the stow life - may 2008

The rainclouds are threatening between bouts of lovely bright sunshine. Bleh, I'm catching up on admin today, with the promise of a spell in the garden later to get sweetpeas in the ground just as soon as the "paperwork's" done ... this being Scotland, it may be a case of dashing between raindrops.

Spring has arrived, albeit later than in previous years. We had a wet and chilly April. The upshot of the late spring has been an almost tropical May with the countryside lushly layered with too many shades of green to count. The bluebells and wild garlic are abundant in the local meadows and woodlands. I've been guiltily coveting the less plentiful pink bluebells - we already have some blues in the garden. Yesterday I dug up a small bit of earth next to the roadside containing two bulbs of the pinks and a few rhizomes of wild garlic to replant in our beds. There's still a reserved spot in a carefully prepared and replanted bed in the front garden awaiting some snake's head fritillary. It will very likely have to wait until next year, though, as I've been unsuccessful thusfar in sourcing these rare and endangered native woodland flowers. We had a few clumps of them on a shady slope at Lee Brae. I guess asking the current owner for one or two of the rhizomes would be a step too far. Especially since she's put the house on the market!

We've managed to soak in a bit of culture the past few weeks. There was a one man play at Bowhill Theatre called The Life & Death of Sherlock Holmes, superbly acted by Roger Llewellyn. He played Holmes, Professor Moriarty, Watson and Conan Doyle, as well as a few other minor characters brilliantly through a skillful combination of intonation, accents, gestures and just a few small props. He was limited by the confines of the theatre itself (a converted hunting larder on the Duke of Buccleuch's estate; with a stage no bigger than a large kitchen). I've never yet been disappointed after a night out at Bowhill. Its a small, intimate venue which requires the actors to push the limits of their craft in the absence of elaborate props. The productions are from modest, independent companies with jobbing actors. The limited theatre space means that productions number no more than a handful of actors.

Last night Phil & I enjoyed a meal in Edinburgh with one of his South African workmates & Polish wife before going to see Orkestra del Sol at the Queen's Hall. What a wonderfully and enjoyable noisy, foot stomping, hand clapping, arm waving evening it was. The Orkestra is difficult to categorise: ten multi-talented musos playing a range of acoustic traditional European instruments - ranging from a half size fiddle to a massive tuba, as well as the clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, bass drum and a few other musical contrivances I've never heard or seen before. In a variety of styles including waltz, polka, calypso. Sousaphone is how they describe themselves. Add to that some rip roaring storytelling and you've got Orkestra del Sol. The warm up act, The Den Collective, was just as good - sort of Afrobeat, with lots of traditional drums which they used to excellent effect to accompany their dancing & movement.

Next Saturday we've a day trip to Northumberland planned. Our neighbour, a retired merchant seaman, will be joining us. It'll start with a drive over the causeway to Lindisfarne & Holy Island while the tide's out. From there its on to Seahouses where you hop on a boat over to the Farne Islands to do a spot of puffin watching. We'll take a picnic with to enjoy mid morning at Lindisfarne and end off with a fish supper along the Seahouses pier in the evening. If the gulls can be kept at bay long enough, that is. I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in the Gertrude Jeckyll garden on Holy Island, for some gardening inspiration.

The spare room's been occupied on and off since March with guests and couchsurfers. We had a delightful American family with their two young daughters for two nights, from North Carolina. Their visit was followed by a repeat visit from a couchie turned friend, who returned with her teenage son this time. It was his first visit abroad, and we're looking forward to hearing his thoughts & observations when he's had a chance to digest the trip. I find children's and young people's views about travel & meeting different cultures very insightful and realise how influential and formative they can be when I read Callan's creative writing, look at her art, or listen to her put forward points of view. She has gained valuable insight through seeing how other people live, and it has had a significant effect on her worldview. It has opened her mind to many different perspectives and she has strong convictions about universal issues as a result.

One couchsurf encounter resulted in a job over the summer. This has kept me busy this month, and is a very refreshing alternative to the more mundane, rather mind numbing temp assignment I was doing in March and April. The job itself was a text book case for the bureaucratic and self serving tasks found in organisations reluctant to evolve or change. Things are done the way they always have been. But no one knows why. Or what purpose they serve. One can only assume that people who repeatedly perform inefficient tasks, liberally interspersed with periods of idleness for their day job must find fulfillment and stimulation in other areas of their life. I found it frustrating to surrender so much precious time, albeit paid, to feed the machine of bureaucracy.

The ATG Oxford job over the summer couldn't be a more stark contrast to the temp assignment. It involves driving luggage around the countryside and meeting-n-greeting independent travellers on a 50 odd mile walk through the Scottish Borders. The formalities are briefing & debriefing them and ensuring their holiday is hitchfree. Its on a self employed basis and keeps me busy anything between 2 to 4 hours a day pretty much everyday until the end of September.

What an unexpected outcome from accepting a couchsurf request. The couchsurfer was a great guest, too, sharing with us his cycling adventure from Britain to China, and then back again. He's aiming to publish the story in book form, and meantime there's more about it at www.2wheels.org.uk. Some tales he had, and also very thought provoking insights about life and human nature, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

We're looking forward to more interesting couchsurf hosts over the summer, interspersed with visits from some of Phil's family from "up north" of England. We've eventually persuaded some that its reasonably safe for the English to venture over Hadrian's wall to check out the natives in Scotland. Frankly, one has more to fear from the artery clogging diet. Although the loutish behaviour of a small hardcore of footie supporters in Manchester last week may not convince a fearty Englishman.

I registered last month to study part time with the Open University; with the first course starting in October. It'll be the Open Degree - either BSc or BA - probably with Honours. I aim to fast track the course by applying for credits for an existing qualification, but got word back last week that the OU doesn't recognise my Higher Diploma of Education - the equivalent in Britain of a Bachelor of Education. Even more frustratingly, the BA Ed qualifies significantly for credits. I'll follow up with the awarding body - Unisa, and make a case to OU, because the thought of doing a degree from scratch, part time for the next 6 years doesn't appeal quite so much. I had hoped to get exemption for at least a quarter to a third of the degree.

A selection of last year's Southern Africa holiday photos (a 100 odd of them, to be more exact) have now been uploaded to Flickr. They're uncaptioned there - only because the hours of work put into carefully captioning them on the computer didn't move across with them - but the more touristy ones and some of the mugs in them are quite recognisable. They're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/raona/