A Glasgow Virgin

July 14, 2023 / fgrtommo / 4 Comments

While we were based in Edinburgh for a week, Jane and I visited Glasgow. It was my first encounter with Scotland’s largest city. I think the only UK city in the top 10 by size I now have yet to visit is Liverpool and I need to plan for that. Thanks to holidays with my parents in my youth and my trips to football grounds with Forest Green Rovers, there are only a handful of northern industrial cities in the top 100 UK cities by population that I have yet to go to. I suspect that Glasgow is a lot more interesting than most of those 😊

We travelled from Edinburgh to Glasgow by train. It was a very easy journey through the Scottish Lowlands past green fields, spoil heaps (large orange-brown hills, locally called ‘bings’ that are apparently a legacy of the 19th century oil-shale industry) and a brief sighting of the attractive Linlithgow Palace. The stop at Falkirk High railway station was personally significant since it made sense of a lyric in one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite singer-songwriters who was brought up in Falkirk: Loneliness Shines by Malcolm Middleton.

“My favourite place is Falkirk High Station

Metal rails stretch off towards life

And I’m just waiting”

I always assumed Falkirk had a railway station but wondered why the word ‘High’ was included without understanding that it was just a part of the station’s name. It’s a great song from a master of miserabilism.

Anyway, we arrived mid-morning in Glasgow and, since it was raining, took immediate shelter in the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). We quickly perused the permanent collection which included a number of works by Eduardo Paolozzi who is also prominent in Edinburgh where he was born (well, just up the road in Leith actually).

*^{GOMA: Eduardo Paolozzi’s ‘Hamlet In A Japanese Manner’, 1966}*

We eschewed the queues to see the Banksy exhibition at GOMA which, in retrospect, was an omission due to limited planning of our Glasgow trip. Instead, we took a bus tour around the city – something that Jane always loves to do upon arrival in a new city so as to get a feel for it. It was a good idea even though rain prevented us using the open top part of the bus. The recorded guide through the headphones provided by the tour operator was very informative and once we had secured a seat on the upper deck and the sun started shining, the tour showed Glasgow off at its best.

We headed to the West End of the city to visit the Botanic Gardens there. On the way we saw a lot of the River Clyde and the redevelopment of the old port and shipyards. Indeed, we saw a lot of areas that I’d like to come back to on foot, both in the oldest parts of the city and along the river. I’m especially keen to spend some time in the Riverside Museum which looked as though it would have some lively exhibits – perhaps we’ll go on tour with First Grandchild when he is a little older.

Unsurprisingly, parts of the West End of Glasgow are reminiscent of the lovely Georgian streets and squares of Edinburgh that were built at the same time. However, prices of the flats within the three and four storey terraces are significantly lower than in Edinburgh. That reflects, perhaps, the more fragmented nature of the architecture in Glasgow and the status and cachet of Edinburgh as Scotland’s capital. I sensed though, that Glasgow is up and coming with a vibrant cultural energy that presumably has increased dramatically since Glasgow became European Capital of Culture in 1990.

*^{Glasgow’s Kibble Palace In The Botanic Gardens}*

After a quick lunch stop, we thoroughly enjoyed the glasshouses in the Botanic Gardens. These are called the Kibble Palace. This is because they were designed and built for John Kibble’s own garden but then transported to Glasgow’s botanical gardens in 1873, initially as a concert and exhibition venue and then the temperate glasshouse which it remains today.

*^{Inside Kibble Palace, Glasgow Botanic Gardens}*

We strolled south from the gardens past Glasgow University and the Hunterian Museum (saving it for another day), into some small independent shops on Great Western Road, through Kelvingrove Park and on to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

This is an impressive late Victorian building overlooking the park which, like all public Scottish museums and galleries, is free to enter. That is great because it encourages short as well as longer visits. Because we wanted to finish our open top bus tour, we restricted ourselves to a short dash around the ground floor and lack of pre-planning on our part meant that a look at the current Mary Quant exhibition will have to wait for another time.

*^{Entrance Hall Of Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum}*

The Kelvingrove contains an eclectic mix of art and history. There is a room on the Glasgow Boys that Jane was keen to see since she had seen a play recently about them and their rebelliousness against Victorian traditions in painting. I spent most of my time in a couple of rooms celebrating Charles Rennie Mackintosh, one of Glasgow’s most famous sons.

*^{Reconstruction Of Part Of Miss Cranston’s Tea Room Designed By Charles Rennie Mackintosh}*

Frankly, neither of us invested enough time to do the collections in the Kelvingrove justice but we will visit Glasgow again soon, I’m sure. This trip was an excellent diversion from our usual walks around the sights of Edinburgh. Next time, armed with what we now know, we will fill in some of the gaps that deserved more time or that we missed out on last week.

Edinburgh: Same Trip, Different Model

July 11, 2023 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

For our latest visit to Edinburgh, we changed the accommodation model from what we have done in the past. This time we stayed in an Airbnb, converted mews building rather than stay in Eldest Son (ES) and his wife’s flat. That meant we felt we could stay in Edinburgh for longer – a full week this time – and not be a burden on them as they worked and went about their daily lives.

*^{Edinburgh New Town (From Calton Hill) – Where First Grandchild Lives!}*

Because our accommodation was so close to them, we were able to pop over for, or just after, breakfast to see First Grandchild (FG) and, on his nursery days, enjoy the novelty of taking him to his nursery. Overall, we saw ES, his wife and FG as much as ever, but they and we could also enjoy a bit more independence. It worked for us anyway!

Our first few days were those when FG doesn’t go to nursery and so we had fun with him in Inverleith Park, the Royal Botanic Garden and the National Portrait Gallery (where FG ignored the art but loved going up and down the flights of steps). We also loved playing with him at home playing with his toys. It had been almost two months since we had last seen FG and, at his age (just over 18 months), that is a long time and a lot of growing up. The way he now plays with his toys using his imagination in conversation with them is the main development I noticed.

*^{Edinburgh Skyline From Inverleith Park}*

The highlight of these early days of our stay was a car trip to Jupiter Artland to the south west of Edinburgh. This is an outdoor sculpture park exhibiting a wide variety of works of contemporary artists set in over 100 acres of woodland and open grassland. It is a very impressive venture founded in 2009 by philanthropist art collectors Robert and Nicky Wilson.

*^{Jupiter Artland: Works By Shane Waltner, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Anish Kapoor And Cornelia Parker}*

FG walked with us but was a little bemused by our occasional sheltering under trees to avoid the showers. He seemed to particularly enjoy the ‘Weeping Girls’ (rather macabre bronze figures looking very sad) by Laura Ford and the ‘Temple of Apollo’ by Ian Hamilton Finlay which had the sort of steps that he loves.

*^{Jupiter Artland: One Of The ‘Weeping Girls’ By Laura Ford}*

I believe that he also enjoyed the snacks at the café. While he tried those out, I popped off to get a closer look at the earthworks by Charles Jencks that we had driven past on the way in to Jupiter Artland. They are larger versions of those outside the Scottish Museum of Modern Art and are quite dramatic, especially as the heavens opened for another shower.

*^{Jupiter Artland: Charles Jencks’ ‘Cells Of Life’}*

On the Sunday we had a lovely lunch with ES’s wife’s parents. ES has certainly married into a family that knows hospitality and how to cook. We had great breakfasts fueled by bread from excellent Archipelago Bakery and delightful gooseberry jam home made by ES’s mother-in-law. On our Edinburgh visits ES’s wife has repeatedly demonstrated calm and efficient cooking of lovely meals and she did so again. ES wasn’t to be outshone and he treated us to a very tasty vegetable curry too. Overall, and as usual, we ate very well.

We also drank well including at our favourite Edinburgh bar, Spry and at Kay’s Bar which is a tiny, intimate pub tucked away in a side street right next to our Airbnb accommodation.

Once we had dropped FG off at nursery – he seemed entirely unfazed by the change in those accompanying him – Jane and I had several hours in which to relax and see the sights of Edinburgh. Our main excursion within Edinburgh was past the noisy royalists and noisier anti-royalists lining the Royal Mile to watch King Charles receive the Scottish crown jewels, and on to the National Museum of Scotland.

*^{‘Not My King’ Protesters On The Royal Mile, Edinburgh}*

There we saw an exhibition called Beyond the Little Black Dress. This traced the history of the little black dress as a fashion item since the 1920’s to the present (and, with a bit of foresight, into the future). Even I could see that the dresses were spectacularly good and almost all the famous designers I know were represented.

*_{The Little Black Dress Exhibition At The Scottish National Museum}*

Rather than follow a purely chronological route, the exhibition was mainly structured around themes that have underpinned the use of the little black dress by designers and those who wear it. There were sections on ‘Well Mannered Black’ (emphasising elegance during cocktail hour), ‘Spiritual Black’ (reflecting religious undertones), ‘Subcultural Black’ (such as the Goth look), and ‘Subversive Black’ (including the erotic and nuances of bondage). Others showed, for instance, how Japanese designers used different ‘Shades of Black’ and how sustainable fashion is emerging.

*^{Little Black Dresses At The Exhibition At The Scottish National Museum (With A 3-D Printed Dress Bottom Right)}*

I liked the displays very much and I felt I learnt something in an area I know little about. I was particularly struck by the last exhibit which was a short video called ‘Her Dreams Are Bigger’ by Osman Yousefzada. This showed poor textile workers in Bangladesh – the sort that make mass-produced little black dresses – and related what they imagined the wearers of the clothes they make do and think. The punchline is in the title of the video. It was quite unexpectedly moving.

While Jane went off to peruse shops, I walked over to Old Calton Burial Ground and Calton Hill. Both offered great views of Edinburgh in wonderfully sunny weather and clear air.

^{Old Calton Burial Ground}

I hadn’t seen the burial ground before and it is a secluded, private space easily overlooked by tourists. It is dominated by a tall obelisk erected in memory of members of the Friends of the People who campaigned for universal suffrage in the late 18th century but who were deported to Australia for their efforts. It got me researching ‘one man one vote’ campaigns and I was amazed to find out how long it took for rich property owners to lose their monopoly of electoral privilege. It was only in the early 20th century that the UK passed legislation to enable all men to vote; womens’ suffrage followed shortly after.

*^{View Across Edinburgh Old Town From Calton Hill}*

On another day, Jane and I popped into The Scottish Gallery, a private gallery which had completely changed its exhibitions since the last time we visited and now included some lovely porcelain pottery by Jack Doherty (not someone I knew but who Jane follows and likes).

Jane and I also visited both buildings comprising the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art where I briefly revisited the retrospective of Alberta Whittle’s work (and, as during our last visit, enjoyed the abstract watercolours more than the more prominent fabric and photo-collage works). We wandered through the galleries and again I was struck by the number of famous artists (that is, the ones I know!) represented on the walls. It was nice to be able to spend the time rather aimlessly taking in such a wide range of art.

^{Modern Art Galleries of Scotland 1 and 2}

The relative flexibility of our longer stay in Edinburgh than usual (without impinging overmuch on ES and his wife) and the fact that we drove up (with no recharging delays or issues at all) and so had a car with us, afforded the opportunity to travel further afield. I’ll cover our day trip to Glasgow separately……

Breaking the Routine – To Visit and Be Visited

June 11, 2023October 7, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

After Jane’s Mother’s funeral early last month, we had visits from my Dad and my sister and then my Best Man (BM). A quiet week followed before we headed off to Belfast to see Youngest Son (YS) and his partner. I’ve written a lot about my retirement settling me into a new structure of daily routine but these visits were a nice break from that and forced changes to our settled pattern of everyday life – a beneficial shake up.

It had been quite a while since my Dad and sister had visited us. Whilst there have been no structural changes to the house or garden since their last visit, the garden has matured. The weather was largely fine and the garden was approaching its best in terms of colour and variety. This, despite the loss of several small shrubs and many of the ornamental grasses during the cold and wet of late Winter and early Spring.

We ventured out on a few short local walks together while my Dad and sister were with us. Unfortunately, the bluebells in the woods on the way into town were well past their best but there was enough to see and the strolls were pleasant and largely sunlit.

We also had an excellent dinner at The Woolpack Inn in Slad near Stroud (thanks Dad!). This pub was made famous by the poet, Laurie Lee and it’s a great venue to go to with visitors to Gloucestershire. On one hand it looks like what people typically envisage an old rural pub to be (the toilets are still outside!) and the atmosphere is intimate and cosy. On the other hand, it offers modern, excellent food, and smiling but unoppressive service. In addition, I had a really well-kept pint of India Pale Ale.

*^{Double Rainbow From Our Dinner Table Window At The Woolpack}*

Later in the week, the arrival of my BM, an old friend from university, was dominated by his exciting news that he is getting married. We met his fiancé, a lovely Chinese woman, in 2020 just before the Covid lockdown. After a lockdown apart, they are now together in Kenya and planning their wedding. It’s a lovely story of late life (for him, anyway) romance and we enjoyed catching up with that and the other developments in BM’s life during good food and long walks.

Our trip to Belfast was long awaited. YS and his partner bought a house there at the end of last year and we have been keen to visit it and them since then. YS wanted to settle into the house – and get the spare bedroom renovated – before inviting us. Then that invitation was postponed by YS and his partner taking on the responsibility for a large and lively puppy. We finally arrived to meet ‘Reggie’! He is a disruptive handful but they love him despite his chewing of the furniture and the digging up of the lawn.

The house is already great and has a lot of potential. I liked the local area, Ormeau, very much; it is a much larger residential area than I remembered with several roads with pretty Victorian terraces and later rows of larger, well-built houses. There are a smattering of attractive independent businesses on the main road and river walks and the Belfast Botanic Gardens and Ulster Museum are nearby.

*^{Inside The Belfast Botanic Gardens Palm House}*

We visited the Botanical Garden Palm House briefly but spent far longer in the Ulster Museum. This has a very diverse set of exhibits and attractions set in an airy combination of old and new buildings. Since YS moved to Belfast, I have focused more than before on articles and television programmes about Ireland but my understanding of its history remains thin; the museum provided a lot of reminders and filled in a lot of gaps.

*^{Inside The Ulster Museum With Porcelain Works By Frances Lambe And Nuala O’Donovan}*

As well as displays about Ulster and Northern Ireland history there was some beautiful craftmanship on show. Overall, it is well worth a (free!) visit and I’m sure we will go again.

The weather in Belfast was noticeably cooler than back in England but it was mainly sunny and clear; perfect for walks along the coast to the east of Belfast and around the green enclaves of Belfast along the Lagan River – both with and without Reggie.

*^{Walking With Reggie in Belvoir Park Forest, Belfast}*

*^{The Path On The South Side Of The Lagan Estuary}*

We were also able to leave Reggie so we could visit YS’s place of work in a renovated set of warehouses and factories in East Belfast. His offices weren’t open but we were able to sample a beer (and a few games of Bananagrams – YS loves games!) in the Boundary Brewing Taproom next door.

YS’s partner’s business (Restore Osteopathy) is more centrally located in the Cathedral Quarter. Here she practices not only osteopathy in a very attractive treatment room but also leads yoga and Pilates classes in two large, ideally suited rooms. It’s a wonderful space for what she does. Both YS and his partner have more than found their feet in Belfast.

*^{YS’s Partner’s Yoga Spaces And Treatment Room}*

Belfast itself is very lively and seems to have so much potential if only the politics would calm down and business could invest with even more certainty. It is a small city compared to London. But, like Edinburgh (which is about 50% bigger) it is a capital city, has some impressive things to see and is attracting increasing numbers of young people setting up new businesses.

Great coffee houses and interesting and enjoyable restaurants are popping up across the city. On this trip we ate at EDŌ where we had a welcome chance to catch up with YS’s partner’s parents (thanks for dinner guys!) and Waterman House. We breakfasted on trendy bread from an bakery (Bakari) apparently using Icelandic recipes.

*^{Waterman House Restaurant With A Large Painting Of Belfast By Colin Davidson}*

Being visited and visiting others disrupts our well-worn micro-routines. This is a good thing. Having YS ask us whether we want a beer at 4.30pm instead of waiting till our traditional 6pm drinking time is a good challenge. Not finding time to do the Quick Crossword at 5pm is actually ok for a day or two. Having to scrabble around in the depths of a cupboard for our sugar bowl for a visitor that takes sugar in their coffee isn’t much trouble really. Dealing with the issues of a new puppy is unsettling but helps to keep us on our toes. Seeing new places and finding out about them is always interesting. We should, and will, do more and I should avoid getting stuck in my ways.

Going to the Food Bank

May 24, 2023 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

I started working at the Stroud Food Bank about 9 months ago. I only work for about 2 hours a week and, usually, only to put away stock and to fulfil (i.e. pack up) orders for the Food Bank’s ‘clients’. Some weeks I get a bit of extra arm stretching exercise by helping to deliver the (heavy and full) food bags to clients’ homes.

The location is in central Stroud and it operates as one of the outposts for the much larger warehouse, run by the The Trussell Trust, in Brimscombe, a couple of miles away. In the year to March 2023, The Trussell Trust has delivered almost 3m emergency food parcels in the UK. In Stroud district we delivered 8,663 of those – a huge 77% increase on the previous year.

Working at the Food Bank has been eye opening and educational around the everyday problems faced by people less fortunate than me. Often, even with very little income, people learn to manage somehow but what brings them to the Food Bank is something unexpected – sometimes a seemingly small thing – that tips their well-being and ability to cope over the edge. The pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the cost of living surge and the lack of a proper benefits safety net have all made that tipping over the edge more frequent.

To say I enjoy working at the Food Bank would be to undermine or trivialise these very real hardships but the couple of hours a week I spend there does feel worthwhile. What is even better for me is that I am able to walk to the Food Bank (and get the bus back afterwards). That walk has been especially lovely recently due to the advent of a lush Spring and the fortuitousness of good weather when I have to go to the Food Bank.

The first 25 minutes of the walk is my normal route to our local town, Nailsworth. I usually take the direct route along the road but even so, the views over Ruskin Mill’s valley are good and the birdsong at that time in the morning is loud and continuous. Once in town, I pick up my newspaper and then set out to Stroud along two old railway routes now converted to cycling and walking paths.

I love the variety along this route.

*^{Egypt Mill – Now A Popular Bar, Restaurant And Hotel (Deserted At This Time In The Morning)}*

The first part follows Nailsworth Stream and is dominated by mills and their associated mill ponds. This is perhaps where bird life and nature along the route are most evident.

The path then squeezes between vineyards, woodlands and fields on one side and a string of light industrial buildings on the other. These buildings include a micro-brewery, a pizza factory and numerous engineering works alongside which I sometimes pause to watch the drama of welding sparks. Then the birdsong is drowned out by the canine users of a large Playschool for Dogs. I’ve never seen so many dogs in one place!

*^{Under-Bridge Street Art On My Route}*

I walk under bridges covered in frequently changing street art. Then I go past a factory making wind turbines and another associated with Forest Green Rovers Football Club’s Chairman called The Devil’s Kitchen which makes vegan meals for the football club and for schools nationally.

The path runs alongside the main road for a while but from here there are great views up towards Rodborough Common. Past the old and now converted Woodchester Railway Station, there is a new large residential development and its associated children’s playground before the walk returns to another leafy section.

*^{One Of Several Very Large Oaks Along The Way (The Birdsong Is Usually Intense Around Here)}*

The woods continue on one side but on the other are acres of factories, some of which now appear disused and ripe for some sort of development. Most are ugly mass-constructed buildings but some are attractive, Victorian buildings that have new lives as auction houses and bases for hi-tech businesses.

*^{One Of The More Impressive Factory Blocks}*

One of the largest and newest of these industrial buildings is the factory which produces Damien Hirst’s art works. Some of his old works from his Human Anatomy series stand behind the factory and are visible from the path.

Damien Hurst’s Works Partly Obscured By Trees

The route I take then passes briefly through a housing estate and joins another old railway route on the final leg into Stroud. This is in a deep, old railway cutting which shields walkers from the surrounding houses and roads and then passes over the River Frome and Stroudwater Canal.

*^{Tree Lined Walks With (If You Look Carefully) Deer And Old Railway Line Infrastructure}*

By this time my breakfast coffee intake needs attention so I dive into the recently re-modelled shopping centre before heading up through the town to the Food Bank. The shopping centre itself is a mixed bag of street food outlets, depressingly empty up-market clothes and accessories shops, and discount goods outlets. It’s a strange mix of businesses. Even the large and prominent jewelers in the centre is a strange mix of expensive watches, jewelry and garish ornaments.

*^{Not For Me But People Must Like These Ornaments Given Their Surprisingly High Prices}*

In a way, the diversity of the shopping centre, and that of the stock of the jeweler’s shop within it, reflects the unusualness of Stroud and the surrounding district. It has a left wing, ‘woke’, hippy vibe with one of the best Farmers Markets and (arguably) the country’s first fully organic cafe (Woodruffs). But it is also very much a grounded, working town surrounded by historical and current wealth. It is a blend that is also reflected, perhaps, among the mix of ‘clients’ and volunteers at the Food Bank.

Places to Go, Things to Do

May 11, 2023 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

Our three sons came from Edinburgh, Bristol and Belfast to stay with us to attend Jane’s Mum’s funeral and then my birthday brunch. The funeral was very well attended and passed flawlessly, peacefully and movingly. My birthday was low key but very enjoyable. It was great to have all three sons in one place for the first time for a while, to hear them banter with each other, and to chat to.

Two of them asked, independently, what on earth I fills my time in retirement. I’m not sure I was entirely candid about my occasional post-lunch snoozes or the rather excessive amount of time I spend looking at my mobile phone – though they are also fairly guilty of the latter so they would understand. But what struck me once again as I tried to answer is how busy my life still seems to be.

The routine of walking to the nearest town for the daily shopping and the newspaper, reading that newspaper and the weekly Economist magazine, preparing lunch and (50% of the time) dinner, all takes up hours of relatively relaxed time. I spend up to a day a week in local climate action and other village activities and another half a day at the Stroud Foodbank. I have recently inserted an hour or two of gardening into the routine (not enough, but it’s a start) partially at the cost of my frequent walks around the local countryside that usually constitute my main exercise.

The early evenings comprise of the ‘Quick Crossword’ over a cup of tea and/or visits to the local pub. Later, we watch streamed TV series (we tend to gravitate to dark European crime thrillers) and then its time for the BBC News, 15 minutes reading in bed and sleep.

So, even in weeks without trips to Edinburgh or funerals to attend (and there have been two in the last month unfortunately), I feel pretty occupied. How did I fit 10 hours a mid-week day on work? It was interesting to hear Middle Son start to feel the same way now he has given up his job for a bit of downtime before a ‘gap-month’ travelling in Columbia. He too seems to have found that available time just gets filled with activity. In retirement, those activities are mainly non-urgent and discretionary; suits me!

Our trip to Edinburgh last month to see First Grandchild (FG) and his parents was as rewarding as usual. FG is discovering the desire to exert control and is developing a temper, a willingness to do things but only at his pace and when he is ready, and a sense of humour. Its lovely to see his development in the videos we are sent but even more so face to face. Maybe I just lack the recall power but I think work got in the way of appreciating all of this in my own children at FG’s age.

*^{The Splendid Roof Of The Scottish National Museum’s Main Hall}*

As usual, taking FG out to the National Museum of Scotland, to the Royal Botanic Garden and to the local playgrounds were highpoints during our Edinburgh trip. It’s wonderful to see that everything through his eyes is so new and something to learn about.

^{Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh: Rhododendrons Out In April!}

However, there were many other treats amid the hospitality offered by Eldest Son and his wife and the fun of being with FG. Jane and I walked to Leith where I bought her birthday present in advance and with her close guidance. On the way back we stopped off at Spry, our favourite wine bar in the city.

We also visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to see an exhibition of Alberta Whittle’s work. We had seen an exhibition by her in Bath a few months earlier which we had enjoyed. However, although the exhibition in Edinburgh was much broader in ambition, neither of us enjoyed the individual works so much this time.

*^{‘Taking A Leap Toward The Ancestors’ By Alberta Whittle (2022)}*

Our cultural immersion while in Edinburgh continued with a brief stop at the private The Scottish Gallery (mainly to see some pretty floral paintings by Angie Lewin) before exceeding all our daily steps targets by crossing the city again to visit the Dovecot Studios. This was a real highlight.

*^{Part of the Kaffe Fassett ‘Power Of Pattern’ Exhibition}*

Not only was there an excellent exhibition of textiles by and inspired by Kaffe Fassett called ‘The Power of Pattern’, but the tapestry studios themselves were fascinating. I was only vaguely familiar with Kaffe Fassett but I loved a lot of the work on show here – mainly because of the vibrancy of the colour – and I learned a lot about his philosophy, way of working and his collaborations with others.

*^{Close-ups Of Quilted and Tapestry Works By Kaffe Fassett And Followers}*

The tapestry studios at Dovecote are restored and re-purposed swimming baths that were part of the now defunct infirmary. The space is airy and dramatic. The floor – what presumably was the bottom of the swimming pool – is an art space that is currently occupied by a series of looms of varying sizes and types. Each contained part-finished tapestries that suggested the huge effort that has to go into each. Upstairs, completed tapestries illustrating various techniques and styles are on display. We really enjoyed the experience.

To round out the cultural aspect of our Edinburgh trip, I also managed an hour or so in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The entrance hall is stunning and I wanted to see that again. Inside there was no special exhibition this time but the permanent displays – especially the modern section – were interesting enough.

*^{The Scottish National Portrait Gallery Atrium}*

^{The Scottish National Portrait Gallery: Two Unusual, Medical Portraits (By Ken Currie)}

Back home we have been enjoying an admittedly rather wet spring. The wild garlic, bluebells and cow parsley adorn the lanes and the woods. In the garden, the daffodils, the amelanchier and most of the tulips have been and gone but there are allium flower heads about to burst and green shoots everywhere. In our lush and green field cum orchard, the cowslips and wild geraniums have proliferated and our eyes are peeled for orchids.

*^{Exotic Garden Tulips And Perfect Apple Blossom}*

A recent visit to The Ethicurean with Middle Son and his partner for Sunday lunch included a wander around the gardens that provide many of the vegetable ingredients for the cooking. The lunch itself was multi-course but much more than a tasting menu; it was really imaginative, tasty and filling, and delivered at a perfectly slow pace in the gorgeous surroundings of a converted Victorian greenhouse. We’ll go again.

*^{The Rather Wonderful The Ethicurean Restaurant}*

Since then, rather inspired by The Ethicurean’s gardens, I have made progress in clearing most of the vegetable patches, planting beetroot, chard, onions and potatoes and getting bean, courgette and squash seeds on the go.

This year I have applied a method Jane used for some of her flower seeds to the germination of the beans seeds I recovered from my last two harvests. Instead of popping them in composted seed trays, I put them between two sheets of wet kitchen roll and put the result in zip lock plastic bags. I left the bags on the floor of our kitchen which has underfloor heating and, lo and behold, I had a 100% success rate for germination!

*^{My (Janes!) New Ziplock Plastic Bag Method Of Seed Germination}*

I have transferred the germinated beans to the small pots and now hope they will grow on with, unlike previous years, zero seed wastage. Success in a busy retirement schedule is sweet!

Life and Death

April 12, 2023 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Spring is definitely with us after a very wet March. We have April showers – it even snowed for a minute or two earlier today – and spring flowers. The cherry blossom is out and there are lambs in the fields.

^{One Of Many Cherry Trees In Full Bloom In The Local Area}

The birds are marking out their territory and gathering material for their nests. During just 15 minutes of my walk to my Food Bank duties in Stroud yesterday I switched on the Merlin bird identification app on my phone and detected (and sometimes saw) 20 different bird varieties (plus a seagull and a buzzard that didn’t squawk at the right time). Spring is such a busy time for these little home builders and it was relieving and lovely to hear that our rural pathways are still home to such avian diversity.

*^{Birds Heard In 15 Minutes During A Local Walk}*

The outside temperatures are gradually rising with the prospect of heatwaves to come. At Easter, when Youngest Son and Middle Son came to stay for a couple of days and the weather was sunny, we managed our first outdoor lunch of the year.

*^{Random Roadside Bulbs On The Way To Food Bank}*

Spring really is a season of new life and promise.

Except that, this spring, we are mourning the passing of Jane’s mother who died peacefully last week in the care home we had all come to love and respect. Her death came as no surprise after a steady decline hastened by a fall but of course there is mood of sadness around the family. Easter and its Bank Holiday’s was a convenient pause for Jane to enable reflection on her relationship with her Mum before getting stuck into the administration of funeral arrangements. Death brings sadness but also a need for clear thinking about the fall out. Death balances out life.

Before the funeral we are off to Edinburgh to see Eldest Son, his partner and First Grandchild. That will be a great distraction and an antidote for Jane to the last couple of weeks of focus on looking after her Mum and then the mourning of her passing. Of course, discussions about Jane’s Mum and the making of funeral arrangements will continue, but it will be in the company of a little grandchild who will demonstrate as vividly as possible that life goes on.

A few days of tiny, effervescent youth and spring; what could be better!

Paris: Our Last Day

March 4, 2023February 16, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

We wanted an early start on our last day. Jane had spotted, during our first two days in Paris, a hotel that was renowned for its early and good quality breakfast. This was Frenchie Pigalle in Hotel Grand Pigalle where the chef (Greg Marchand) was a Jamie Oliver mentee/colleague who had now struck up successfully on his own. Certainly the coffee was good, my omelette was nice and Jane enjoyed her granola. Satisfyingly replete, we set off to fulfil our pre-booked visit to Sainte-Chapelle.

In a bit of spare time we walked around the front of Notre Dame Cathedral. A huge crane towers over the site but it is clear that the restoration following the great fire in April 2019 is well under way. Its current closure is presumably adding to the popularity of nearby Sainte Chappelle and the queue we joined outside the Palais de Justice was rather chaotic and substantial – even with our pre-booking.

We had a good moan to ourselves about the French system of queuing and the bottlenecks around security checking but actually we were in chapel with 30 minutes and had to reprimand ourselves for our impatience. The visit was, in any case, well worth the wait.

*^{Palais De Justice (With Sainte Chapelle In The Background)}*

The building dates from the 14th century. Its highpoint are 15 terrific stained glass windows telling stories from the Old and New Testaments which date from that time. These windows are set in huge panels over 15 metres high under the extraordinarily high, barrel-vaulted ceiling of the Upper Chapel. Although the stained glass (over 1,000 pieces) is only of five colours, the overall effect is spectacular and there is huge detail in each piece. Apparently these details, such as facial features, have been picked out by painted-on mixes of powdered glass, oxides and vinegar.

The bright colours of the windows have been replenished through careful cleaning in recent years and luck and happenstance seems to have allowed the chapel to avoid predations of the French Revolution and war. It remains an awesome, gigantic space.

*^{Stained Glass Windows, Sainte Chapelle (The Pictures Can’t Capture Their Marvel)}*

Beneath the upper chapel was a lower one that, with its low ceiling, resembled a crypt. It too has beautifully coloured stained glass, walls and columns. It was another lovely room.

Once back outside, we left the Ile De La Cite and strolled through the shopping streets of St Germain. I dived into the church of Saint-Sulpice while Jane bought socks. This is the second largest church in Paris (after the Notre Dame) and its simple internal structure ensured that its sheer size was the first thing I noticed. There are some famous murals including one by Eugène Delacroix but I found more interest in a small display showing the way the church had been realigned and then expanded from its inception in 1646 through to the late 1770s.

Saint-Sulpice

Jane and I split up for the afternoon. While she returned to the Marais district’s shops, I spent the afternoon in the Musée d’Orsay. This is a large, old railway station converted into multiple galleries for art but with the original carapace of the building still very much on show. It is yet another impressive Parisian building.

The art on show isn’t bad either! The collection of Impressionist art is perhaps the museum’s crown jewels. Its home on the top floor, alongside an equally strong collection of post-impressionist art, was the busiest part of the museum and by the time I arrived at the Van Gogh section I was flagging in the crowds a bit. This was despite the wonderful familiarity of his self-portraits and a version of the gorgeous ‘The Starry Night’.

Certainly there are so many famous paintings at the Musee D’Orsay. Occasionally, as a layman and non-artist, I felt a little frisson of self-satisfaction as I entered a room and either spotted a painting I knew or guessed correctly its artist creator.

Famous Pictures By Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet and Degas at Musee D’Orsay

Of course there was much that was new to me too. In particular I was struck by what I think I understood to be a number of ‘realist’ painters. I understood that realism predated impressionism; while realism focused on portraying accurate, detailed, almost unadorned depiction of everyday scenes, impressionism developed to capture how light interacts with the subject matter.

On several occasions my slow wandering around the museum was arrested by a picture that caught my eye and it often turned out to be by a realist painter. In the future, I will look out for painters I’d not heard of before this visit like James Tissot and Ernest Messonier.

Pictures That Caught My Eye By James Tissot

….And By Ernest Meissonier

I will also look out for exhibitions of work by Vilhelm Hammershoi, a Danish post-impressionist (I think – I’m no expert in all the genres) with strong artistic links back to 17th century Dutch masters. I saw two of his works, liked both and thought that Jane would like the grey tones in them.

*^{Interieur, Standgrade 30 By Vilhelm Hammershoi (1904)}*

I wandered back through the Tuileries to our hotel to meet up with Jane. I was both pretty exhausted and over-exposed to art by this time but I was very ready for another go at Buvette for dinner (rather than breakfast which we had tried earlier in out trip).

My coq au vin was excellent but the vegetable dishes were a little strange. Jane’s beetroot and horseradish dish and my chopped brussel sprout, raisin and nuts mix were both cold (deliberately) and so large that it was as well we were prepared to share rather than overdose on each. It felt good having had another dose of French food though – when in Paris…..

I’m looking forward to the next time!

Paris: A Joy Once Again

March 2, 2023 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

Jane and I visited Paris back in 2018 and, last week, we had another lovely visit to what is surely one of the most impressive capital cities in the world. I loved being back in a big, busy urban centre (I’m still missing London) and Paris has some tourist attractions that are second to none. The food is excellent again (after what seemed to me to be a dip in recent decades compared to London) and the café culture is thriving.

*^{Paris Stretched Out Before Us – A Great Urban Experience And City}*

On the back of BBC weather forecasts in the days leading up to our short break in Paris, we had prepared for three days of rain. In practice, we barely felt any rain. The afternoon of our first day was sunny and we had decent weather throughout our stay; not bad for February and excellent expectation management by the meteorologists!

We stayed in the gently trendy and comfortable Le Pigalle hotel. Having checked in, we used the unexpectedly good weather on our first afternoon to stroll around the nearby streets. As usual when we travel to European cities, we were impressed by the array of independent shops including florists, cheesemongers, bakeries and vegetable and fruit sellers – we barely saw a supermarket chain. We paused our walk to top up with a street-side burger-and-wine lunch and then wandered around Monmartre just to the north.

*^{Wonderful Fruit And Veg, Cheese, Bread And Mimosa Along So Many Streets}*

The Basilica du Sacré Cœur dominates the hill that the shops and residences of Monmartre surround. From the hill there are great views of almost all of Paris. The steps between the funicular and the Basilica were teeming with tourists and hawkers of souvenirs, cigarettes and little locks that adorn – no, litter! – the mesh fences around the slopes.

*^{Basilica Du Sacre Coeur And Great February Weather}*

I was amazed by the numbers of people; it was mid-week and February after all. But as we walked 50 yards away from the tourist hot spot, the numbers fell away quickly. Once we were clear of the souvenir shops, there was peace enough to enjoy the atmosphere, views, architecture and the sight of a great French tradition: games of petanque in the little gravelled spaces between the blocks of flats.

^{Views Just Behind Basilica Du Sacre Coeur (The Only Crowds Here Are Those Playing Petanque)}

*^{Eglise Saint-Pierre De Montmartre (Just Behind Basilica Du Sacre Coeur And Almost Deserted)}*

It had been an early start and so we welcomed a pre-booked early dinner at Julien Bouillon, a pleasantly traditional French Brasserie with a solid traditional menu of French food and wine. The stroll back through Pigalle showed how well French city café life has survived Covid and whatever economic travails France may be suffering. For a mid-week night, the streets and bars were very busy.

Next day we tried out breakfast in the Paris branch of Buvette. The breakfast itself was fine but the French seem to eat breakfast relatively late and the café was both empty and cold.

We didn’t linger and jumped on the metro to pay a visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery. This is the largest cemetery in Paris and, apparently, the most visited cemetery in the World. Fortunately the sheer size of the place means that its tranquillity is preserved once one is away from the main gate and into the lattice of paths that divide the cemetery into its 97 ‘divisions’.

*^{Views Approaching And Inside Pere Lachaise Cemetery}*

We saw some of the famous graves (Jim Morrison, Moliere etc.) but the real pleasures for me are in the scale, extravagance and creative designs of some of the lesser known graves and family mausoleums. Some of the family mausoleums are as big as houses!

*^{Close Up Views Of Some Of Pere Lachaise Cemetery Mausoleums}*

Our joint favourite tomb was that for Antoine-Augustin Parmentier who was an 18th century agronomist who, after living on potatoes as a prisoner during the ‘Seven Years War’, became evangelical about potatoes as a staple food. His avid promotion of potatoes was very successful and someone has celebrated this by placing a potato on his grave with the words “Merci pour les frites!” (look carefully below middle right).

As we had in 2018 (when it had been 40 degrees of heat in the cemetery) we walked south along the Canal Saint-Martin. This wide but often tree-lined canal provides a beautiful avenue to walk along with a multitude of bars left and right. We stopped in one (Brasserie au Comptoir) for a quick beer but enjoyed the place and the hoppy IPA beer so much that we rested up for longer than planned and shared a very nice chicken caesar salad. This model for lunch was something we tried to follow the following day but beer that we like (rather than lager) is still quite hard to find in the French café scene.

We walked into the Marais district, past all the pretty shop fronts, and intended to see the Picasso exhibition at the Musée Picasso. We had been thwarted in this during two previous Paris visits due to building works and, although we could get into the museum this time, the Picasso exhibition was not open due to a major rehanging of the work. At least we have an excuse to revisit Paris in the future when the Picasso section of the museum is open.

We sucked up our fleeting disappointment and went into two other temporary exhibitions in the museum. The first was a retrospective of the work of Faith Ringgold.

I had not heard of Ringgold and the first couple of rooms, while interesting, did not seem to offer me enough new on black art in late 20th century America. However, as the exhibition showed how her work evolved into a mix of paint and textiles, and of imagery and text, so I became very engaged. I liked the colours and the subject matter often, pleasingly, a little oblique to the normal activist themes.

*^{Selection of Works (Paint And Textiles) By Faith Ringgold}*

The exhibition in the basement of Picasso-inspired works by Pierre Moignard was much less interesting. What would have helped would have been some imagery of the Picasso piece that triggered each of the Moignard works. As it was, it was hard to understand or like them much.

*^{Some Of Pierre Moignard’s Work On Show At Musee Picasso}*

Dinner at Papi that night was a joy. We had spotted this beautiful-looking and busy restaurant during our walks the previous evening and we had booked the two remaining early evening slots. We found that the food quality more than matched that of the minimalist décor. The food and the service to deliver it were lovely and I recommend this restaurant highly.

The dinner capped a full day of Parisian pleasure. We had one more day in Paris ahead of us. The morning was partly planned out with a booking to visit Sainte-Chapelle in the morning followed by us splitting up for a while to pursue different interests after lunch; more on that in my next post.

*^{Eiffel Tower From Basilica Du Sacre Coeur}*

Visiting Two Sons

February 20, 2023February 20, 2023 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

A couple of weekends ago we drove the 350 miles north to Edinburgh to get another hugely welcome dose of Eldest Son (ES), his wife and their delightful son. My dodgy back more than held up through the drives up and down, the weather was clear and dry, the electric car charging points we used were all working and available, and so both journeys were smooth.

*^{The (Long) Road To Edinburgh At Keele Services}*

Throughout our visit, First Grandchild (FG) was an unalloyed joy. He only had one 30 minute spell when he was tired and grumpy, but he is now old enough to be distractible and consolable. Whilst his parents have to deal with more of the everyday stresses and strains (and some very early mornings) than I can really remember from our own parenting days, they are settling into their own parenthood, married life and their flat; and FG seems to be loving life!

We had many little trips out with the little one including to the National Museum of Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Both venues have become fixtures in our itinerary for every trip since they are both so toddler-friendly and free (while presumably relying in large part on donations).

We managed a trip out to South Edinburgh with FG, ES and wife to a lovely, relatively new café (Elliott’s) and we twice slipped into Spry Wine Shop and Bar which is, so far, my favourite bar in Edinburgh. Jane commented that being on our own in Spry felt like being naughtily awol from grand-parenting duties but we did babysit later to enable ES and his wife to visit the same bar one evening.

It was a lovely few days of catch-up, good food and of being able to see, first hand, First Grandchild’s developing physicality, brainpower and, perhaps most of all, his sense of humour. The videos we now play every day (sometimes multiple times a day) are those of him mucking about and giggling. As grandparents he is just an absolute treat and we are lucky to be able to see him every couple of months or so.

*^{Grey Skies Over Edinburgh From The Royal Botanical Gardens}*

We were able to visit Middle Son and his partner in Bristol shortly after our return from Edinburgh. A highlight was to be able to see, open/close and touch their new bedroom wardrobes. These were custom made by a craftsman cabinet maker from our village who is near retirement but who is very skilled and has done work in the past in our house. We are so pleased we could help make the connection to him. The wardrobes looked great.

We then all went to a very swish new Spanish restaurant called Paco Tapas which is run by an apparently Michelin starred chef (Peter Sanchez-Inglesias). His reputation and that of his kitchen clearly goes before him and brings in the crowds – the restaurant was packed despite a cost of living crisis and relatively high prices. Certainly the food was very good and some of the small plates were exceptional. I especially liked the lamb rump, pork ribs, patatas bravas and citrusy fennel. I also loved that I faced the kitchen where much was cooked over open flames in a way that provided a bit of extra theatre.

The restaurant was in an area of Bristol that I didn’t know on the south bank of the Avon estuary called Wapping Wharf. It was clearly once a heavily used port area. Large, old cranes still dominate the harbourside while rail tracks criss-cross the roads. There were still many boats on the quayside from modern cruisers (including one surmounted by a helicopter!), to small cargo ships, to The Matthew of Bristol which is a reconstruction of the boat John Cabot used to discover Newfoundland in 1497.

*^{‘The Matthew At Bristol’ And Princes Wharf Cranes}*

It was raining so we didn’t loiter but the wharf and nearby marinas, container-based shopping units and restaurants looked interesting and meriting another visit. Indeed, visiting the cities that our sons have moved to over the last year – Edinburgh, Bristol and Belfast – is one of our great pleasures these days. However, later this week we are taking a break from that cycle to visit Paris…… whoop, whoop!

Barnsley and Bath

February 8, 2023February 9, 2023 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Despite a few days of frosty mornings, spring feels like it is coming. Cheerful little snowdrops are out in the verges of our lanes. The birds are getting ever more active and noisy. We can open the blinds when we come down in the morning and get the start of proper daylight and the afternoons no longer seem so truncated. There was another heavy frost this morning but another winter is passing into greater light and warmth.

*^{A Recent Frosty Morning – Pretty Though!}*

I need to start getting active in the garden to clear the as yet unharvested leeks and the rotten stumps of chard and beetroot that I failed to harvest or that the deer got to before I could. Unfortunately, the very frustrating back strain I picked up while coughing (would you believe it!) last month continues to constrain activity a bit and I continue to use it as an excuse to restrict myself to extremely light, low-value gardening duties.

I have continued to use walking (plus a few elementary and, I admit, rather half-heartedly undertaken back exercises) as a way of gradually increasing my back’s mobility. In keeping with my wife’s and my joint New Year resolution to get out more when the weather is forecast to be nice, we went for a lengthy walk around Barnsley a couple of weeks ago. This is not the large market town in South Yorkshire but a nearby village in the Cotswolds that we have visited several times before, but not for a few years.

Despite having a fairly busy road running through it, this Barnsley is one of those picture book Cotswold towns and villages that are full of pretty cottages and large rich merchant and manor houses. There’s a popular pub and Barnsley House – previously home to Rosemary Verey, a famous gardener – is a popular spa and tourist attraction. We didn’t visit those but, rather, walked mainly around the village through open fields, woodland and old parkland. The frost made the ground firmer than expected after the January rain and the sky was brilliant blue. It was a lovely, refreshing walk.

*^{Winter Scenes Around Barnsley, Gloucestershire}*

In a further impromptu excursion last week, Jane and I popped south to Bath. The main element of our planned visit was to pick up a couple of loaves of sourdough bread from the rather wonderful Landrace. It’s a great establishment that worked hard to survive the Covid lockdowns and which sells the best bread I know of.

*^{A Great Group Of Trees In The Circus, Bath}*

Bath is a fair old way to go for just bread so we also visited The Holburne Museum. We also had a very tasty and pleasant lunch at the recently opened Beckford Canteen which is a stylish restaurant set up in an ex-Georgian greenhouse.

At the Holburne Museum we bought tickets for an exhibition of Albrecht Dürer’s woodcuts depicting The Great Passion of Christ and the woodcut publications of a number of Durer’s mentors, contemporaries and followers. The links with the development of the printing press and Lutheranism were of interest but we both found an adjoining exhibition of very different, modern art rather more compelling.

*^{One Of 11 Albrecht Durer Woodcuts Telling The Story Of ‘The Great Passion’}*

The core of this exhibition by Alberta Whittle was a collection of elaborately decorated figures representing African slaves in various poses related to limbo dancing. What was enlightening for both Jane and I was the fact that slaves on slave ships crossing the Atlantic in the 18th century were offered precious time on deck (away from the stinking and confined quarters below) in return for entertaining the sailors with limbo dancing. The figures were alongside decorated cartons which, after inquisition of the Museum guide, we understood to representations of the containers that were used for water and cologne used to douse the slave performers so as to reduce their pungent smell while on deck.

*_{‘Dipping Below A Waxing Moon, The Dance Saves Us’ By Alberta Whittle}*

Whittle’s work here was powerful and informative. In the subject matter and use of brilliant colour, it was reminiscent of the exhibition of a huge procession constructed by Hew Locke that I saw at Tate Britain last September. It was the highlight of our day (if only because we didn’t eat the Landrace bakery bread until the following day).

We have a further life highlight planned later this week: our first visit of the year to Edinburgh to see First Grandchild and his parents! I’m not sure what to expect from my dodgy back after being in car for 8-9 hours, but I am so looking forward to being in Edinburgh again.

Then, to hurry along time until Spring is really here, we have booked a few days in Paris. It’s been years since we travelled abroad so I’m looking forward to getting my passport stamped according to the new Brexity rules and being part of Europe again. There’s nice bread there (and in Edinburgh) too!

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

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