More Rosalind

Here is another picture of my great-niece Rosalind. She is an amazingly calm baby - not like the rest of the family have been! Sarah, her mother, seems pretty calm as well. Markus is in China; back soon.

Snow! In October!

Growing up in Preston we were lucky to get snow before Christmas if at all. The November snow here in York a couple of years back was unusual. So last night / this morning to have a full covering of snow before the clocks go back is very strange.
Luckily by the time Dave and I set off for our ride to Castle Howard this morning it had mostly gone. Wet and slushy though.

The photo is of Rowan with her exchange Blandine - no idea what they are doing but it all worked out well.

Back

Rowan is safely back. She had a great time, full of stories about French metropolitan life. Her exchange's mother ran a local bakery - so you can imagine breakfast was pretty good.

Danielle and I went a 11mile+  walk in the Wolds this week. Very murky, saw only two other walkers, a really good walk. Milo was exhausted at the end of it - he must have covered at least 20 miles.

Forbrydelsen

Rowan seems to be getting on OK in France; here she is with the other exchange students.
Danielle and I have started watching The Killing [Danish thriller]; by doing so I am aware that we are not so much surfing the Zeitgeist as doggy-paddling in its wake, but we are really enjoying it. 5 episodes down, a mere 15 to follow.

London

Down to London yesterday to check up on the venue for the exhibition. Danielle was working there as well, so were able to travel together - a rare luxury. I had lunch with Rob in Chinatown - good to catch up.

Saw this bike on York Station; there are cool narrow bars, and there are silly bars. These are in the latter category.

Down ont Farm

Since moving to their crumbling farmhouse John and Katy have started to look very at home there; in a Deliverance sort of way.

Bees Are Home

We drove over to John & Katy's to collect the bees from their Holderness Vacation. Our bees are the two dull hives nearest the camera. John has made the pretty pretty white ones himself - very impressive but not replicable in this household.
They are now safely home. Driving with a couple of thousand bees in the back of the car is the not the most restful of occupations.

Bass

Friday night we went out for a drink with new friends Andy and Tina; to the pub, a bit of a rarity for us both, but really enjoyed it. The pub is the Guy Fawkes in Petergate http://www.gfyork.com/ where Guy Fawkes was born [allegedly]
I am busy renovating an old bass that I forgot I had [swapped with Derwood for my Dobro sometime last century]. The playing with Greg is going well, so we thought of getting someone in on bass, hence my search. There it was in the garage - took a lot of cleaning. A Gibson SB400 if you are interested. Once cleaned up it should look like this ...

Health

I got called in to the Doctors for a Health Check being given to all people over 45. It involved a blood test, and various measurements. I came out in the bottom 5% for likelihood of a heart attack. Reassuring I suppose.

Rowan is in France on her exchange trip. All seems well so far. We miss her.  

Photo is another from the Wolds.

Chair Free

After 6 long years I finally got to stand down as chair of Friends of Hob Moor last night at the AGM. The final sting in the tale was being told at 9 in the morning that our speaker was crying off. So rather than scrabble around and get a replacement I decided to do a talk myself on birds. It went well.

The organisation is on a strong financial and activity footing and the good committee will take it forward I am sure. So here is one last link to the website http://www.friendsofhobmoor.org.uk/ and here is a photo of the beautiful Moor.

University

It was Freshers Fair at the University in York. Last year friend Bev and I manned the stall between us, with help from Quaker students. This year they did it all themselves. I popped up and it was well under control. Great work by the students. This photo is of the lake that forms the centre of the campus.

Fast Girls

Another photo from the Free Food walk. It really was a beautiful morning.
We all watched Fast Girls http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1700808/ a "gritty" movie about British girl athletes which was great.

Free Food

Danielle and I went on a walk/talk on Free Food in our local park on Saturday. A beautiful day, really interesting; did you know you can eat Ground Elder like spinach. I am going to try it, if for no other reason than revenge  [it is a tiresomely invasive weed]. http://www.downsizer.net/Articles/Cooking,_preserving_and_home_brewing/Ground_elder_recipes_-_eat_your_way_to_eradicating_a_troublesome_weed/

Books

In Book Group we discussed The Death Instinct by Jed someone which was truly terrible [imho]. Next book is Simon Armitage's reworking of Gawain and the Green Knight http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gawain-Green-Knight-Simon-Armitage/dp/0571223281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350207451&sr=8-1 which is fantastic. I know nothing of Arthurian legend, so this tale was all new to me - loved it.
I have also read The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling which was really good and really easy to read - recommended.

The photo is from the Leeds ride, it was wet and tunnels were encountered.

Harewood

My ride yesterday took me through the Harewood estate on bridal ways. The estate is well maintained and the public rights of way well signed; so different from many of the local landowners.
Rowan today was taking part in a PeaceJam at school http://www.peacejam.org.uk/ which is a good thing.

Leeds

The music is going well with Greg. Our styles are complementary, and we are playing once a week.
Today I rode to Leeds on bridle paths. It was a muddy tough but exhillerating route; so muddy that I decided not to get the train back from Leeds [I was just too bad] and instead rode up to Harewood then across back to York with a howling tail wind. A good day.

This photo is of the swollen River Aire as I arrived into the centre of Leeds.

Sales

I went over to Beverley to drop off another framed print to replace one I sold; the gallery is proving slow but steady for me. I walked in Newbald Dale on the way back and found this magical bit of wood. I listened to an Eric Ambler story on the iPod - very entertaining.

CND

We put up a couple of CND peace-riders this week. It was arranged through Quakers for local York friends to provide accommodation for cyclists who were on a protest ride round various US bases. I imagined some young student types, but [like trainspotters] it seems to be the same people who used to do the protests, just older. Anyway they were extremely pleasant guests to have around. We wish them well.

Hindsight

The phrase "Hindsight in a wonderful thing" is wrong. Hindsight is a terrible thing. I was making Chili jelly using my own home-grown chillies and feeling good about it as  I chopped them up happily. Without wearing gloves. Three hours later I was in excruciating pain all over my hands. I tried milk, alcohol, salt, soap, cold water. None worked. I finally got to sleep at 3.30 in the morning. And what had hindsight given me? just the endlessly repeated question "Why oh why didn't you put your gloves on? You knew it would hurt" Not helpful.
The jelly looks and tastes great though

AA

This is a shot of a favourite tree in the Wolds from the walk with Danielle last week.
Friday I met Danielle in Leeds where she was speaking at a banking seminar. As I stood outside the venue looking for the right door to go in someone asked me "Are you here for AA?". Quite hard not to be offended.

Etape Pennine

Just back from taking part in the Etape Pennines http://www.etapepennines.co.uk/coursemaps.html bike ride with Dave and Mark in Durham. It was the best sportive I have done. Brilliant tough route [including the highest road in England] perfect weather [sun and little wind] closed roads [no cars] plenty of feed stops. It could not have been better.
Dave and I went up to Durham last night and stayed with Dave's friend Mark, then set off at 7.30 this morning. I did a time of 6 hours 13 minutes for the 78 miles and 2,300 metres of ascent which I was pleased about.

Upstairs

Despite out best efforts upstairs does tend to get a bit less minimal than we would like from time to time. At the moment there are all my photos being got ready for the big London show next month. Then there are the tomato, pepper and aubergine plants in the window at the back. Then there is the bee-stuff [round the corner]. Then my guitar and amp, now that I am jamming each week with Greg. Then there is the dog.
Otherwise empty.

Anniversaries

It is 8 years since the blog started. I hope you still enjoy it.
It is 20 years since Paul and I cycled across the Himalayas from India to Ladakh. This photo was taken at the 5300m pass of Taglangla. The highest point of the Yorkshire Wolds is 260m. Times have changed.

Family News

Here is the baby Rosalind.
And here is a link to an article about Danielle's brother Ben being a Quaker in the US that was in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/the-other-believers-ben-fiore-walker-a-black-quaker/2012/10/02/386ccf46-0bdd-11e2-a310-2363842b7057_blog.html

Birth

My niece Sarah and Markus have had their first child - Rosalind. All very pleased about it. This picture of Rowan torturing Sarah in Oxford long ago, shows that she has some experience of the trials that await.

Bees

We are having some work done in the garden, sorting out the bee-area, so the bees have gone on a 2 week vacation at John & Katy's in Holderness. We all drove them over today. Danielle and I were wearing our bee suits, so as it was early on a Sunday morning, we must have looked like religious followers of some strange new cult. We had coffee and cake, then left the bees and all went a walk in the Wolds on the way back.

Here is a Pecan Pie that Danielle made this week; it did not last long.

Floods 3

The water is now receding, but here is one last shot of the Ouse at Poppleton. It had been higher than this but you still get an idea of how extensive it has been.
Rowan starts her Duke of Edinburgh [?!] award today, after first playing a hockey match at 8.30. We have a day together.

More Floods

Having mentioned the flood yesterday you would have thought that I would have not tried to cycle anywhere near the Ouse ... After coming across 5 of my usual routes blocked like this, I called it a day.

Floods

It is 12 years since the last big flood in York. We have just had another one. It is very dramatic but gets treated with casual indifference by most York folk. This is the view from the bridge over the Ouse, normally there would be car park, footpaths, bike racks etc.

Dragon Boat Race

Danielle came back with no pictures of herself from the Dragon Boat race, but she took this one of her team. I know not why they are dressed as Dick Turpin - I am sure it all made sense at the time.

Pentathlon

Rowan entered the Yorkshire U15 Girls Pentathlon. This consists of five events;

Long Jump [not brilliant at it]

Hurdles [never run it]

Shot Putt [unknown quantity]

High Jump [her forte]

800m [another strength]

I was raking the pit at the Long Jump and both Rowan and I were a little in awe at the standard that the other girls were reaching. Rowan came 3^rd or 4^th from last.

In the hurdles she looked good, but again was well in the bottom half of the field of 15.

In the shot she surprised us both by doing really well, but was still mid-table.

The high jump she came second to the girl who led going into the final event – the 800 metres. It looked like Rowan had to beat her by 29 seconds. She duly beat her by 30!

It was a total surprise, very unexpected but Rowan is now Yorkshire Pentathlon Champion!

Virtual Triathlon

We had a family virtual triathlon yesterday. Rowan was away in Leigh running for York in a road-racing relay. I went a ride in beautiful, if cold, sunshine to the Wolds. Danielle was part of the York Blind & Partially Sighted Society team in the York Dragon Boat Race http://www.yorkrotary.co.uk/#/dragon-boat-challenge/4543397659 Their team was called Blind Ambition. We all came back home for tea.

This shot from the Wolds last week has it all. I am near the end of the walk, Milo is ahead of me down the slope, the car is parked in splendid isolation on the road below.

Beer 2

The good news was that we both had a day off today, so we went to the Beer Festival together and had a lovely time. The bad news was that I was playing Badminton soon after. I did not win.

This evening we all watched The Hunger Games which was a surprisingly good movie.

Real Ale

I love the idea of real ale. I just don't drink that much of anything. But friend Patrick and I thought we should go and visit the York Real Ale Festival last night http://www.yorkbeerfestival.org.uk/2012/ We had a couple of pints - one of York 800, to celebrate 800 years of York being a city, and one of something I can't remember what is was called. A friend told me, with great pride, that it had won a prize and that he had a hand in it being commissioned from the brewery. The prize must have been for "darkest, strongest most dodgy pint". We survived.

The photo is another from Brudderdale.

Brudderdale

I went a walk in the Wolds for the first time in a while. A two hour walk up the dry valley of Brudderdale that is only possible on account of the Right to Roam legislation. It was a magical place yesterday and I really didn't want to see anyone else there to break the spell. My wish was granted, I saw not a soul.

Skies

There are some great skies on the Moor. You can see the Minster and the Big Wheel [Yorkshire Aye] in the distance

Syrup

After the brilliant early season honey harvest it has been all downhill. We managed to get some [lovely] honey from the hives this week but it is a sorry bounty this year. Blame the weather.

On the upside I made some Rosehip syrup from the hips in the garden that are best accessed from the roof. This should keep colds away.

Urban Truth

The screen on Rowan's phone stopped working. She mentioned "it might have got a bit wet..." Rather than send it straight off for a repair we decided to test the old urban myth "If you put a wet phone in a jar of rice and leave it a few days it will dry itself out and work again". Amazingly it worked and the screen is now once more working.

Jammin

I had a jam with Gregg who plays guitar - it went very well, and we are going to have another go next week. Danielle is at Woodbrooke in Birmingham and Rowan is now at a sleepover in town, so I have the house to myself for a few hours.

Another Ouse shot.

Ouse

I took a walk down the Ouse this week. It really is a beautiful peaceful place. 

I am delighted to be nearing the end of my sentence as Chair of Friends of Hob Moor and am in the process of persuading some other innocent soul to take over the job - nearly done.

Moor Mist

Another shot from the misty morning on the moor. Shame it was only a Woodpigeon sitting on the sign. Rowan saw a Kingfisher this week.

Misty Morning

There was an autumnal mist upon Hob Moor the other morning. I took a few shots to try and capture the moment the sun broke through it. Partially successful.
Danielle was in the City for a meeting of Big Society Capital yesterday, so she got to see all the Olympic athletes on their victory parade.

Drummer

During the Paralympics Danielle had mentioned that she knew a disabled drummer from her rock and roll years - Matt. So we were sort-of-watching the closing ceremony last night when up he popped drumming with Coldplay. He was good too.
The photo is from Preston Guild - the reading of the Proclamation.

Meals

Thursday evening Danielle and I went round to Maxine and Greg's for dinner which was good. Found out that Greg plays guitar, so we are going to have a jam sometime. Then last night we hosted friends Bill and Angela. Great night. Today is bike clean day for me - not a quick undertaking.
I saw this Speckled Wood last week; I do not remember them from my childhood at all, it is only recently that I have discovered them.

Los Paralímpicos

I had never had much of an interest in the Paralympics before this year. Then we watched the inspirational play about Dr Guttmann who started the whole thing in the 1940s. This, coupled with the post-Olympic feelgood factor and the wall to wall TV coverage, meant they could no longer be ignored. It has been great.

When I started working with disabled people over 30 years ago [at Stoke Mandeville] I met a lot of young, highly motivated people with disabilities. Disability sport was just not on their radar. It might as well not have existed. Opportunities outside of Stoke were non-existant. How things have changed.

Too often we consider it a given that “things were better in the past”. In terms of opportunities for disabled people that is simply not true.

The paralympics are a wonderful, bizarre, illogical creation that have somehow made it onto the biggest of world stages. It is an unlikely story – all you can do is be glad it happened.

BTS

Here is this year's back to school photo. The new uniform includes a jacket that has not gone down well with Rowan. 

I managed to get a bike ride in today with friend Robert. Good ride, not too long or strenuous, good chat. Back at the desk by 2.

Old Track

Down by the River Ouse we discovered this bit of old narrow gauge railway track. It used to connect Fulford barracks to the river where supplies were brought in.

We all three had our end of holidays meal at Wagamama in town yesterday.

Bite

If it's Sunday it must be ... Cleckheaton. Rowan was at the finals of the West Yorkshire Athletics League. Clecky forms part of my favourite triumvirate of place names - Cleckheaton, Heckmondwike and Liversedge - all within a mile or so of typical west riding valleys.

Rowan won the high jump and decided to do that "biting the gold medal" thing that all winners seem obliged to do.

Guild 4

The Booths bridge in Preston is still there. Far more interesting than the bridge in Oxford I think.

Guild 3

The goblet on the left is from Preston Guild in 1972. When we were in Preston we bought the 2012 Guild goblet. Not quite as classy but still nice. The water pitcher is our 16th wedding anniversary gift. Quite a bit has happened in those 16 years.

Guild 2

One of the floats from the Trades Procession. 

I am reading a book by David Byrne - Bicycle Diaries. I have no interest in Talking Heads but he is a great writer, about cities across the world seen from a cycling perspective, and a lot more. I recommend it.  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/02/david-byrne-bicycles-diaries-review

Preston Guild 1

We three travelled on the train to Preston yesterday, ate out at the brilliant Olive Press http://www.olivepresspizzeria.co.uk/ then saw today the Final Proclamation of the 2012 Preston Guild. The Guild happens every 20 years, so this is a big deal. It was actually quite a moving occasion with a good speech from the Mayor and lots of people to watch. We watched the Trades Procession which was, to be honest, a rather sad affair. Whereas in previous guilds there would have been any number of mills and various companies wanting to be part of the procession, this year it was pretty much public sector, one big name [British Aerospace] and other small companies wanting to be part of it.

It got a lot better after that with a packed out food fair in Winkley Square then a heaving Vintage Festival in Avenham Park. All in all a really good trip.
The photo is of Danielle and I in front of the magnificent Harris.