In the Highlands. Four months since Mum died. Her terriers, ever my companions on endless walks, are gone to their new home thanks to the kindness of Christina and James at Farr Mains. Brin Croft has the familiar furnishings. All seem poised to move. tho' nothing can go until Confirmation - Scottish version of Probate - is approved. We must empty the house in readiness to sell it. We've sorted and lined up several hundred books to be valued, hopefully sold. Mum had many more reference books than I, more reliant on the internet feel I need. It's old children's books and other old books with lovely illustrations I'm hesitant to sell. Mum had so much the same taste as me in subjects or vice versa that much of her collection I've read and have already, so saying farewell to these will hardly be a wrench.
Sorting books in the log cabin
Helen from Logie Steading Bookshop will come for tea and look the books over on Thursday. I've been trying to find places to sell or donate Mum's collection of invalid kit. It's tricky because of strict health and safety rules on second hand electrical goods. Then there's furniture with more rules about fireproofing. These things matter less in private sales but they make donation to charities near impossible.
Liz has been looking after Brin Croft. She has Amy's dog Cookie up here and Lin and I have brought Oscar from England. For the last week Amy has been with Liz, in part to help with repainting parts of Brin Croft, and part to give her best friend companionship as she goes official - included on Facebook - with news of her pregnancy, just back from a 13 week scan at Raigmore Hospital yesterday morning to circulate photos. How Mum would have delighted in this, especially as our grandson Oliver is also here.
Liz's ultrasound image
I went into Macandrew and Jenkins in Inverness this morning, up the old stone stairs and wide mahogany banisters. Stroll some of what used to be the core streets of Inverness and you get a picture of how out of town retailing and autodependency - autodependencia - has comprehensively blighted the place I've know for fifty years - few people strolling amid charity shops, Poundland, a plethora of 'for sale, lease and rent' signs, boarded windows, and pawnbrokers with euphemistic names...
Drummond Street, Inverness
I was seeing Sharon Leckie, para-legal working for James Wotherspoon, to sign a sheaf of Confirmation documents that must now be mailed to my sister, Bay, in New York for her signature. Then the real work begins - clearing and selling the house, distributing contents. Phew! We've arranged visits by estate agents to get an idea of how the market may behave and how the house should be described and should the lochan be included. Thank goodness for family. Even though I've been executor for three other wills, this seems the hardest even with the support I have.
A lovely message from Aftab Rahman this evening:
Hello Simon - I am sorry for your loss. I lost my dad nearly six years ago. Every now and then, I still cry - and wish he was hear to share in my success and failures. But, he is buried in Bangladesh - my brothers and I took him back one last time. We reached the last leg of our trip to my dad's village at night on a boat - I still recall, the night sky full of stars. I like to think that I have taken him back to his beloved land where the stars shine on him at night and the remains of his body nourishes the land he so loved. I have not been back to see his grave for some five years - I want to visit and take my daughters with me and share my joy by his grave side. I hope you happiness in this tough time. That void will never be filled - but time will heal and you will find ways to cope my friend.
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From Chris R:
Hi Simon. All is great here in Asia I have today taken the night train from old British Penang island to KL in Malaysia.
Night train from Penang
My back has eventually recovered from the garden repair project. I don’t know why I have been so driven to so injure myself but must be that childhood on a farm and a desire to be surrounded by green growth; as the development has destroyed lots of green space.
I am sorry I will miss you in March we both seem to have such a drive to travel and understand our world! I shall look forward to news of strawberry’s harvested by you and not the slugs like last year!
Cultivation to Consumption - Chani uses some of my cabbage to cook delectable pakorah
It would indeed be great to have another share your plot plus there is also much room to share at Antrobus Road, as after a constant battle to get the City’s Development to cooperate with not damaging the former gardens too much I have decided to keep a larger amount of my adversely possessed land; which is more fertile than the bit they have already given back. They have not exactly played by the rules as developers but their land transfer department has been most truthful with me and has recognised my rights over the land I have looked after for some time. Will be glad when its all settled however; (possessions possess the possessor) then I can concentrate on just growing! How great that you have sailed by Antikythera.
Sailing in Danica near Thumb island near Antikithera in 1962
I stopped by the British Museum with a friend before I flew in Feb and looked at their collection of early Victorian drawings of the ‘discovered’ great ancient Greek ruins settled by goat herding people living in low level settlement at the foot of the great ruins. It does seem that we have done very little more to advance in last 2000 years but keep repeating history. I would be very interested in discussing your living in Greece. I have tried to get redundancy unsuccessfully this year but keep hoping that soon I will get the opportunity to seriously think about another investment project eventually!
Hope you have been enjoying travels to Bari and Naples. It has been raining unseasonably in Thailand and Malaysia but not too much as yet it does have the advantage of keeping it cooler!
After a few days in Malaysia with Teo we are off to Laos via Thailand as he has an amazing four weeks off work.
Looking forward to catching up soon with our respective news of travel-happy UK landings!
Much love to you both
Yours Chris
'We have been on some rough roads, hit some pretty big holes etc but both bikes are standing up to the rigours really well and are comfortable to ride. I am riding a Vivente World Randonneur and John has a Kona Sutra'...my friend John Martin, justly proud of hitting the 7000 kilometre mark on his and his friend Alistair Walker's cycle ride across great Canada in search of what makes rural communities work - or not (scroll down for a map of their route on this page of Democracy Street)
About the study: This summer I will be travelling across Canada, west to east, visiting small rural communities in ten provinces to learn about the ways in which people in these places have adopted sustainable living practices. Like small rural communities across Australia Canadian communities are also dealing with significant change relating to economic, demographic and environmental factors. People in these rural communities typically work together in creative and innovative ways to secure their viability and liveability. I am interested in how they organise themselves to do this, how they relate to other communities in their province and with the Federal Government to ensure a sustainable future. Prof John Martin, University of LaTrobe, Bendigo
Meantime my fellow Corfu blogger hums in print the praises of Ken Block - a celebrated petrol head for whom some benighted agency of government was prepared to give the freedom of the city to make skiddy noises:
Have I shoved this latest Ken Block wheelie freak-out in here, or just in my Facebook which has overtaken my blog for the true test of temperatures and times. The man has crazy skills, and clearly crazy contacts because for whom else would they close the place down. One snotty-nosed kid to sneak out the backyard to see what's going on ... round comes Ken sideways in a cloud of dust ... all they'd find would be a splodge of snot on a pot plant.
Why should anyone steal a watch when he could steal a bicycle? ~ Flann O’Brien
The bicycle is the most civilised conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. ~ Iris Murdoch
When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man’s convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man’s brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle. ~ Elizabeth West
Small mammals
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. ~ H.G. Wells
The bicycle is a vehicle for revolution. It can destroy the tyranny of the automobile as effectively as the printing press brought down despots of flesh and blood. ~ Daniel Behrman
When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day’s sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay’s call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamourings of work, leave all the mind theatres behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilisation. The world is breaking someone else’s heart. ~ Diane Ackerman
… the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon ~ Bill Strickland, The Quotable Cyclist
Chani, Aftab, Chris, Simon, Emma, Danni, Jeevan, Abdul
It began with Aftab wandering around the site collecting vegetables from our sodden plots. I gave cabbage, broad bean, spring onions and potatoes. Nothing to the contributions from the more experienced gardeners like Wesley, Danni, Micheal and Vanley. The cooks were Aftab but also Chani who'd only been recruited at the 'rehearsal' on Wednesday when he'd turned up looking for a plot. As it was he bought an extra cooker, more food, an extra table and his skills.
Food from mine and other's allotments cooked by Aftab on the spot
I'd brought a gazebo from home - a welcome shelter for cooking and eating. Others, turning up in dribs and drabs in the grisly weather, sheltered happily chatting, preparing veg, having tea, and eating in the humble VJA clubhouse. We had three stoves, the extra one bought by Chani to heat oil to fry pakora. alongside the big pot of vegetable curry cooked by Aftab and another burner for the chapatis.
The freshest salad in the world
The rain was unceasing increasing dripping off the edges of the gazebo, bedraggling any who stayed in the open. The sky was greyer than dusk. Everyone helped out digging crops, cleaning and preparing food, cooking and serving it on a steady supply of plastic plates - the young lads from the Bangladeshi Youth Forum in train with Abdul set to with easy enthusiasm peeling, depodding, chopping, helped by Ashok and Jeevan who made up gram flour dough. Amid the gentle bustle and happy fuss things fell in place - an orchestra first dotted with separate tuning, hazards a tune or two and then altogether starts to play. There was food for all; hardly anything left - perhaps some spicy basmati rice at the bottom of one big pot; all else scraped clean, with vegetable preparation trimmings bagged for compost.
Under the gazebo
Aftab and I feel the whole thing went very well, the first of two, with another in the later summer. For this some of Thursday's participants were pushing for a BBQ that could include meat as well as vegetable. One piece of feedback "Get a bigger tent!" Did people learn as we hoped? Difficult to say. Carole from LegacyWM checking on the whole process collected evaluations from the thirty people there. Our purpose - from the application for the £200 financial support for two events...
...a pilot project in partnership with Victoria Jubilee Allotments and Legacy WM. The aim is to raise awareness of recycling, composting, growing food and cooking them. It will work with young people from the Bangladeshi Youth Forum and older people from B'ham Asian Resource Centre to demonstrate what can be done in people’s gardens and how food can be prepared. We will host two cooking events in the Victoria Jubilee Allotments and raise awareness of the benefits or eating organic food and encourage people to take similar initiatives in their own homes. It will also look at the negative impact of fast food on health.
I learned and I enjoyed myself. Fixing the learning, working out how far it worked is less clear, but it's the first event other than our very small Diamond Jubilee Picnic held on the Victoria Jubilee since we began in June 2010. I judge it a good start.
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Amy and Guy and Liz are in the Highlands; the first time my mother has seen Oliver, another great grandson
"Will you get a photo of you with Ollie"
"He's a such a cheery little soul" she said "I've arranged to buy four chickens from Macpherson, down the road - a pair of Light Sussex and Rhode Island Reds. We can collect them when you come up."
