A fine afternoon walk

It was a beautiful afternoon and, determined to escape from the pressure at home* I decided to take my ipod and go off for a walk in the village.



Our village is littered with these small grassy paths, originally used for the ponies to take the woolpacks down to the valley and the canal below. Some have become roads, others have been resurfaced but many remain grassy like this one.



The fun begins when someone's satnav system suggests that this might be a good route to take. Sure, they often take the most direct route up and down the hillside, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try to drive up or down many of them.

We always preface any directions to strangers visiting our area with the warning that, if there's a sign to say "Unsuitable for Motor Vehicles" then it probably is!

There is great fun to be had by aimlessly wandering up and down these paths, for they all look so similar and even if you get hopelessly lost, at some point you will emerge on a "proper" road and be able to navigate yourself back to where you intended to go. The path above is my favourite one, though.

Because it leads to my favourite place of all.

* Pressure at home stems from the fact that a book will soon be published with stories of "The Gloucestershire Flood 2007", all proceeds to the Gloucestershire Flood Relief Fund. Though we are so nearly there, one or two loose ends needed to be tied up, a few phone calls made and a little bit of firm persuasion applied. Watch this space for news of publication - mid November scheduled at the moment. The cover went to print today!

My home city

Since I left college, "home" has been in several places, but I always consider my roots to be in Hull; Kingston upon Hull in East Yorkshire. Though we still go there from time to time to visit my Mum who lives just outside the city, it's quite a while since I had the chance to walk around the city centre and see some of the remarkable changes which are taking place there right now.

With visiting times being strictly enforced, there are hours to be filled in between hospital visits, so Thursday morning seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a wander around with my camera.

I walked into the city centre from the hospital, so my first stop was by the new development around the station, St Stephens Centre. This photograph of Ferensway shows the new station front and the building with the green and orange window is on the site of the old ABC cinema where I saw the Beatles on 24th November,1963! Other Hullensians reading this will recognise the Hull Royal Infirmary in the background (tall, grey building looming on the horizon) to get their bearings.

The Holiday Inn Express is at the entrance to the new centre which is going to transform the city significantly when it opens later next month.

For every corner which has changed, however, there's another which hasn't, and Victoria Square remains much as it ever was - though I'm not sure the large TV screen (with amplified sound) does a great deal for anyone.

Here in Gloucestershire, the floods are a consistent topic of conversation, and of course, it's much the same in Hull, where similar events occurred a month or so before. The presence of an insurance advice centre reveals how much of a preoccupation rebuilding and recovery is right now.

On such a glorious morning, it was a pleasure to walk over Monument Bridge and remember how, as a small girl, I would be taken along the side of this dock (Princes Dock) to visit my Grandad, who worked in the Customs office on the bridge at the far side. Now a(nother) shopping centre, the street-side cafes and smart restaurants are a far cry from the old fruit market, which used to be situated down there. This photo shows the same curved stone wall when the dock was working, and until I saw it, I'd forgotten that the Wilberforce Column was moved from its original site here to a place in front of the College in Queens Gardens. That was before my time as well, though!

One of the first docks to be filled in (before my time) was Queens Dock, and the gardens there were always a bit uphill and down dale, as subsidence had occurred. All that has been sorted out now, and the gardens are as lovely as ever. The three cornered building with the green domes is the former Dock Offices (now the maritime museum) and in the background, with the pale green dome, is the City Hall, a fine turn-of-the-century concert venue. Not only have I played there on several occasions with the Hull Philharmonic (with Paul Tortelier, John Ogden, Alfredo Campoli...name drop, name drop....) but it was where we would go to see Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Jethro Tull...oh my.

That takes you back, doesn't it?

Time to blog

Did I mention "back to routine" in my last blog entry? Hmmmm. Life has taken a bit of a u turn in the meantime, the kind of u turn that happens when one has elderly parents. Last Friday, my Mum (Edna) had a stroke, so much of the week has been spent in Hull at her bedside, relieved by every small step of progress and doing our best to be patient, for this is likely to be a long haul. However, the prognosis is good, the improvement so far has been remarkable and we are optimistic that she will make a good recovery. In the meantime, however, she is in Hull and we are, for the most time, in Gloucestershire, some 200 miles away. We'll post updates on her progress on our family blog, Here and Now, link in the sidebar.

Thank you to everyone who has emailed good wishes and sent love and kind thoughts. All are greatly appreciated.

The time of year

We're back home now and the domestic routine is kicking in. An empty fridge means a trip to Waitrose was planned for this morning and decisions to be made. What to eat?

When we left, all was summer - strawberries, raspberries, salads. This morning, sure enough there were still plenty of berries and salad stuff, but somehow I wanted to buy root vegetables and mushrooms - and then I spotted the dark beauties over in the corner.

The damsons had arrived. That means one thing for us - Damson Gin.

A speedy decanting of last year's Damson Gin into bottles was called for, making the demi-john available for the new crop. Oh, and of course, we had to do a full and thorough sampling to make sure it met with our strict product standards.

Do you think the fruit crumble will pass muster?

Hotel Art - Siem Reap

Well, I suppose choosing art to put on the walls here is a bit of a no brainer. The black and white images of Angkor which line the walls of every corridor and room in the hotel are an interesting record of how the site has altered in just a few short years.

In addition to the Angkor photography, there are attractive buddhist sculptures here and there, adding a real sense of place to each room.

And just to fool us, we looked at this poster once or twice before reading on the side label that it's a book jacket from 1997. So much for our original thought that it was a 1930s travel advert.