Half Term

I had a photo shoot to do yesterday afternoon. Rowan was getting her hair done, she can cycle home from town on her own now which is a big help. She then went off to the pictures with her friend Lucy. Last day of half term. In between all this I played badminton with Edward, testing out my back [nearly back to normal] and by broken toe [still quite debilitating] and loosing.
The photo is from our road-trip across the states in 1998 when Rowan was 7 months old; taken at Mount Rushmore.

Comrades

I watched the movie Comrades by Bill Douglas about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. I had seen it on release in 1986, not realising that I was one of the few people who felt like watching it. It is a strange film, that went down not so well with the rest of the family [Milo did not like the sheep-dog whistles], but which I enjoyed.

Working my way through my own lost-classics I came across this shot of Danielle in the house in Tottenham.

Business Link RIP

Business Link is an excellent governmental service for small business. The Yorkshire branch is shutting as a result of government cuts. Yesterday evening was its swansong event at the National Science Learning Centre in York http://www.ee-yorkshire.com/yf/events/register.asp?eventid=632 It was an interesting talk and good networking time. I made a couple of good contacts.

I think this shot of Thixen Dale could look good blown up really big.

Whay Dale

Mother took Rowan and I to Betty's for lunch on Monday. It really is the perfect place for us to go.
This photo is of Whay Dale in the Wolds. Probably my favorite spot so far: like a mini High Cup Nick. It was wild, lonely and peaceful. I saw deer, buzzards and hares, and had a good rest at the top of the dale in the sun.

Nottingham

We drove down to Nottingham to see Sarah & Markus' flat and pick up Mother from Ro & Pete. Great meal and good to catch up with the newly weds.
Nottingham is an interesting place, a low national profile considering it has a population of 250,000.

The Yorkshire Savannah

Milo and I had a good long day in the Wolds yesterday, visiting a number of Dales, chasing hares [him not me] and getting some good shots [me not him]. This is Fairy Dale with horses - gives it a High Chaparral Danielle reckons.

Meal Out

Saturday Night Edward & Fay invited us and old friends David, Anita, John & Katy for a meal. It was great food and the usual good company.

Back on the Road

Sunday I persuaded Ted, Dave and Edward to come on a 100k spin up the Wolds for lunch at the Fridaythorpe cafe [a national treasure if ever there was one]. Dave is just back from a month climbing in Kyrgyzstan, Ted has been ill all summer, and Edward and I were out for a meal the night before. So there were differing levels of fitness but it was still a great ride. Good to be back on the road with the mamils.

Thought you might prefer this photo of Rowan and Danielle to one of four sweaty blokes on bikes.

The vegetable garden fought back this year and got the upper hand; meaning that one photo client looked down upon it from the studio and said "oh, is that some waste land there?" So I have spent the last two days sorting it out. There is still much to do, but a few quick-wins mean that it looks immeasurably better already.
And here is Rowan's photo from the weekend session.

Portrait.

Danielle and Rowan went off to a portrait session at a photo studio in York, which Danielle got through groupon. It involved make-up, a lot of time and a disc of photos at the end of it. I think they did a good job. Here is the best of Danielle with Rowan's to follow.

Freshers Fair

I helped man the Quaker stand at York University's Freshers Fair on Saturday. Friend Bev ran it, the photo is of Bev and daughter Ella. It was very successful. We seemed to get more people signing up than the German Society opposite that was tempting students with bottles of beer.

Dobro

It was good to see that my old house in Tottenham is being well cared for. This is an interior shot from when I lived there. The Dobro I bought in Barrow when on holiday in the Lakes. It then went to California with Derwood and made its recording debut. The globe lives on - just.

London Days

 Most of my work for the past 18 months or so has been in the North. This is great in most repects, but it does mean that I visit London less and so I see London friends less. My usual practice has been to work, then meet up for an evening drink before catching the 8pm train home. This has worked well for the past 13 years. So as not to loose touch with people I decided to use a couple of free return tickets I had to go to London and catch up.

 Walking from town to Muswell Hill via Islington and Crouch End was a great experience, seeing so many places from my time in London. I saw Mark in Exmouth Market for a coffee and came away with the usual bag-ful of books he gives me [he is a publisher]. This time this included a book on the Olympics [popular with Rowan] one on Fonts [both Danielle and I will like that] and a novel written entirely in questions?

Next stop was to see Paul and Coral in Crouch End in their new house, then up to stay with David and Cathy and Jessie in Muswell Hill. Just great to catch up. David runs the Royal Free Hospital – now that is a big job.

 Next day I walked via Ally Pally, Wood Green [where we used to live and I used to work] then past my old house in Tottenham. My neighbour from 16 years ago was in her garden so I had a chat which was great. Then on into the city to see Andy who I have known for 35 years since we met on day one at Liverpool; again great to catch up.

 So all in all quite an emotional couple of days.

The photo is of Lavender Dale in the Wolds, a very shallow dry valley.

Deltic Blues

I roll up at the station, ready to catch the London train. I hear a rumble, look up and see a powerful haze around a line of five Deltic diesels on a special movement from Shildon to the south. It is an amazing sight – Deltics have not run on the main line since the 80s – I reach for my camera. Bag down, pocket found, camera got, switched on, aimed and … I got one rather feeble shot [coming soon]. Oh well it is a sight that I will long remember. As I resumed my saunter I saw someone arrive on his bike looking aggrieved - “It was 10 minutes early”, he knew all about it and had come specially to photograph it.

The photo is of  a field up above the dales on top of the Wolds. Yes that is Milo on the right

Kite Flying

Red Kites are pretty ubiquitous round here now, but they still excite. This one was having a look at Milo in the Wolds; it obviously didn't think he was worth the bother...

Squash Harvest

Here is the squash harvest from the garden. Small, not perfectly formed, but one made a very nice curry last night.
Back in Sheffield today for Rowan's first academy netball day. Yesterday she led the school team to the Yorkshire schools finals next month. I walked into the city centre and got some more photos while listening to The Looking Glass War by John Le Carre - great but grim.

?

Another one of the strange modern marker stones on the Wolds near Huggate. I have been able to find refreshingly little out about them.

Netball News

Last week I took a ride up through Thixendale, where I took this photo. As you can see it was a perfect summer's day.
Rowan qualified again for the Yorkshire regional netball academy. There is a danger that we take all of this for granted, but she is the only girl from all of North Yorkshire in the regional academy of 35 girls, so she has done really well. Lots more trips to Sheffield coming up...

Strange Signs

Hi up on the Wolds are these strange estate stone signposts. This one tells you how far it is to petrol. In furlongs.
Danielle and I watched a Velvet Underground documentary dvd - great. A band that touched us both at different times and on different continents.

Dykes

This is Huggate Dykes on the Wolds. The earthworks are 3000 years old. There is so much of natural beauty in the Wolds that I have barely looked at the man-made environment. Dykes and tumuli are all around.
Danielle is back today from the Tory party conference, last one out of the way.

Food

York has been praised for its restaurants - http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9285832.York_rated_better_than_Bologna__London_and_Edinburgh_in_food_poll/ not a situation many would have predicted.

We also have a brand new bridge, which connects Foss Islands with Hungate which is being redeveloped.
Living in York there is always something going on and things moving forward.

The City and the City

In book group we read The City and the City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_%26_the_City which was a science fiction book with one brilliant idea wrapped up in a bad story and bad writing; we had a good discussion though.

The photo is of Rudston church on the Wolds. That is not a tall gravestone on the right but the tallest standing stone in Britain [higher than Stonehenge]. The church was sited adjacent to the pagan stone, in a strange show of confidence, resulting in this bizarre juxtaposition.

7 Blog Years Old

The blog is 7 years old. This link http://palmour.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_archive.html takes you to the first post. As you can see from the photo some of us have changed over those 7 years. I am very glad that I have kept it going for so long, thankyou for all the comments over the years – always much appreciated.

I have spent a lot of time writing a report on reviewing day services across for a Council. As I struggle with it I have two additional sensory stimuli – music from my hard disc [Isley Brothers as I write this] and a random scroll of my photos. Every so often I glance at this and it spurs me on. This shot of Rowan and her Granny comes from 2006.

Burrrrr!

When Danielle and I took Milo for a walk in the Wolds last week he emerged from one foray in the woods covered in large burrs. He looked like a leopard. We pulled off most of them but left some on for Rowan to see. Bad mistake. On the car journey back he not only pulled them off himself but also decided to eat them. Net result: he was sick in the car and very sorry for himself the rest of the day. Silly dog. The photo is from the pre-burr section of the walk.

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.