John Garrett accompanies me on a week at Plodda
I had a feeling this was going to be a good week when myself and Sasha met the group in the station. I’d had a call from John at the changeover saying he was just passing Tebay – typically tardy, but hey, Frodsham to Cannich in one day is a bit of a mission.
John eventually turned up at gone 7, by which time the group had already made food and seemed to be getting on rather well. The good food and good laughs continued all week, with games almost every night, lots of hard work, a freelance reporter (Eifion – apparently he’s sold a piece to the Ecologist and the Shooting Times so look out for them) and a swift drink in the Tomich Hotel on Friday.
And, on our day off (Wednesday) we all went on a walk together. It started with a river crossing, shoes and socks off and rolled up trousers – we waded over in threes in an attempt not to lose anybody – and included great views of Glen Affric, dinner by Loch An Ang (I’ll have to check the spelling later), another river crossing, a walk through a field with grass as high as our heads and a look at the Guisachan ruin.
More pictures will follow when I have decent internet access…
Ok, all photos are now uploaded. To view them click this link.
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- Ta daaaa! I’m not sure Mark is happy with the size of the stump though. Do Lizzie and Rachel care?
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- Eifion’s article in the Ecologist should be interesting…
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- The group gathers prior to the walk on the day off.
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- So, if one of us goes over, the others will be able to hold them up? Hmm…
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- Our threesome prepares for the river crossing. I’m fine.
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- Loch An Ang (I still haven’t checked the spelling)
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- Actually, this may have been the best part of my day. Running through a field, with grass as tall as my head, reminded me what it was like to be a child.
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- Mark, Rachel and John rolling up fence wire. Sasha watching, Charlie and Nick attacking a post, Penny checking her hair, and Lizzie, well who knows what Lizzie is doing…
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- Last day, lunch on the bus. John has forgotten his, so is having to eat other people’s offerings
Off to Scotland again…
Time to head North again. An impromptu family lunch is organised and I’m waved off.
I stop at John’s for the night, feeling like I’ve forgotten something. I get to meet Jane, and Stella comes round for dinner. I try to persuade John to come on the forthcoming TFL week…
Bicton Park
Mother very kindly takes myself and Han & the kids to Bicton Park. It’s a nice place. Lots of trees to id, but not enough labels – only the trees that have been deemed significant during a visit by someone from Kew show name tags. The tallest tree in the park is a Grecian Fir. My favourite, though, is a Mexican Pine, of which I have no pictures. I did take some photos though – they are below:
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- Willow is looking forward to identifying some trees
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- There’s also a museum of old farming… stuff.
Riverford Organic Kitchen
Mum and Paul very kindly treat me to a meal at the Riverford Kitchen. These guys ( www.riverford.co.uk) produce organic veg (and meat) boxes. I used to live off them when I was based in Bristol, and found that I could just about get away with not having to use supermarkets. Contrary to what people might think, this saved me money – vegetables and fruit are generally cheaper than processed food, it saved the environment, my food tasted fantastic, and it meant that I felt healthier.
Now the rest of my Exmouth based family try to do the same.
Eating organic food has hit the headlines recently as there is apparently no evidence to suggest that organic food is better for you than non-organic. For me, this almost completely misses the point. Organic farming methods are considerably more sympathetic to the land, and in an age when we have the choice to live sustainably, or to destroy the environment we live in, producing organically seems to me to be a straight forward decision.
Getting back to the Riverford Kitchen… when we arrived a menu was hanging from the wall listing a choice of dishes, Squash and Goats cheese Flan, Potato Gratin, Roasted veg, Chilli Spinach and Cumin, etc. As I sat wondering which dish to go for I was told that we would be provided with ALL (six) of the vegetarian dishes at our table. So, no decision necessary – it was just a case of how much of each dish could I get on my plate.
There was also desert. I left with that post Christmas meal bloated feeling. Did I mention organic food tastes good?
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- The Riverford kitchen is visible in the background…
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- Six meals in one, C’mon!
Kids update
I spent a bit of time round Han’s, making Willow smile (not hard), and feeding Flynn. Here’s how they look at the ages of 6 and 20 months respectively…
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- Isn’t that the crazy finger gesture of a metalhead?
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- Hmm, I see you’ve failed to consider the bias of the observer in your assumptions regarding the large number constants…
Digging the allotment, and some Slow Worms!
Mum and Paul have an allotment here in Exmouth and are planning to put some fruit bushes in before Christmas. So, I was drafted in to dig the area where said bushes will go, and increase the size of some of the other dug patches.
The allotments are a hotbed of sexagenarian and septuagenarian activity. I don’t know if it is this or the fact that a certain type of people are likely to apply for an allotment, but the people on site all seem very civil, sharing ideas and shouting hello to each other and passers by. My kind of people.
However, I was surprised to note how many of them had driven there. The allotments are situated at the top of hill, but are pretty much near the middle of town. My Mum always walks up the hill to them, but for others perhaps green fingers doesn’t necessarily equate to green thinking. There are also some, unsurprisingly, old fashioned views on Stinging Nettles and Ragwort, two plants which encourage visits from insects.
The highlight of the two days was coming across first some young, and then an adult Slow Worm. I can’t remember ever having seen a Slow Worm before, and they are gorgeous. I was very disappointed at having disturbed them. Hopefully, with the carpet they were under relaid on a different part of the site, they will still find the plot an acceptable place to hang out.
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- Before…
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- …and after I’d finished with it.
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- This appears to be the mother (?) Slow Worm drooling over some slug eggs
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- I love these things.
A bit of time with Timmo
I’ve spent the last couple of days working at Omiga Technology, installing VMware and creating VMs. Good stuff (if you’re a techie geek like me), nice to keep myself up to date with what’s going on in the world of IT. Also nice to spend some time with Tim, and see what he does during the day.
Afterwards we drive over the bridge to Cardiff, where we catch up further over a couple of beers and an Italian. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of Cardiff, but I do have a copy of a pic of Tim that myself and Mike discovered in his home office last time we were visiting. He appears to be amazingly stubble free – it must have been taken seconds after he finished shaving.
Tim - the early years
The POW in Bristol
After a day working at Omigatech I head to Rama’s. Imogen meets us there and we walk down to the Prince of Wales on Gloucester Rd. It is a great night. However, my Tofu stir fry, although tasty, is tiny – honestly, I could’ve eaten six of them. So I have to order a bowl of chips, i.e. the dish with the most content per pound sterling on the menu. Imogen also mentions the serving size issue to the man serving, and he explains that the chef likes to leave us with room for desert. Hmm. To be fair, Imogen’s desert is nice, but that’s no excuse for a dish that’s just shy of £9.
Anyway, Imogen leaves a little cake, and I leave four chips, for Fran. But she doesn’t turn up so we have to eat them.
Imogen and Rama, after eating.
… and Fort William
I came to Fort William for the night to stay with Heather and Stuart, who lived in Harris upto about a week ago (those of you who’ve seen my OH Experience video should recognise the names). Unfortunately, showing them said video may not have been the best thing to do. Harris/Lewis is a pretty amazing place – it could be hard to wonder why you’ve left when you now live in Corpach (nr FW). So here is a small collection of photos, taken this morning as I was leaving, on a near cloudless day, with the sun rising over Ben Nevis, showing that the area around FW can be spectacular, in its own way…
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- Fort William across the loch
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- This could have been a much better pic if I’d have bothered getting out of the van…
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- Lazy road side pics are my speciality
End of week chores…
At the end of a work week myself and the other week leader have some chores to do. Firstly we drop the volunteers off at Inverness railway station. It’s always a bit of a wrench getting back into the van knowing I may not see some of these people again. But, we wave them goodbye and then have to head off to refuel the van, and pick up any other supplies before embarking on The Big Changeover.
The Big Changeover involves meeting the leaders going out on the next week(s), swapping vans, food, notes, etc and buying a fry up breakfast. This week Calum left me in Moriston’s car park to catch a train to London, so I had to head over to the Changeover on my own.
After the Changeover I drove the TFL van, “Birch” (due to its silver colour) with trailer, to Forres. There I had to meet Craig, from the work week office, to pick up a key for the office, drop of any recycling in Forres, before completing the last leg of my journey in Birch to the Findhorn Foundation, where the TFL offices are.
TFL Offices, Findhorn Foundation.
Once I’d swapped my bags from Birch to my van, and done what I needed to do in the office, I was on my way.
A work week on the beautiful Isle of Skye
The island was a little reluctant to show us her beauty on this visit, but finally did so in time for the day off, on Wednesday. Another work week with Calum, top man, and this time, a group of fairly experienced volunteers, a few of whom I knew already.
I’d heard that the week before had been a bit of a wash out, but when leaving Inverness last Saturday the sun was out and it looked like things could be about to change (contrary to the forecast). However, this time the forecast had it just about right. Sunday was a monster – removing fence in what started out as wind and drizzle and progressed to wind and heavy rain. Thankfully that was the worst of it with just light rain for the next two days. And then some sun. Until Friday night when it all kicked off again, force 7 winds, heavy showers, cancelled ferries, caution on the Skye bridge – great stuff.
Photos will follow, once I’ve stopped driving for long enough to get them online.
Ok, photos can now be found here (in fairly low resolution). There may be slightly less of them than usual because my camera got very wet in my pocket on the first Sunday, and has, since then, been performing in a most erratic fashion.
Anyway, here are some higher res highlights:
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- So Paul, what do you think of it so far?
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- Gordon in need of some ‘calories’ (available in flasks back at the hostel)
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- So, on our day off we thought we’d drive the bus down some rarely used FCS tracks, just so’s the vols didn’t have to walk so far to site…
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- …the Focaliser training taught us how to keep calm…
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- …and read maps.
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- Looking out at the Sun rising, from the Flora MacDonald hostel
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- It’s funny but I don’t miss the view I had from my office window. For a start Balloon Woman hasn’t been a volunteer on any of my work weeks.
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- Gordon and Vince distract the Focaliser while Val tries to role the wire into the sea
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- Calum after 4 weeks of Focalising.
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- The third, and final, North off.
Life since the office 
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