Triennial

Every three years Folkestone holds a living art festival, this is one of the pieces from this year.

Ruth Ewans Decimal Clocks, located in various places around the down and set to the French Republican calendar.

Each hour has 100 minutes and each day made up of 10 hours.  The French used this system for 13 years from 1793.

How far can you push a Liberal.....

I wasn't going to write anything, there are many far more eloquent than I occupying the blogosphere.  I just felt compelled.


Before Christmas with the tuition fee protests in full swing I sat in the Liberal camp, righteous in my support of protest and perhaps for the first time in my life abhorring the polices' response!  


This morning in the aftermath of yet another night of rioting on the streets of this country I wipe away tears of such utter frustration and anger I am in despair.  Maybe not entirely for the riot hit areas, maybe completely for those whose lives and businesses have been torn apart, maybe I am mourning the loss of my Liberal values.  How can I hold true to the balance of thought I have prided myself on when all around me seems to shatter them.  

Where has society gone when the above happens, bleeding and dazed on the street your backpack robbed while you bleed!


How is this anything other than shocking...

Have I become so jaded that I am no longer shocked by the complete lack of respect people show for their community?  A few days ago I would have been able to say I was jaded, today I sit in shock and no longer feel detached. 



I don't have the answers, I have never lived in the poverty of many, I have never been Black and I don't pretend to understand.  When asked once about depression and how it feels to be suicidal I said 'don't think you can know, you can imagine it would be better to die or to drown but no-one comes back from that so you won't ever truly know'  I was trying to make the point that you can teach and you can preach but you have to live it to know how desperate times can be.  


I can't imagine the lives the looters have lived, mainly because I can't imagine being so devoid of humanity that I would destroy all around me.  I want calm to descend and a clarity to be seen by all but I know it's not coming.  The riots won't heal divisions they will create them in communities devoid direction, who will rebuild? Who will invest? 


I pray for the young of today, I pray that they find purpose and a place in society. 

If we do not plant knowledge when young, it will give us no shade when we are old

Lord Chesterfield 

Do you really think that?

HACKGATE!!!!! 


Good now I have your attention, what a fun few weeks we all had.  The buzz across Twitter was electric with revelations and accusations coming thick and fast!


So I was thinking about it all and wondering what has changed?  The News of the World (NOTW) may have gone but in the grand scheme of tabloid Britain what has changed?


I am going to go with not much as my line.  The problem being to affect change there has to be a willing consensus to do so, if you do the math then there isn't one! 


Did the people who bought the NOTW undergo a 'road to Damascus' moment, I doubt this very much!  You see the only people truly outraged by all the Hackgate revelations never bought the NOTW or read its sister The Sun so really how will all this affect change.  


Tabloid Britain is a place where people are outraged far too often and affected very little.  Tabloid Britain is a place where people mutter injustice and do very little for the community.  Tabloid Britain is predominantly the people we all pretend not to be when we huff and tutt at 'da yoots'.  


Most telling of all Tabloid Britain was only napping, Football season starts this week and nothing but nothing gets in the way of salacious footballers!  And nothing will deter the 'Righteous' Tabloids that are left when a sniff of scandal breaks in the coming 9 months!  

So does Hackgate change anything?  No I think not because creatures of habit we all are and scandal is a hard habit to break! 

Hedge row goodies!

Everyone loves something for nothing (or very little) and picking fruit from the side of the road or along foot paths is a family tradition!


Blackberries, plums, damsons, apples, pears and cobnuts are a staple in our house.  From pies to crumbles and jams to jellies we treat our selves every year!


I wonder how many kids today are enjoying a day out finding and picking fruit and nuts then the fun of all making something together, my favourite part! 


This is a simple Damson Cheese! (it's not really cheese) 


Basic recipe once fruit is sieved is 2.75 pints of juice to 1kg of granulated sugar and cook on a rolling heat until thick enough to stick to wooden spoon, between 40mins to an hour dependent on size of pan.  This is not a jam and doesn't keep like a jam, store chilled and use within a month! 


Have fun!  

A Carrier Bag of possibilities 

6lb of fruit and 15oz water cooked down for 20 minutes 

Sieve and add 350g of regular sugar to every pint of juice!
Cook for a further 40 mins the pour out to cool.

Once cool it sets like Jelly

Once set and chilled it cuts into slices like a thick set jam/jelly hybrid!

“Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”

Confucius says.....


Dependent on where you are things look different, this is so true in life.  


Looking at The Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone can be a wondrous thing as it floats above the park, taken from another angle or looked on in a sour frame of mind you miss the beauty before you.  


Take a moment and look again at the ordinary or familiar and appreciate new things!