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March 09 2010
reflections and windows
The bridge did get finished:
Now this may appear to be a blurry photo gone wrong – well, it is - but it is also a picture of trees reflected in chocolate so worthy of inclusion 
It is a montezuma’s very dark bar…
March 07 2010
March 06 2010
polytunnels and taps
Weve had a few spring-like days now, causing me to dig over some ground for the little polytunnel and clean and set up the coldframe to let the ground warm up for salad seeds. Browsing Suttons trying to decide what to plant this year – will have more room with extra raised beds… this really does feel like waking up after winter! The pond is finally unfrozen today so I expect frogly activity soon 
It’s been like this in varying thickness of ice and pattern for months:
Dance mania continues with ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary being studied :)
Books and films amany dug out to accompany this in fine home educating fashion. The Ballet Companion is a gorgeous book, it’s been to good for me to read that things have come on with problems such as eating disorders and painful pointework (ouch pouches – love them!) being dealt with much more compassionately in general. High quality vegan ballet shoes are even available As for films… oh so many, from White Nights to A Chorus Line, loving them all, also deeply appreciative of friends sharing the enthusiasm and cost of DVD purchase… Had a nice time reading over T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats and then watching Cats and boring delighting others with tales of cast members I knew/was taught by or with… same goes for Billy Elliot… ah to be an old “when I was young — fill in with unbelievable sounding fact–” person – it’s great fun!!
March 05 2010
March 04 2010
i ♥ will self!
one of my all-time heroes:
“The car is the sworn enemy of the walker in every shape and form: they stink, they’re noisy, they’re dangerous, and they – or rather their drivers – are responsible for the most egregious and insensitive modifications to the British landscape since its Iron Age deforestation. Driving to take a walk is a solecism on a par with shooting people in the cause of universal peace and harmony. My view is if you can’t take a train or a bus to do a walk, then don’t do it at all.”
read more here.
listening: alela diane and angus & julia stone
March 03 2010
sigh no more
so, i lied about more mills. i mean, there are more mills, but i never did wrote that blog post. so, anyway, amy and i went to see mumford & sons at the ABC (i think it’s prefixed by O2 or something pish these days). because of the way the space is laid out, we were pretty far back where the bar section is raised slightly. the best photo i could get looks like this:
they were brilliant. beautiful, technical and charming, their performance can’t be criticised. they covered their most popular material and introduced some new songs, while bringing in some old material for their encore. the only thing is this gig revealed to me why i don’t like going to them anymore: other people.
i did my time going to see bands where i was either alone or with a small group of teenage girls in a room of middle-aged men in leather jackets and tennis shoes. not always pretty, the venues of my youth were a proving ground for gig etiquette – my mum is a pretty cautious soul but let me go out pretty much as i pleased because someone always waited for me to be picked up afterwards. it wasn’t child-friendly, but it was friendly and respectful.
so, anyway, gigs these days… teenagers these days… jeez, what can i say? people pushing their way in front of each other, hollering mid-song and waving their arms around in everyone else’s faces? ah, it weren’t like that when i was a lass, i can tell you. but seriously, there is just no bloody etiquette these days. it’s all me, me, me: “i want the best view,” “i want to enjoy myself,” “it’s my right to do as i please.” what about everyone else who paid exactly the same amount for their ticket? what about the band, the artist? “nah, let’s clap loudly through every song, regardless of its tone or tempo, and cheer loudly during reflective instrumentals, because they should feel honoured that we’re here to see them even if we don’t value their creation.” frustrated, much?
so, i’ll end this with a photo of my city on a still night:
listening: the eiffel tower and the BT tower by the voluntary butler scheme
March 02 2010
March 01 2010
up brontë country
we spent the weekend in west yorkshire. it’s one of the most lovely places. not as sublime as scotland, but perhaps lovelier. i have an abiding affection for industrial landscapes and an undeniable fascination with wilderness; west yorkshire is as close to reconciling the two as i’ve yet come:
yorkshire’s spinning and milling history is undeniable when faced with such vistas. the houses are perfect worker’s terraces: rows of 2-up-2-down shoeboxes, with outhouses and coal bunkers, some displaying cellar doors and attic windows, others stained with the coal sediment of lost industry. it’s a romance i long for, and in west yorkshire it’s so tangible.
we spent the weekend traversing the moors and wandering mills, both those forgotten and those elevated. the friends we visited live in burley-in-wharfedale, a village of 6,000 inhabitants perched on the river wharfe that divides west and north yorkshire:
it’s a really lovely place and i could imagine just whiling away my days on the banks of the river, watching the lambs in springtime and the trees shedding their leaves in the autumn. the environmental isolation is perfectly balanced with the industrial built environment. saltaire is something else altogther:
it’s basically the yorkshire new lanark, built single-handedly by an enterprising businessman named titus salt in 1853 to house his workforce under better conditions than those common in bradford, the then wool capital of the world. but more of mills tomorrow… tonight, we sleep!
February 28 2010
Sunday Playlist
Bon Appetit!
Another tea post coming soon... Dxo
walnut cake and sheep
Vegan Easter has been updated
Walnut cake with a tablespoon of Nocaf added to the mix. It is not coffeeish as had intended but is very nice:
1st of March tomorrow, so will it get more springlike?
February 27 2010
February 26 2010
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
