Autumn’s Hidden Notes and Gems

November 7, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

We are well into Autumn. There are mushrooms underfoot and local trees are looking lovely in their yellows, browns and reds as they shut down for winter. Our social whirl, which was so active with weddings and holidays a few weeks ago, has slowed but it hasn’t shut down. We have enjoyed several very pleasurable outings and visits and have a few more lined up during the rest of the month.

The backdrop to this has been activity to prepare our rental property for a new tenant after a several month gap for repairs and, now, moving furniture around to enable restoration of our house’s ground level wooden floors. It’s been a busy period of the routine, of renewal and of entertainment gems.

Back in September, still in our ‘wedding period’, we attended Stroud’s annual Hidden Notes festival of electronic and ambient music. We last attended in 2019 and the festival has become much more popular since then. We underestimated that and only just managed to get a seat before the central concert event became standing room only.

We saw five different artists over a six-hour period (thank goodness we got those seats!). Not all the music was to our tastes but all the performers were interesting in some way. Laura Cannell kicked things off with pleasant, off-beat, folky music on violin and a strange-looking bass recorder.

Hekla was even stranger. She is an Icelandic expert in playing the ‘Theremin’ which is a Soviet invention from the 1920s and is now an instrument that makes sound without physical contact as the artist moves around it and disrupts the electric signals it emits. It produced a rather bizarre, eerie sound and it was fun to watch Helka waving arms and hands around.

^{Mary Lattimore and Suzanne Ciani At St Lawrence Church, Stroud During The ‘Hidden Notes’ Festival}

Echo Collective, a group of classically trained Belgian musicians, sounded rather sombre. Their set was a rather slow burn but ultimately satisfying. Then came Mary Lattimore, an American harpist. I know her work well and was very much looking forward to hearing her in person. I wasn’t disappointed; it was great to see how the sounds she makes on her albums are actually made. Those sounds were lovely with occasional unexpected twists.

The evening was completed by Suzanne Ciani. She is an electronic music pioneer and she brought some very retro equipment with her. The most remarkable thing about her performance was her sprightliness at the age of 78. The music, however, was a difficult listen for our ears. That didn’t dent our enjoyment of the Hidden Notes event; it’s a little gem in the Cotswolds.

A more substantial outing was, more recently, to South Somerset and ‘a restaurant with rooms’ called Holm. I have wanted to revisit Wells Cathedral since passing it unexpectedly while following SatNav on the way back from Youngest Son’s Stag do in the summer. Holm in South Petherton was a hotel and restaurant Jane had been attracted to during one of her Instagram searches. Our trip was a win-win for us both.

*^{Wells Cathedral (Top), Vicars Close (Medieval Houses Built For The Cathedral Choir), And The Bishops Palace}*

The whole outing was bathed in Autumn sunshine and was very rewarding. The area immediately around Wells Cathedral and the Bishops Palace is beautiful. Wells Cathedral itself has some really wonderful features.

Holm provided very attractively decorated, comfortable rooms and innovative and excellent food. Despite a problem with the hot water on the first morning, we had a very good stay.

^{The Studio at Holm and Our Tasteful Room}

Holm is in the small market town of South Petherton. The church was attractive, there were numerous interesting old houses mainly constructed from a limestone that had a lovely orange hue.

*^{South Petherton Church And A Fives Wall (Bottom Right)}*

Perhaps most remarkably, South Petherton has a ‘fives’ wall in someone’s garden (and we saw another later in a nearby village). The game of fives became a popular sport in South Somerset from the mid-18th century. Churchwarden accounts record damage from fives being played against church towers. To prevent this, purpose-built fives walls were constructed in the yards of inns and large gardens and here was a surprising example of that (see below).

On the way to South Petherton we stopped off at the familiar and elegant At the Chapel for a coffee and then Hauser & Wirth in Bruton. We have been to both several times before.

There always seems to be an exhibition at Hauser & Wirth that is worth seeing. On this occasion it was an exhibition by Dame Phyllida Barlow who Jane seemed to be familiar with (I wasn’t). Her work was both in the indoor exhibition spaces and in the gardens. The scale of some of it was impressive and I quite liked the collection of small paintings but I don’t believe either of us was much moved. Instead, we retreated to a good lunch in Da Costa, the new Hauser & Wirth restaurant..

*^{Works By Dame Phyllida Barlow At Hauser & Wirth, Bruton}*

*^{Hauser & Wirth Gardens With Dame Phyllida Barlow’s Sculptures}*

Of course, once settled into our very nice hotel room, we used Holm as a base to visit a few other local places of interest. Once again, the life memberships of the National Trust that we were given as presents decades ago by my Mum and Dad came in very handy and were much re-appreciated.

We visited Montacute House gardens and benefited from an informative guide to the late Elizabethan architecture. The house itself was closed due to an ‘incident’ but, armed with our membership cards, there was no disappointment – we can simply come again another year. The house is very impressive from the outside and the gardens were quiet and pleasant in the Autumn sunshine.

We popped into East Lambrook Manor Gardens which is famous as an archetype cottage garden created by Margery Fish in the second half of the 20th century. Because of the lateness of the season there was limited colour in the garden. Even so, the mix of old buildings, autumnal trees, seed heads and densely planted beds were lovely. All this was augmented by a selection of steel plant-like sculptures by a local artist (Chris Kampf). We were left wondering how much longer the attractive set-up will last given the ‘For Sale’ sign we saw on the way out – we hope it does as it’s clearly lovingly looked after by the current incumbents and was another little hidden gem for us to see.

*^{East Lambrook Manor Gardens, Somerset}*

Finally, we visited Barrington Court and its twin, Strode House. This was owned by the Tate family of sugar, golden syrup and Tate Gallery fame. The spacious gardens and vistas were wonderful in the late afternoon sun. Inside the house, was the long and interesting story of restoration and development of the house – first by the Tate family and then the National Trust. This restoration is ongoing but the areas that were open were very nicely presented.

*^{Barrington Court And Strode House, Somerset}*

Back home we went to a gem of very local entertainment: a rather surreal but very funny village pantomime. It poked fun at the local village of Horsley and its hamlets, the misplacement of parcels delivered to village residents and other local peculiarities – all in a very quirky way along the theme of Alice in Wonderland. In a village of just 300 households there is a lot of talent and the entertainment provided was priceless.

*^{The Village Panto: ‘Alice’s Adventures In Horsley’}*

The rest of the last few weeks has been more routine but with highlights of visits by Eldest Son’s family and his parents in law, and a few visits by Middle Son and his fiancée. It is so heart-warming to see our grandchildren. It’s a different love to that we felt towards our own kids. Maybe recollections of our love for them when they were growing up is blurred by time. Oddly, my love for our sons feels even greater now, and my adoration of both grandchildren is incredibly intense; we both love it when they visit us.

We have more visits by London friends and another visit to Edinburgh for First Grandchild’s third birthday coming up in the next few weeks. Each event will be a welcome distraction from disturbing international events and a little fillip to our lives; autumnal gems for the memory banks.

Joy At A Belfast Wedding

October 9, 2024October 10, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

The last weekend of September was one of life’s memorable high points. I’m still humming from the pleasure of that weekend during which our Youngest Son (YS) got married to a lovely Belfast woman who he has known for almost 10 years.

The tear-jerking (for me, anyway) formal ceremony itself was in the impressive Belfast City Hall. Before and after these formalities, there were great opportunities to meet up with the bride and grooms’ friends and family and to celebrate the marriage. There were weekend events in a hipster brewery bar, in a traditional central Belfast pub, at the newly married couple’s home and at an impeccably organized and delivered reception at Waterman House. The vast majority of our close family was there – including both our grandchildren. Jane and I loved every minute. I think the bride and groom had a rather special time too!

*^{Sun Shining, A Beautiful Building And A Happy Couple}*

Life can be wonderful (if you can avoid things like climate-change-accentuated weather catastrophe’s, poverty, wars, and ill health). I have always been a ‘half-empty’ person who worries about the news and the future. However, Jane would say that we need to live in and appreciate the current moments and certainly this Belfast wedding weekend was compelling encouragement to think that way.

Jane and I know how fortunate we are to be able to have experienced grandchildren and to see our sons married to such lovely people. It is now just Middle Son (MS) to go on the marriage front but he and his fiancée have already given us the privilege of Second Grandchild. He was a little marvel throughout the Belfast trip and celebrations. He was so calm as he was passed around the revellers and I was personally chuffed by the number of instant and gorgeous smiles I got from him during the weekend.

First Grandchild (FG) was a treat too. Although he struggled with my explanations of the concept of marriage, he fell further in love with the bride – perhaps that was because she was dressed a bit like an angel – and he loved the hugs he got from her.

We, and our two elder sons and their families, stayed at the ideally located, cool and very comfortable Bullitt Hotel. Our room was large enough for us to give Eldest Son and his wife a break by playing indoor games with FG. Jane played a card pairing game and we introduced him to the idea of paper planes. He played enthusiastically with one for ages; who needs manufactured toys!?

Jane also took FG off during the wedding reception since he was struggling with the noise levels and needed a break. Jane only just made it back in time to deliver her speech. I found a draft version of her speech on my phone in case I needed to step in but the Master of Ceremonies – a naturally funny and larger-than-life Australian friend of the now married couple – had the situation under control. Jane returned just in time to deliver perfectly. All the speeches including those from the bride’s parents and another Australian friend of the married couple were amusing and hit their mark.

We ate extremely well and Watermans Restaurant did a tremendous job of delivering four choices of three courses of food to so many very efficiently and effectively. The drinks flowed and the music and dancing started. As the music got louder so I spent more time in the adjacent alley so I could hear conversations with my ageing ears. My ageing knees didn’t prevent a bit of Dad-dancing though. However, I saw from subsequently released video that the dancing became increasingly rumbustious after Jane and I left the youngsters to it.

In between all the wedding related events we enjoyed the sunny weather and Belfast. Breakfast each day quickly settled into a routine of meeting with grandchildren and their parents at Established, a café we seem to visit during every Belfast trip. The food is simple but just right for me and the Americano coffee is great. We also had excellent lunches there and at General Merchants in Ormeau Road. Belfast is small relative to, say Bristol, London or Edinburgh but it has become well equipped with enough excellent, modern cafes and restaurants.

^{Belfast’s Botanic Gardens And Ulster Museum}

We wandered through the Botanic Gardens and visited the Ulster Museum again. Our intention was to visit an exhibition on Belfast political murals. That was closed so we diverted to another exhibition of textiles created around the world to illustrate conflict and humanitarian issues (“Threads of Empowerment: Conflict Textiles’ International Journey”).

*^{Inside The “Threads of Empowerment” Exhibition}*

*^{A Collective Catalonian Arpillera Called ‘Hands On’ Showing Community Self Help With Over 200 Characters – One Of The More Positive Pieces On Show}*

We had seen something similar at Kettles Yard, Cambridge about a year ago. That had exhibited Palestinian embroidery. This Ulster Museum exhibition covered a wider international scope. Many of the works focused on South American conflicts and especially ‘The Disappeared’ but the most moving works for me were reflections on the Holocaust by Heidi Drahota, a German (below).

The museum has an excellent ceramics section and a very good permanent exhibition covering the Northern Irish Troubles which we saw last visit. We saved revisiting the latter for another trip so as not to risk the upbeat mood of the weekend. Not that much could have dented that.

*^{Inside Ulster Museum: The Ceramics Section}*

It was great that the wider family made the effort to come to the wedding, it was great to meet or re-meet the married couple’s friends, it was great that the sun shone and that the whole event passed off in lovely locations without a blemish. It was a perfect Belfast wedding and we are very happy that YS and his partner have (finally) ‘tied the knot’ and that we have more visits to Northern Ireland in prospect.

*^{Views Of Belfast – We’ll Be Back Soon!}*

Roman Wedding

September 25, 2024 / fgrtommo / Leave a comment

The wedding of one of Jane’s nieces – the set piece event of our Italy trip – followed sharp on the heels of our family holiday near Orvieto in Italy. We travelled south to Rome and dropped off First Grandchild and his parents with a couple of goodbye sniffles and sobs. We then made our way to our Airbnb in central Rome to grab a bite to eat and change into our wedding garb.

The formal element of the wedding was held in the City Hall in the heart of Rome and adjoining the Piazza Del Campidoglio. We gathered in a rather sumptuous room decorated in a deep red with several big flags and banners. It was an impressive backdrop to a lovely bi-lingual ceremony in which Italian law set out the obligations of both bride and groom with regard to, among other things, living arrangements, looking out for one another and bringing up children. There was much cheering, primarily and initially from the Italian groom’s side of the family, to underline the Italian-flavoured drama of the event.

^{Piazza Del Campidoglio (With The City Hall To The Right)}

The reception was on the outskirts of Rome in and around a lovely old house which was accommodating the now married couple their closest relatives. The food and drinks had been carefully selected by the groom and the local wines were various and, I thought, very good indeed. The buffet of antipasto was splendid. I probably overindulged given that this was followed by a lovely four-course meal but the spiced cold pork on offer was to die for and I didn’t hold back.

^{Arriving At The Wedding Reception}

The wedding speeches were delivered in Italian, English and Madagascan to reflect the roots of the main protagonists and their best men and women. Printed transcriptions of these helped us understand the humour and the emotions in these speeches and they all added value.

Then, just as the evening chill was starting to become noticeable – especially for the relatively lightly-clad women at the party – there was dancing. Following the initial wedding dance standards there was, as expected, an even more ebullient period of Madagascan music and dancing. This included the Madagascan equivalent of the Conga executed with much enthusiasm. The Madagascans in Jane’s wider family do love a good dance!

DJ’s took over and it was clear that, for some, it would be a long night of dance, song and drinking. We grabbed a cab just before midnight and before my alcohol unit count became innumerable. The whole day had been long but very memorable and enjoyable.

Next day, before our evening flight home, Jane and I did some walking and sightseeing around central Rome. We had last been here together in the 1980’s before we had children. I missed out on a subsequent visit with Jane due to pressure of work and a ‘persuasive’ boss so it was lovely to have another opportunity to see some of the iconic Roman buildings in great weather.

*^{The Trevi Fountain – One Of Rome’s Many Tourist Magnets}*

*^{The Parthenon (With Tourists Like Me!)}*

We wove through the massed crowds of tourists to see the Trevi Fountain and the Parthenon. We strolled further afield to towards Piazza Navona take in the atmosphere and revisit the fountains there. Unfortunately, these fountains, like many monuments in Rome, are currently under restoration in advance of the 2025 Rome Jubilee. We satisfied ourselves with other sights and appreciated them in the early Autumn Roman sunshine.

In the afternoon, I spent a couple of hours meandering around the Colosseum and the large area of various ruins and buildings to the immediate west. Much of this has been closed off to the non-paying public since I was last in Rome. I couldn’t bear the idea of the queuing in crowds and heat for tickets and entrance. Anyway, there was still more than enough to see for free before my knee started to complain and I needed a rest.

^{More Rome!}

Indeed, a highlight was entering a church – I failed to note which one – which had some lovely baroque music playing, slumping onto a pew and relaxing to the point of a brief doze. Bathed in all the memories of the wedding and the last week with the family, I felt chilled out and content.

*^{The Church Where I Dozed – Beautiful and Restful}*

With that, I made my way back to the Airbnb and then, with Jane, to our flight home. Even the train strike causing cancellation of trains to the airport couldn’t shake my feeling of well-being. It had been a very good week indeed.

Family Holiday In Italy

September 22, 2024 / fgrtommo / 1 Comment

Jane and I, our three sons, their wives/fiancées and our two grandchildren all made our way to a rather splendid villa in Italy for what turned out to be a wonderful holiday; all that I had hoped for and more.

*^{The Dramatic First View Of Our Holiday Villa As We Arrived}*

Getting everyone together for a family holiday for the first time like that was a feat of flexibility on the part of those, unlike me, who are still managing careers. It also involved precise scheduling and effective logistics including three hire cars, enterprising use of car boot space, and multiple airports and pick up points. I felt very privileged and lucky that we could manage it.

We stayed in a villa near Lake Bolsena, about 90 minutes north of Rome (where, at the end of the holiday, Jane and I, plus Youngest Son and fiancée, went to the wedding of one of Jane’s nieces). The villa was in a very rural, rather remote setting overlooking an ancient volcanic caldera and Lake Bolsena within that. It was an elegant, comfortable and well-equipped villa. Importantly, for the relative youngsters and, especially, the grandchildren, it had a substantial swimming pool.

*^{The Evening View From Our Terrace With Lake Bolsena In The Distance}*

We had every breakfast and evening meal at the villa. The group included excellent cooks and baristas plus willing clearer-uppers afterwards. I barely got a look in on either aspect but took responsibility for the recycling and most of the considerable waste disposal. Despite the local market and supermarkets being a little disappointing we ate extremely well and the bottles and cans recycling bins were repeatedly overflowing.

*^{Catching Stray Wildlife In The Pool}*

Orvieto was about an hour’s drive away and is perched on the top of a prehistoric volcanic plug. We had been there when our children were very young but while memories fade, of course, the key visitor sites were unchanged. Given we visited the city just out of prime tourist season this time, the crowds felt substantial. However, as ever, a few yards away from the main tourist routes, the streets were quiet and picturesque.

*^{Quiet Orvieto Square In Front Of The Church of Sant Andrea And A 12-sided Tower}*

After a very good lunch with the grandchildren and their parents, Jane and I left the group to visit Orvieto Cathedral which dominates the city and which can be seen from many miles away. The façade is wonderfully preserved and impressive. The other walls are also memorable – both inside and out – since they, and the internal columns supporting the roof, are unusually, horizontally striped with alternate layers of basalt and travertine. It was great to be able to visit and remember it again.

We visited a few of the smaller towns around Lake Bolsena. Now edging beyond the tourist season, some of these reflected what we have read about small rural Mediterranean villages gradually emptying out and becoming inactive backwaters. Our closest town was Grotte Di Castro. It is beautifully (but seemingly precariously) situated on a high ridge; of course, these hill-top towns are two-a-penny in much of Italy but even so it seemed surprisingly quiet and there were a lot of ‘For Sale’ signs.

Montefiascone on the opposite side of Lake Bolsena was bigger and busier. It too had wonderful hill top vistas and inviting alleys and cobbled streets. Their steps and sharp inclines challenged my currently dodgy left knee but I think the exercise did it good. While in the town, we were lucky to avoid the storms that seemed to be gathering all around us and, having failed – not for the first time – to find a restaurant both open and selling pizza before sundown, we headed back to our villa via Bolsena.

*^{Stormy Weather Over Montefiascone With Views Of Lake Bolsena and Cattedrale Di Santa Margherita}*

The town of Bolsena was much closer to our villa and did offer takeaway pizza during the day. We sampled that with First Grandchild (FG) in mind couple of times since he had said a few weeks before that pizza was what he was looking forward to most about the holiday. In the end, I think we were more concerned about tracking down pizza than he was.

Bolsena is another attractive town perched on a volcanic outcrop. Several of us had a good lunch in a restaurant adjacent to the lake. While FG played with a new remote-control toy, several of us took turns to take very pleasant strolls down a street lined with huge plane trees and up through its pedestrianised alleys to the castle and main church. From the top of the town there were broad views of the Lake Bolsena, its islands and the surrounding ridges. Second Grandchild (SG) was entertainable, calm and happy (as usual), FG had his new toy, and we all had a relaxed time in the town.

Lake Bolsena is the largest volcanic lake in Europe and there was volcanic activity within it as little as 2,000 years ago. With it being so close to our villa, a swim in its waters was on the holiday agenda for many (but not me; I really don’t like getting wet!) SG and his Dad also missed out because it was nap-time but the rest of the group had a boisterous time in the water. FG loved the water and all the splashing with his Granny, Mum, Dad, aunts and uncles. I took charge of capturing the action on camera with the big sky and gorgeous landscape around the lake in the background.

*^{Frolics In Lake Bolsena Under A Lovely Blue Sky}*

Much more swimming, splashing and fun and games were done at our villa. It was lovely to see both grandchildren ignoring the coolness of the water and just loving every moment in it. I also loved the opportunity to take both of them around the villa on little walks. FG is old enough now to appreciate nature and we had lots of lizards, millipedes and ants to observe and blackberries to eat on our ‘adventures’ (as he called them).

And then it was time for us to leave all this fun and conviviality. It had been so good to see everyone enjoy the holiday with its mix of group and separate activity, the games, the food and drink and the diverse chat. I hope we can repeat the model again but practicalities may intervene to prevent that so, for now, I am just going to continue to soak up the happy memories.

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.

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!

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.

Darn It!

January 28, 2024January 28, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

One of my New Year resolutions was to do more creative things. I think I have met that challenge, albeit rather mundanely this month, by darning several pairs of socks. I had bought the materials to do this some time ago but had left them languishing in a drawer. I got them out again and followed a YouTube video showing me how to bring a bunch of socks back to life. I admit that the holes were quite small and the finished products are not works of art, but I was proud of myself for doing it rather than just throwing the socks away and buying new ones.

^{Not Beautiful But Newly Functional}

My wife Jane has also been darning and even went on a workshop to facilitate more complex darning processes than I had attempted. Her main output was a repaired soft toy – called ‘Robert’ apparently – that my late mother had knitted for our Middle Son (MS) and which he still remembers adoring as a small child. MS and his fiancé are expecting a baby in March and, touchingly, MS wanted the baby to have a smartened up ‘Robert’ for his or her nursery. As with my socks, the repairs are, fashionably I’m told, very visible. Hopefully, both socks and ‘Robert’ will have a new lease of life.

*^{‘Robert’. 30 Years Old And Going Strong. Thanks Mum!}*

Most of my other New Year Resolutions have started well. I’ve been walking a lot, watching my weight and my alcohol intake, and have countered my fear of average, lukewarm coffee by going to a cafe with Jane when she has requested (only once so far). I’ve reduced my intake of the miserable world news a bit. I’ve also remembered to do my back exercises on most days and although they are limited, they are also pain free. While doing them, I have enjoyed remembering that these exercises weren’t really possible a year ago after I put my back out with an unexpected, untimely and big sneeze; that’s good progress.

Only the gardening resolution is untouched but, so far in January, the weather has been either too cold and frosty (lovely to walk in), too windy or too rainy. Climate chaos certainly seems to be producing very varied winter weather and convenient excuses not to get out working in the garden.

^{Frosty Mornings On The Way Into Town}

In the last two or three weeks, there has been plenty of cloudless sky in between the storms. Jane and I had a lovely walk through some woods on the other side of the Stroud Five Valleys from our home. Lack of parking places forced us to alter our plans slightly but it is always rewarding to find new places to stroll through and the Five Valleys are blessed with a vast network of well-tended footpaths.

*^{Striding Through Sunlit Oldhills Woods On The Chalford Biodiversity Trail}*

I have revisited some of the long walks around our village for the first time for months. I’ve loved these sunny walks, their views and their solitariness and the time they give me to think (but not about very much). The frozen ground meant there were no worries about the mud and the mix of bright sun and deep frost everywhere has been spectacular at times.

*^{I Love This Old Barn Complex. I Hadn’t Been Past It For Ages}*

Some of the recent winter sunrises have been spectacular too.

Spring is on its way. I often find upcoming February is the toughest month to negotiate; I get impatient for the ever longer days and daunted by the amount of work there is to do to prepare the garden for planting. Darn it, perhaps I should have focused a little less on mending socks in recent days, and a little more on gardening so as to have got ahead of tasks on the vegetable patch and in the field. Even in retirement, time is too short.

New Year, New Trip

January 13, 2024 / fgrtommo / 2 Comments

We chose Belfast rather than Edinburgh for Christmas but I couldn’t wait to see First Grandchild (FG) again and so we pitched up in Edinburgh early in January. The added benefit of going then was that we could celebrate Eldest Son’s birthday with him. As ever, we had a great time and experienced wonderful hospitality.

We did some of the usual things with an enthusiastic FG. We spent a morning exploring the National Museum of Scotland and another wandering through the Royal Botanic Garden. Both are great places to take toddlers and FG is very chatty now so trips like these are more pleasurable than ever.

*^{Morning Across Edinburgh To The Pentland Hills From The Royal Botanic Gardens}*

FG also has a soul mate in my wife, Jane, when it comes to visiting the cafés in these places. Since I have pledged to overcome my fear of lukewarm/weak café coffee, and have added going to cafés when requested by Jane to my list of new year resolutions, I went along willingly with their desires.

We had driven up to Edinburgh and the journey was smooth with no problem with charging up the battery. As a result, we had the option to drive FG and his parents beyond Edinburgh for an outing. Since the weather was cold but clear, we chose to go to the beach at Yellowcraig near North Berwick.

We had a lovely time passing FG sticks, stones and chunks of seaweed that he could throw into the waves amid Yellowcraig’s open vistas and its big skies.

^{Looking North To North Berwick Law And Bass Rock From Yellowcraig Beach}

Back in his flat, we threw ourselves into entertaining FG with drawing, tower building (and knocking them down), Playdoh moulding, and reading. FG takes these activities very seriously and loves having control; I love that and it makes the times when he simply laughs and messes about even more enjoyable. He’s developing so quickly.

Before FG arrived, my wish was to see a grandchild before I died but now, inevitably, I want to live for decades so I see more and see them grow up. We are so looking forward to the arrival of a second grandchild in Bristol in a couple of months.

We did slip off for some ‘me-time’ too. I walked down the Water of Leith to Leith town. I’ve done that before but this time I went a little further to the edge of the port. Leith is a vibrant town that is being transformed into a trendy outpost on the edge of Edinburgh with a new and frequent tram connection. Next time we will try to get to see the Royal Yacht Britannia which has been retired to a berth there.

*^{Late Afternoon In Leith And Leith Port}*

*^{One Of Antony Gormley’s Water of Leith Statues Clad In A Hibernian Football Shirt For New Year}*

I also wandered through Stockbridge to see some of my favourite residential areas of Edinburgh. We still debate whether moving to Edinburgh – or at least having a permanent second base there – would be viable and sensible. The best Georgian flats and houses are lovely to look at and dream of owning. More practically, a modern flat would be a better target but there’s no harm in looking!

*^{My Favourite (So Far) Edinburgh Square – Saxe Coburg Place}*

The drive home from Edinburgh always feels a lot less exciting than the journey up. Although charging up the car was again problem-free on the way, there was an hour-long stoppage due to an accident – a Range Rover towing a food truck strewn across three of the four lanes near Manchester – to further deflate the mood. But getting home is always a relief and a pleasure of its own. Now we are chilling out back in our weekly routine which includes evenings in front of the fire and series after series of streamed television.

Until the next trip to Edinburgh and more memory creation with the little one…..

My Retirement Journey

I've Retired! What Next?

Family