03 October 2011

Food Waste, Food Poverty And Fareshare

Food waste is criminal, so it is brilliant when you hear or read of charities like FareShare that collect and distribute surplus food from retailers that would otherwise be thrown away.  FareShare works closely with companies like M&S, Nestlé and...

02 October 2011

The Sound of Northumberland

I have been to listen and watch Kathryn Tickell twice over the last month, once in Ripon and then at the Sage with her new show, Northumbrian Voices with her band and her dad - actually her dad, Mike Tickell, also came to the show in the Holy Trinity...

25 September 2011

I Needed A Fix Of Vegetable Curries

07 September 2011

Kaffee Und Kuchen In Munich

The other thing I always remember about trips to Bavaria and especially Munich was the cakes, or Kaffee und Küchen, either with my Granny or Aunts or in the posh cafés in the centre of town.  So we indulged with a visit to Kreutzkamm, but did not get...

03 September 2011

Four Days In Munich - Some Traditional Restaurants (19 - 22 August 2011)

I went to Munich with our eldest, Jay, the other weekend ostensibly to show him Germany and visit my aunts and uncle.  However, we managed to sneak in a match at the Alliance Arena between FC Bayern Műnchen and Hamburger SV, where Arjen Robben, Basti...

27 August 2011

Sustainability and some final thoughts

In the end, politics, economics and perhaps even environmentalism are practical matters dressed up as intellectual theory, following on from my previous blog on the theory behind sustainability.

25 August 2011

Is There Any Need For Sustainability?

I have recently read Tim Jackson's "Prosperity Without Growth - Economics for a Finite Planet".  It proposes that we refocus how we manage our economies to take into account the limits on the earth, but is rather vague exactly how we should do this -...

24 August 2011

Another Poem By Yeats - The Second Coming

Another poem by Yeats, The Second Coming, was written in 1919 after the First World War and is a slightly depressing poem.  While about war - whether the First World War or the earlier Prussian War - it hints at the destructive power of humanity whet...

11 August 2011

St Wilfrid's Procession In Ripon (30 July 2011)

Today was the annual St Wilfrid Procession through Ripon.  This celebrates our city's patron saint, St Wilfrid, who was one of the great northern saints and important people of early Northumbria.  He is very unlike the ascetic Irish (Celtic) saints t...

09 August 2011

Aldborough Agricultural Show (24 July 2011)

After a couple of weeks away, we return home to glorious weather; blue skies and really hot.  Normally, we are still away this weekend, so we generally miss the local show - the Aldborough and Boroughbridge Agricultural Show - which is gentle like th...

08 August 2011

Last Walks Along Northumbrian Coast For This Year (22/23 July 2011)

07 August 2011

Luncheon at The Ship Inn In Craster (22 July 2011)

The day was dry, but overcast with a strong wind from the sea to shore.  We stayed put and walked over the dunes to Low Newton and The Ship Inn. 

06 August 2011

Two Fish Shops - Craster And Seahouses (19 & 20 July 2011)

06 August 2011

Wet weather day in Alnwick (20 July 2011)

A dreich, gray day.  What to do: the girls went to Alnwick swimming pool and had a great time.  My parents went to Paxton House north of the River Tweed near Berwick.  We went to Alnwick to Alnwick Castle.

04 August 2011

Two trips to the Farne Islands (18 & 19 July 2011)

03 August 2011

Walk To Low Newton – Stinking Newton (17 July 2011)

02 August 2011

Walk Around Some Of Glenkiln Sculptures (16 July 2011)

Sometimes you come across something truly beautiful.  Something simple, yet seemingly perfect.  So it was the other day when, on the way from a week near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries & Galloway we turned off the A75 near Dumfries to Shawhead and the...

01 August 2011

Two places for tea – The Old School House and Galloway Activity Centre

I seemed to spend the first week of our holidays driving a triangle from Loch Ken to Cream O’ Galloway at Rainton and then to Kirkcudbright, ferrying our kids from activity to activity.  We did manage to break for tea a few times.