This is a well-made video of a walk along the abandoned railway between Farnsfield and Southwell in Nottinghamshire. I once visited Farnsfield to photograph the grave of an obscure writer and I have known and loved Southwell and its cathedral for most of my life. You can see my own photos of Southwell station and the huge mill beside it on this blog. I caught the bus from Southwell to Farnsfield, but it looks an attractive walk with some relics of the railway left to enjoy. And I do agree it would make a great heritage railway, ideally running as ...
Neal's Yard Dairy has written about the problems that 2020 has caused the makers of blue cheeses - Joe Schneider, Jo Clarke and Stilton maker Billy Kevan of Leicestershire's Colston Bassett Dairy in particular: The cut-off for making the Stilton-style blue cheeses produced by Joe, Billy and the Clarkes was roughly the middle of September. "Anything you make after that struggles to be ripe in time for Christmas," says Joe. Yet back in July, when these producers would normally start their Christmas cheese production, predicting what December might hold was akin to gazing into a crystal ball. "It's a chain ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:The young scullions had heard this roar many times before but had never associated it with anything other than anger. At first, consequently, it had frightened them, but they had soon perceived that there was no irritation in its note today.When I previously reviewed Titus Groan, in 2011, I wrote:Titus Groan starts with the birth and ends with the first birthday celebrations of the heir to the grand, tradition-bound castle of Gormenghast; every grand fantasy citadel since owes something to Mervyn Peake (thinking, most recently in my reading, of Isse Tower in Cecilia Dart-Thornton's The Ill-Made ...
As an observer of life in general one thing about our current pandemic has got my attention; men in vans generally don't wear masks. This is not intended to be a piece regarding the rights and wrongs of mask wearing but more about who does and who doesn't comply with the rules. I cycle a lot and in a similar way to walking you see far more than when we all speed about in vehicles. What's become apparent to me is that you see men riding about in all kinds of vans, often 2 or 3 of them, and virtually ...
A campaign group - Save Our NHS Leicestershire - has been formed by people concerned at new plans for the county's hospitals. After taking issue with a Leicester Mercury report about it, the group explains on its website: A spokesperson for the Clinical Commissioning Group in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland responds to this by saying that "Nowadays, modern patient care is not just about having beds in hospitals; our focus is on providing care closer to where people live." But community care is in complete crisis due to a decade of austerity and there is no explanation in the Trust's ...
It is suspected that our Government was actually hoping for a Trump win. If true there can be no more damning evidence of our increasing isolation among the world's liberal democracies. To add to our shame there are good reasons to expect that our future relations with the US are going to be somewhat frosty, due to the opinions and actions of Tory leaders pasy and present. Back in 1916 while he was Mayor of London, when President Barack Obama expressed support for Britain's remaining in Europe, Mr Johnson dismissed him as " part- Kenyan with an ancestral hostility to ...
The Children's Society has produced a report, Moving always Moving, on the effects of housing insecurity on children. What does that actually mean in practice? For the purpose of this report we define it in a way that most closely reflects the experiences of relevant participants, and there are three main elements to the way we conceptualise it: with reference to multiple moves, to those moves being involuntary, forced or reactive, and to those moves being related to poverty. When I was Scottish Housing Spokesperson, every Christmas we would do a freedom of information request on the number of children ...
Sun, 12:09: More Real Than Reality: The Fantastic in Irish Literature and the Arts, eds Donald E. Morse and Csilla Bertha Why Lord Dunsany is not as good as either Tolkien or Lovecraft. And another on mermaids. #nwbooks https://t.co/59rppMSHHg https://t.co/awSAX99xp5 https://t.co/xs5xODbAck Sun, 12:56: RT @karentravers: This is a great find & worth a watch. "I expect these fellas are going to eventually judge me on my merits, not on my a... Sun, 13:14: The Pollinators of Eden, by John Boyd Freda Caron is a botanist working on some strange flowers from a newly discovered planet, and gives birth to a ...
Mon 9th
10:45
Festival of Politics discusses racism, impact of Covid on people with disabilities, digital threats ...
One of the very few upsides of this terrible year is that many festivals have gone digital and are free to access. I had a wonderful time at the Hay Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival earlier this year without leaving my sofa. The weekend after next, from 19-21 November, the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics goes online and it, also, is completely free. Politicans and experts will mull over the issues of the day. There are discussions which are relevant across the whole of the UK covering a huge range of topics. I'm looking forward to the discussions ...
The Labour politician Jack Straw first went to Iran in late September 2001, in the wake of 9/11. He had become Foreign Secretary earlier that year and had the delicate task of wooing Tehran in support of what would become known as the War against Terror. This proved less difficult than one might expect as [...]
Any doubts about the scientific efficacy of the badger cull in England must surely have been allayed this morning with the news that a Government-backed study concluded just one in 12 badgers found dead on roads has bovine tuberculosis. The Mirror reports that researchers from Nottingham University collected and tested 610 "roadkill" badger carcasses, but found only 51 infected with the disease: The revelations came from a £497,000 study funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - the Whitehall ministry responsible for tens of thousands of badgers being culled. A 37-page report by Professor Malcolm Bennett, ...
Today I have written to the Chief Constable and the City Solicitor asking for more help for the Council's parking enforcement staff following an incident reported to me which occurred last week. In the Incident when after being given a ... Continue reading →
We're all in need of a laugh these days. Enjoy Saturday Night Live's brilliant reaction to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning the US election:
Mon 9th
08:30
Whoniversaries 9 November: Invasion #2, Delta & Bannermen #2, Happiness Patrol #2, Lost in Time ...
broadcast anniversaries 9 November 1968: broadcast of second episode of The Invasion. First appearance of UNIT and Benton, and return of the (newly promoted) Brigadier. The Doctor and Jamie are taken to UNIT, and then go in search of Zoe and Isobel; everyone is captured by IE. 9 November 1987: broadcast of second episode of Delta and the Bannermen. The Bannermen pursue Delta, the Doctor and Mel try to help, and the two Americans wonder what they are doing there. 9 November 1988: broadcast of second episode of The Happiness Patrol. The Doctor and Ace run around separately getting captured ...
DUNDEE CITY COUNCIL - WEEKLY ROAD REPORT REPORT FOR WEST END WARD - WEEK COMMENCING MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2020 Hawkhill - lane closures for 6 weeks for street lighting column installation works. Pentland Avenue (City Road to Scott Street) - closed westbound from Monday 2 November for 6 days to facilitate road safety works. Glamis Drive - closed from Monday 9 November for 2 weeks for carriageway surfacing.
No Remembrance Sunday parades today in the Whickham area. Instead, local groups and organisations laid wreaths throughout the day at the various war memorials in the area. I took part in the 2 minutes silence at 11am. A few others in our street did so as well.
