out on Bad Bargain Lane which is an old outgang connecting the grazing lands with the city. Today it is a bridleway, traffic free. Later on I discovered a new cycle track on my travels - in York they do tend to get built before you can blink.

Early Music

This photo is of Rowan at Kirtlington Quarry in front of her favorite Hawthorne tree. You may remember one from about 3 years ago in the same location. She has grown.

I have had a couple of busy London-work-days, staying at friends David and Cathy in Crouch End. Meantime Danielle took Rowan to see friends Jake and Zana play at an early music concert at York University.