tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77194811452164808992024-03-12T21:48:04.464-07:00mysmallsocietyjanicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.comBlogger167125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-42053044049908636402016-06-20T15:58:00.000-07:002016-06-20T15:58:02.897-07:00after a long time...................<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>please on Thursday Vote Remain</strong></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-78762050021753099592015-06-16T05:22:00.000-07:002015-06-16T05:22:53.909-07:00what happened to April and May?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So what did happen to April and May, first we went away for two weeks. Then there was the General Election, I delivered leaflets for my local Green candidate and for a few, carefully selected Lib Dem local candidates in another town and for one LD parliamentary candidate in another place entirely. Then the aftermath, plunged into gloom about continuing austerity, always hitting the poorest hardest and now almost only them, Human Rights and Europe and of course renewable energy (or not, under the current regime).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now the sun is out, the garden needs attention and the lovely long northern evenings weigh against spending the time on my computer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">However life in my small society has continued.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KPPCmpSr_VE/VYAIHKYZqeI/AAAAAAAAA_4/R6dq7Og_NDg/s1600/DSC02262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KPPCmpSr_VE/VYAIHKYZqeI/AAAAAAAAA_4/R6dq7Og_NDg/s200/DSC02262.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the front group coming</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">up the hill</span></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q6_R1PQphAY/VYAH4IOQKlI/AAAAAAAAA_w/SlH6srwbEB4/s1600/DSC02252.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q6_R1PQphAY/VYAH4IOQKlI/AAAAAAAAA_w/SlH6srwbEB4/s200/DSC02252.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the Alzheimer's van</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had a most successful two days during the Tour de Yorkshire. First at Sledgate, or Cote de Robin Hood's Bay, with the National Park, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a> and here is one to prove it. As well as the National Park presence the local Alzheimer's society were raising awareness with this pink decorated van, <a href="http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/">www.alzheimers.org.uk/</a>.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elX0a6ltABE/VYAJ0sxuQ1I/AAAAAAAABAE/GIYBm6xrkic/s1600/DSC02268.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-elX0a6ltABE/VYAJ0sxuQ1I/AAAAAAAABAE/GIYBm6xrkic/s200/DSC02268.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you're wondering about the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">horse, well horse racing is</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">a big part of the local economy</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The next day our local Fairtrade group, <a href="http://maltonandnortonfairtrade.org/">maltonandnortonfairtrade.org/</a>, had a stall in Norton library, we sold lots of cycling related items, like bike earrings and pin badges. The library and our stall were especially decorated for the day. The knitted jumpers were from the local knit and natter group, thanks to them for lending us some of their art work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The Fairtrade group also had a stall at the Folk Festival and at St Michael's Church (many thanks) during the Food Lovers' Festival. Flying the flag for Fairtrade food as often as we can.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IVYJBj7EUy8/VYAMPMuBg3I/AAAAAAAABAQ/GCRhOW6MeT4/s1600/DSC02348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IVYJBj7EUy8/VYAMPMuBg3I/AAAAAAAABAQ/GCRhOW6MeT4/s200/DSC02348.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the dreaded stuff!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties, also North York Moors, has had its usual variety of tasks and weather. Cutting back, clearing thickets to reveal a long lost path, cleaning wooden framed steps (quite easy) and stone pitching (not at all easy). One day we were clearing a way through almost impenetrable gorse so that local researchers could try out a new treatment to try to weaken the invasive Himalayan Balsam.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C5WJVnFMw2k/VYAMSEtDvkI/AAAAAAAABAY/iVcGtq7VgDY/s1600/DSC02387.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C5WJVnFMw2k/VYAMSEtDvkI/AAAAAAAABAY/iVcGtq7VgDY/s200/DSC02387.JPG" width="150" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Illq2-FQ0QI/VYAMW0yJs9I/AAAAAAAABAg/CS8ZmrFmwZc/s1600/DSC02385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Illq2-FQ0QI/VYAMW0yJs9I/AAAAAAAABAg/CS8ZmrFmwZc/s200/DSC02385.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then, out for a walk, one lovely late afternoon, a sign I had been waiting for, on the right, at the new length of the Cleveland Way through the alum works at Ravenscar. On the left you can see part of the 'project'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way</a>, <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">and </span><br />
<a href="http://www.coast-alive.eu/content/ravenscar-rags-riches">www.coast-alive.eu/content/ravenscar-rags-riches</a>.<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks to the Park staff who organised and erected this sign, and one the other end of the new section.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Meanwhile over in Leeds my new role as a Trustee of LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a>, has proved to be busy and sad. Because funds are now less than they were we have had to make two members of staff redundant. I have been involved in helping to transfer their work to other members of staff and to volunteers. Some services have had to be closed down, hopefully only temporarily. Such essential work, helping some very vulnerable people in our society. Volunteers will only be able to keep things ticking over, no new people can be helped, once again it shows how some paid staff are essential for any charity or community organisation. I have also been visiting my two 'befriendees', chatting, making phone calls and simply being a friend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sadly too the need for a Food Bank continues in Ryedale (friends in the big cities cannot believe it, nor can I), the sooner they can all close through lack of need, the better. I have taken donated food to the local warehouse and then required food to the distribution centre.<a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/</a>, and once again, you can't just walk in and pick up a bag of goodies, you HAVE to be referred by a specific agency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, just to show that my demonstrating days are not over, here is a picture of people outside</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gm0xr_0wCM0/VYASe0zys2I/AAAAAAAABAw/Mt8e9eWARN8/s1600/DSC02360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gm0xr_0wCM0/VYASe0zys2I/AAAAAAAABAw/Mt8e9eWARN8/s200/DSC02360.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Yarlswood detention centre, Bedfordshire, showing solidarity for the detainees and asking that this appalling place be closed down. <a href="http://www.movementforjustice.org/">www.movementforjustice.org/</a>, you can find out more here or just google Yarlswood.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">OK, signing off, and I will try to post in July, but no promises.</span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-77994952195170942892015-03-16T14:45:00.001-07:002015-03-16T14:45:42.757-07:00job replacement or volunteers can do it just as well?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since I last posted the topic of volunteers replacing paid staff has come up several times. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My local library is about to close, unless it can be run entirely by volunteers; apparently there will be a paid member of staff a phone call away, but what if they are on leave or just at lunch? Apart from the obvious that being a librarian is a lot more than stamping books, there is the problem that I have referred to time and again; if a family crisis or even a minor illness happens a volunteer may have different priorities to those of a paid member of staff. if a library is deemed to be a necessary part of a civilised society then people should be paid to run it. Volunteers can perform many tasks, taking books selected by library staff to housebound people is one, but actually running front line services should not be one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Another example came at the AGM of the Voluntary Ranger service of the North York Moors National Park, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a> . In a presentation on the Public Rights of Way network, footpaths and bridleways to most of us, it was made quite clear that volunteers would have to do far more than they had before. No longer just cutting back, cleaning steps, unblocking drains and sorting out board walks, now it is to be hanging gates, building stiles, all jobs previously done by redundant field staff. Some of us will not do this, but enough will that the jobs will get done and no one will notice that some people are now looking for jobs whilst others with pensions do their jobs for them. In another National Park, quite ridiculously, some people are now doing work as self employed contractors that could probably be done more cheaply if they were still to be employed! Will the same happen here?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">However my small society has carried on, trying to distinguish between genuine voluntary things and job replacement. I have been to Leeds several times, for <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk</a>. Several phone calls, the first to the housing provider of one of my clients to a problem she had already reported. Water pouring down the side of the bath into the kitchen below, not just a nuisance for her, but not good for their property. My call resulted in a repair within six hours, why? what was different about my phone call? My other call for my friend was about the long running saga of the gas bill, this time they have agreed to increase the time that her debt (caused by their inability to bill) can suddenly be spread over many more months, again why?</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4qGnSReQq7g/VQdHjIxawBI/AAAAAAAAA-0/hSR3-iQyuQQ/s1600/DSC01992.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4qGnSReQq7g/VQdHjIxawBI/AAAAAAAAA-0/hSR3-iQyuQQ/s1600/DSC01992.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">glug glug</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties has also carried on, one of the best tasks was drain clearing on a lovely sunny day at Ravenscar for the National Trust, <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/">www.nationaltrust.org.uk</a>. Huge satisfaction when I found and cleared the entrance to a culvert under a field entrance, what a lovely glug glug as the muddy water drained away. </span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1gjHZteAVc/VQdIhO5uWII/AAAAAAAAA_A/mZbb9Mg_hjU/s1600/DSC02000.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S1gjHZteAVc/VQdIhO5uWII/AAAAAAAAA_A/mZbb9Mg_hjU/s1600/DSC02000.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">storing the gravel half way down</span></td></tr>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zbc4yJmUG2s/VQdIkPVXTPI/AAAAAAAAA_I/fv8MVP-8cms/s1600/DSC02001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zbc4yJmUG2s/VQdIkPVXTPI/AAAAAAAAA_I/fv8MVP-8cms/s1600/DSC02001.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the start of the chute</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last Wednesday we were on the Cleveland Way south of Scarborough. More sunshine in the morning and an ingenious way of getting the gravel we use for steps and in muddy areas to the site; many, many steep steps from the road. Two lengths of culvert as an improvised chute, then the gravel was stored in a temporary area, the sections moved down and the gravel moved further down. Although this section is close to a large town access for materials is very hard, steep slopes and crumbling woodland means every thing has to be brought in by hand. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Our Fairtrade,<a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a> and local craft fair was a big success, the Fairtrade stall of international crafts did well as did the local crafts, from wood turning to shawls knitted from dog hair,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QljnsqeQJ8E/VQdMKEFoLtI/AAAAAAAAA_U/ZUQEEyqSRl0/s1600/DSC03667.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QljnsqeQJ8E/VQdMKEFoLtI/AAAAAAAAA_U/ZUQEEyqSRl0/s1600/DSC03667.JPG" height="130" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the Noddies, popular <br />
with all ages.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> everyone was pleased and will come again. I was so busy I forgot to take any photos, so here is one from a previous year! Thanks again to the Friends for making us so welcome at their Meeting House.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">During Fairtrade fortnight I also spoke to several local schools about Fairtrade, led a workshop on how a village might decide to use their FT premium and helped two schools with their stalls of FT goods. If anyone out there wants to do the same please let me know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sadly the Foodbank, <a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/</a> continues, I help by moving donated food to our warehouse and then take some bags of selected good to various distribution places. Thanks to those who donate and shame on those in power that have made them necessary. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The end of a mixed bag, some good, some sad and some bad. </span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-7431484578498813712015-02-11T14:20:00.001-08:002015-02-11T14:20:54.841-08:00much of the same<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One Saturday I am off to Helmsley for a first aid course, it is just a short one to renew my certificate, I am supposed to have one as a Voluntary Ranger, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a>, I actually manage to do the chest compressions fast enough. The course leader seems to live in an unreal world though, just a few days ago the news was about waits for ambulances, but she seems to think one would arrive in minutes, when ever or where ever we called them. Heh hoh!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Monday morning is my food bank run, from one of the main collection points to the 'warehouse'; I gather that one of the shortages is of toilet paper. I have a supermarket voucher that will offer me cheaper petrol if I spend so much on paper goods, so I make a note to buy extra for the food bank and get cheaper petrol too.<a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk</a>. Have a chat about how this in my only voluntary activity that I wish didn't exist. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">That evening I speak to an anti-fracking motion that I have asked my local Town Council to debate, I am delighted that it is passed unanimously. <a href="http://www.nortononderwent.co.uk/town-council/">www.nortononderwent.co.uk/town-council/</a>, thank you to the Town councillors. We should be looking to use less carbon fuels not more, reducing the need for power and generating far more from renewables.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HWzaXRp5cKE/VNvQwA940DI/AAAAAAAAA94/h7mXYcstdVE/s1600/DSC01958.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HWzaXRp5cKE/VNvQwA940DI/AAAAAAAAA94/h7mXYcstdVE/s1600/DSC01958.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this is not a hedge, it's the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">stuff we've cut back</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucI5iYBqSBI/VNvQ2i6_LsI/AAAAAAAAA-A/1cRscUViM0Y/s1600/DSC01967.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucI5iYBqSBI/VNvQ2i6_LsI/AAAAAAAAA-A/1cRscUViM0Y/s1600/DSC01967.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">'sweeping' up the gorse</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">with a gorse broom</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties has been out and about, cutting back a totally overgrown path in the north of the Park and then helping the National Trust cut back and move a mountain of gorse. <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/">www.nationaltrust.org.uk</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Over in Leeds I take my new 'befriendee' to a drop in with Manuel Bravo, <a href="http://www.manuelbravo.org.uk/">www.manuelbravo.org.uk/</a> to see if they can help her find a solicitor for her new asylum claim. They listen carefully and agree that they can! I ring the befriending manager at LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a> with the good news and race to the bus station to get my bus home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">One evening we go to a meeting locally about our local library becoming a 'community' library, they pretend this is a good idea, no it's not, it's about pretending that essential local services can be run by volunteers. I refuse to take part, it is applying a small sticking plaster to the unnecessary and appalling cuts to public services, a blood transfusion is needed. People need to see the effect of the cuts to public services, not let them be propped up this way. I am even more shocked that a service that is often used by vulnerable people will be staffed by people who will not have had any sort of back ground check.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">On a more cheerful note here is a picture of a still snowy landscape on a very sunny day near Stape. Even this peaceful rural scene has been spoiled over the last few days by a motor bike roaring across the woodland, the tyre tracks are still plain to see.</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-25779643141414917222015-01-16T14:08:00.001-08:002015-01-16T14:08:28.335-08:00back after a solstice break<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some may call it Christmas and the New Year, some may call it the winter solstice and the feast of Saturnalia; whatever your choice we volunteers take a break. None of my activities are involved with the emergency services so I stop for a while, huddle indoors in the dark and feed and water my family. My last activity was a food bank run, hopefully with supplies to last whilst even the food bank was closed, <a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/</a>. Just before the break I met a friend in Leeds who said to me in disbelief, "you're telling me you have a food bank in Ryedale!" Indeed we do, we would rather not, but that is the reality of life in the apparent prosperity of my home town.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">lunch break</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the view back as we left</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">First back were the Coasties, but on a Thursday and with all the rest of the North York Moors volunteers, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a> , it was our annual Supertask. We were planting oak trees on a slope cleared from its previous cover of conifers. Or rather not completely cleared; we dug and stumbled amongst the brash left by the felling contractors, but the sun shone and we chatted and planted. By the end of the day we had planted over 1000 trees. If you travel on the North York Moors Railway you can see the hill side between Pickering and Levisham stations <a href="http://www.nymr.co.uk/">www.nymr.co.uk/.</a> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ut-IBFz9-DY/VLmEfxFn27I/AAAAAAAAA9A/_P69emS6fPw/s1600/DSC01953.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ut-IBFz9-DY/VLmEfxFn27I/AAAAAAAAA9A/_P69emS6fPw/s1600/DSC01953.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">an old privy?</span></td></tr>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u2g1eWMXs3I/VLmElMtWqcI/AAAAAAAAA9I/BEl5m8gSixQ/s1600/DSC01954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u2g1eWMXs3I/VLmElMtWqcI/AAAAAAAAA9I/BEl5m8gSixQ/s1600/DSC01954.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then I did a Ranger patrol between Thornton Dale and Dalby forest, does anyone know what this curious brick structure is just south of Sand Dale? The forest may seem rather dull in the winter, but then this amazing lichen comes along to liven it up, the picture on the right.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br />
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Next up was the AGM of LASSN, Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a>. I have ?rashly? agreed to become a Trustee, a member of a committee, how mad am I? After years of committee work I had said never again, but it is very good cause and only six meetings a year, so..................here we go. Before the meeting I meet a new person to befriend, she is lonely as she has been sent here from London where all her friends are. We chat for an hour and I agree to come back next week. I also manage to see my 'leave to remain' friend, who is still having the most bizarre struggles with her gas provider. They want her to pay less each month to pay off the debt that their incompetence led her into. I persuade them that she can, just, afford to go on paying the higher amount and wants to. Words fail me.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30ciXZ7575w/VLmHmPmEEdI/AAAAAAAAA9U/15lYre9xAF4/s1600/Fairtrade%2BPoster2015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30ciXZ7575w/VLmHmPmEEdI/AAAAAAAAA9U/15lYre9xAF4/s1600/Fairtrade%2BPoster2015.jpg" height="200" width="141" /></a><br />
At one of the social evenings that are our local Fairtrade meetings, in a pub, of course, we sort out our now annual local and Fairtrade Craft Fair. We are also excited that very soon we will have our very own website, watch this space. Meanwhile here is the snazzy poster for our craft fair. We also plan our activities and displays for Fairtrade Fortnight, end of February and beginning of March. <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYmy-0DkrCI/VLmKU_Xn07I/AAAAAAAAA9g/38RyfsSmUAI/s1600/DSC01955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gYmy-0DkrCI/VLmKU_Xn07I/AAAAAAAAA9g/38RyfsSmUAI/s1600/DSC01955.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">my long shadow in </span><br />
the winter sun</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--5p27IAH1A0/VLmKapvXYVI/AAAAAAAAA9o/SyKyOcAAaLk/s1600/DSC01957.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--5p27IAH1A0/VLmKapvXYVI/AAAAAAAAA9o/SyKyOcAAaLk/s1600/DSC01957.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">packing up, job done</td></tr>
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Lastly another day in the sun for Coasties, but very cold. We are cutting back overgrowing hedges on the Cleveland Way north of Cloughton, <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way</a>. However the work makes me warm enough to have to take off my hat and scarf. We even find a sheltered place for lunch, the views are stupendous, all the way to Flamborough head.<br />
</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-26515347948931943712014-12-18T14:20:00.004-08:002014-12-18T14:21:10.188-08:00Lots of Fairtrade stalls and a goodbye<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A very hectic few weeks with Fairtrade stalls at two local schools, West Heslerton and St Mary's in Malton, lots of pocket money priced toys and gifts for parents. Both schools excelled themselves and raised more in previous years, both for Fairtrade producers and in a small way for their own funds. We also had stalls at the local council offices and at a concert at Saville Street Methodist church, where over £100 worth of goods was sold in about half an hour. A lot of hard work, but in the end a success. Thanks again to Fairer World shop in York, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I said 'goodbye' to one of our National Park rangers, once at lunch after a hard morning's work at Hayburn Wyke, then a smarter occasion when the Voluntary Rangers had a 'posh' meal. Both sad, particularly so as it should never have happened. Maintenance of the footpath and bridleway network will inevitably suffer, so fewer people will visit the Park which will then mean less income for local small businesses etc, and so we go on.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N9XQVzP4zp0/VJNJ2cZGEII/AAAAAAAAA70/4xnht8ClcGw/s1600/DSC01907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N9XQVzP4zp0/VJNJ2cZGEII/AAAAAAAAA70/4xnht8ClcGw/s1600/DSC01907.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wbcg_-3B-1Q/VJNJ7zOb-DI/AAAAAAAAA78/ZRDpcfgc68A/s1600/DSC01904.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wbcg_-3B-1Q/VJNJ7zOb-DI/AAAAAAAAA78/ZRDpcfgc68A/s1600/DSC01904.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">On a cold, but sunny morning we 'dressed' the trees in Malton Castle Garden, <a href="http://www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk/">www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk</a></span> .<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Local Brownie groups came along and using biodegradable coloured rice paper, kindly donated by our local Scoops shop, coloured and cut and made these lovely decorations. We agreed to do it again next year and one of the Guide leaders offered to do hot drinks, an excellent idea. The children had a wonderful time, running about in the open space and scuffling through the leaves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I did my first 'run' taking food for the local food bank to the distribution centre; very timely as it was the week that the national press featured an important report on the dreadful fact that food banks are now a feature of life in almost every town in the country. I used my winter fuel allowance to add my own contribution, really this nonsense of pensioners being treated with kid gloves whilst younger people in work have all their benefits effectively cut, has to stop.<a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/</a></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5-PSbLPbKuU/VJNNQUProoI/AAAAAAAAA8I/V2yNuKkOPeE/s1600/DSC01918.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5-PSbLPbKuU/VJNNQUProoI/AAAAAAAAA8I/V2yNuKkOPeE/s1600/DSC01918.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">building the frame of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">the board walk</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>, seems to have been in the far north for several weeks, first building a board walk across an incredibly boggy area north of Scaling Dam, then repairing steps and cutting back gorse on the Cleveland Way <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way</a>, at Skinningrove.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0fYidQXwOOY/VJNNVdg_SLI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/8b7fbqRjG9U/s1600/DSC01920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0fYidQXwOOY/VJNNVdg_SLI/AAAAAAAAA8Q/8b7fbqRjG9U/s1600/DSC01920.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the sun on pigeon lofts</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> above Skinningrove</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Earlier in the month we</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> had been in these magical</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> woods at Hayburn Wyke (left).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This is the season for parties and volunteers are no exception. LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk</a>, had theirs on a very wet evening in Leeds. However the atmosphere was cheerful as we shared a meal and exchanged tips and stories about our friends who are either seeking refuge or have gained the right to stay in this country.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So a happy end to this post, the last of 2014. I will share more thoughts with you next year.</span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-46624093100199891042014-11-30T13:51:00.000-08:002014-11-30T13:51:10.495-08:00some additions to my small society<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-docVoMdzi3w/VHuBgG9CeuI/AAAAAAAAA7U/CWET4hGLFz4/s1600/DSC01891.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-docVoMdzi3w/VHuBgG9CeuI/AAAAAAAAA7U/CWET4hGLFz4/s1600/DSC01891.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cQODdnMyhk4/VHuAcIrSKtI/AAAAAAAAA7I/tN-QDWvo0yY/s1600/DSC01890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cQODdnMyhk4/VHuAcIrSKtI/AAAAAAAAA7I/tN-QDWvo0yY/s1600/DSC01890.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before I come on to the item in the title I thought you might like to see the audience for a recent Coasties task <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>. Whilst we cut back the trees encroaching on a bridleway next to their field they watched and watched and watched. They say cattle are curious, well these certainly were. It was earlier this month, when there were still some sunny days and I took this picture on the right on the way home. Not for the first time I thought how lucky I am to be able to volunteer in such a beautiful area. It seems to have been a month for bridleways, until last week when we had the most wonderful bonfire, working with the National Trust <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/">www.nationaltrust.org.uk</a> at Ravenscar, alas I forgot my camera, so you will have to take my word for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The addition is a truly shocking fact, that here in a comparatively wealthy part of the country we have a food bank, <a href="http://ryedale.foodbank.org.uk/">ryedale.foodbank.org.uk</a>. And no you can't just get a parcel if you feel like it, or don't want to go shopping. You have to fulfil strict criteria and then be referred by someone like a health visitor or a doctor. I am going to be helping by moving donated food from the collecting places to the 'warehouse' where it is checked for dates, sorted and packed into suitable packs for families, single people etc. I had a long chat with the organiser, whose dearest aim is not to have a job, but we both thought that, sadly, that might be a long term aim. I have slight issues with the fact, that, like most food banks, it is part of the Trussell Trust <a href="http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects">www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects</a>, which is a Christian based organisation, but as they are happy to have Humanists like me involved I won't moan any more. What a disgrace it is that one of the richest countries in the world has reduced some of its citizens to having to rely on food parcels.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had a good evening at the LASSN <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk</a> offices; after meeting my friend and once again spending time on the phone trying to sort out the endless saga of her fuel bill. I gave up trying to understand when a helpful young man told me that, despite the bill showing an increased amount, actually she could now pay less each month. Later several of the volunteers had a useful hour discussing how we could meet up more often and share ideas and good practice. I have agreed to become a Trustee (if I am elected at the AGM), in the New Year, having said no committees when I retired, we shall see how long I last!</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9G8sTSYIAM/VHuNZo8e8HI/AAAAAAAAA7k/qyqEZFECOQ8/s1600/DSC01892.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d9G8sTSYIAM/VHuNZo8e8HI/AAAAAAAAA7k/qyqEZFECOQ8/s1600/DSC01892.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">There have been several Fairtrade <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a> stalls since I last blogged. At this time of the year the crafts always sell well; people still surprised that Fairtrade now goes well beyond the original coffee, tea and chocolate. Our latest venture was at a craft fair in the Milton Rooms in Malton <a href="http://www.themiltonrooms.com/">www.themiltonrooms.com/</a>. A bigger picture than usual so you can see some of the crafts available. Tomorrow I will be taking some of these and other pocket money items to two local schools so that their pupils can buy presents for their families and help families in developing countries at the same time. Thank you to West Heslerton and St Mary's Malton. Trade is better than Aid. thanks to Fairer World in York for providing the goods <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A bit of a sad week ahead as Coasties says goodbye to one of our Rangers; a victim of the wholly unnecessary cuts that are decimating out public services for vindictive political reasons that have nothing to do with any sensible economic policies. </span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-47688794698985057592014-11-10T13:17:00.000-08:002014-11-10T13:17:30.196-08:00the blog has returned<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KC9KZzwot7E/VGEk-fMx2bI/AAAAAAAAA6k/dL6Egze3Qpk/s1600/DSC01887.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KC9KZzwot7E/VGEk-fMx2bI/AAAAAAAAA6k/dL6Egze3Qpk/s1600/DSC01887.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why has the blog come back now? This beautiful wind turbine is on a farm between Ravenscar and Staintondale; yesterday there was hardly a breath of wind and yet it was turning and generating clean power for the farmer. So well done the farmer and well done to the National Park <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a> for giving it planning permission. I felt that the latest report on climate change meant that those of us who know that climate change is largely human made and support renewables needed to stand up and be counted. So as well as my reporting on the usual aspects of my small society I am now adding what I have done or seen to help in the struggle for increased renewable energy supplies. Just behind this farm is a small building which belongs to the Society of Friends <a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk,/">www.quaker.org.uk,</a> as well as its own wind turbine it also has a solar panel in the garden.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VOUHd18p_cg/VGEn1_cE2uI/AAAAAAAAA6w/BVyRZNkdV1M/s1600/DSC01880.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VOUHd18p_cg/VGEn1_cE2uI/AAAAAAAAA6w/BVyRZNkdV1M/s1600/DSC01880.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a recycled Fairtrade reindeer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">watches over Christmas gifts</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bvht4BbIx_Q/VGEn72_DkII/AAAAAAAAA64/glg3o7rQnM0/s1600/DSC01881.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bvht4BbIx_Q/VGEn72_DkII/AAAAAAAAA64/glg3o7rQnM0/s1600/DSC01881.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fairly traded toys</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Many of the farmers that Fairtrade, </span><a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, supports are at risk of rising sea levels, others are at risk of the desert creeping closer; so our annual shop in Malton</span> is important in both raising the profile of Fairtrade and increasing their sales. Over two days and despite dreadful weather we sold over £1600 worth of Fairtrade food, gifts and Christmas cards. Thank you to Fairer World <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/</a> in York for providing us with all the shop's stock.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">This afternoon I took some Fairtrade food and Christmas items to a meeting of the local Sight Savers group, <a href="http://sightsupportryedale.org/">sightsupportryedale.org/</a>, thank you to them for inviting me and buying so generously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Tomorrow I am off to Leeds to see my 'leave to stay' friend and meet other volunteers at LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a>. Over tea and coffee we will catch up with new ideas and exchange helpful thoughts with other people also trying to support these very vulnerable, and at times wrongly maligned, small group of people living amongst us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties as usual on Wednesday, so now that the blog has returned you will be able to catch up with the cutting back and drain clearing next week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-81431159900798822332014-07-18T13:54:00.000-07:002014-07-18T13:54:13.717-07:00au revoir, auf wiedersehn or arrivederci but not goodbye<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Other languages have a word for something that says "I'll see you again", we only seem to have "Goodbye". It's not goodbye, but it might be a while.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Until now writing the Blog was fun, suddenly it seems a chore. Maybe it's the long summer evenings, so much nicer to be out doing things in the garden; but maybe it's the cracks showing even in my small society. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Not just the cuts, but now people in the National Park I have worked with for over five years being made redundant. Not because their job suddenly doesn't need doing, but because an ideologically driven Government hates anything that the public sector does. The nagging worry that my volunteering is replacing their paid work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">People today at my local Council not buying their usual small things at the twice yearly Fairtrade stall because it's so close to payday and yes I did believe them because whilst prices go up they are on a pay freeze.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My new asylum seeking friends prevented from doing the care work that they would willingly do that no-one else wants to do, because uniquely amongst people on benefits the Government thinks that they should sit at home and twiddle their thumbs. Meanwhile other claimants with extreme disabilities or life threatening illnesses are supposed to go out to work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">It is disheartening and maybe in the autumn I will come back to the Blog, we shall see.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">In the meantime I will carry on doing my various stuff, I just won't be blogging about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-51732234591072228682014-06-30T14:33:00.001-07:002014-06-30T14:33:24.518-07:00Mostly on the Moors and some Fairtrade<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my last post in May I mentioned that I would be doing a voluntary ranger patrol in the Ravenscar area <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>; well the bad news was a large amount of litter in a car park near the radio mast on the road to Stoupe Beck but the good news was several groups of enthusiastic young people doing a Duke of Edinburgh weekend walk. I chatted to them and their leaders, they were all enjoying it and were really keen to come back to the area again. Apart from the litter and a lot of muddy paths I had a lovely day in some warm sunshine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AuB5UyhqYX4/U7HLxh_i2AI/AAAAAAAAA5I/EUuMmIU6AKE/s1600/DSC01574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AuB5UyhqYX4/U7HLxh_i2AI/AAAAAAAAA5I/EUuMmIU6AKE/s1600/DSC01574.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the beach at Saltburn</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4QlOYjs08o/U7HOuSch6mI/AAAAAAAAA5U/mkMBkjViFck/s1600/DSC01579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4QlOYjs08o/U7HOuSch6mI/AAAAAAAAA5U/mkMBkjViFck/s1600/DSC01579.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties has been to far flung places in June, twice out of the National Park, but doing repair work on the Cleveland Way for which the National Park is responsible. <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way</a>. First we were at Saltburn, step repair work in glorious sunshine. Then we were inland above Slapeworth quarry near Guisborough, one of the very first alum works after the secret of alum processing was 'stolen' from the Vatican early in the seventeenth century. Usually if it is the alum works we are by the coast at Ravenscar, but this was very different. However, here is a view of one of the old industrial buildings on the other side of the valley at Newgate Bank. <a href="http://www.teeswildlife.org/what-we-do/...to.../alum.../slapewath-works/">www.teeswildlife.org/what-we-do/...to.../alum.../slapewath-works/</a>. It was another hot day as we cleaned steps and cut back huge piles of gorse.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aNQVb72biK8/U7HQkstRlRI/AAAAAAAAA5g/W_3Vks2zHC4/s1600/DSC01573.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aNQVb72biK8/U7HQkstRlRI/AAAAAAAAA5g/W_3Vks2zHC4/s1600/DSC01573.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">on the spot drainage</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Earlier in the month we had been laying drains near Falling Foss, part of the Coast to Coast walk, it is an incredibly muddy area and these made on the spot drains will help to make the path a bit drier. They are very ingenious, two planks of wood held apart to make an open sort of gully. Here is one. It was a most unpleasant day, warm, damp and muddy, so despite every insect repellent known to human we were all plagued by midges and other biting insects. We finished early, enough was enough.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last week our local Fairtrade group met to discuss plans for the next few months. It will be quiet as we are into the holidays. Just one stall in the next few months, but our website is making good progress and we discussed plans for next year's Food Festival and Folk Festival. Both were successes this year, but we have ideas on how to improve for next year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Later this week I am off to Leeds to meet my new friends again, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk,</a> more news on that next month.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have had some feedback from my previous post about the threats to the footpaths and bridleways in the National Park, sadly mostly along the lines, that, somehow, like the tides it is all inevitable. Actually it isn't, but that is what the Government wants you to think and too many of us have accepted that propaganda.</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-16265566859016788502014-06-16T13:59:00.001-07:002014-06-17T03:25:57.425-07:00North York Moors footpaths and bridleways under threat<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Only one item in this post. I have just emailed this to local MPs, press, ramblers etc. I don't suppose it will have any effect, but at least they can't say they didn't know</strong>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">For
over 40 years the </span><st1:place><st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">North</span></st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> </span><st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">York</span></st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> </span><st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Moors</span></st1:placename><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> </span><st1:placetype><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">National Park</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> has managed the
footpaths and bridleways on the Moors. There are over 2000 kilometres of these
rights of way and a dedicated team of rangers, apprentices, field staff and
hundreds of volunteers (probably thousands over the 40 years) has worked
incredibly hard to maintain and improve them. Hedges have been cut back, steps
built and cleaned, stiles, bridges and gates replaced and repaired, muddy areas
drained and signing improved.</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxmsonormal1" style="margin: 0cm 15pt 16.2pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">There has been a 2% improvement every year so that now there is a
satisfaction rate by users of the paths of 96%.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Now all this is at risk. The Park only manages these paths on
behalf of North Yorkshire County Council and it has decided that, because of
the cuts imposed by the Government, it can no longer afford to do so. The Park
has to put in its own money to maintain the paths at the level that visitors
expect. It is very unlikely that the County Council, faced with its own budget
restrictions, will be able to continue to maintain the paths at their current
level. The agreement could end early next year.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="ecxmsonormal1" style="margin: 0cm 15pt 16.2pt 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Walking is the cheapest and most accessible way of exercising, an
increasing need in our over weight society; it is also a help in cases of mild
depression. Visitors to the Park, many of whom come to walk or cycle, bring
hundreds of thousands of pounds into the area and support hundreds of local
jobs.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">The
teams of volunteers who do much of the day to day maintenance give of their
time willingly and with enthusiasm, I am one of them. But we are volunteers, we
need the paid staff to lead us, provide the tools and other equipment and
decide the priorities week after week. Most of us are retired, we are very
happy to volunteer; we do not want the job of being responsible for what I have
just outlined.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
<br />
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>I am not
criticising the National Park or even the County Council, but rather the
Government whose short sighted cuts are going to cost more in the long term
than they will save in the short term. As I have said they will
affect people’s health, the local economy and put another nail in the coffin of
what was laughingly called the Big Society. These cuts are not for any economic reason, they are driven by an ideological obsession with reducing anything done by public bodies.</em></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI";"><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em>
</em>
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<!--[endif]--></span></span><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"><o:p></o:p></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-55204167364805993602014-05-30T14:06:00.002-07:002014-05-30T14:06:41.871-07:00a solitary llama and lots more<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxzMswrFeqk/U4jnPzWJE5I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/RLXZ6hfd0eU/s1600/DSC01465.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wxzMswrFeqk/U4jnPzWJE5I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/RLXZ6hfd0eU/s1600/DSC01465.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">watched by a llama</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Early in the month I was doing a voluntary ranger patrol near Saltergate on the North York Moors, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a>, when I came across this beautiful animal, all on its own in a very large field. It gazed at me, posing for the photo, then went on grazing. Earlier I had heard my first cuckoo of the season. Alas, I had also had to ask large numbers of dog owners to put their dogs on a lead. One man whose dog was quite out of control told me that yes he had seen the notices that the Police have put up, about dogs being under control.....................obviously not his dog though! I am afraid that this will be the pattern for the summer; how I wish a farmer with a shotgun would appear, the lambs threatened by the dogs are their livelihood.<br />
<br />
The next day we were able to see how other volunteers operate. We went on an evening guided walk round Georgian Leeds with the Leeds Civic Trust, <a href="http://www.leedscivictrust.org.uk/">www.leedscivictrust.org.uk/</a>. The walk, led by a volunteer, was fascinating, hidden corners that even local people were surprised by, and then an excellent light meal, also done by volunteers. It was good to be on the 'receiving' end of some else's 'small society'.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BvjfVu8F_Ps/U4jp2Iok77I/AAAAAAAAA4Y/CFg4ZnA1YTs/s1600/DSC01470.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BvjfVu8F_Ps/U4jp2Iok77I/AAAAAAAAA4Y/CFg4ZnA1YTs/s1600/DSC01470.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">lunch time view</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Later in the month Coasties was in the beautiful woods at Littlebeck, we were repairing and cleaning steps and board walks. It is a very popular path as it forms part of the Coast to Coast walk, so it is important that we keep it in good condition. Lunch was sitting in the sun looking down at this lovely view of the stream. It was the first dry day for some time, much of the path was thick with mud, so we really appreciated the dry spot we found for our break.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--fRWv6mJRCY/U4jt3fvOGHI/AAAAAAAAA4g/GQKYsjniIBI/s1600/DSC01529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--fRWv6mJRCY/U4jt3fvOGHI/AAAAAAAAA4g/GQKYsjniIBI/s1600/DSC01529.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">outside the church</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NVp24C0-lTc/U4jt5a-T6TI/AAAAAAAAA4o/It65bJHj080/s1600/DSC01528.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NVp24C0-lTc/U4jt5a-T6TI/AAAAAAAAA4o/It65bJHj080/s1600/DSC01528.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">all our goodies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Another Fairtrade event, this time a stall in St Michael's Church, <a href="http://stmichaelsmalton.org.uk/">stmichaelsmalton.org.uk</a>, to coincide with Malton's Fine Food Festival.<a href="http://maltonyorkshire.co.uk/food-lovers-festival-2/">maltonyorkshire.co.uk/food-lovers-festival-2/</a>. The weather was wet, again, so we were glad to be indoors. We had a range of different Fairtrade food as well as the usual coffee, tea and chocolate. Chutneys, marmalades, cooking sauces, quinoa, peanut butter and plantain crisps to name but a few. Many of our customers were amazed at the range of Fairtrade goods now available. Thanks to Fairer World in York for once again providing us with the items to sell, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/</a>.<br />
<br />
LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a> has asked me to befriend a young couple, asylum seekers from east Africa; I meet then for the first time on Thursday, two lovely people whom I am sure it will be as easy to be friends with as my previous 'befriendee' was. She and I are now 'normal' friends, and even though she has leave to remain I still see her on a regular basis. Hopefully this might be the same with my new friends.<br />
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Tomorrow I am doing another voluntary ranger patrol, this time in the Ravenscar area, the forecast is good, so I should have an enjoyable day. More in the next blog.<br />
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</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-57965772644901989912014-05-04T10:13:00.002-07:002014-05-04T10:45:11.718-07:00what happened to April?<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well I don't know, I was not well, we were away and getting on with my various activities seemed to take up all my energy. So May is here and I am posting at last.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So, in no very particular order. I have been a couple of times to Leeds, once to see my now given leave to stay and therefore no-longer-an-asylum-seeker friend and once to see two other friends. Both times, lots of chatting and laughing, however I also have to spend hours on the phone for my 'given leave to stay' friend. She only has a pay as you go phone and she needs to cancel a hospital appointment, (she is conscientious and won't just not turn up), and speak to her housing provider. It takes forty five minutes altogether for me to finally speak to someone, on my contract that costs nothing, but on pay as you go................! I am glad that LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk,</a> has not yet found me a new person to befriend, this friend still needs loads of support.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KzgUkASxFPo/U2Zqa9Q-KCI/AAAAAAAAA3c/pygAoQhdvGA/s1600/DSC01458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KzgUkASxFPo/U2Zqa9Q-KCI/AAAAAAAAA3c/pygAoQhdvGA/s1600/DSC01458.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">there is a path under all this</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">We have had a variety of Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>, tasks. The usual of repairing steps and cutting back blackthorn along footpaths, but a couple of different jobs too. One sunny day we were clearing paths near Reasty Bank where logging operations had left them blocked with felled trees and branches. The ranger needed to power saw them first then we were able to hand saw them into smaller pieces and drag them off the path. It was hard work, but satisfying when we could walk along the whole path that we had cleared.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EhyPhFCmD8A/U2ZtrdlQEAI/AAAAAAAAA3o/VjBW_X2NZLA/s1600/DSC01460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EhyPhFCmD8A/U2ZtrdlQEAI/AAAAAAAAA3o/VjBW_X2NZLA/s1600/DSC01460.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the new paving</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">As usual the last Wednesday of the month we were with National Trust, <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/">www.nationaltrust.org.uk</a></span>, <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this month at Hayburn Wyke, repairing a path that was eroding into the stream. The woods were really beautiful, a faery glen. But the work was hard and potentially wet and muddy, getting flat stones out of the stream to lay on the muddiest part of the path and then covering them with sand and gravel, also from the stream bed, to bed them in and also make them less slippery when wet.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cQR18AXuPrg/U2ZwHzjPyaI/AAAAAAAAA30/I2i-0YG4bEI/s1600/DSC01459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cQR18AXuPrg/U2ZwHzjPyaI/AAAAAAAAA30/I2i-0YG4bEI/s1600/DSC01459.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">keeping dry.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">One Sunday I did a Voluntary Ranger patrol in the damp in Rosedale, the weather meant that I saw very few people, but I cut back some shrubs obscuring foot path signs and had a chat to a farmer about thoughtless dog owners allowing their dogs to worry sheep. I also spotted this retired goat, keeping dry in a brand new coat.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vGz4qh2kJAs/U2ZzcdRuhEI/AAAAAAAAA4A/Ij0Mp2P8qh8/s1600/DSC01462.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vGz4qh2kJAs/U2ZzcdRuhEI/AAAAAAAAA4A/Ij0Mp2P8qh8/s1600/DSC01462.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two dancers decide what to buy</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally yesterday, after a cold start the sun shone, and Morris and other traditional dancing groups kicked off the Malton and Norton Folk Festival <a href="http://www.maltonfolk.co.uk/">www.maltonfolk.co.uk</a></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">in grand style. Our local Fairtrade group, <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a></span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">had a stall of snacks, chocolate and crafts next to the dancing area and we did a brisk trade. Then in the evening most of us took the stall to the concert at a local pub, a fine end to the day. Our takings were significantly up on last year, a bonus for the Fairtrade producers, Fairer World in York, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk</a> and the Folk Festival who will get a share of the takings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So now my small society is back again the public domain, it always was functioning, just not on the blog.</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-2938935460413990542014-03-27T14:22:00.001-07:002014-03-27T14:22:15.506-07:00Daffodils, Fairtrade and hospital<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well I've been back for some weeks, but busy, busy, busy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZWe5xb1P7ak/UzSPwiqIVsI/AAAAAAAAA2o/YpPWUe_xrwc/s1600/DSC01418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZWe5xb1P7ak/UzSPwiqIVsI/AAAAAAAAA2o/YpPWUe_xrwc/s1600/DSC01418.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">daffodils by the river</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The daffodils are coming out at Farndale, so the National Park, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>, has a Mobile Display Unit at Low Mills, the bottom of the Dale, to help visitors enjoy the daffodils and give out information about other aspect of the National Park. Most days three Voluntary Rangers staff it; as well as being in the Unit to help visitors, we walk along the path, doing a bit of litter picking (there is very little) and closing the gates properly. Most of the gates have a latch and if these aren't clicked in place sheep can lean on the gate and hey presto they are in the next field! Unfortunately we also have to ask dog owners to keep their dogs on the lead, only a few thoughtless people, but one loose dog can do a lot of harm to lambs and ewes.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n2E9HwD2KdU/UzSPzqRu7tI/AAAAAAAAA2w/OA2s3oFDAbQ/s1600/DSC01400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n2E9HwD2KdU/UzSPzqRu7tI/AAAAAAAAA2w/OA2s3oFDAbQ/s1600/DSC01400.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the hills above the dale</span></td></tr>
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M<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">any of the visitors have been coming back year after year, but every year is different they say. About half the daffodils are out so far, I have one more day there, so hopefully they will all be out for my last visit. The wild garlic is also coming through, so soon there will be white as well as yellow flowers, and finally the bluebells. On my last walk along the river I hear the cry of a curlew, my day is complete.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Our local Fairtrade group has been busy filling in forms in order that we can renew our status as a Fairtrade town, <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a>. Some of the cafes that were using Fairtrade products at our last renewal have closed, but we have other outlets to replace them. More shops are stocking Fairtrade goods, largely because so many big national firms are now making more of their products, like chocolate and sugar, Fairtrade. We look back over the last two years and are quite surprised as to how many different things our small group has been involved in, craft fairs, shops, chocolate tastings, stalls big and small, even a presence at our local Folk Festival. More farmers and their families in developing countries are able to have a better quality of life by their own efforts, not from hand-outs. Surely every one, what ever their political outlook must approve of that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My friend in Leeds has been hospitalised whilst I was away, complications from a condition that is waiting to be operated on. I go over twice and on one occasion have to be a bit more forceful with staff than I would want to be.</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It works and she and I get the information that she needs, but why should I have to act like that?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally Coasties, <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way,">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way,</a></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i9eOhHAbfrw/UzSU18s6IXI/AAAAAAAAA3I/IC9lr9ytCbk/s1600/DSC01402.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i9eOhHAbfrw/UzSU18s6IXI/AAAAAAAAA3I/IC9lr9ytCbk/s1600/DSC01402.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">cleaned and restoned</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YhgeJ9dwZzc/UzSUv4tPg1I/AAAAAAAAA3A/5Fg_dEbJ4e4/s1600/DSC01401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YhgeJ9dwZzc/UzSUv4tPg1I/AAAAAAAAA3A/5Fg_dEbJ4e4/s1600/DSC01401.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the view as we worked,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">not bad</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">was steps again, this time at Boggle Hole. We cleaned them of grass and mud, put new stones from the beach on them and some of them had to be replaced completely. Towards the end I also got to cut some blackthorn back; it was my first week back after my holidays and I felt that I hadn't been away!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-17880741411598016112014-02-19T08:24:00.000-08:002014-02-19T08:24:06.322-08:00Forge Valley board walk - job done<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZXRQy62PL_I/UwTXt1zPUYI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/tx-52soDcLY/s1600/DSC01171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZXRQy62PL_I/UwTXt1zPUYI/AAAAAAAAA2Q/tx-52soDcLY/s1600/DSC01171.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the board walk in the sun</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have blogged previously about 'cleaning' the board walk in Forge Valley. Well last Sunday the sun shone and I completed scraping the edges and trying to clear as much as possible of the detritus between the boards. After my comments earlier in the year about gaps between boards I have had a positive response from the 'powers that be', so I am hoping that new board walks will drain better and thus last longer. It was a lovely day and I had to take off my coat and woolly hat!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Earlier in the week Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a> , had got very cold and wet at Sandsend. We were repairing steps on the Cleveland Way and in a lovely circular walk off the Way through old quarries. However by 2pm it was not just raining, we can cope with that, but blowing a gale too, so tools away and home for a hot shower. Before the rain has really got going two of us had cut back a tall hedge of gorse that was blocking a lovely view point from a memorial bench. No photos though, by the time we had finished it was pouring with rain and my hands were far too cold to take photos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Yesterday was my last week as a Coordinator for Short Stop, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a> . I have been doing it for about two years and felt it was time for a break. Numbers are dropping as I have referred to in previous posts, and I am hoping to have a new person to befriend in the next couple of months. So if any of you lovely hosts are reading this it has been an honour to work with you.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">No more posts for nearly a month, we are off on holiday (again you may well say). I cannot say too many times that that is why essential public services cannot be run by volunteers.</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-74042102738816228102014-02-04T06:24:00.002-08:002014-02-04T06:24:35.783-08:00same old stuff, but boring, never<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The usual topics, but never the same every week. Short Stop, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/, </a>is suddenly busy, three referrals, all from Iran. Does a regime there which looks to us in the west, a little more free, mean that it is easier for people to escape, or is it all an illusion? I manage to place them all, the first two with just one call each, the other takes longer, but finally I strike lucky. One host agonises over saying no, eventually I convince her that I will ring her back if there is any chance he will have to sleep on the street. I don't need to and all is well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br />
Wednesday is Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a>, it starts wet, but the drizzle soon eases, just as an easterly wind gets up and we are on the beach. The task is litter picking for the National Trust at Hayburn Wyke.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c4e10r6k974/UvDxYpxlEdI/AAAAAAAAA04/iREaiCh2OQ4/s1600/DSC01128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-c4e10r6k974/UvDxYpxlEdI/AAAAAAAAA04/iREaiCh2OQ4/s1600/DSC01128.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hayburn Wyke waterfall</span></td></tr>
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The usually quite placid waterfall is pouring over the edge and two of my colleagues cross the beck with great caution to collect all the large plastic containers that the recent high tides have thrown up. We pick up the usual dreadful detritus: bottles, cans, old rusting bolts, a large tyre, an old car seat and more polystyrene that can be imagined. Most of it has obviously come in from the sea, either dumped by shipping or dropped on another beach along the coast.<br />
After a quick, cold lunch sitting on the huge boulders that pass for beach here, we do a bit more litter picking as the tide starts to come in. <br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5zGTJfSYZM8/UvDxj_HvcOI/AAAAAAAAA1A/O8F8bheOF2k/s1600/DSC01130.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5zGTJfSYZM8/UvDxj_HvcOI/AAAAAAAAA1A/O8F8bheOF2k/s1600/DSC01130.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">look what we have here</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Then we pile it into large dumpy bags and drag it up the hill to where a quad bike can tow the bags further up to the car park. We survey what we have collected with a mixture of horror and pride. There are still masses of tiny pieces of polystyrene on the beach and the ground at the top of the beach, it is almost impossible to pick up. Future archaeologists will call this time the polystyrene age, from the layer they will find fossilised on the beach!<br />
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On Monday I had gone over to Leeds on the bus, my friend had a break in recently and the council have fitted her a lovely security gate at the side of the house. Well it would be lovely if it hadn't been installed where any future intruders can hop over into her garden from next door over a one metre fence. She did ask them to move it back, but no that would be too sensible. I make various phone calls and arrange to ring her next week to check on progress. Her phone is pay as you go, and constant hanging on is costing her a fortune, mine is a contract and is much cheaper, but until she can get a credit history she has to continue with this huge expense.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MTMarIrtZPE/UvD2PTHkGWI/AAAAAAAAA1I/5LXr27hNaaE/s1600/Fairtrade+PosterA4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MTMarIrtZPE/UvD2PTHkGWI/AAAAAAAAA1I/5LXr27hNaaE/s1600/Fairtrade+PosterA4.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">come to the Fair</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Every day I am busy emailing and phoning to sort out our local and Fairtrade Craft Fair, the posters have been done by a very talented new member of our group and the stalls are now finalised.<br />
Unfortunately I am away for the Fair, so I am trying to sort it all well in advance.<br />
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I now just need to email one of our suppliers, Fairer World in York, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk</a> about the things we would like for one of the stalls.<br />
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Tomorrow after Coasties I am off again, family this time, but I will be back in time for Short Stop next Tuesday.<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-54562101630458466332014-01-26T06:13:00.004-08:002014-01-26T06:13:58.811-08:00this time we lunch with a cormorant<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Two weeks ago we lunched with the porpoises, this time it was just as sunny, but there was only a cormorant to keep us company. Rain had been forecast for the morning and there was a thick mist as I drove over the Moors, but once again the luck of the Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk,/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk,</a> held and as we parked at Runswick Bay the sun came out. First we carried about fifty step boards and several packs of stubs (the short pieces of wood which hold the step board in place), up a muddy, slippery path for a job to be done in a few weeks time. We were out of the wind and I was soon shedding layers of clothes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lPs_LtwwbNE/UuUSF_CriCI/AAAAAAAAA0k/pemhJTIHBJk/s1600/DSC01126.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lPs_LtwwbNE/UuUSF_CriCI/AAAAAAAAA0k/pemhJTIHBJk/s1600/DSC01126.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">can you see the acorn, the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">National </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Trail sign, pointing </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">up the beck?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-oqNl_DXpE/UuUSEej6L4I/AAAAAAAAA0c/wIei665MFLc/s1600/DSC01125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-oqNl_DXpE/UuUSEej6L4I/AAAAAAAAA0c/wIei665MFLc/s1600/DSC01125.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the cormorant drying </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">its wings</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then we carried on along the beach to Hob Holes, where the Cleveland Way leaves the beach, along, or even in, the beck, up stone steps and then up the steps that needed cleaning and repairing. <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/cleveland-way</a>. It was hard work, scraping off the grass, mud and shale to try to get the steps back to their original width and also to give the wooden step boards a chance to dry out. Some needed replacing, a job I always leave to others. We sat on the edge of the beach for lunch, watching the cormorant drying its wings, and all the dog walkers enjoying the winter sun. Not a bad way to spend a winter Wednesday we all agreed.<br />
<br />
The previous day had been another Short Stop, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/</a>, day, but once again no referrals. However the evening was very busy as we had a local Fairtrade group meeting to discuss our plans for Fairtrade Fortnight, <a href="http://foncho.fairtrade.org.uk/">foncho.fairtrade.org.uk</a>. As well as the usual run of stalls we also have a banana producer visiting and we are organising another of our Fairtrade and local craft fairs. So the usual discussion about tables, posters and stalls. We seem to sort it all out and various tasks allocated out between ourselves. if you are nearby it is Saturday March 1st at the Friends' Meeting House in Malton, from 10am to 4pm, <a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/malton.">www.quaker.org.uk/malton.</a><br />
<br />
<br />
On Friday it was the annual Fairer World, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk,/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk,</a> social. All the volunteers and local stall promoters meet in York; we bring food, Charlie and Moira lay on wine, soft drinks, tea and coffee and we have a chance to meet some of the other volunteers. A lovely evening and an opportunity to chat with people I usually just meet in passing.<br />
<br />
Yesterday in Manchester I visited a wonderful museum, <a href="http://www.phm.org.uk/,">www.phm.org.uk/,</a> the Peoples' History Museum, which gives the history of how the rights we now take for granted have had to be struggled for over the centuries. Yes there are still changes we need to continue to push for, but this reminded me of how much has been achieved by people working together.<br />
<br />
Tomorrow I am off to Leeds to meet my now settled friend. I haven't seen her since Christmas so a good chance to catch up, share some food and meet some of her other friends too.<br />
<br />
</span><br />
janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-62678184617656961362014-01-13T13:26:00.000-08:002014-01-13T13:26:30.054-08:00lunching with the porpoises<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-axxzsCia_XM/UtQxNstImdI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/5xGBu5Qaetw/s1600/DSC01122.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-axxzsCia_XM/UtQxNstImdI/AAAAAAAAA0Q/5xGBu5Qaetw/s1600/DSC01122.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the Cleveland Way climbing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">the hill in the January sun</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well OK, we were sitting on a high cliff at Cloughton and the porpoises (about four) were in the sea beneath us, but still it was a lovely Coasties <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a> lunch break. I know they weren't, but it really did look as though they were playing. It was the first Coasties of 2014 and we were doing a really big cut back of blackthorn along the sea ward side of the Cleveland Way. The weather for early January was perfect, sunny, not much wind and not too cold, by lunch time I had even taken off my thick fleece! A colleague and I had been asked to cut right through the hedge to open up a view of a headland as walkers climbed up the steps; "don't fall over," the Park Ranger asked us, we thought maybe we wouldn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Gr1zeEm_FM/UtQwfQdLRyI/AAAAAAAAA0I/TSb3NKdxkqI/s1600/DSC01123.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_Gr1zeEm_FM/UtQwfQdLRyI/AAAAAAAAA0I/TSb3NKdxkqI/s1600/DSC01123.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the view and the barrier</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Eventually we had cut through to the cliff edge and made the view asked for, but then it was decided that perhaps a barrier of some of the cut branches would avoid loosing walkers as they admired the view, so this is what it now looks like. If you read this and then walk this section, please do admire the view, it is lovely and it was hard work. I was too nervous to do the very edge bit, my colleague must have nerves of steel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The previous day, in theory, was Short Stop, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/,</a> but there were no referrals at all. This always worries me, is there really no one destitute, do they all have friends they can stay with? Several of the referring agencies have had to close some of their drop in facilities, making it harder for destitute asylum seekers to access their help. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Today the person who organises LASSN's befriending scheme rings me, she is wondering whether my friend would help someone in a similar position to her, who has just moved to the same area of Leeds. I say that I am sure she would be delighted, what a lovely idea to go from being supported to being a befriender.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Last Saturday another Voluntary Ranger and I continued cleaning up the board walk in the Forge Valley. If the gap between the boards is not kept clear for water to drain away they will rot, as some of the boards already have. We discuss how far apart they ought to be for this drainage to happen, a lot have been put in almost touching, our hoes do not stand a chance. I even try with a penknife, hopeless. Later I email one of the senior people at the National Park, these boards are very expensive, if they can't be properly maintained it is money wasted. He replies in some agreement and says he will check the standards that are being used, a small triumph for we amateurs? I hope so. After all if volunteers are being used for essential maintenance then it is only right that we can and will have an opinion as to the original construction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally to Fairtrade; last week I gave a talk to a group in Pickering, Sight Support Ryedale, <a href="http://sightsupportryedale.org/">sightsupportryedale.org/.</a> We had a good discussion, the question of fairness for UK farmers came up, I said I agreed, but that was for another pressure group and we could only do so much. I sold a lot of chocolate and snacks and came home feeling that at least a few farmers in developing countries had had their case heard and supported. As usual thanks to Fairer World, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk,/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk,</a> for supplying the goods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I am off on my travels tomorrow, to Bath to stay with an old friend, so once again My Small Society is taking a rest, good thing it doesn't run really essential services.</span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-17550728494091564232013-12-24T14:18:00.000-08:002013-12-24T14:18:14.853-08:00last post for 2013 - or only post in December!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QRv1CtwLJIM/Urn-HnHMXLI/AAAAAAAAAzg/ajj6mTZPwuk/s1600/DSC01081.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QRv1CtwLJIM/Urn-HnHMXLI/AAAAAAAAAzg/ajj6mTZPwuk/s200/DSC01081.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">wooden animals on sale at</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ryedale House</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Time flies, they say, when you are enjoying yourself. If that is so then December must have been a most enjoyable month. Much of it was taken up in organising Fairtrade stalls at several different venues. The goods had to be collected from Fairer World in York, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/,">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/,</a> taken to the venue, usually a school, and then the things left over, as well as the takings, picked up several days later. I did my best to minimise my mileage and usually managed to pick up or drop off at two places in one journey. One school ran out of jelly beans (yes Fairtrade) and earrings, but a friend in York picked more of those up for me. I ran a stall myself at the local Council offices, the lovely staff in the canteen invite us there twice a year. This year shiny pens and children's toys were the most popular items. Last year it was earrings and bangles.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">After the last few boxes of goods were returned to York and the money counted we had sold over £850 of Fairtrade goods. The schools keep something for their funds and the rest will help Fairer World continue to promote Fairtrade goods in York and its wider neighbourhood.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7whNtjnmo5Q/UroD4tMqX1I/AAAAAAAAAzw/SpgXUK-cYaU/s1600/DSC01096.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7whNtjnmo5Q/UroD4tMqX1I/AAAAAAAAAzw/SpgXUK-cYaU/s200/DSC01096.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sorry it's all gone</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Meanwhile Coasties continued as usual, and I squeezed in a trip to see my grandsons. The last Coasties of the year was at Ravenscar, but not above Robin Hood's Bay as we usually are, but slightly further south, right by the 'centre' of the village. Those of you who know Ravenscar will understand the humour of the work centre! In a howling gale and some sharp showers we were cutting back the ever present blackthorn, a helpful off shore wind blew the cuttings far out to sea. However the best was at lunch time, warm mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas chocolate ginger biscuits as a thanks for all our work, thank you Bill and Andrew. <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I had a trip to Leeds to see my friend, she has had a few problems in her new home, a break in and some precious things taken. Her friends have rallied round and I made several phone calls to try to sort other things out. Her phone is pay as you go, luckily I have a contract with masses of spare minutes; just as well as one call to her housing provider lasted over thirty minutes. We ate together, and I left her a little happier than when I had arrived.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So to the holidays. Short Stop is closed until the New Year, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/,</a> several of the long term homeless asylum seekers have been found a place to stay for the whole period, others have friends who can cope for the holidays with an extra mouth to feed, but it will not be easy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">As usual much voluntary activity will close down until the New Year, once again I must point out that we are the icing on the cake, essential services cannot and must not be run by the likes of me and my colleagues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Lastly I remember the Palestinians in Bethlehem; Christians, Muslims and the few non religious people, hemmed in, suffering from power cuts and water shortages, not much holiday fun for them. They are still occupied by a foreign power, just as they were 2000 years ago. So, no change there.</span><br />
janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-29767810738779872452013-11-28T05:49:00.000-08:002013-11-28T05:49:02.599-08:00Coasties is mud again, but lots of sunshine too<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A few days away with a friend, then family to stay and now back to the usual round of mud, sun and the phone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>, last week was at Falling Foss, a massive task which will probably take several weeks to complete. Part of the internationally famous Coast to Coast path goes through here and crosses the stream at a ford. Recently there has been a spate of accidents in the wet and the mud so the solution is a very long and, despite ups and downs, level board walk. It is near a well known beauty spot so the plan is to make it suitable for all ages as well as long distance walkers. The engineering and practical skills required are beyond my capabilities, but there are hundreds of pieces of timber to be moved, all across the swamp that is to be bridged. No-one wants to fall over, or lose their boots in the mud, so we set up a chain gang and hand each piece across the worst of the mud and carry them where is it slightly less wet.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Eventually the builders have all they need for several days and some of us set off to do some ditch clearing and then some path clearing. Luckily the sun is shining and we are surrounded by a fabulous woodland, unfortunately I have left my camera at home, so you will have to take my word for it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Short Stop, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk</a>, has been very quiet for the last few weeks. I am afraid that this is because several of the referring agencies have reduced their opening hours (because of cuts to their funding), rather than a reduction in the numbers of destitute asylum seekers. So more people are probably sleeping on the streets and also not receiving the advice and help that these agencies can give them. I have one referral one week and just two the following week, both placed fairly easily.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">One evening I run a Fairtrade stall, <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk</a>, at a craft evening organised by Sight Support Ryedale, <a href="http://sightsupportryedale.org/">sightsupportryedale.org/.</a> I don't sell a lot, but several people come up to tell me that they bought things at our big shop just a few weeks ago. it is a lovely evening, so thanks to Sight Support for inviting us. Still with Fairtrade, at the beginning of this week I take delivery from Fairer World, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk</a>, of several boxes of Christmas things, food and crafts for West Heslerton School, <a href="http://www.westheslertonschool.co.uk/">www.westheslertonschool.co.uk</a>. They are having a stall all week and I will collect what is left next Monday, thank you West Heslerton for spreading the word about Fairtrade. By special request there are lots of chocolate coins!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GLIyxgT4uSE/UpdGqMuKNpI/AAAAAAAAAzI/birhbmCKWWk/s1600/DSC01078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GLIyxgT4uSE/UpdGqMuKNpI/AAAAAAAAAzI/birhbmCKWWk/s200/DSC01078.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">just starting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EVufiIJ3zbQ/UpdGwbfI54I/AAAAAAAAAzQ/LuxYwycO1ww/s1600/DSC01080.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EVufiIJ3zbQ/UpdGwbfI54I/AAAAAAAAAzQ/LuxYwycO1ww/s200/DSC01080.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">some of the wood </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">to be burned</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Finally Coasties is back by the seaside at Hayburn Wyke, working with the National Trust. There were two main tasks, burning a lot of dead wood, far too much for habitat piles, and pulling out the invasive rhododendron that the Victorians planted as a visitor attraction. I opted to help with the fire and got very hot. By mid afternoon most of the wood was burnt and a lot of rhododendron pulled out and cut down, again the sun had shone, but very little mud this week. Finally we used water from a nearby stream to damp down the fire and went home, smoky and tired.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Another good two weeks for me, and, I hope, for the wider society I live in. Certainly the homeless asylum seekers and the walkers in the woods seemed pleased with our activities. Next year in Fairtrade Fortnight I hope to meet a Fairtrade banana producer to find out more about how Fairtrade is helping them. Earlier this year I met an olive farmer from Palestine who produces olive oil for Zaytoun, <a href="http://www.zaytoun.org,/">www.zaytoun.org,</a> Fairtrade and sometimes organic too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-42049365733511876222013-11-10T10:17:00.000-08:002013-11-10T10:17:05.033-08:00Musings on Palestine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">These are
some personal musings from my recent stay in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Palestine</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">. Others can and have recorded the
history, this is something different.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li> <span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">We are walking on the ramparts
of the old city of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Jerusalem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">, ahead of us a middle aged woman
shouts, in English, abuse at a man in a garden below us. She is accusing
him of throwing rubbish onto the old Ottoman walls, she is probably right.
He swears back at her. She looks at us, expecting support, she has heard
us speaking and knows we speak English, she speaks to us. I turn my
shoulder and blank her; normally I would have agreed with her. But this is
his quarter of the city, he sees her as the other, an interloper, despite
the rubbish we know he is right, it is his city, and he may do as he pleases.<o:p></o:p></span>
</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">We are walking through the old
quarter of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Nablus</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">; our guide shows us photos of a
family on a wall. They were killed when the occupying force thought that
one of theirs had been killed by someone in the house, so they all died.
The last time I saw photos like this was in a village high in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Apennines</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Italy</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">, there a whole village had been
killed by the occupying force when someone in the village had killed one
of the occupiers. Plus ca change, plus c’est the meme chose.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Now we are in an olive grove,
high above the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Jordan</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> valley, the land below us is
rich alluvial soil; in this climate it could sustain two crops a year. But
the people whose land it is may not irrigate, so only one crop can be
taken, wheat or maize and the vegetable which could have been grown must
be imported. Meanwhile the occupiers, in their new properties high on the
hill tops, have lawns and swimming pools. Anywhere in the </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Middle East</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> that sort of use of water would
be profligate, like the green ornamental shrubs I saw in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Dubai</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> being irrigated, but here it is
wicked beyond belief. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">As we walk along a short stretch
of road a young conscript jumps out of his jeep, he is almost young enough
to be my grandson. He is not quite sure who we are, so he cautions us to
be careful. I resist the temptation to ask him if there are lions around,
as all the local people couldn’t be more friendly. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">After a picnic lunch we visit
one of the few water treatment plants that are allowed by the occupiers.
One of the men treats us to an impromptu concert; the style in which he is
singing comes from medieval Andalucia when the Moors ruled in southern </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Spain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">. It is ironic that in those
‘barbaric’ times all three Abrahimic faiths lived in a sort of peaceful
co-existence, rare today indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Two days later we are in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Bethlehem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">, standing by a Banksy cartoon,
which happens to be on a very big wall, odd how the height of the houses
in the old ghetto of </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Venice</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> look very like a wall too. I
wonder why this wall makes me think of that?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of other walls I have seen,
Hadrian’s Wall, the Berlin Wall, the former now a tourist destination, the
later crumbled into dust, one day here too………<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">We return to </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Jerusalem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> on a local bus, our large
suitcases in the place under the bus for big items. The soldiers of the
occupation get on at a check point, they look at our passports and wish us
good day, no one and no machine has checked our cases; clearly this is not
a security check, but a system of control and humiliation. We’ve lived in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">, we know what a security check
it. Or is it a form of profiling, we are elderly and not Arab, we have
seen profiling in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">London</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"> too, we know what it looks
like.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Later in the souk, there are
soldiers of the occupation<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>perhaps
two hundred metres apart, the souk is crowded, one could do a lot of
damage before they could stop you, so what is their point, simply that
they can?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";">Finally I am at the airport.
There is a huge water feature, water spraying up from the ground and down
from the ceiling, I am sure it is recycled, but what a mockery of the country
which I have just left, where water can be turned off at the whim of the
occupying power. I spend no money, but drink a lot of the (free) water and
childishly flush a lot of toilets.</span></li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QqQJRvd2sT4/Un_LPzfSXXI/AAAAAAAAAyc/3BYkbclvk0g/s1600/DSC00981.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QqQJRvd2sT4/Un_LPzfSXXI/AAAAAAAAAyc/3BYkbclvk0g/s320/DSC00981.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">taking the message to </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Palestine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Can you see </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">the bullet hole in the </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">top right hand corner? This is the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">entrance to the Church of the Nativity</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"></span> </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJ2lqmT1pjY/Un_K9D1KsNI/AAAAAAAAAyU/NLQaWCn11aA/s1600/DSC00976.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJ2lqmT1pjY/Un_K9D1KsNI/AAAAAAAAAyU/NLQaWCn11aA/s200/DSC00976.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this mosque is opposite</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">the Church of the Nativity </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">in Bethlehem</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Lucida Sans Unicode";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<ul>
</ul>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PW_QyaI8cdc/Un_KfQW1A8I/AAAAAAAAAyM/KiEsbq7B9Z8/s1600/DSC00995.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PW_QyaI8cdc/Un_KfQW1A8I/AAAAAAAAAyM/KiEsbq7B9Z8/s200/DSC00995.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that wall</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-69440611021553868662013-11-10T09:49:00.000-08:002013-11-10T09:49:52.879-08:00Back from Palestine<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A new place to walk, in the olive groves and wadis of Palestine. It was too late for wild flowers, but we caught the end of the olive harvest. It is a small and encircled place, with a wall and the Jordan river as its effective boundaries. But the people we met were kind and generous, both the guides who led us and the people in whose homes we stayed. We also met many volunteers, mostly women, encouraging and leading other women to become economically independent. It made me feel rather inadequate; in their circumstances, water cut off without warning, constant harassment from illegal 'neighbours', their olive trees cut down, would I still be as resilient as they are? I am not at all sure. I will do a separate post of my musings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SXflLDEJSG4/Un_A1nazdKI/AAAAAAAAAxY/rVFOvOVwWsM/s1600/DSC01055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SXflLDEJSG4/Un_A1nazdKI/AAAAAAAAAxY/rVFOvOVwWsM/s200/DSC01055.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this beautiful rowan tree</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">will be in a glade where </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">several of the new paths </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">will meet up</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I returned home tired and rather dispirited, but luckily the first day back after a few happy days with my family was Coasties, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a>. The weather was perfect, and we were in Ravenscar with the National Trust, <a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/">www.nationaltrust.org.uk</a>, as regular readers will know one of my favourite places. It was an exciting new project, opening up an area of bracken and dense undergrowth so that new paths can be laid for families to walk and cycle in and other wilder tracks for intrepid mountain bikers. It is part of the National Trust's programme of encouraging more visitors to use their country side properties as much as the 'big houses' that some people associate with them. So we cut and lopped and laughed and joked the day away. By the 2 o'clock, nearly an hour before we usually finish we had all worked so hard that the day's task was complete. Once again Coasties had exceeded expectations!</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h35aaxEnack/Un_D-NnGhpI/AAAAAAAAAxs/qQaHxiL7GvY/s1600/DSC01060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h35aaxEnack/Un_D-NnGhpI/AAAAAAAAAxs/qQaHxiL7GvY/s200/DSC01060.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fair trade toys for sale</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AA-FC2BCwsI/Un_DtWQ1w-I/AAAAAAAAAxk/hNXeJ74ZSvY/s1600/DSC01065.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AA-FC2BCwsI/Un_DtWQ1w-I/AAAAAAAAAxk/hNXeJ74ZSvY/s200/DSC01065.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I can't decide what </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">to buy</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then two days in the Friends' Meeting House in Malton <a href="http://www.quaker.org.uk/malton%20">www.quaker.org.uk/malton </a>for our annual Fairtrade shop, all the goods from Fairer World in York, <a href="http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Both mornings a colleague and I tied arrows and signs to lampposts in the town, it seemed to draw people in on Saturday, but not so well on Friday, maybe the rain didn't help. However we still sold over £1500 of food and crafts, all fairly traded, giving the producers in developing countries a fair return for their labours. If you live locally you can see even more lovely crafts at the shop itself.</span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pUpvKqHwvNg/Un_FoCK8III/AAAAAAAAAx4/kdm9YcyUgpc/s1600/DSC01069.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pUpvKqHwvNg/Un_FoCK8III/AAAAAAAAAx4/kdm9YcyUgpc/s200/DSC01069.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">sloes, I had left it a bit late, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">but the ones left were very big!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Then on Sunday the rain blew itself away and the sun came out and luckily I was being a voluntary ranger on the coast. I was blown along from Hayburn Wyke almost to Ravenscar and then back in the comparative shelter of the old railway line. On the way I managed to pick enough sloes for several bottles of sloe gin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So lucky me, a safe and open country in which to do my bit for my small society. I listen to Joan Baez singing Jerusalem as I drive home and try not to cry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The next post will be my second political post in this series.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-83634091764719662692013-10-14T06:36:00.002-07:002013-10-14T06:36:25.286-07:00A pretty standard week<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A week with a bit of most of the things that my small society is involved with. So nothing of great excitement, but often that is the way, we volunteers plod on. Nothing wrong with plodding, so sorry if that sounds a bit Eeyoreish. I just mean that people who volunteer expecting excitement and constant change soon stop, because that's not how it is.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So on Monday I was to be a guest at the Pickering and area Fairtrade group's AGM.<a href="http://www.pickfair.org.uk/">www.pickfair.org.uk/</a> They are more formal than we are in Malton and Norton, our AGM is usually tacked onto an ordinary meeting. Just as well we can be different, how boring it would be otherwise. It was interesting to meet another local group and see how we differ (mostly the activities we do) and our similarities (mostly frustration with local cafes). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Tuesday was my regular Short Stop phone coordination for LASSN, <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk/ </a> It was another quiet Tuesday, a man from Iran and another one from Zimbabwe, both placed quickly, only one phone call from me for each one. It has been quiet recently, but now the weather is getting colder and wetter the street or park option will become less likely, so more calls can be expected. Next week we move up a technological stage, with a constantly updated lists of hosts, so I am hoping for another quiet day whilst I come to terms with how to manage it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Wednesday was Coasties, <a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway/,">www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway/, </a>we were working on the section of the Cleveland Way south of Scarborough. A section prone to frequent landslips; the path I was clearing of overhanging brambles and nettles is a long standing diversion from when the original fell into the sea many years ago. Unfortunately, being on the edge of the town, it is also a dog walkers' path; much used it seemed by dog owners who imagine that putting their pets' poo in a bag and flinging it in the hedge will magic it away. Actually it won't!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Saturday I was being a Voluntary Ranger for the National Park, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk</a>. However rather than patrol along paths a colleague and I continued work that Coasties had started some months ago. Board walks are useful things when they are maintained, this involves clearing the vegetation from the edges and trying to keep the gaps between the boards clear of detritus so that they can drain. So we used hoes and shears and stiff yard brooms to continue clearing the board walk in Forge Valley, a beautiful National Nature Reserve <a href="http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/">www.naturalengland.org.uk</a>. If this isn't done the wood, however treated, will eventually rot. However the task would have been easier if the installers had left better gaps between the boards, note to future board walk makers. We didn't finish and hope to come back in the winter to complete the task.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Well that's all for this post. Sorry about the lack of photos, some next time I hope. I am off at the end of the week for ten days, hoping to meet some volunteers in foreign fields, more next time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-68948363248314377892013-10-06T15:43:00.000-07:002013-10-06T15:43:05.639-07:00Everything seemed to go OK<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In my previous post I anticipated several events, well I'm pleased to say that they all went well, at least I thought so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">My presentation on the role of volunteers in maintaining the Cleveland Way to members of the North York Moors Authority, <a href="http://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/">www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/</a>, was very well received. Thanks to Andrew, who put together a wonderful collection of photos, and my colleagues in the photos who certainly showed off their skills. My suggestion that perhaps we might be provided with waterproofs has apparently not been entirely dismissed. We shall see...................</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">A colleague and I from the Malton and Norton Fairtrade group spoke to members of Sight Support Ryedale, <a href="http://sightsupportryedale.org/">sightsupportryedale.org/</a>, about Fairtrade and where to purchase Fairtrade goods locally. We had a very good discussion and even touched on how politics can affect how Fairtrade can operate in many countries. <a href="http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/">www.fairtrade.org.uk/</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">So now to new events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">I have been to Coasties twice since I last posted. Once actually on the coast the other time well inland. The first time we were making sure that a section of the Cleveland Way on National Trust land in Ravenscar was looking its best. People from all the National Parks in England were due the following day and we needed a good clear path for them to walk along. It was damp and warm and the midges were biting, but we kept on with the cutting back; the bracken seemed to be their favourite habitat!</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FRMIGQx5ObU/UlHFGAebL1I/AAAAAAAAAwU/jMc7kywKdIo/s1600/DSC00842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FRMIGQx5ObU/UlHFGAebL1I/AAAAAAAAAwU/jMc7kywKdIo/s200/DSC00842.JPG" width="150" xsa="true" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a public highway!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jEuAQjYrUl4/UlHWpY3-PlI/AAAAAAAAAwk/aEZkBtbdwRE/s1600/DSC00843.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jEuAQjYrUl4/UlHWpY3-PlI/AAAAAAAAAwk/aEZkBtbdwRE/s200/DSC00843.JPG" width="150" xsa="true" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the start of the new path</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The following week we were making a parallel path to the path on the left. It may not look like it, but this path can be used by any vehicle and so is frequently used by motor bikes, leaving it in the rutted state you can see here. Unfortunately it is also part of the Moors to Sea cycleway and the Tabular Hills footpath. So we set to and cut a path through the bracken, in a couple of weeks part of it will have a hard surface for the bikes and level grass for the walkers. The bikers can carry on making their rutted way through the mud.<br /><br />Short Stop has been quite quiet recently, which is just as well as many of our lovely hosts now have Long Stop guests. Asylum seekers who may have to wait for many months for their cases to be heard can sometimes be found somewhere to stay for more than just a night; giving them and the hosts some certainty and the opportunity to plan their lives just a little. So I manage to find somewhere for everyone both weeks, even though one week it takes half a dozen calls before I even get to speak to someone. One of my fellow LASSN volunters is upgrading the Short Stop paperwork to keep it all up to date, let's hope this dinosaur will cope, <a href="http:///">lassn.org.uk/.</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meanwhile I have been contacting local schools about Fairtrade stalls in the run up to Christmas, several have said yes please, so I need to get all those sorted out and then contact my friends at Fairer World in York to arrange picking up the goods for the stalls.<a href="http:///"><a href="http:///">www.fairerworldyork.co.uk</a></a>. However the biggest thing for our local Fairtrade group is our annual two day shop, Friday November 1st and Saturday November 2nd, all day on both days at the Friends' Meeting House in Malton. Planning for that is now well under way, advertising, staffing and refreshments all, I think, under control.<br /><br />My last activity was attending a local conference of Amnesty International in York last Saturday, <a href="http:///">www.amnesty.org.uk/,</a>. We discussed extraordinary rendition, conscription and human rights in the chocolate industry amongst other things. Luckily the stall I was running had plenty of Fairtrade chocolate and I was placed right next to a Fairtrade vending machine. So let's end with two pictures.<br /><br /><br />.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a bar for every taste</span></td></tr>
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janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7719481145216480899.post-17798790706043737502013-09-17T13:50:00.000-07:002013-09-17T13:50:34.403-07:00my small society gives up for a few weeks<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, first of all I went away, walking in the Auvergne in southern France. It was very hard work, lots of hills, too many cows and then a lot of rain. Much of it was enjoyable and fun, and the scenery was stunning, and the food, but................. I returned with a rather sore knee and very tired legs. So no Coasties and then I cancelled my Voluntary Ranger patrol, being sensible for once!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I felt a bit guilty, but decided that actually my small society would have to manage without me, none of us is indispensable! This morning I was back for a while, it was Short Stop <a href="http://lassn.org.uk/">lassn.org.uk</a> . Just one referral, from Solace, <a href="http://www.solace-uk.org.uk/">www.solace-uk.org.uk</a>, a couple from Eritrea, I managed to place them with the first people I rang. I have met these hosts, so chatting to one of them on the phone was very easy. The rest of the day was very quiet, I hope it meant that on-one needed a bed for the night, it has suddenly got very cold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Now I am off again, visiting family in the West Country. <br /><br />I have a busy few days though when I get back. Monday is a presentation to the National Park Authority about the role of volunteers in maintaining and improving the Cleveland Way, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://north%20york%20moors%20national%20park%20authority/">North York Moors National Park Authority</a></span>. <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the staff has made me a Power Point presentation, so all I have to do is press a button and introduce the pictures. I hope it goes alright, the role of the volunteers is incredibly important to the Cleveland Way and I want the members of the authority to appreciate what we do, especially those volunteers who do far more than me and are much more skilled than I am. Tuesday will be Short Stop again and then a meeting of our local Fairtrade group. We have to plan for our annual two day pre Christmas shop in early November and start to think about renewing our town Fairtrade status. Wednesday will be Coasties before I am on granny duties again. As soon as I return I am talking to a local group about Fairtrade. <br /><br />So the next blog will be into October, when hopefully my small society will be well back on its feet again and I can report on how all these activities went!</span>janicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14496183392833623027noreply@blogger.com0