We've been working hard this weekend digging a hole for our new Green Cone, subsidised by Wiltshire Council. It does not look much, but much of it is buried underground: we had to dig a hole over 2 feet deep and about 3 feet in diameter.
We can put food scraps in the Green Cone, which will "digest" them and create just water which will drain into the soil. Impressive, huh? This saves filling our dustbin and landfill sites with food waste. We'll see how well it works.
We considered doing composting, which we did in our last house, but don't have a large garden and the composter equivalent to the green cone (the Green Johanna) requires balanced quantities of food waste and garden waste all year round, which would be a challenge.
While enjoying lunch in the garden recently, before the wave of wet weather set in again in Wiltshire, I was distracted by a large wasp on a nearby plant. This turned out to be a hornet. Further investigation revealed hornets coming and going from a nest in our neighbour's roof space.
I'm not sure whether to be pleased that we have rare insects in our garden (to complement an impressive variety of butterfly species this year), or look forward to our neighbour having the nest destroyed before the wasps become overly pervasive later in the year.
Last week I enjoyed sailing in the Falmouth area with friends. We chartered the yacht Alcyone from Cornish Cruising. The winds were Force 4 to Force 6, which gave us some exhilarating sailing at sea. We also enjoyed the beauty of harbours such as Fowey and the Helford River, as well as some tranquil sailing up the River Fal: we reached Truro on a high tide. Of course we found some good pubs too. "Glad to be alive 2!"
See album for full set of photos of sailing and scenery.
It's good to see British women doing well in the Vendée Globe again. Ellen MacArthur preceded her impressive round the world voyage with a Vendée Globe success.
Sam Davies completed the coure in ninety five days and impressed people by not moaning about hardships but marvelling at the beauty of the natural world. "It sounds strange, but it was easy," she said. "It felt as I was doing something normal." It sounds like she was 'in the zone!'
She was closely followed by Dee Caffari who thus became the first woman to sail solo around the world non-stop in both directions, despite having a broken sail.
It seems to have been snowing all week, which we don't remember happening for the last eight years, and according to the weather forecasters this is the biggest snowfall we have had for eighteen years. It's fun to make snowmen, but not so much fun if you're car is stuck in a snow drift. Ours are just stuck in a car park, so it's good that we can work from home.
Here's some snowmen from our back garden and our creative local florist! Click on the photos to see them in full.
It's taken me a while to get into switching off over the Christmas and New Year period, but I got there in the end and it's been good to relax with family and friends.
Amusing vignettes include my young niece bringing food for Santa's reindeer that was composed of oats and glitter (I hope they have robust digestion); the local Crib Service which involved lots of children one of which fainted; a "grow-your-own toupee" that hardly grew; discovering Winter Pimms in several local pubs; and a quote seen on a narrow boat on the Kennet and Avon Canal, near Bradford on Avon on New Year's Eve:
"Only dead fish go with the flow!"
I'd also like to thank all those who would not have sent me Christmas Cards but nevertheless e-mailed me to say that they were giving the money to charity instead.
Toni and I enjoyed a random night out last night dancing and listening to music in one of Bristol's up and coming venues. One of Toni's colleagues is the lead singer in the group The Love Vultures and they were playing at The Blue Lagoon on Bristol's Gloucester Road. Good fun. You can listen to some of their tracks on their web site.
Our dive club in Melksham, The Divezone, won a national award at a ceremony at the Dive Show in Birmingham a few weeks ago. This was the 2008 Coastal Challenge Award from the Marine Conservation Society for contributions to the ongoing cleanup of beaches, in this case particular work on Chesil Beach. This is also a bit special because it is the silver jubilee of the MCS this year.
Well done!
The Divezone November December 2008 newsletter is here.
I have rejoined local community choir Singing in the Round, and survived an attempt by a local choir in Chippenham to poach me when I accidentally attended a singing workshop at the Wiltshire Music Centre by Northern Harmony from the USA.
After an enjoyable holiday in Turkey this summer, Toni and I are looking forward to travelling back there in April next year with Tony Fensome, lately local vicar, and McCabe Pilgrimages. This will be a tour of "Istanbul and the 7 Churches of Asia." It looks great, and includes famous sites such as Ephesus as well as Istanbul.
This was an exciting weekend as we delivered Steph to university for her first term. It was great to see such a suitable Hall of Residence, and to meet her flatmates. Toni and I felt emotional leaving her, but pleased for her. Steph just seemed excited!
On our return we stayed overnight near Ashbourne, and very much enjoyed walking around Dovedale on the Sunday with excellent weather.
I've enjoyed three separate weeks of holiday over the Summer: a week skippering a yacht in the Solent, a week exploring Cappadocia in Turkey (including balloon flights over the extraordinary scenery), and a week scuba diving in the Red Sea (at Nuweiba on the Sinai peninsula) so we are all now Advanced Divers.
Happily we had bright enough weather on Saturday to enjoy a repeat visit to the festival. We enjoyed the many busking morris dancers on the High Street, and the action in the arena (below). We returned for further great concerts that evening. Click on the photos for more details.
Steph is off to Ghana soon, so we took a day out to go scuba diving at Vobster Quay again. This was my first dive since I qualified, and I felt a bit nervous and "rusty." However the water was clear an I enjoyed myself and felt a lot more confident after our three dives. Again I was wearing three layers of wet suit, but the sunny weather meant that I stayed warm in between dives. Good fun!
I am surprised to write that I have joined an evening life drawing class in Bath. Joshua wanted to improve his art skills to help with his future career and university application. I decided that it would be easier to join in than to drive backwards and forwards delivering and collecting him.
Besides, "join an art class" is on my unwritten list of things to do before I'm 90 (no, I'm not nearly there - just a little over half way).
I've never done life drawing before, and not attempted much drawing since I left school when I did not think I was much good at it. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it and that I created somethng recognisable at the first session!
The last two weeks have been good, as Toni and I have been on holiday. We spent a week in Lyme Regis, Dorset (see photos), enjoyed Easter, had a day in London including seeing the musical version of Billy Elliot, and last night a great party at home with family and friends to celebrate 50 years of me.
Apart from great food, great company, and great games (as the night wore on), a highlight was an extraordinary photo collage of my life that my family had secretly put together.
What a way to celebrate my birthday: a fitness test at the local gym (First Steps near Corsham). Toni joined some months ago and her subtle persuasion finally worked.
The fitness test went OK, so the next step is that the trainer puts together a personal programme for me.
I've just returned from a week in Austria, organised by Accts MMI (see other articles in this blog) and hosted by the Austrian army chaplaincy.
There were around fifty participants from about ten European countries: mainly from the former communist area plus a lot from Austria. We had gathered to enjoy fellowship and skiing together, as well as to explore what it means to be a Christian in the armed forces. There were impressive speakers giving lectures and Bible studies (I led one of the Bible studies) and participation was enthusiastic.
This is an enjoyable way to do Christian mission, and it was great to see relationships growing during the week.
Last weekend we enjoyed staying with friends in London (officially Kent). Apart from eating well, we saw the musical Fiddler on the Roof for the first time. It was well-produced, but is a sad tale of persecution of Jews in Russia in the early 20th Century. It is famous (in my mind) for the cry to God something like: We know we're Your chosen people, but couldn't You choose someone else once in a while? I found myself sitting next to a woman from Israel who had wanted to see the musical for some thirty years.
This weekend we were back to scuba diving in swimming pools - to enjoy being part of our local diving club and to stay in practice. It seemed a bit tame after near freezing Portland Harbour, but good fun anyway.
I find myself starting to think about resolutions for the year ahead. Sometimes I come up with long lists of things I want to achieve.
This year what comes to mind is a desire to have fun and listen.
Last year seemed to have a lot of downs as well as ups, and as a family we could do with building on the "fun." Work should be fun too, so this is in part about developing the new business.
Listening is about getting to know and being responsive to people, but it is also about listening to God - every day should be attentive. The best image I have of a close relationship with God is that of a pair of dancers who need to be very attentive to one another's every move including the footwork! (The image here is of dancing from the days when people used to hold one another - so "Strictly Come Dancing" style not disco - I must be showing my age.)
From a Christian point of view, there's something here about knowing, and living out, the "joy of our salvation."
Watched this film at the Little Theatre, Bath, last night.
It is the moving true story of Chris McCandless who, having not got on well with his parents, after graduation chooses to vanish on a journey around the USA of self discovery.
Having brightened the lives of many people he encountered during his explorations, he heads for the wilderness of Alaska to prove that he can survive there. Sadly he does not.
Having enjoyed some months, the turning point comes when he notes that true happiness needs to be shared with other people. Having chosen to return to human company, he finds himself unable to do so because of a flooded river. No longer pleased to be where he is, a kind of panic seems to ensue resulting in futher poor judgements.
Sad, but moving and insightful. Journeys have to end somewhere.
I made it (and so did Steph). We completed our qualification as Open Water Divers today at Fathom and Blues dive centre, Portland, Dorset.
We dived to about 12 metres inside the harbour wall, twice, to do some underwater exercises (like removing and replacing our dive masks) and to peer at a wrecked ship through very murky water. All this in three layers of wet suit and water at 9°C (warmer than the air at 6°C).
Yes, of course it was fun. We also enjoyed a ride on a RIB to the divesight and practised falling off it into the water - just like they do in the films.
You may remember that all this is to get Steph set up for her diving in Mexico, however the rest of us are also starting to plan for warmer and more colourful diving.
Last night had a great time with my sister listening to the "Buffalo Gals" at a local village hall. They were very lively and great fun, representing traditional American (Appalacian) music with fiddle, banjo, etc. interspersed with good humour and percussive step dancing. Good fun. Check out their site and listen to tracks on it.
This afternoon went for a pleasant walk during a sunny gap in the rain, except the rain started again - but there was a brilliant rainbow to look at over Corsham church.
