a bit of everything

Fairtrade goodies for sale

Well here is the quick roundup before I go off on holiday. At the end of last week I did a Fairtrade www.fairtrade.org.uk stall at West Heslerton Primary school www.westheslertonschool.co.uk, a small and welcoming school on the edge of the Wolds. Their theme has been France, so the tables for refreshments were decorated with French and Fairtrade flags. I set up my stall, a mixture of chocolates, sweets and small craft goods, all Fairtrade of course.

ready for tea, coffee
and cakes

The favourites as usual are jelly beans; but I also do a brisk trade in rings and bangles, I think some may be for Mothering Sunday. One small boy is short of 10p for a ring, but a kind friend lends him the money and he comes back for the ring he has had his eye on all afternoon. It has been a satisfying afternoon, I pack up and prepare to take the unsold items back to Fairer World in York.http://www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/. The shop has been closed for essential repairs, so these stalls have been a vital life line for its commercial viability.

I'm pleased, there is a good photo in the local paper about our craft fair this Saturday.



Tuesday was not the usual Short Stop. Last week hosts, coordinators and one of the referring agencies had met up for a social evening in Leeds. A lovely meal and a chance to meet people who are usually just voices on the phone. So when Pafras www.pafras.org.uk/ rang this morning I could put a face and personality to the voice. The second host I rang had also been at the meal, we chatted about her baby and the meal and then, as usual, she said yes, of course they would take the young woman I was trying to place.

And so to Coasties, www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway, working once again on the alternative Cleveland Way route through the disused alum workings at Ravenscar. www.nationalparks.gov.uk/visiting/.../nym-historicplace2.htm, this is not a link I've used before, so I hope readers find it interesting.

making the revetment,
these steps are finished
with local material

A grey dull day this week and slightly fewer people. I and a two colleagues continue the work on the revetments, either the nails are blunt or all the planks are full of knots, but hammering becomes harder and harder. Luckily the ground, whilst drier, is still soft, so digging is quite easy. You win some and lose some! Meanwhile some of the rest of the team is shaling the other steps and finishing off other sections of revetments. The last group are installing the second new gate. Hopefully one or at most two more days' work will get the path ready enough for the official opening on March 27th, just two days after we return from holiday.

My next post will tell you all about it, will we have champagne?

Just the same old things

In a way my small society has some similarities with going to work. On Tuesdays it is Short Stop, lassn.org.uk/, Wednesday is Coasties, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, every so often I visit my friend in Leeds, lassn.org.uk again and in between it's Fairtrade, www.fairtrade.org.uk. Not exactly the same every week, but usually variations on a theme. Do I get bored, no, but then I was lucky and I never did at work. Do I wake up and think oh no it's Coasties again, never, even when the weather is bad, mad yes, no definitely not. As I have blogged before there are differences (as well as not getting paid), I can go away when I want, and I do; I can on rare occasions say no, as I did to the raking (see August 23rd 2012!). But that is part of the essence of my small society, these things need doing year in and year out and if no one did them I believe the world would be a poorer place. Repetitive yes, boring, well not to me.

Here endeth the lesson for this blog!

much easier than a barrow

So, Coasties in the shining sun last week, what a welcome sight this piece of machinery was, it moved all the remaining huge stones by the new path in next to no time, compare it with the wheelbarrow we were using earlier in the year (post 03/02/13).

Step construction was becoming more and more complicated with corners to be turned on a very steep slope. A new gate was put in and revetments built to prevent the steps becoming covered in mud in wet weather.

the steep corner

  We were able to eat our lunch outside, the sun was almost warm, a promise of things to come? There are only a few more weeks' tasks before the official opening at the end of March, so the conversation was all about whether it will be finished by then. Coasties are almost the guests of honour, we have 'instructions' to turn up in our thick maroon fleeces what ever the weather, so much more photogenic than our grey polo shirts!!!

That's all for this post, there will be another short one at the end of the week before I am off again on a fortnight's jaunt.







my small society affected by weather and illness

Not a good month, February, I think most years, and this year certainly lived up to my billing of it. The first Coasties of the month was cancelled, the second one I felt too unwell to go to. Fortunately I was still well enough to sit by the phone and the computer. In the old days when I went to paid work the rule was too ill to go to work, too ill for anything else. Now as a volunteer I can pick and choose my levels of illness, another good thing about having a pension not a salary.

So there have been two Tuesdays of Short Stop since I last blogged, www.lassn.org.uk. Only a couple of potentially homeless asylum seekers, Guinea and Pakistan this time, both  found shelter from the cold and the wet quite quickly. I have a chat with one of the hosts about his email address, I assume it is to do with viniculture, but no it is a Christian organisation. So I learn something new. Another host and I discuss halal meals. It is the beginning of the horsemeat incidents, so all labelling is becoming suspect and  so we agree a non meat meal is safest. My local butcher is profiting from all this I am pleased to say.

I am also able to catch up on the organising of our local Fairtrade Craft Fair. We  have several local craft people coming as well as the Fairtrade stalls. Some of them will be making their craft items as well as, hopefully, selling. If you live nearby it's Saturday March 9th, 10am to 4pm at the Friends' Meeting House, Greengate Malton YO17 7EN. Free entry! There is a photo shoot for our local paper to be sorted out and one or two people to be chased up.

The Malton and Norton Fairtrade group is participating in the Yorkshire Fairtrade www.fairtradeyorkshire.org.uk  'sell a tonne of Fairtrade rice in Fairtrade fortnight challenge'. As a small group we are trying to sell 45kg, bigger groups 90kg. Contact Yorkshire Fairtrade to find your nearest stockist.

Before I was unwell I pay my friend in Leeds a flying visit. One of her local friends is there too. We talk about how we hope to be able to use a van and a driver to help to move her stuff when she has to move again. Her wonderful collecting of unwanted stuff dumped on waste land has gleaned her a bed, a fridge freezer and a table. She may have to go into a hostel for a short time before going into an unfurnished flat, so none of this must be lost. Luckily a friend of mine has offered some space in her garage to store her precious things. On the bus back I become so engrossed in my book that I almost miss my stop!

Hopefully I will be back to Coasties next Wednesday, although I think I shall have to give a Supertask, back in the Mire (see 6th March 2012), a miss this year. I am off on Granny duties after Coasties and need to keep my strength up for that!

A very average week, but then Coasties go out for lunch

A bit of everything this week. Short Stop, lassn.org.uk, first; only two referrals, but a lot of hosts have a Long Stop guest, two hosts were ill and it was obviously a busy evening in Leeds as several were going out. So it was touch and go, but eventually both young men were placed in warm and welcoming homes with a hot meal to look forward to. One young man from Eritrea had not turned up on Monday night, we all worried about him, hopefully I will find out next Tuesday where he went.

we struggle in the mud, thanks
to Tristan for the picture

Wednesday was Coasties, the roads were clear and so were the alum works at Ravenscar. So it was continuing with the Cleveland Way alternative route. www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway. Mud was the order of the day, all over the place. Some people ingeniously devised a drain to take a newly discovered spring away from the steps, whilst I and a colleague moved bigger and bigger pieces of stone from the site of the new path to a storage area. They must be saved, they are archaeological treasures from long lost parts of the alum workings.

a drain to take the spring
water away from the steps

it looks good, but the hail
wasn't!

Suddenly we looked up to see a perfect rainbow, but it was the harbinger of a dreadful hail and rain storm, we got to the barn just in time, early lunch we decided.

Thursday I finally got to Leeds. Unfortunately my friend was not in the mood to really celebrate her permission to stay in this country; her boiler still not fixed and no running water in the kitchen. However after I had made various phone calls she relaxed and we pored over the letter from the Home Office. It is such a flat sort of letter, one feels it should be in gilt letters! However, there it is in black and white, her 'status' as asylum seekers call it. We talked about the fact that she will have to move again and all the rest of the hoops she will have to jump through. She know it will be tough, but of course she doesn't mind.

On and off during the week I have been emailing about our Fairtrade Craft Fair in March, it is gradually coming together, stalls and publicity. We have made a link with the regional Fairtrade group, www.fairtradeyorkshire.org.uk, so that is another way to publicise our event. Yorkshire is the first region in England to achieve Fairtrade status and our small group in Malton and Norton is part of that.

Yesterday was the social highlight of Coasties' year. We take off our muddy boots, our T shirts and fleeces, put on our smart clothes and go out for lunch. Some of us bring our partners, usually left at home in the warm and the dry. I's not just hard work and fun, it's also a good meal and fun.



What are these sheep?



Finally today I did a voluntary ranger patrol, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk. checking out various footpaths in the Staintondale area. Except for the mud everwhere, most things were fine, gates, signs and stiles all in good order. Although the mild weather earlier in the winter seems to have encouraged the bramble to keep growing so I will need my secateurs next time. Towards the end of the afternoon I came across the biggest sheep I had ever seen, the ram had two sets of fine horns. Are they Manx Loaghtan?

An average week, but to my mind a very balanced one.

Snow stops Coasties

For two weeks now Coasties www.northyorkmoors.org.uk has been cancelled. The roads were mostly clear, but we would be unable to get to where we were going to work. This is particularly frustrating as the new section of the Cleveland Way www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway still needs a lot of work to be done before it is completed. There is talk of an opening at the end of March, before the Easter weekend; so fingers crossed for warmer and drier weather.

I had planned to go to Leeds for a belated celebration with my friend, but a heavy cold and cough (mine), meant that will be put off for a week. No need for everyone to suffer.

So I have been indoors doing my small society work.

Quite a lot for Fairtrade www.fairtrade.org.uk/, both locally and in York.

Locally we are busy planning for Fairtrade fortnight, February 25th to March 9th. Various local shops will be asked about displays, but our biggest event is another craft fair, on March 9th in Malton at the Friends' Meeting House. It will showcase local crafts; several people will be doing displays of how they make their items, as well as fairly traded crafts. Below you can see some of the small craft items and jewellery that we will be selling.

we packed these .......

In York, Fairer World www.fairerworldyork.co.uk/ is having to close for about three weeks whilst essential work is carried out on the front of the building. This means that everything has to be packed up and moved to temporary warehousing. Food and fine craft items do not mix with dust and dirt from what will be a building site!  It seems like chaos as we make up boxes, pack and label, but gradually a system emerges and there may be light at the end of a dusty tunnel. This evening is their annual social, where all the various volunteers who help staff the shop get to meet the other volunteers who run the out of shop stalls at schools, village halls and local churches. It is one of those socials where you take a main course or dessert and hope that there is some sort of balance when you get there. It should be fun, but more snow is forecast...................... Watch next week's blog for what happens.



..........and these



Fantastic news

Just after lunch my phone goes, private number, so shall I answer? I do and it is my asylum seeking friend, she is crying and I become desperately worried, why isn't she using her own phone? She explains that the phone is at Solace www.solace-uk.org.uk and hands me over. It is the best news in the world, she has been given leave to stay for 5 years, no wonder she is crying. I speak to her again and amidst the joy and the tears remember to check on her boiler; someone has been round and has ordered a part.

It has been just over 3 years since we first met, through LASSN lassn.org.uk/ . She was incredibly vulnerable, there have been so many downs and only a few ups. But in all that time she has helped as many people as have helped her, a true friend to many. They all wrote to the Home Office supporting her claim, perhaps some of that helped, we shall never know.

The weeks ahead will not be easy; she will have to move again and work her way through the labyrinth that is today's social security system. However I know that as soon as she can she will be contributing back to the community in Leeds that has given her so much support.

my battered UK passport,
maybe one day my friend will have one too

New year, still same small society

Well apparently the Big society is now over, at least it is according to the Torygraph, aka The Telegraph, www.telegraph.co.uk, but as I don't read it I can't vouch for the accuracy of this statement! However my small society will be continuing, as will the blog, now read in Serbia and Egypt, as well as quite a following in Latvia.

Anyway, down to the actuality of what my small society has been up to since the break for Christmas and the New Year. 

A very normal week really, Tuesday and Thursday was LASSN stuff lassn.org.uk . Short Stop was very quiet, the young man from Iranian Kurdistan whom I've placed before and an older man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; I used to teach children from DRC, traumatised by the violence they had seen, they mostly still tried to work hard and do well in their studies. I placed both of them quite quickly and carried on with the tidying up and general household tasks that have been let slip over the holiday. Then I got a lovely text from some hosts who are away but who could have the man from DRC over the weekend (they are fluent French speakers and it is his main language). Thursday I went over to Leeds on the bus, had lunch with my gadding friend and as usual put the world to rights and then dropped in to see my other friend. She has had a lovely Christmas, many friends at church, some of whom stayed over in her new home. However she is desperately worried about a friend who is refusing to answer her phone, although she is in her flat.The friend has had a lot of mental health issues and is obviously not well again. My friend cares enough to put her own worries to one side and worry about a friend in need. There are problems with her boiler, so I phone the housing provider and arrange to check on Monday if anything has been done; it is leaking badly, ours did this before it failed altogether!

not a pond, it's quite deep

it might look muddy but
it's easier to navigate

Wednesday was back to Coasties www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, a fabulous day, sunny, no wind and in the sun we almost got hot as we worked to clear overgrowth from a bridleway. Although we were about four miles inland we were on the edge of a high ridge and could see clearly as far as Filey Brigg and possibly Flamborough Head. As well as the overgrowth, the path was flooded in several places, so blocked drainage ditches were cleared and the floods started to drain away.



a section of the collapsed path



Today I was doing a patrol on the Cleveland Way south of Scarborough, along the coast, www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway. There have been a lot of land slips, probably caused by the wet weather and they need to be checked. I phone in about a couple, it seems that they are probably no worse than a week ago, but the professionals will check them again next week. It is incredibly muddy and I slip and slide, fortunately not where the path has fallen into the sea. One section of the Cleveland Way that was diverted some years ago now goes through some lovely woods, fallen logs covered with moss make this look like a gateway.

a surreal landscape

As I drive home I realise how lucky I am. Two good days in beautiful countryside, less than an hour from my home, almost on my doorstep. And as a by product I've got fitter in the process, well my heart rate went up and I think that's what supposed to happen.