18 October 2022

Community House Ripon: Waste Not Wednesdays

Ripon Community House, based in Ripon, North Yorkshire, runs a fabulous community scheme called Waste Not Wednesdays and we chatted to Caroline Bentham to find out more about it…

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...

12 June 2011

Ripon's Flood Alleviation Scheme

Around a year ago, I wrote a few blogs about walking along the Rivers Skell and Ure in Ripon.  The rivers run through Ripon and circle around the ever looming presence of Ripon Cathedral on the mount at Ripon's heart.  The rivers bring the countrysid...

30 August 2010

A Sense Of Community

On Saturday morning, I went to Havenhands the Bakers in St James's Square in Boroughbridge*, then on to the Post Office before going to Ripon to watch the start of the Annual Raft Race in the Ripon Canal Basin.  On that short journey, I met several p...

05 July 2010

Ripon, Religion And Football

For someone with little spirituality, I spent much of last Sunday at religious events.  Both of them were for Ripon Cathedral Choir School, which is celebrating 50 years since its foundation by Ripon Cathedral.  Proof that little old Ripon can be a g...

04 July 2010

Walk Around Nosterfield Nature Reserve In Yorkshire

03 July 2010

North Yorkshire Walk - Thornborough Henge

On Thursday 1 July 2010, I did one of Axel's Random Walks near Nosterfield and Thornborough in North Yorkshire.  I recently bought myself an Ordnance Survey Explorer Map of Ripon & Boroughbridge (#299) and in the top left corner you can just find...

01 July 2010

Inspired And Humbled By Jennyruth Workshops

Sometimes you visit some people, who really are so good and wonderful that it shames you a bit.  The people at Jennyruth Workshops are some of those unsung heroes that underpin every society in the world; they just get on with it, doing good work, da...

11 June 2010

Ripon Water Walks - Walk Along Ripon Canal

Ripon is blessed with lots of fabulous waterways and green corridors through the city.  One of the most noticeable is Ripon Canal, which cuts a straight caesura into the centre of the city, with the canal sitting on your left as you come in along Bor...

31 May 2010

Ripon Water Walks - Along The Ure

I mentioned in my first blog about walks in Ripon in North Yorkshire that I did not believe that Ripon had only been settled as a monastery in 650AD.  I believe this basic historical fact about Ripon's history even less now after walking along the Ri...

29 May 2010

Can We Save Ourselves From Global Warming?

I went to a public lecture by Professor John Beddington who is currently Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government.  He was lecturing on Climate Change as a University of York Biology lecture.  And yesterday he was back in London attacking climate s...

27 May 2010

Visit to Milk Shake Bar in Ripon

Yesterday evening, the Steenberg family finally went to visit the milk bar in Ripon.  It was a treat after we took the kids to Evensong in Ripon Cathedral on Monday evening for the Whit Monday service; that was beautiful with the service sung by the...

26 May 2010

Water Walks In Ripon - Alongside The Skell

As you walk through the centre of Ripon alongside the River Skell, you get an appreciation of how many bridges there are.  Sure, Ripon isn't Venice with its profusion of quaint, romantic curve bridges that play on the imagination nor the strong, engi...

19 May 2010

Water Walks In Ripon - A Walk Along Borrage Lane

I have been spending a few minutes every day exploring the waterways of Ripon over the last month as part of some course work.  It has been really enlightening and an abject lesson in what you can miss on your doorstep when you keep your eyes closed...

03 March 2010

Recipe For Yorkshire Salad

We have been discussing the ins and outs of Yorkshire Salad, and some of the different variations, including a very similar recipe called Granny Salad which Sandra (one of our amazing spice packers) was handed down from her Granny in Devon.  Sadie -...

26 February 2010

Saved - We've Got A New Milkman

We received a letter today with our milk and our milkround has been taken over by a gentleman from Wetherby, called John Moore.  He has been in the dairy trade for over 20 years and we hope that means this Great British tradition of a milk round can...

21 February 2010

How We Are Reducing Our Family Environmental Impact – Insulating the Loft

One of the major users of energy in a house is for heating the building.  Space and water heating in homes gives off about 20% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, which is about 5 tonnes CO2 per home every year.