A Stag In Active August

August 26, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

Retirement in August has felt busy so far. There have been several separate events to enjoy. In between these, I have been walking while listening to political podcasts, tidying our field and garden, visiting the local recycling tip with multiple dumpy bags of green (mainly thistle, bramble and bindweed) waste, and enjoying our local community hub: the village pub.

I visited my Dad and sister in Nottingham for the first time since the end of his innovative and apparently very successful cancer treatment. I’m really proud of him; he has stuck with all the hospital visits, the injections and the infusions and they have not only benefitted him, but furthered cancer research. It was great to catch up with them and, for a change, win at our games of Mahjong.

*^{Dad Ringing The Hospital ‘Ward Bell’ To Celebrate His End Of Treatment}*

The football season has restarted and, during my brief stay in Nottingham, I managed to get to Boston in Lincolnshire to see my dear Forest Green Rovers treat me to a rare, stonking win. After two successive, distressing relegations, we seem to have found our natural level again.

*^{Boston Football Club: Nickname The Pilgrims Because So Many Original Pilgrim Fathers Migrated To The Americas From Boston}*

Whilst in Boston I had time to climb the church tower and take in some aerial views of Boston and the very flat surrounding landscape. The church is large and the tower is impressive. The port and its surrounding sluice gate system was also substantial but is now looking run down. Indeed, much of the town looked as though it needs a face lift.

*^{Views Across Boston, The Port And The Church}*

*^{An Attractive Part Of Boston Next to The River Witham With The Tide In}*

Also in August, Jane and I have visited Bath, dropped in on Second Grandchild in Bristol, hosted Youngest Son (YS) as he has worked his way through his busy month of multiple stag dos, weddings and video shoots, and attended a talk on artistic gardening in Stroud.

Amid all this activity the most unusual event for me was the opportunity to attend part of YS’s own Stag Weekend. That was a lot of fun – even though I opted out of the most boisterous activities and those requiring the heaviest drinking penalties. It was lovely to be invited and great to catch up with old friends and meet a few of YS’s best mates who I didn’t already know.

Middle Son kindly gave up his bed to allow me a relatively comfortable, though rather hungover, sleep in a large tent also shared by Oldest Son; it was my first experience of something resembling camping since YS was at Primary School and a lot more restful than then!

The main purpose of a visit to Bath was to equip YS and myself with light suits for YS’s wedding and for the wedding of one of Jane’s nieces in Italy next month. With that aspect of the trip satisfactorily achieved, I visited The Holburne Museum to see a Henry Moore exhibition.

This was a small exhibition of Henry Moore’s small works. Many of his familiar themes such as mother and child, helmets, family groups, reclining figures in stone, wood and metal were covered in a single room. The breadth was admirable but it took a while to get used to the delicacy of the work having been used to the more massive Henry Moore sculptures I have seen in the past. In truth, only a few of the displays in this exhibition really stood out for me but a couple were lovely and it was worth the visit.

On the way out I popped into a separate exhibition in the Museum by Mr Doodle (aka Sam Cox). He is clearly into fun art and the room completely covered in his ‘doodles’ (see below) certainly raised a smile.

Closer to home we went to a talk on ‘Where Gardening Meets Art’ at the Museum in the Park in Stroud. The Museum has a lovely terraced and walled garden that I hadn’t visited since shortly after it was built and planted several years ago. The sun was shining and the garden looked splendid.

*^{The Walled Garden At Museum In The Park, Stroud}*

The talk itself was preceded by an exhibition of gardening and plant inspired artworks by Cleo Mussi, who’s work we know well, and Fiona Haser Bizony, founder of Electric Daisy Flower Farm. I liked several of Cleo’s mosaics, especially the simpler ones, but we quickly moved outside to the garden in evening sun and a small bar offering locally brewed beer.

*^{Cleo Mussi’s Hands Mosaics At Museum In The Park, Stroud}*

Jane had booked the evening and I didn’t know what to expect from the talk. In the event, it was efficiently introduced and a thoroughly entertaining. The main speaker was Charlotte Molesworth who has a renowned garden in Benendon, Kent. She was terrific. She had a lot of good sense to share and did it very amusingly. Her anecdotes were warm and lovely and she had a great answer to every question. The whole evening exceeded my expectations severalfold.

*^{Charlotte Molesworth Speaking About Where Gardening Meets Art}*

August – and, unfortunately, summer – is now drawing to a close. The final week will be punctuated by further visits to The Hog, our local pub, for its Summer Bank Holiday Hogfest (a beer, music and food festival) and then the monthly quiz. I am also looking forward hugely to Forest Green Rovers’ first home game of the season on the club’s brand-new, hybrid (5% plastic) pitch.

But then my thoughts will turn to our family holiday in Italy prior to Jane’s niece’s wedding in Rome. I can’t wait to see the two grandchildren together amongst our sons and their partners. It is going to be a real treat to have everyone together.

Resolutions And Houghton Hall

July 26, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I have made patchy progress in adhering to my 2024 New Year resolutions during the first half of this year. I’m ok with alcohol targets and weight management. As planned, I’m spending more quality time reading books and I’m listening to less (largely agitating or depressing) news on the radio and television. However, I’m not doing enough back exercises despite grumbling about a stiff back. Also, my resolve to step up my creative activity has been weak since my visible darning of a load of socks and my devising of an Easter treasure hunt for First Grandchild.

Additionally, since a good start early in the year, Jane and I have not been consistent in addressing our joint aim of embarking on more short trips away from home. We set this target with the intention of responding to periods of good weather and our relatively flexible diaries to see bits of the UK we are not familiar with. In part that has been because the abnormally cool, wet weather hasn’t been particularly conducive to such thinking. Also, my diary has been less flexible since I took up a new commitment on Wednesday afternoons to listen to children read as part of the local ‘Read With Me’ scheme.

We have done much better as the weather has improved and the school term drew to a close. We have followed up our trip to Sissinghurst, Rye and Lewes with another lengthy excursion to Houghton Hall and Gardens in north Norfolk, and then on to visit friends in north Suffolk. On all these travels this month, we were blessed with very good weather.

Houghton Hall was impressive, the gardens-cum-sculpture park there were interesting and it was great to see our longstanding friends again.

^{Houghton Hall West Wing (From The Cafe)}

We left early with the intention of arriving at the Houghton Hall at opening time but, after encountering tedious traffic jams around Kings Lynn, arrived a little after midday. The car park was already extending into the overflow area but the grounds of the house are so huge that, once we got into them past the café and exhibitions (including a truly remarkable exhibition of the Cholmondeley Collection of Model Soldiers) in the splendid West Wing, the crowds seemed to melt away.

^{The Remarkable Model Soldier Collection of the 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley Spanning Two Densely Packed Rooms}

The gardens double up as a sculpture park and, immediately, we could see Antony Gormley statues dotting the acres of lawn. Jane explained that the 100 statues comprising his work called ‘Time Horizon’ had been installed so that they were all standing at the same height above sea level. Given the undulating land of the gardens, this concept meant that some statues barely were barely visible – with just their heads showing – while others were on tall plinths. We have seen the multiple statues (of himself) several times before in a variety of settings but this idea of consistent altitude was a new and amusing one for me.

^{Antony Gormley Statues – All At The Same Height Above Sea Level – At Houghton Hall Gardens}

In the South Wing there was a small, temporary exhibition of Magdalene Odundo’s work called ‘Metamorphosis and Transformation’, an installation of blown glass vessels apparently based on an ancient Egyptian ear stud found. That was impressive although I found some of her other work set out in the main house elegant but a little distracting in its contrast with the heavy furnishings and wall art there.

*^{Metamorphosis and Transformation (2011) By Magdalene Odundo}*

Elsewhere in the gardens, we saw sculpture by other artists we have encountered before such as Richard Long, Sean Scully and Rachel Whiteread, plus several others I wasn’t familiar with. I particularly enjoyed ‘Sybil Hedge’ by Anya Gallaccio. This was an unusual ‘sculpture’ made from a large, winding beech hedge that worked well in the large scale of the garden.

*^{A Section Of ‘Sybil Hedge’ By Anya Gallaccio At Houghton Hall Gardens}*

The Palladian style house was bathed in sun but, inside, the rooms were dark to preserve the furnishings, tapestries and artworks. As Jane remarked, despite the size of the rooms, they felt almost claustrophobic after the expanses of the grounds. The tapestries that adorned many of the walls contributed to that feeling but they were remarkably well preserved and had interesting content. The sumptuous rooms, with their blurry views out onto the lawns and deer park though original, handmade glass, were well worth the extra visit fee.

The highlight of the visit for me was the Walled Garden. This was beautiful at every turn and a riot of colour. An interesting twist was that vegetables were grown between the flowers and, here too, Gormley’s statues (on plinths here because of the lower altitude) were watching over us. It was clear that the volunteers and gardeners that manage the garden are not blighted by the multitude of slugs and snails as we are back at home; everything looked vibrant and healthy.

From Houghton Hall we drove south to Eye in Suffolk. By this time, we needed to charge up the car. We have noticed a huge improvement in the availability of electric vehicle charging points during our last few trips around the United Kingdom. Certainly, both our charge ups on this trip were very quick and easy.

*^{Another of Gormley’s Statues, This Time In Houghton Hall Looking Out At Others (Incredibly, Given The Amount Of Work Involved In Setting It Up, The Installation Is Only Until October 2024)}*

We arrived at our friend’s house in time for drinks in the sunshine. There was also time for an evening tour of their garden, the private allotments adjoining the garden which they own and manage, and the entrance to the woodland/wetlands beyond the allotments that are now owned by our friends and others in the community. The various types of land they look after are lovely slices of nature. They are also a labour of love although one task not needed is slug management – their chickens prodding around in the allotments seem to deal with that!

The excellent and copious hospitality we were given in terms of food and drink put my New Year resolution targets for weight and alcohol consumption under pressure but, as ever, it was great to catch up with old friends. Plus, our target to have more days away from home exploring the UK was helped along.

Birthday Rye

July 4, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

After a delightful visit to Sissinghurst Castle Gardens we travelled on to Rye for further celebration of Jane’s birthday. Like Sissinghurst, we had visited Rye before but not for many years and so it felt like a new discovery to me. Also, as at Sissinghurst, we were blessed with great weather throughout our stay.

We got ourselves unloaded into a room in the new, neat complex of rooms making up the bulk of accommodation in The George In Rye. This is an impressive-looking Georgian coaching inn cum hotel on the High Street. It was renovated and re-opened in 2006 after falling into disrepair but was badly damaged by fire a few years ago. It is now once again a very comfortable place to stay with some eclectic room decorations (including local pottery and wallpaper), a lovely bright courtyard for al fresco refreshments, and a timber framed bar area. It was a nice retreat after our wanders around the town.

*^{Rye Street Views (Including ‘Rye Water House’ – An Old Cistern, Top Right)}*

Jane had chosen a visit to Rye for her birthday treat mainly so she could visit her favourite textile and clothes pattern shop: Merchant & Mills. She duly paid a couple of visits to the shop and made a few purchases while I perused the local sights. Jane’s Christmas present from me this year is already organised and is a residential course at Merchant & Mills early next year – this present choosing and giving lark is getting easier and easier under Jane’s direction!

Rye is an interesting town with a long history. Perhaps the most notable thing about its history and geography is that it was once a thriving fishing village and then a Cinque Port – part of a confederation of ports on the south coast of England working together for defence and trade purposes. The sea has now retreated so now the harbour is a much-diminished facility on the River Rother that is a mile or two from the actual coast.

^{Rye Boatyards A Little Upstream From The Original Rye Harbour (Now Largely Silted Up)}

We fitted in a bit of fresh air walking along that coast and sauntered for a while along Camber Sands. We both always enjoy walking near the sea. The tide was out and, apart from a large group doing outdoor yoga, the beach was almost empty, and it was a very relaxing place to be.

Nearby was a farm shop with several electric vehicle chargers; being able to charge up while looking at a sound plant selection and then drinking a coffee added to our chilled out feeling.

Because of its importance as a key defensive hub in the Middle Ages, Rye has town walls and a castle set on top of the hill overlooking the surrounding flatlands and river valleys. There are many picturesque, cobbled streets of half-timbered houses surrounding the St Mary’s Church.

The church offered a trickily narrow, very steep and low-ceilinged stairway up past the church bells to a roof view of the town. I only bumped my head on the way up once and the end result views were worth it.

^{Views Of Rye From The Church Tower: Lichen-Coloured Tiles and The River Rother Making Its Way To The Coast}

In and around the High Street there are some interesting old buildings, shops and galleries. We again took advantage of our National Trust membership to explore Lamb House. This early Georgian house and garden has been home to a number of authors over the last century or so including Henry James. We spent a pleasant hour there – the sort of visit that we might not have bothered with had we not had National Trust Membership but which turned out to be a very peaceful interlude.

^{Lamb House and Garden}

Whilst in the sunshine there was plenty to enjoy and Jane had also done useful research on where to eat. We had very good dinners at The George and The Union but the standout meal was lunch at The Fig. I could have chosen anything on the menu – it all looked so inviting. The items we actually selected were really tasty. We found out afterwards that the chef was a finalist on ‘MasterChef’ and I wasn’t surprised given the high quality.

The weather was cloudier and cooler as we left Rye early next morning but Jane’s birthday treat wasn’t quite over since we decided to visit one of her favourite shops on the way back home: Freight in Lewes. We had made a trip to Lewes about 18 months ago, again primarily to visit Freight. As expected, Jane was able to find something she liked and, since it was only a day after her birthday, she came out with some new earrings. Even I can see it is a lovely shop.

While Jane did a circuit of some of the other shops, I wandered around the outer precincts of Lewes Castle.

^{Lewes Castle And The Quaint ‘Round House, Nearby}

Then we girded our loins for the lengthy drive home to complete a very fulfilling trip away from home. In weeks when the sun is shining, the temperature is pleasant and the countryside is lush following a wet Spring, the UK is an absolute treat.

And now I’m off to vote in the UK General Election…. 🙏

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

June 30, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Jane said she didn’t want a present for her birthday – I had one planned, honest! Instead, she wanted to go on a trip to Sussex and, specifically, to Rye. She booked a hotel there and sorted out an itinerary of things to do. Part of that itinerary was to visit Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent on the way.

*^{Approaching Sissinghurst Castle Gardens}*

We had visited the garden early in our relationship, a few decades ago. I barely remember that. Even when confronted with the garden this time, I could only recall the old brick buildings not the walled gardens. Jane thinks we went in a different season to this time; perhaps that’s why I don’t really remember the garden but my memory is like a sieve these days (as our local pub-quiz regularly demonstrates.) Anyway, the gardens looked beautifully cared for and uniformly splendid.

The garden has developed considerably over the last century. It was transformed from the 1930’s onwards by Vita Sackville-West and her husband, Harold Nicolson, until their deaths in the 1960s. In 1967 the garden, castle and associated farm were taken over by the National Trust. Since then, Harold Nicholson’s grandson and his wife, the famous gardener, Sarah Raven, developed the garden.

More recently, the original ideas to develop a Greek-style garden in one of its parts have been re-implemented under the guidance of yet another famous gardener, Dan Pearson, to create an area called the Delos Garden. We visited on a gorgeous sunny day with some real heat in the air and the Delos Garden was one of the great highlights of our visit. It really did have a Mediterranean feel.

^{The Delos Garden}

Elsewhere, in one of the several walled garden quadrants, was the White Garden. Here too, the timing of our visit was perfect. Not only was the sun shining but the old, huge, central climbing rose (rosa mulliganii) is apparently only in full bloom briefly and yet we saw its lovely blossom at its peak.

^{The White Garden}

We spent well over an hour meandering around the garden, investigating all its nooks and crannies. Then we retraced many of our steps to take another look. The variety and density of the planting is amazing. Every time I thought: ‘ooh I haven’t seen one of this or that species of shrub or flower’, one would turn up around the next corner. In all directions, the colours and sheer health of the plants was breathtaking.

To cap the visit, I ventured up to the top of the castle for an aerial view of the garden. In a way, I wished I had done this at the start. That way, the layout of the garden would have been clearer from the start. But perhaps that would have detracted in some way from the excitement I got in moving through an arch or turning a corner as I had moved through the sections of the garden. Either way, the views from the top of the castle were as spectacular as expected.

*^{Views From The Top Of Sissinghurst Castle}*

We were so fortunate to see the gardens on such a beautiful day. Surprisingly, there was not a huge number of visitors. The layout of the garden into walled sections also helped to give a feeling of seclusion and nowhere felt crowded.

The entrance cost may be a deterrent for many (£15/adult). Again, we are so lucky in that we were both given lifetime National Trust Membership by my parents when we were married. It was an extravagant gift but one of the best value and valued ones we have ever received – the cost of life membership now is eyewatering.

We had had another lovely day courtesy of that gift and the good work of the National Trust. It’s a really special garden and well worth a visit – especially in June. We drove on to Rye with a bounce in our hearts.

Slivers of Summer

June 17, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Overall, the weather during the last few weeks has been rather disappointing. The meadow grass in our field that usually waves gently in sunlight at this time of year has, instead, collapsed in the windy wet. The cool and damp spring and early summer has meant growth of vegetable seedlings has been slow. Many have been eradicated by slugs and snails who have revelled in the damp conditions. Fortunately, there have been several lovely days of sun and some of those have been when it has mattered most.

*^{Roses In Rain: Along The Permissive Footpath Through Ruskin Mill Into Town}*

For example, we had a lovely sunny afternoon during which we were able to visit Second Grandchild (SG) in Bristol and to help his parents with their garden. We got a lot done – though there is more potential to fill the vegetable and flower beds with a bit of home produce and colour and we look forward to helping again there. Having said that, the highlight of this trip was having the chance to give SG a bath. He has discovered the joy of moving his little limbs and they didn’t stop threshing throughout his little wash.

We also had a relatively warm and dry evening for a wedding party in Kew in west London with some past neighbours of ours. It was a lovely celebration of their wedding – some 14 years after first meeting – held in their garden with opportunities to meet a number of other old friends from our time in Kew. The drinking started early and finished very late and I can’t remember when I last had such a bad hangover as a souvenir of an entertaining evening.

I have had to pick and choose my moments for local walks in the sunshine. On one of those sunny days, Jane and I went to a couple of National Garden Scheme open gardens a couple of valleys away from our home. One of these was very good; the other, not so much. But regardless of the quality, it is always interesting to see a slightly different part of the Stroud Valleys and to have a nose about in someone else’s back yard.

^{National Gardens Scheme Gardens In France Lynch, Gloucestershire}

Most importantly, despite the gloomy BBC weather forecast for the weekend, we had good, chilly but bright weather for our latest trip to Edinburgh to see First Grandchild (FG) and his parents. As usual, we were treated to great hospitality, FG was on fine form and Edinburgh was full of interesting things to do.

*^{Little Boy, Big Gunnera In The Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh}*

In between our compliance with FG’s constant demands to ‘play a little bit’ we visited a few art exhibitions, took FG as usual to the outstanding Royal Botanic Gardens and National Museum of Scotland, walked the streets of Stockbridge and along the Water of Leith, popped into our favourite bar (Spry) and had a lively evening out with FG eating pizza at MILK.

Beyond the wonderful entrance hall of the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland was a recent rehanging of the main hall of portraits that focused on modern portrait creation. Many of the paintings and photographs were new to me and several were impressive. The gallery is quiet, compact and one of my favourites.

*^{Portrait Of John Burnside (Scottish Poet) By Alan J Lawson, National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh}*

We also visited the National Gallery of Scotland. Walking to it across Princes Street gave us a great view of the hordes of ‘’Swifties’ heading off by bus and tram to Murrayfield for one of three concerts Taylor Swift was holding over the weekend. The sun was shining but there was a cool wind. I felt sympathy for the majority of fans who had diligently dressed up in extravagant boots and light sparkly skirts and tops – as Swifties apparently do – given the expectation of a big drop in temperature while they queued to get back into town after the concert and night drew in.

*^{The Current Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition At The National Gallery Of Scotland}*

In the gallery was a showpiece ‘national treasure’: a painting by Vermeer that had been put on special show to commemorate the 200^th year of the National Gallery. It is lovely of course but we spent most of our time in the new gallery extension and among the pictures by The Glasgow Boys (and Girls). The new gallery is a wonderful, light space with great views (see below) and, on a Friday, not crowded despite the multitude outside waiting to get to see Taylor Swift.

To complete our cultural ride, we visited a lovely little exhibition in Leith. This was in an old, small but elegant building – an ex-pharmacy apparently – owned by Mote102 as a charming pop-up space for shops and artists. It had been partially restored so that some of its original (Georgian or Victorian) features were visible and it was a good fit for the work on show.

*^{Works By Gail Turpin At Mote102, Leith}*

The artist on show – and present for a short talk – is an old acquaintance of Jane’s called Gail Turpin. Jane had found out that she was now based in Edinburgh from the bride at the wedding celebration we had attended a couple of weeks previously. All three, and a few other friends, went on an eventful holiday in Greece a few decades ago.

After Jane had reminisced with Gail about that, I perused the textiles and drawing on show and then left Jane to the talk while I found a small present for FG and parked myself in Spry Wine Bar.

*^{Another Part of Gail Turpin’s Exhibition, Leith}*

We travelled to and from Edinburgh by train this time. That had its benefits; the journey was an hour shorter despite a train cancellation and we had booked seats so it was a relaxed journey. Train cancellations are not so frustrating when one is retired and there aren’t meetings to get to ad hard deadlines to meet. Also, while in Edinburgh, Jane didn’t have to keep thinking about moving the car to avoid parking restrictions (I rarely get involved in this aspect), we avoided car parking costs and didn’t have to worry about charging the car up.

*^{Waverley Railway Station, Edinburgh}*

However, despite the avoidance of car parking costs, the train is a more expensive option. Also, it seems that, on this occasion, there was a hidden downside in that the packed train was carrying the coronavirus. Jane caught it and has had a few rough days as a result. Fortunately, for the second time when Jane has had Covid, I seem to have dodged the bullet. Lucky me not (so far) to have never caught the dreaded Covid when so many others have!

Nadine Shah and Hamilton

May 19, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Perhaps the top birthday highlight amid a thoroughly pleasurable weekend of mild (no longer wild) celebration was a concert by Nadine Shah at the Cheltenham Festival. Because it was my birthday, Jane generously came along with me even though I had told her it wouldn’t be her choice of music. It was an opportunity to take in a bit of the atmosphere of the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, see an art exhibition featuring one of our village acquaintances, and have dinner out together for a change.

I have seen Nadine Shah nine times now and have loved every one of those performances. I still remember first seeing her in 2013 in The Lexington in London. Then, the hairs stood out on the back of my head as she sang ‘All I Want’ virtually unaccompanied and I became a big fan. I recall I chatting with her Dad afterwards and then meeting her. She’s a charming Geordie and a huge, interesting talent.

*^{Up Close With Nadine Shah Almost A Decade Ago In The Sebright Arms, London With Middle Son}*

Up to this month, the venues I have seen her perform in have been small and intimate. Cheltenham Town Hall wasn’t that. The sound was muggy, the distance to the stage – we were half way back – was huge in comparison to previous Nadine Shah concerts I’d been to, and we were sitting down so only foot-tapping was really allowed. For all that it was alien to previous experiences, I loved the music and her energy; Jane, not so much!

*^{Nadine Shah In Full Flow At Cheltenham Town Hall}*

Nadine Shah’s latest album (Filthy Underneath) traces her fall from grace as she left Ramsgate and London for her native South Tyneside to look after her terminally ill mother during the Covid pandemic. The pandemic prevented her from touring and performing her music, she separated from her husband and, in her relative isolation, became addicted to her Mum’s drugs. Several of the songs on the new album relate to this dark period of illness, suicidal thoughts, rehabilitation and recovery.

Despite their dark themes, I love their dramatic, relentless, pulsating beats and the compelling lyrics. They were in my head seemingly incessantly for well over a week after the concert.

Helping with that was a birthday present from Middle Son and his fiancée: Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones by Shokz. I hadn’t seen these until MS showed me his a few weeks ago. He had bought some because he doesn’t like wearing in-ear headphones and knows that I have a problem with them too. These new ones sit outside the ear and use vibration to exercise the cheek and ear bone structure to reproduce perfect headphone sound without blocking out birdsong or traffic noise for example. The technology verges on the unbelievable to me. The headphones are perfect for my two-hour walks into Stroud on Food Bank days and, on the first of those after I saw Nadine Shah, I naturally gravitated to playing her music.

*^{Shokz Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones}*

Since my birthday, and a flurry of family related activity, life has returned to normality; lots of walking in spring sunshine, local volunteering, visits to our local pub and, now the weather has finally improved, gardening. Gradually, one patch and raised bed at a time, I am getting the vegetable garden under control. I also need to invest time in the garden at our rental property and the small allotment I tend very fitfully; next week, maybe….

*^{Wild Garlic Gone Wild Along The Path To The Food Bank In Stroud}*

Jane and I did manage to spend an afternoon helping in MS and his fiancée’s garden. Their own gardening desires are frustrated currently by a necessary focus on their new baby and work. It was nice to be able to step in to tidy and plant a few things in their garden and, of course, to see Second Grandchild.

Plus, they gave us a couple of tickets for Hamilton on its UK and Ireland Tour which they had bought before the timing of a new baby was fully realised. It was my first visit to the Bristol Hippodrome and, as far as I can remember, my first live musical (rather than opera). I was enormously impressed with both. Management of the audience in and out of the Hippodrome was extremely efficient, the stage sets were impressive and our view was elevated, central and splendid.

*^{The Hamilton Cast (Photography Was Banned – Good! – So I Pinched This Off The Bristol Hippodrome Website)}*

Hamilton itself started with a bang and the energy didn’t let up throughout. The hip-hop and r&b songs were catchy. They were sung beautifully but in a way that enunciated every lyric so that the story, for those with only a passing familiarity with it, could understand the multiple layers of the storyline.

A huge amount was packed in and I was left a little overwhelmed by the end of the performance. I really enjoyed the variety of the music and the way elements of it cropped up repeatedly throughout to remind us of the key themes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, brilliant, invigorating introduction to modern musical theatre.

May has been a full and very enjoyable month and we still are barely more than halfway through!

Family Stuff

May 10, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

The month leading up to my birthday last weekend was dominated by family events. We visited Eldest Son (ES) and his family in Edinburgh, we have had several visits to, and by, Middle Son (MS) with his fiancée and new baby, and we have had a visit from Youngest Son (YS) and his fiancée. Also, my Dad and my sister were able to visit us and to meet up with the new (great) grandchild; it was amazing to have four generations together.

Our trip to Edinburgh was focused on our most extended period of baby-sitting yet. While ES and his wife spent a few days in Spain attending a wedding in a hotel overlooking incredible coastal cliffs in Ibiza, we did our best to entertain First Grandchild (FG).

The first two days of that were delightful. FG had been fully prepared by his parents for their absence. There was only one time in those first two days when we got a sense that, under his effervescent demeanor, he was having to be brave in doing without them. That was when Jane showed FG a picture on her phone of his Mum enjoying the Spanish sun. I saw his lower lip quiver briefly with regret before he recovered his equilibrium with the familiar request to “lets play”.

As usual, FG loved visiting the Royal Botanic Garden (above), the National Museum of Scotland, the private garden that local residents share access to, cafes selling juice and cake, and pizza at Franca Manca. He slept like a log in between.

Another highlight was taking FG to a birthday party for a little boy of one of his Mum’s friends. This was a pirate themed party and FG had been kitted out with what turned out to be the best costume at the party (courtesy of a £5 purchase on Ebay I believe). FG was easily the youngest at the party and he found it a little overwhelming after a while, but we all had a good time on a lovely sunny day.

*^{First Grandchild As A Jolly Pirate (Without His Splendid Pirate Hat!)}*

Unfortunately, the last day of our baby minding was dominated by FG falling ill. In between his physical sickness he was subdued but seemed to recover. But poor Jane was holding him each of the four times he was sick. She quickly became very acquainted with the washing machine and tumble dryer and we had some extended viewings of the film ‘Madagascar’ while having quiet time with FG on the sofa.

*^{Circus Lane, Edinburgh. It’s A Lovely City We Can Still Envisage Us Living In At Some Point}*

It was only after we had returned home, and heard that his now returned Mum had caught the same bug and was quite ill, that we realised how lucky we had been fortunate enough to ‘dodge that bullet’. Having done so, we look back on the Edinburgh visit with a lot of pleasure and also pride in FG’s resilience in the face of his parents’ absence and then his sickness. Of course, we are his grandparents so we are bound to say it: he is wonderful!

Also wonderful is Second Grandchild (SG). It’s a treat to have the opportunity to have him relatively close by and so see him relatively frequently. Its great too to see how his parents are doting on him despite the challenges of new parenthood (primarily sleep deprivation!) They are coping with those well. Certainly, SG’s smiles suggest he is very happy and we love seeing and holding him.

*^{Son And Dad, Eye Contact and Smiles}*

Youngest Son (YS) popped over to England for a photo shoot and his fiancée joined us for a lovely, long weekend during which they were able to meet SG for the first time. One of YS’s Australian friends, now based in London, was able to join us. He, YS and I spent several hours watching football on the Saturday – first in the pub, then live at Forest Green Rovers (their last game in another miserable season which has seen us relegated for the second time in succession), and then on the telly back at home. Meanwhile, Jane and YS’s fiancée cooked and baked to replenish MS and his partners’ freezer with ready meals and cakes to enable their focus on their new baby. Everyone happy!

*^{Looking Across Buttercups Towards Forest Green Rovers’ The New Lawn Stadium (On The Horizon, On The Right)}*

YS and partner are very busy with work in Belfast but they are also finding time to visit Edinburgh in a month or so. It is so heart-warming to see the brothers together, with their partners, and, now, with nephews to hold and play with. We are lucky that they all get on with each other despite, or perhaps because of, their different characteristics.

We are lucky too that so much of our time can be taken up with looking at videos on WhatsApp that the different branches of the family send us showing their young lives, and with planning of more visits to Bristol, Belfast and Edinburgh to experience all this family stuff first hand. Edinburgh is already planned in for June and we haven’t given up on getting to Belfast again before YS’s September wedding there…….

Expanding Family

April 3, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Easter is a time when we tend to think of the emergence of the new. For the religious Christians, there is Jesus’s resurrection, for me there is the coming of Spring blossom and warmer weather, and for children there are Easter eggs.

This year, for Jane and I, there was the magic of a new life: a Second Grandchild (SG). What a marvellous thing!

SG’s mother and father (Middle Son) are absolutely besotted with the new arrival and seem to be coping very well. SG himself has seemed very chilled during the two visits that we have made so far to his Bristol home. He seems so much smaller and longer legged in comparison to First Grandchild (FG) at the same age. But maybe that is my faulty memory; all babies seem impossibly vulnerable, tiny and yet so full of potential.

*^{Second Grandchild In His Easter Chick Suit}*

SG’s arrival has been a great excuse to drag out old photo albums to look for similarities and differences between him and his father as a baby. Certainly, like his Dad, he has a fine head of hair!

Our Easter weekend was also blessed with a visit from Eldest Son (ES), his wife and First Grandchild (FG). It had been almost three months since we had last seen FG and I had been suffering something like withdrawal symptoms from not having seen him for such a relatively long time. It was great to see his development since the New Year and now we have a whole new set of videos and pictures of him to look at on repeat.

During a spectacular sort out and tidy up of our top floor storage (following on from a huge effort to sort out her late Mum’s heirlooms and other stuff), Jane had dug out some of my, and our kids’, old and very battered Matchbox and Corgi model cars and a whole bag of old plastic animals.

*^{Thunderbird 2 And Lady Penelope’s Car: Battered But They Have Been Through A Lot!}*

FG loved these old toys and it was great to see him using his imagination (and his new regard for Batman) as he played with them. He was also demanding in his requests that we also participated in his play. The refrain: “Grandad (or Granny), come and play” was frequent. When I did get down and play, but also tried to have a conversation with someone else or do anything else at the same time, I heard him plead “Grandad, come and play, you keep stopping!” Irresistible!

A highlight was an Easter Egg hunt around the garden following chalked arrows pointing to the route and egg hiding places. FG struggled at first with the concept of arrows pointing to things but he loved finding the eggs with a bit of help and then collecting them in a little bag. His parents were left with the awkward problem of how to manage the unprecedented volume of chocolate in his possession.

The anticlimax that always follows a visit from the Edinburgh branch of the family is offset this time. First, it is only three weeks before we travel to Edinburgh to babysit for a few days while FG’s parents go to Spain for a wedding. Second, we now have a Bristol baby just 45 minutes away to fawn over. We are loving the prospect of seeing SG’s development, and the developing parenthood of MS and his fiancé, in a more ‘little and often’ way than is possible with FG.

It’s all so exciting and it’s enhancing the bounce I always get as Spring arrives.

Various (so far) minor but irritating health issues have reminded me of my mortality in the last year or so. This was underlined by the death of one of my friends from university just before Easter. I once thought that as long as I lived to see my sons settled and had a grandchild, I would be happy to ‘pop my clogs’. Now, of course, I want more. I want to see more of my expanding family and see the grandchildren grow up. We can’t have it all but, so far, so good.

Horsley Unwrapped

March 9, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

The Horsley Festival – subtitled ‘Horsley Community and Culture Unwrapped’ – was substantial triumph. The events that comprised the festival included concerts, art exhibitions, craft workshops, poetry recitals, storytelling, wildlife walks and dance workshops. These events were presented very professionally in a brochure and on a dedicated Horsley Unwrapped website. All of the events were very well attended – indeed, most were fully booked up – and all the events I went to were even better than I expected. It was an incredible achievement for a village of about 300 households.

*_{Ruskin Mill Valley Near Horsley, Gloucestershire}*

My wife, Jane, was on the steering committee. This was chaired by the brainchild and prime organizer of the event – a friend of ours and a real hero who must have worked almost full time on the festival for weeks and who was incredibly busy during and, especially, between the events!

^{The ‘Inspire’ Art Exhibition Organised By Jane Including Works By Children At The Local School (bottom right) and Works By International Artists (bottom left) – A Diverse Mix!}

Jane was responsible for the central art exhibition which kicked off the festival. It was a significant effort to organize about 25 local artists so that information about their work, and the works themselves, were available on time, and that those works taken away promptly at the end. There were also trials and tribulations associated with ensuring that large display boards and plinths were procured, restored and erected safely and in time. The result, though, was much-praised and Jane was very happy with its success.

*_{Some Of The Art Works – By Local Artists Maisie Meredith, Jo Hofman And Kim Roberts}*

As well as the art exhibition and the associated opening ceremony, I attended a variety of other events. There were three music concerts during the nine days of the festival which framed the talents of three solo musicians and eight bands from the local area. Horsley has attracted a large number of artists and musicians over the years and the quality on show was terrific.

*_{Closing The Festival: The Village Concert Starring The Elastic Band, Diana Yukawa, Bill Roberts, Solskin And Hawkmoth}*

There was a lot of dancing – including some rather chaotic but very amusing line dancing which Jane enjoyed. However, the music I liked best was a set of haunting violin-based music by Diana Yukawa. We have listened to and enjoyed music by this international performer at home before. Even in a rather ordinary village hall, and in front of her very proud looking daughters, her performance was very moving and memorable.

Listening And Dancing To The Bagelites, Kinvara And Spiracy

The three wildlife walks with the Chair of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, who lives just down the road from us, were booked up very quickly; too quickly for me to get a place. However, I did manage to get on a tour of the main Ruskin Mill College buildings and workshops in the valley I walk through frequently on my way into town.

The valley itself is very familiar to me but an introductory presentation on the way the restoration of the old mill and fisheries has taken place over the last 30 years provided fascinating, new information. We were given a little book describing the history and values of the Ruskin Mill Trust and the way it provides specialist education for teenagers and adults with complex needs.

The college values are inspired by those of Victorian architect and artist, John Ruskin. I have been interested in him, and William Blake who lived a little earlier but shared similar views, for quite a long time. Both of them were keen to revive traditional craftwork amid the mass production of the Industrial Revolution. Ruskin’s interest in that is reflected in some of the workshops that now enable students at Ruskin Mill College to learn rural crafts such as pottery, ironworking, trout farming and woodworking.

Our visits to the fish hatchery, woodworking centre and the forge (with its three forges showing Iron Age, Medieval an Edwardian methods) were enlightening. The demonstrations of blacksmithery and wood turning were eye-opening.

*_{Tour Of Ruskin Mill, The College Forge And Greenwood Workshop}*

The tour was crowned with a visit to the college staff art exhibition and delicious, homemade pizzas made in the college pizza oven; very nice!

*_{Ruskin Mill Staff Exhibition: Some Gorgeous Wooden Spoons By Richard Turley}*

Another highlight for me during the festival was an ‘in conversation’ session with four local, young artists that was facilitated by a good friend of ours. The artists were a commercial film maker working in the advertising world (in a similar but bigger way to that of our Youngest Son), a photographer, a storyteller and a maker of naturally dyed textiles. The latter, Maisie Meredith, is someone I know a little and her work, including a beautiful booklet, is a brave, direct response to her personal issues with endometriosis.

The artists described their work, approach and way of working. That was very interesting and the dynamic as they asked each other questions and reinforced or developed each other’s points was refreshing.

*_{Local Young Creatives ‘In Conversation’}*

The point when the storyteller, Hannah Moore, told a brief story to illustrate the way she used stories to facilitate restorative justice – the process of getting criminals to talk with their victims to reach some point of closure following a crime – was my best moment of the festival. It was matched a few minutes later when she told another story, impromptu but masterfully, in response to a question from the audience about the possibilities of using storytelling to resolve wider conflicts such as wars.

I should mention too that the All-Comers Darts event I organised in a small corner of the less serious end of the festival, went very well. We had he right number of participants for an event where no-one had much darts skill but where all improved over the course of 90 minutes. We all had a lot of laughs and fun. I almost won! That was a reflection of the low quality of dart throwing on display (the pub darts team was playing away from home that night) but encouragement enough to get me thinking of organising a village darts ladder.

We will see….. but whether I do or not, the Horsley Festival has left a legacy of fond memories, reminders of past cultural events – some of which were well before our time in the village – and a momentum that may result in future, similar events. It has also enabled new personal connections between the residents and I, for one, have strengthened or initiated new relationships. I know Jane has strengthened and made many more.

*_{Jane Walking Through Mist And Sun In Horsley}*

Since retirement I have embedded myself into this little Gloucestershire village and, over the last couple of years, for the first time, have felt as though I am a proper, full part of a local community. When we ‘downsize’ again and move out (timescales yet to be agreed), we will miss Horsley hugely.

A Bath Trip and Interesting Fungi

February 16, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

As part of our joint New Year Resolution to get out and about more when the sun is shining, Jane and I went to Bath earlier this month. We always enjoy visiting Bath, in part because the architecture reminds us of Edinburgh which we have also come to love, but also in its own right.

*^{One Of The Georgian Crescents Below Sion Hill, Bath}*

Jane always seems to find a treasured, discreet parking spot on Sion Hill. The walk from there to the centre of town takes us past takes us past Georgian terraces and crescents and through big open grassy slopes with broad vistas. It is an early treat on our visits, especially on a sunny day. Then in the city centre, there are the impressive squares and circuses of intact Georgian houses, the river and its bridges, and the Roman Baths and Cathedral, all clad in wonderful local stone.

A highlight of most of our Bath visits is the opportunity to pick up sourdough bread from Landrace bakery in Walcot Street. It is simply our favourite bread. This time we also visited The Fine Cheese Company a few doors along. The service from the French chap behind the counter was a little snooty (perhaps because we enquired about English cheese) but he was very efficient in giving us a taster of the smooth and luscious Old Winchester cheese which we went away with.

Jane had spotted that there was an exhibition of Gwen John’s work on at the The Holburne Museum and, for all the attractions of picking up top quality bread and cheese, seeing that was the prime purpose of our Bath trip. I was only vaguely familiar with Gwen John following a recent conversation with friends in our village who had seen an exhibition of her work in Chichester. They had recommended it and, anyway, I trust Jane on choosing worthwhile exhibitions like this one.

The exhibition proved to be small but interesting. Gwen John was clearly a formidable and influential woman. It seems that her popularity has grown since her death but in life she mixed with, modelled for and inspired a wide range of other artists and produced attractive and innovative paintings. I particularly liked the set of paintings on show called the ‘Convalescent Series’. These are portraits with muted colours with an unusual surface texture apparently produced by the oil paint soaking into a chalky glue mix which caused bubbles and then small perforations in the finish.

*^{‘Woman Seated’; Part Of ‘The Convalescent Series’ by Gwen John}*

When Jane and I met up outside the exhibition room afterwards we both said how much we had enjoyed John’s paintings but, amusingly, we both through that the best painting on show was one that was hung to illustrate her influence on other artists. This was an interior with a single female figure by a Dane, Vilhelm Hammershøi. We both thought it lovely.

^{‘Interior With Writing Table And A Young Woman’ by Vilhelm Hammershøi}

I recall seeing a Hammershøi painting in the Musee D’Orsay in Paris last year when I began to appreciate his work for the first time. I love his understated views of rooms, his grey palette and the ambiguity that stems from not being able to see the faces of the figures in his pictures – or the lack of a figure at all in the case of the painting I saw in Paris.

Alongside the Gwen John exhibition was a small exhibition of rather strange works by Gillian Lowndes. The point of these seemed to be to mix as many different materials as possible so they looked like weird debris dug up from a brownfield industrial site somewhere. The results weren’t uninteresting but I wasn’t moved by them.

*^{Two Of The Works By Gillian Lowndes On Show At The Holburne Museum}*

The Holburne Museum also had a display by Lubaina Himid called Lost Threads. This involved piles and streams of beautiful, brightly coloured Dutch textiles strewn across the floors of the museum rooms and woven between the pillars at the front of the building. Jane and I had been to see a substantial exhibition of her work at Tate Modern a couple of years ago. Like then, while we enjoyed the vibrant colours, we weren’t bowled over by works.

*^{The Holburne Museum Clad With Textiles By Lubiana Himid}*

Having got a dose of culture, we went for lunch at Oak. We had a very tasty lunch of vegetarian small plates. These arrived at a relaxed and, for us, ideal pace – always a pleasant surprise in small plates-oriented restaurants where, too often, things seem to arrive with a timing to suit the chef not the customers.

My life back at home has been largely routine. The weather hasn’t been very conducive to gardening and, while I have recommenced work in the field, there is still a lot to do to ready the vegetable patches for the new season and to plant some pot-bound trees I acquired a couple of years ago.

The weather hasn’t stopped some good local walks. Indeed, between the bouts of rain, we have had some lovely sunny days.

I’ve enjoyed the displays of snowdrops and the growing enthusiasm for the coming Spring being demonstrated by small birds singing their hearts out.

I have also spotted some interesting fungi which seem to be thriving in the mild damp. Just yesterday I saw a great pile of some sort of puff ball mushroom.

*^{Crazy Mound Of Puff Balls Looking Like A Pile of Discarded New Potatoes}*

A little earlier this week I saw, for my first time, a myriad of small bright red fungi growing on felled tree trunks and branches and dotted through a few square yards of undergrowth. These are Scarlet Elf Cap fungi. A friend tells me that it is from these little red cups that the wood elves drink the dew to refresh themselves each morning; nice story and a lovely sight.

While I have taken myself off for leisurely walks or lounged around rather too much, Jane has been very busy organising an exhibition of local artists work as part of the village’s cultural festival (called Horsley Unwrapped). Trying to tie down artists to various deadlines for facts about the work they want to display and any sale prices has been like ‘herding sheep’ at times, but the display boards have arrived and hanging of the work has started. After the exhibition this coming weekend, Jane is suddenly going to have a lot of discretionary time available!

*^{On My Way To Get The Newspaper: Winter Sunrise}*

My only contribution to the festival so far has been supporting Jane with some of the collateral materials for her exhibition. However, next week I am organising a Fun All-Comers Darts evening as part of the Festival. Goodness knows how that will go – I haven’t played darts for a few decades! I’ve bought some darts and am ready to go. More on this next time perhaps….

Football Footnote: Forest Green Rovers, who I support through thick and thin, have just had their first league win since October 2023 following a run of 15 winless league games. Incredibly there is a team worse than us in our Division (English Football League 2) and the win took us off the bottom. This one win has turned hopelessness into absurd levels of hope that we can avoid a consecutive relegation this season. But as someone on the FGR Fans Forum often says, ‘it’s the hope that kills you’. Hope will either burgeon or turn to dust again this coming weekend as we play again the team we beat last October. My fingers are crossed….

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Author: fgrtommo