an average fortnight with some quirky photos

The usual run of the mill stuff, but in amongst it are some unusual photos.

Firstly, both Short Stop Tuesdays, lassn.org.uk/, were uneventful. Two referrals each week, both placed quite easily. But behind that bland statement are stories of war, sleeping on the streets and negotiating the asylum process. One of the referrals speaks no English, the host and I discuss how he will get to their home, luckily the referring agency have a special 'taxi' fund for such emergencies. I have used buses on my own in a country where I did not speak the language. I was a tourist with money and some confidence, but it was still stressful even though I knew exactly where I was going. I chat with other hosts, who I met at the meal in Leeds (see Thursday 7th March), about their holidays in Northumberland.

Coasties, www.northyorkmoors.org.uk, was up in the north of the Park in the middle of the month, at Skinningrove, almost on the beach. Whilst the step builders were in the lee of the cliffs, out of the wind, a colleague and I were clearing gorse in its full blast. Luckily there was a good deal of ground between the path and the edge, or we might have ended up blown into the sea. There is a wonderful restored fishing boat in the old dock area, here it is.

no, it's not a real person

www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1625894, this tells you more about it. We were cutting back the gorse just where the snow in the photo in this link starts!



not some exotic birds' eggs!



The following week Coasties were clearing a ditch at Ravenscar. It is right next to the golf links and over the years many golfers have obviously been a little too ambitious with their strokes (is that the correct word?). Here are just some of the lost balls that were retrieved from the ditch. We left them there for the golfers to re-use!

The sun had been shining at Ravenscar, but the next day it was hail and wind at Farndale. The daffodils are now out, but sensibly the visitors had stayed at home.                

Yesterday was a patrol from Thornton Dale, I walked up into Dalby Forest, or the Great Yorkshire Forest as it is now called, www.forestry.gov.uk/dalbyforest. It is the centre of an extensive series of mountain biking trails, where these muddy people can legitimately hone their amazing skills. But I was more impressed by this bike; it is specially designed to take a wheelchair, so everyone can now go where the bikes go. (Well may be not the steep bits). www.dalbybikebarn.co.uk, are the hirers. I don't usually link to commercial sites, but I will make an exception here.

Lastly our Fairtrade group has gone to the folk festival, or more precisely the Malton and Norton folk festival www.maltonfolk.co.uk/ . We had a stall during the day at the Blue Ball pub and in the evening at Suddabys for the main concert. We sold some things on behalf of Fairer World in York www.fairerworldyork.co.uk and had a good time as well.

Fairtrade stall at the Blue Ball

 

We were able to use the wall to display the small bags and purses.

As I said at the beginning an average sort of fortnight, but that is what volunteering usually is, just getting on with it, week in and week out.

a bit of a rubbish week

Sorry for the gap, I was away with my grandchildren and then a computer problem.

So, the rubbish week started in Troutsdale, an apparently lovely and peaceful dale on the eastern side of the National Park www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/, I was doing a Voluntary Ranger patrol. However it didn't take long to start to see the rubbish. In the small car park and around it, I collected half a bag, mostly from a well know burger place. I walked through some mixed forest to the top of the escarpment, the remains of several bonfires, bottles, cans and take away BBQs made another bag. Then the worst, back down through another part of the forest to this:-

it had obviously been there for some time and the people would have needed a car to get it there. There are  two free Council sites to take it to within a 20 minute drive, so why dump it here? I discover that it has been reported before and that the police have been asked to take action, but it is still there! I am obviously not going to clear these bags.


The next day I was at Farndale, no rubbish here, but sadly still no daffodils; but there is a weather change in the air, although not very obvious to me and my colleagues. So perhaps in a week or so........................

Wednesday I missed Coasties to help my friend in Leeds move from her accommodation as an asylum seeker to new accommodation as a homeless person with the right to live here. It really doesn't make any sense, she has had to move from one publicly funded property to another, different budget heads, but still our taxes. I am very happy for my taxes to help her have a decent home, but not to support the pointlessness of this move. I take the small stuff and a lovely man with a van takes the bigger things that she has either collected from various dumps, cleaned up and put to good use, or things that people have given her. She is currently in a semi furnished flat, but soon she will have to move again, don't ask, this time to unfurnished accommodation, so nothing can be thrown away or left behind. We are all happy to help and overjoyed that she has permission to stay, but what a rubbish day, wasting fuel and time when we could all be doing so much better things.

I talk to people at LASSN lassn.org.uk (Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network) and Solace www.solace-uk.org.uk, who help with advocacy and counselling, about what to do if there is a gap in her financial support. We agree that I should contact the Trussell Trust www.trusselltrust.org, who run the food bank in central Leeds. They are very kind and tell me what to do to help my friend get a food parcel if it becomes necessary. So far she has been OK, as she is very careful about her food purchases and nothing ever goes to waste.

The week ends on a happier note. I help to clear away overgrown areas of the Castle Gardens in Malton, www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk, this is a lovely area in the middle of the town. You may find the website a little out of date; this is because as with so many other local and voluntary organisations the people involved all have busy lives. So if you want to help bring it up to speed you can, by offering your time and your skills. Here are some new shrubs and a tree waiting to be planted.

So a mixed week, but by the end spring has finally arrived and the frogs in our pond are doing their bit for the future of the planet. We do our own local scavenging and have two meals using wild garlic as the vegetable.

we install a bench and much more



off to the alum works



Back from holiday to all the usual stuff, but the high light of the week was Wednesday. The new section of the Cleveland Way,  www.nationaltrail.co.uk/clevelandway,  that Coasties has been working on since last summer, is officially opened; a ribbon is cut and a bottle of fizzy popped. Several people were walking along it even while all the photos were being taken.

After the celebrations some of us dig two large holes and install the bench that I and my husband were given to celebrate our 65th birthdays. Much admiration for the quality of the bench (thank you to the National Park www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/) and the idea of a bench before one dies!

nearly there

when you sit down....
photo Zoe of the National Trust

      

 A bitterly cold day, with an easterly wind, but a lot to celebrate.

Thanks also to the National Trust for helping with the siting,

www.nationaltrust.org.uk           

Tuesday had been a fairly quiet Short Stop day, www.lassn.org.uk. Just two people to place, but unusually both of them women. After a lot of voicemails I find not two, but three kind people, so I kept one in reserve, just in case. Luckily the just in case didn't happen. It was going to be a bitterly cold night so I was glad that I had found warm beds for two desperate people.

Thursday I visited my friend in Leeds. She is still waiting to get a date for her move (I discover later in the week that she now has a date, in the middle of April - watch this space). We go over her paper work, it is becoming a larger and larger pile. I discover with some amusement that the new permission to stay cards give her baby the right to work as well as her, is this the way ahead?!

Finally yesterday I was at the Farndale MDU (mobile display unit), the National Park's information unit about the Farndale daffodils. However this year it should be renamed the snow drop and ice walk, rather than the daffodil walk. The famous wild daffodils haven't even turned their heads over yet, I think it will be at least two weeks before any yellow is seen. Meanwhile here are the showdrops and an unusual ice formation.

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.