School visit to Belsay Hall

This morning 4 mothers and I gathered at Belsay First School to hear what we had let ourselves in for. We had a briefing and found that we were not just there to keep the little darlings safe. Much more was expected of us!
We were each allocated 4 children and a colour. We had to gather our little flock and get them safely onto a coach and their safety belts done up. We had a horrific hazard paper, which I didn't read. I thought that common sense would do instead.
The coach set off for a 5 minute trip to Belsay Hall, a Palladian House built by the Middletons who had lived on the site since the 12th century at least. We all moved from the coach to the entrance to the Hall, where the children were told something of the history of the house. By the way, they were years 2, 3 and 4 years. My 4 consisted of all years and very lovely kids they were too. At last we were let loose. There was an exhibition of art, using spaces i.e. rooms to depict things to do with the house and the family.
The imagination and understanding of what was going on amazed me - way beyond my ability!! I will not try to describe the individual exhibits. It would take yards of space and probably not mean anything to you. Suffice it to say that the children knew what they liked and what they didn't. What they found spooky and what they didn't. What was intriguing and what wasn't.
There were 2 tasks to be undertaken. There was an upper room that had 2 trees growing out of the floor and a 3rd out of a bed (yes, really!) and a nightdress hanging on a branch and next door, a wardrobe, open with dresses hanging and an eye looking through a hole in the back and blinking(!), a fireplace and a dressing table with a lady who came and went in the mirror, brushing her hair. Here they had to draw a picture. Even with my 4 children it was fascinating what they drew. One boy drew the fire place and some of the old wall paper. 2 girls drew a chair which was, for some reason, lying on its side. The 3rd drew the wardrobe with the eye. One then drew a tree. I found it fascinating as to why these were chosen.
The second task was in a room where there were masses of keys all over the walls, each with a label saying where it was from. This room apparently represented the housekeeper. The children had to draw a key, a label with their name on and a border of keys. This was more straightforward.
After that we had a little time to spare, so they were able to run and run outside.
We had a packed lunch inside because it was horribly cold. Then our group moved to the Education Room. The morning group had made a number of rooms out of boxes, lit by a torch and viewed through a keyhole. Our lot each had their photo taken and printed and cut out by themselves and put into one of the rooms. This sounds simple but a great deal of imagination went into it all. The rooms were up a secret staircase in the Hall, never seen by anyone before and only accessible by the keys! As someone who has never done any teaching or anything like it, it was an eye-opener. What can be got out of these young minds is amazing. I loved every moment of it.
By the time I got home, I was exhausted - but a lovely sort of exhaustion. Now I must take G to see this exhibition!

W.I. Hut

Today we had another meeting of the committee trying to save the WI Hut. We have a questionaire which we plan to take to every household in the neighbourhood. We have to find out how many people would use the new hut if it gets built. To my surprise everyone was prepared to spread some of the questionaires. It's easy for me, I have done canvasing for the Conservatives for longer than I care to think, so I shall set off in great heart - and gradually get more and more depressed!!!. It is much more difficult for the others - they haven't done this sort of thing before.

I was heartened the other day because I met the Chaiman of a large local trust and he assured me that Village Halls in small communities were of interest to them. Our main difficulty is the smallest of our communtiy.

Queen's Own Yeomanry - Guidon Presentation

After a good deal of faf - pinning on medals, finding a hat and generally getting tarted up - we left here at about 10.45 for Alnwick. We arrived in plenty of time, at about 11.45 but still found ourselves well back in the car park. Plenty of people we knew were arriving at the same time. We soon got onto a shuttle bus and were driven into the Castle. There we hung about a bit saying hullo to people we hadn't seen for ages and making use of a rather smart green loo. After a while, we made our way through to what I think is called Castle Green - it is a large expanse of grass anyway. There we found seats - not on a stand, unfortunately, so I was not able to see much of what went on. While we sat there we saw the Royal Standard slowly rising to the top of the flag pole on top of the castle.

Dead on 12.45, the band marched on and the Parade began. This is the point to explain what was happening. The history of the 5 Regiments that now form the Queen's Own Yeomanry goes back a long way and is complex. Suffice it to say that they ended up as Territorial Army Regiments, that engendered great loyalty amonst the men who served in them. Each Regiment had a Guidon - the flag that was used in times past to act as a rallying point for soldiers in battle. It is the heart of the Regiment and symbolises all that the Regiment means to the soldiers. Over the last 30 odd years, these 5 Regiments have gradually been amalgamated as there have been less and less resources and latterly there was a great fight to survive. The Regiments were The Yorkshire Yeomanry, The Ayrshire Yeomanry, The Northumberland Hussars, The Fife and Rorfar Yeomanry and Scottish Horse, and the North Irish Horse. Each Guidon bore the battle honours of their Regiment. Today, as a final act of the amalgamation, Prince Charles, the Royal Honorary Colonel of the QOY, presented a new Guidon to the 'new' Regiment.

Before that could happen, or even the Roy. Hon. Col. appear, they had to march off the old guidons, which had marched on with the Regiment. This was a very moving moment or two as all those years of history marched off through the ranks of soldiers to Auld Lang Syne.

PC (not purple coo you silly) came on and inspected the troops before the new Guidon was consecrated in a short service conducted by the Chaplain-General HM Land Forces. PC then presented the Guidon to the Regiment, who did a march past with it proudly carried in the middle.

[The lady in pink is the Duchess of Northumberland, by the way]

At this point, an order came over the loud speaker that all Old Comrades should assemble as previously instructed. What a scramble!! Some had always intended to march, some most certainly were not and others thought they probably wouldn't! Well, you've guessed it - they all marched, including one who could barely stand, let alone walk!! But he made it as did all the rest. (I tried to upload a video of them all but it told me the web page couldn't be accessed. I think it meant that the method I was trying to use was no good).

That really marked the end and we all trailed off, via the lovely green loos, to a very full, very large marquee for drink and a bit of food and a great deal of meeting and greeting and talking and enjoyment. On the way we passed the soldiers preparing for a photo, but I was not allowed to stand about long enough to get a pic with PC on it!

Friday 21st Sept

Last night the Archdeacons of the Diocese (of Northumberland and of Lindesfarne) had any Churchwardens who were interested to dinner. We had to pay of course, but it was a lovely evening. I went because they had picked the brand new, custom-built County Archives as the venue.
This sounds a not particularly interesting place to go, I know, but there were 2 reasons why I wanted to go. First, it is part of the Woodhorn Mining Museum, which I had not visited for about 10 years. Secondly, in the dim and distant past, 11 0r 12 years ago, I had been Chairman for a year of the Amenities Committee of the County Council. This meant that I visited the Archives, Libraries and Museums in the County, with the head Civil Servant and got a privileged view of them all. I even went to the prison library at Acklington Prison.
In those days, the Northumberland archives were stored in an old building in Gosforth, which was part of the County before the 1972 reorganisation. It was terribly overcrowded and the conditions were far from perfect, though they did the best they could. While I was still on the
Council, they developed a warehouse on the outskirts of Morpeth for all the Local Authority records and things like the census returns. If you were seeking information, you often found that you had to visit both sites. Time after time a case was put up for a new building, but of course it was a very expensive project and time after time it was turned down. The powers that be simply did not accept the importance of records and artifacts etc and chose to ignore the legal side of it. The County is the official repository of all Diocesan and Parish records, so really did need to have proper, accessible storage.
I still do not know what made them build the new place. It was only finished about a year and a half ago. It is fantastic. There is storage space for all the records for the next 25 years. All the storage places are kept at the required humidity and temperature. The fire precautions will be very tight, though we did not hear about them. The Search Room (where the public do their stuff) is marvellous. The old one was not very big and the working space for each person was small. There were only about 4 microfiche readers and no computers etc, etc. Now there are big tables where you can spread a map out to study, plenty of room to study documents, computers where you can access "Ancestors" free (see the Family History forum), masses of microfiche and other readers, a booth for hearing recorded accounts etc etc. There are 2 catalogue systems - hard copy and on computer. The only thing is that the latter is not complete.
Having said all that, nothing really changes, does it? When I knew them and later when I was searching for stuff for the Village History, they were dreadfully understaffed. They are still dreadfully understaffed. There are only 3 of them. One is the Head Girl, so has quite a lot of admin to deal with and meetings to attend. So the other 2 have to cope with receiving records (they had just received a large number of boxes of records from a farm which had housed a tractor museum, with accounts etc etc, which all has to be checked, sorted and catalogued) Dealing with the general public. They are open from 10.00 to 4.00 Tuesday to Saturday. General caring and lesser conservation - important stuff has to go to Durham. And other things that I have now forgotten. Of course there is a permanent back-log. They do not use volunteers, because they need so much support and over-seeing that it takes more time than it is worth.
After our tour, we all had dinner done by the catering staff. Very good too. As there seems to be a big overlap between the Museum and the Archives, I am not sure who was in charge of that. After the Archdeacon of Lindesfarne, who is on the brink of retirement, had given us a summary of all that has happened in the Diocese in the last 20 years, we did a bit more networking and then went home. The 20 years covered most of the time that I had had contact with the Diocese, so I found it very interesting. I was on the Diocesan Synod for quite a lot of the time and new the Archdeacon well in all the jobs he did before his last post.

Wednesday 19th Sept

This morning I had to go to the Health Centre to see the District Nurse to have my ear syringed. Very satisfactory. A nice big piece of wax was washed out, so now I can hear a good deal better.

After lunch, it being nice and sunny, I decided to go up to the wind turbines to try to take a picture of the Germans abseiling. Off we went up the lonnen (we because G decided to come too) but when we got there the cupboard was bare.In other words, because there was quite a wind blowing, they had gone away, so yet another day without electricity production. No 3 turbine is still working but will be stopped for similar work when they are ready. We were able to see where they had done their work. Quite horrifying that these things that have to withstand so much stress can just have patches put in. I think they told G that they inject resin into the cracks but it looks like a patch. Of course it is quite a long way up, so it may just be that they paint over the area after. I am adding up-to-date pictures of the turbines, taken today, but you can't see the work. The rather dramatic one is of G with the sun behind him. The one of 2 turbines, shows No 2 static and No 3 working. This operation has come out very odd because I uploaded all 3 at the same time, which I haven't tried before. I told them to come rt, lft and ctr but theyall came in the middle and would not move sideways. Also the text won't wrap. And goodness knows what it will look like when it is published! (In fact it has worked OK)!

After our little walk I tackled a job that I had been postponing - bringing tender things in from their summer quarters. This means making enough space in the greenhouse and putting things into the conservatory is only a temporary measure as I won't have them there if they are'nt flowering. There were only 2 groups, first the orchids - 2 cymbidiums that are quite old and 4 that look young but I have had them for ages and they still haven't flowered. I got them in Madeira, years ago, as tiny little things. Secondly the Azaleas. One very large one that is a long way from flowering, it will do it in the Spring, if I'm lucky. The other 2 have never really stopped flowering so I don't know whether I will get a good display this time. They are rather smaller.

In the picture, the plant on the right is an Abutilon which G sweet-hearted out of the head gardener at Wallington. It has is lovely dark red one. I have a nice cutting coming on well already!

Tuesday 18th September 07

Yesterday, there was .03in of rain in my gauge. This was the first measurable rain for 19 days. What a funny year. Early on we had a long period with little or no rain. Then we had a lot but not as much as in the South and West. And now we are coming to the end of another long dry period. They keep talking about rain in the North East but as you can see it has not happened so far.

Today was school day. For the first time I did library - year 2 were selecting books to take home. How quick they were to choose. It would have taken me ages! Then more filing etc, with embarrassing thanks from the Assistant! I keep telling her how much I enjoy it but I don't think she believes me!
Later off to a small place called Ugham for a Deanery Synod meeting, in their church. Not too boring business and then a fascinating talk by the Police Chaplain. He leads a team of mostly volunteers and a few ordained chaplains, who look after individual stations. They give pastoral care to police, civilian workers in the stations and their families.Whilst telling us some pretty harrowing stuff they have to deal with, he larded it with a good deal of humour. It was something I knew nothing about, so was fascinated.
Then, believe it or not all the way home (35mins) I listened to a program on Radio 4 all about sex. Cor - I'm a lot wiser now!! And I know that the enormous pressure to perform to perfection these days does not compare well with the ignorance of my early days!!!

A Rainbow

This morning, as I went up to Church in a very fine drizzle with the sun out, there was a rainbow. This was a rainbow such as I had never seen before. It was absolutely symetrical but only came half way to the ground. It seemed to be riding on 2 clouds. Of course, the first thing I thought of was that the Bridge Builder, recently taken from us, was either desperately needed by God, or he had started work and had had to remove alot from the bottom on each side, before tackling the rebuilding.
Jacko - please don't think I am being un-feeling, if you read this. Quite the opposite. Your lovely idea about why God should want to take your Father so early had moved me deeply and some-how, seeing a rainbow in a form never before seen by me, made me think of you all and carry you on up to church with me.

Wind Turbines

This morning, G went walking up to the wind turbines, about 1/2 a mile up the lonnen. He found 3 or 4 men sitting eating their sarnies, so stopped to talk to them. We had noticed that once again 2 of the turbines were stopped, despite a good wind. He was about to find out why.

First, let me go back a year or two. One turbine was stopped. At dusk a huge low loader stopped outside our gate and stayed for the night. On it was a single blade for a turbine. Next day it went on up. Later, another vast great piece of transport came by with a huge crane on it and another smaller crane separately. The smaller crane lifted the blade off and the huge one removed one blade from the turbine and put it on the low loader, which went away. The huge crane put the new blade on and then they all went away. I later discovered that the blade had come all the way from Denmark. I was very busy wondering how much carbon etc was put into the atmosphere by all this activity, and how long the 3 turbines would have to work at full capacity to make up for it. Did not add up as far as I could tell.

Back to today. One of the men was a van driver, who had brought the others from the Airport Hotel, where they were staying and was going to take them back. He spent the day reading in the van. The others were blade menders! Apparently you get lots of cracks in blades. I had understood that that was why the one above had to be changed. Anyway, these men were over from Germany. They climb up the inside of the turbine and out onto the blade to be mended and then abseil down to do the repairs. Or something. G was not entirely clear as to how they do it as his German is rusty and they didn't have much English. However he did gather that either 2 or 1 of the turbines will be stopped for the next 2 weeks, having already been stopped for a few days.

These things are meant to supply the country with green energy. Maybe, but how much and at what cost? i believe that global warming is really happening but I also believe that measures to cope with it must be realistic and I will never be persuaded that wind power on this scale will ever do anything worthwhile to help.

Today I had to visit my doctor to OK my repeat prescriptions and have my blood pressure taken. The BP was fine and the prescriptions were OK'd. The reason for mentioning it here, is that when I registered my presence, I was asked to fill in a questionaire. Being a mug, of course I agreed. Can you believe it? - this is a patient comment on one's doctor, nurses and the surgery in general. I wouldn't mind, but they have to provide 50 questionaires for each doctor and nurse in the practice EVERY YEAR. I agree that patient feedback is very important, but isn't this over-doing it? Anyway, I was very kind though I did object to the complete close-down every day for 1 1/2 hours for lunch and 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday for staff training. Surely they could manage some cover. We so often want to pick up repeat prescriptions after 12.00!

G's 2nd daughter S came to tea. Her husband was away flying a BA plane to somewhere. We did a walk round the garden and I took my camera to update my pic of the lilies. The gable end behind the picture gives some idea of the height of the white lily. The pink one is now almost fully out. They have to be waited for but are well worth it when they come. The white one is now 3 (from 1)!

I also took one of this Astilbe(?) which is growing in the boggy part of my small wild-life pond. It is currently most impressive, though that is perhaps not the right word as it is not large!

And now England is being thrashed by S. Africa. As I can't bear to watch I'm on here with you lovely lot. G keeps updating me - I DON'T WANT TO HEAR!!!

Thursday 13th Sept.

Seem to have done little except weed for the last few days! But there are one or two things.

As stated in the Common Room, we had the presentations for Northumbria in Bloom on Monday morning. There was a huge turn-out, which is a visible result of the benefit of having certificates for everyone who takes part. I am beginning to know some of the people on the other side of the fence, as well as the judges, so I enjoyed the social side of the morning as well.

On Tuesday afternoon I returned to School. It is all a little different, as last year's Reception is this year's Year 1 and there are 18 of them and about the same number of Year 2's and they are taught together in one room. It is very noisy and very crowded. It is a Victorian School slightly adapted so the main room is large. I know the numbers don't sound much individually, but they are large for this little school and of course added together they are well over the maximum 30. I think that most of the time there are 2 people working with them, so that these very small/young people are being taught separately. The lovely teaching assistant was working with them on Tuesday, but as she was ill at the end of last term and now is over busy, there are a lot of ordinary jobs like filing etc that she has not managed to do. Consequently, she was delighted to see me, who is happy, whatever I am asked to do!

I was tired when I got home so I decided that I did not need to know about the use of red in art!! This was the subject of the NADFAS lecture that night.

This afternoon, I went to Wallington to see the exhibition about the wedding of Mary Bell and Charles Trevelyan at the beginning of the 20th century. It was based on the day before the wedding, so lots of flowers, the wedding dress, (and that of Mary's mother from the 19th century) the wedding invitation, and lots of info on weddings - the origin of the Best Man, the garter, throwing the bouquet and garter etc etc. I love Wallington and mostly look at all the same things each time I go, so it was nice to have new things to see.

Otherwise, boring old routine and weeding. G cut the lawns today and they look extraordinarily good - though none of those lovely stripes that I like to see! Not sure why.

So that's that until I do something else that I want to record. Goodnight for now.

Northumbrian Drive

Today, G suddenly asked me if I was doing anything important, if not he would like to take me to Plashets, which he discovered a short time ago.

Yes I said, I don't do things to please him nearly often enough, and anyway I was happy to go. Last time I went there was a Maundy Thursday. The Bridge Club was at Carrycoats, across wild country from Cambo where the Maundy night Service was. I went to the service and then, in the dark, had to get to Carrycoats. The shortest distance was to go to Kirkwhelpington and then across country to Carrycoats. The road is single track all the way and twisty, with two or three farms nearby. If I remember rightly it was snowing slightly. Anyway, I got to the Bridge alright, but saw nothing on the way.

Today, it was fine and sunny and the views were clear. It was typical open Northumbrian countryside, with great wide skies. We stopped and walked where there was a trig point not far from the road. The view was enormous. To the North we could see Cheviot ( slightly clouded) and Simonside. To the East we could probably see to the sea, but not the sea itself. To the South, the Durham County hills passing round Lake District hills to the Pennines in the West. How many Counties, I wonder. Certainly Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland (the two now Cumbria) and maybe a Scottish one but probably not!

After 26 years here, I have fallen in love with Northumberland. When I came here aged about 51, I was not really happy with the place. It was like being in a living museum. After 4 years, there was a County Council election. I had been on North Yorkshire CC before coming here so the idea was not strange. There was a seat vacant whose border was only a mile away from here, so I decided to put myself forward as the Conservative Candidate. It was a case of if you can't beat 'em join 'em. I was duly elected, got on the Planning Committee and proceeded to get to know the true Northumberland. In those days the Labour contingent were mainly old miners (not all, some of the Professional unemployed councillors were already there.) Being on the Planning Committee and willing to travel, I got round the County. So, after a while, I really began to feel a Northumbrian.

The division I represented was one of the largest (though far from the very largest!). It consisted of a large village called Heddon on the Wall, which provided at least half the population, and a somewhat smaller village - Stamfordham, and Matfen, (then quite small abut since somewhat grown), and a small one, Ingoe and a hamlet, Ryal. I've no idea what the acreage was, but there were al awful lot of farms to be visited when canvasing. I loved it and the Council for a while, but during the second 4 years, the whole atmosphere in the Council chamber changed entirely, to my mind for the worse, so I retired. I had done 12 years over-all as a County Councilor and 8 as a District Councilor on Richmondshire DC. I might do a blog on that sometime, but not now. I seem to have got a long way from driving over the wilds below the Wanny's!

Friday

Not much today. Have spent the afternoon in the vegetable garden. First, pulling carrots for supper. Then weeding and removing most of the peas and wire. Boring but necessary.
Supper delicious. Rump steak, beaten within an inch of its life, then marinated in oil, onion, garlic, tomato ketchup, chilli and worcestorshire sauce. In there for several hours. Grilled, while the marinade was simmered on the AGA, with juices running out of the meat added and at the last minute a bit of cream. Served with 'new' potatoes and the carrots, with butter added and lemon juice. Yummy.

6.9.07 - Ordinary Thursday

Thismorning I went to Hexham, as usual on a Thursday, getting away early. Having done my Waitrose (not Tesco's - aren't I good) I had some time left before my hair appointment. Having parked the car, to the butcher's in Robbs, and then, with a beating heart, to Pattinson's the Photograph shop. While in France, I decided that I needed to upgrade my lovely Olympus camera. There were various factors that were so obviously better in the camera's of other members of the family. G and my children had given me money towards it, so that I could upgrade by money as well as modernity. My lovely friend in the shop produced 3 or 4 cameras, all doing much the same. I ended up with a Panasonic with a Leica lens called Lumix. For the technophobes among us, it has 7.2m pixels. Lens - Optical 3.6x zoom. Motion picture facility with sound. Lots and lots more but it doesn't mean much to me. Bought a 2gb card to go with it.

I got home by 12.00 so had time to study the Operating Instructions before lunch, but could not try things out till after, because it takes about 2hrs to charge the battery. That's a joy in itself - my old one ran on 2 rechargeable batteries which took 10 hours to charge! Once it had gone live, I spent quite a long time going through lots of menus etc and then tried out the camera. This is the very first picture. Not all properly in focus - now, having read more, I could do better!

Then I went outside and took this one of the part of the garden that I have not yet described. I also took a piece of video which was not too bad, but I need to find out how to upload it here. It round this far lawn and shows it quite well.

Then out to garden. Last night, G and I had put the ladder up against the Pyracantha, so that I could prune the upper part. It always puts up great long branched pieces along the top, and if I didn't cut them out each year, it would be at the top of the wall across a window by now! In the picture, there is only one left, on the far left. I couldn't reach it from the middle where I started. In the end G cut it out with the long cutter thing. The thing in the bottom middle of the picture is a prop which is holding the whole thing up against the wall. Last winter, the wind got behind it and as the plastic frame that it was tied to had come loose, it landed flat on its face over the herbaceous border. It was a somewhat prickly job cutting out the frame and long growths that had grown up the back. After that, G and Dave the garden helper managed to push it up with two props. Previously I had attached a strong clothes line round the main stem and out to the sides. While they held it up, I went up first one ladder and then another to attach said line to hooks in the wall. One prop was set into the ground and is still holding it, while the roots hopefully regrow. Unfortunately, the clothes line has come undone and so is no longer working, so we have a big problem. As you can see, it is wide and it is also very prickly. The prop is up against the central stem. We will probably have to put something round the front of it, but it will be very difficult to make it tight. This year it flowered quite well but has not set all that many berries and what there are look dried up. The growth, on the other hand, was as good and vigorous as ever.

After the Pyracantha, it was back to weeding. This is where I was working. I have finished now and started to cut the front of the Seneccio back off the lawn. I did the main pruning ages ago but did not finish it quite and had not tackled the front. It always looks horrid after as it has to go back quite a way and it looks all empty and gappy. I gave up about 6.0 and went in but of course, there is no rest - the supper had to be cooked and one way and another I was busy till 7.30 when we ate one of our favourites - salmon with ginger, lime and honey.

Then I came on here and read all about sad dog stories and happy wedding anniversary ones and lots of stuff about firemen, squaddies and the lord alone knows what. So now it is time for bed.

Introduction

I have decided that I shall have a sort of diary blog - to record things that happen, or I do, in the garden and in my life, that should not waste common room space.

Today they said it would be hot, but the wind kept the temperature down here and there was a lot of cloud.

Yesterday, I set light to the big rubbish bonfire out by the lonnen. It went up well but there is a lot of stuff left because there were great wodges of weeds and also all the moss that G scraped out of the lawn after treating it in the spring. It had absorbed an awful lot of rain! Otherwise, I weeded, yesterday and today - very boring but it looks better.

I am thrilled with the lilies. They have grown taller and flowered better and with bigger flowers than ever before. They were planted about 3 years ago. The tall one at the back is nearly 5ft tall.

For my next trick I am going to try to put a close up of one of the lilies on the other side, with my profile. It is so long since I did it for the other blog that I can't remember how! We shall see, but not tonight. I am tired and am shortly going to bed.

Tomorrow, I intend to add some more pics of things out in the same bed as the lilies. It is on the other side of the drive from the one I told you about in a garden walk some time ago.