Saturdays

Since schooldays, I've always loved Saturdays. Many of them spent playing in the park with my younger brothers, but it was also the  day when Mama (my mum) would often take me shopping.  It was a time when I could have a small slice of her all to myself. Sometimes, it was just grocery shopping, off in Mama's car...a Morris Minor, all leathery seats smell and the clickety click of the window wipers. Sometimes we would catch the bus to town and buy a new dress or coat, and she would give me the money to pay the driver...and oh didn't I feel grown up.


Growing up as a teenager and a convent schoolgirl in Africa, Saturdays meant freedom. Working in the city on a Saturday job selling books and magazines from 8am until 1.30pm and then walking to the beach for a long afternoon of sun, swimming, watching my friends surfing..and ice cold drinks from the café.

University Saturdays began late ....usually after a very good Friday night out...but always ready to meet the gang for a walk from the campus into town....for a mooch about, for a drink....and then to get ready for Saturday night. The thought of staying in on a Saturday night was unheard of...they meant going to a gig, a disco, a bar or a party..

When I became a mother, Saturdays was all about our gang of three....music lessons and tennis in the morning , a picnic, a village fete on summer afternoons or a winter walk in the park, all muffled up ....and then  for many years , the odd Saturday night out when we could get a babysitter. Out with friends for a meal, or going to friends' houses for supper....

Now, my Saturdays are still so precious. After a busy working week, Saturday mornings means nipping to the farm shop to buy something tasty for the weekend, perhaps a wine tasting here...

going to the allotment , walking the dog, being in the garden.

Sometimes there's the whole family gang of us for a meal, sometimes just Mr Thinking of the days and I sitting quietly with a glass of wine and a bowl of pasta.....but I love my Saturday nights at home.

And now in May , there's time after supper to just admire, appreciate and adore the lighter nights....I walked out into the garden at about eight o' clock last night...the light was extraordinary. Boo and I just stood there admiring the view

the colours in the garden...

and peered over our garden fence

and then we decided to make the most of a lovely evening , with a quick walk across one  of the fields which normally contains sheep ...Boo loved it....so much room to run about in....
to momentarily lose track of us

 



 

Ah, there you are....

 

 



We walked back through the village and saw the lambs playing

Admired the blossom everywhere

Inhaled  the sweet smell of the grass, and surprised myself by inadvertently taking a photo as we walked along.. I love it...the lushness of the grass in it's all its abstract glory.....

I still love Saturday nights....I really do......


Today's track is from Chicago...a band whose music I appreciate even more every time I hear it. Here's Saturday in the park....with lovely memories of Saturdays gone by.....

 

book festival days....

 

 

As many of you will know....I love reading. I also adore books....the smell and feel of them, the excitement of having a new book just sitting waiting to be read.

 

So naturally I'm really looking forward to this coming week.....and for the launch of a new venture - the Leicester Book Festival.

 

Now, we already have a Literary festival  in the city which is run by the University of Leicester . But this has been organised by the dynamic Debbie James who runs the Kibworth Bookshop. I've already written about her here....

http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/days-of-mooching-about-in-bookshops.html

 



 

There's an eclectic mix of events ....from the launch of a new poetry book by John Gallas, a storytelling  event in Leicester's atmospheric Guildhall featuring folk tales of Leicestershire and Rutland and beyond, to tea and cakes with Persephone Books at the Bookshop in Kibworth .

Julie Summers is appearing in Kibworth too to talk about her book Jambusters..the role of the W.I in
the Second World War. It's a fascinating read  so I shall definitely be there. I've given talks to about seventy W.I 's across the county and country over the years...and my darling Mum is a past president and very loyal member of her local one, so I thought I knew quite a bit about the movement. I do now though after reading the book!

Another must go to event is to see Sarah Gristwood whose book "Blood Sisters" about the women behind the Wars of the Roses is very topical. I've been immersed in the mediaeval world of Richard III since last August both as a history fan and as a reporter with a seat in the front row in the wonderful unfolding story of his discovery in a Leicester car park. To read about his wife Anne Neville in such detail and the other royal women is a joy.

And then at the New Walk Museum a week today, there's Ian Broome and Sam Mills from Legend Press.

A new venture is always an unknown quantity....a risk....but I'm hoping that this one will be a huge success .It should be, with some interesting events at diverse locations such as a mediaeval guildhall, a cricket club, a museum and a bar/café...what's there not to like? 

Which event will you be going to ?

Today's track is from By the Rivers....a Leicester band who've launched their debut album last week. Such a talented band, so creative and musically tight....I think they're destined for big things....

 

So here's to the success of two new local launches....

 

 

days of simple pleasures

The difference that the last few days have made is wonderful. Sunshine....warmth....oh how I've missed you.

Doing some weeding in the gardening without being rained or hailed on or blown about was such a treat...

On Monday it was so warm, I lay under the ash tree and read a book for an hour.....

Yesterday morning, Boo and I went for one of our favourite walks before I went to work....
it may have been slightly overcast, but to be out in a balmy breeze put a spring into our steps...

There was plenty of time for a romp around the field



Time for Boo to stop and sniff the air



Time for me to stop and stare...at the rural, timeless beauty on my doorstep

And for us both to have a laugh....

A week of lovely weather, and a few hours of simple pleasures that haven't cost a penny but have made a world of difference ....

Today's track is from Bobby McFerrin with "Simple Pleasures"....I've been singing this all week....

The day I met the Romans

 

It's quite exciting getting a scoop. Following a  tip off, I was in another Leicester car park in mid April. With archaeologists from the University of Leicester..

 

They'd found bones.

 

Oh, talk about deja vu! But no, they weren't searching for another King.

 

John Thomas and his team were in the car park of the old Antiques  Centre on the corner of Oxford Street and Newarke Street....where I've parked my car many a time when spending a wet afternoon hunting down old and vintage treasures. The antiques centre has lain empty for a number of years now....and the whole site is going to be developed , building extra accomodation for  students at De Montfort University.

 

John is on the left...this is in the first trench, only feet from the car park gates. Almost immediately John and his team found at least ten bodies...and he suspected others were hiding.

I was standing in a cemetery ....a Roman cemetery from 300 to 400 AD.

 



 



In the last few weeks John has found another three bodies, so thirteen were in the car park in total. Both men and women, they had different types of burials.including east to west and north to south-oriented graves, many with personal items such as hobnailed shoes. But some of the Roman burial traditions seem strange to us today. One of the bodies found had been decapitated ...and the head put on the body.

 

 

In Roman times, burials were not allowed within the town gates ...and the location , just outside the town walls was a busy southern suburb at the time.



 

The people buried here may have lived approximately one thousand and seven hundred years ago, but as you can see from the next photograph , the history that divides us is so close....a mere  four or five feet deep away.

 

 

 



 

It was a privilege to see the early part of the dig...and to be within hand touching distance of those who lived and died so long ago. John  is used to this now, but I'm not, and it was an eerie feeling.

watching them as they lay open to the elements after so many hundreds of years undisturbed underground.  I said a prayer for them as I left.



 

Do have a listen to my interview with John Thomas here....to hear more about the dig, and the mediaeval finds on the site too.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p018dk7y

 

And the track for today is from the Cure..."Sleep when I'm dead"....

 

 

the day when I cried at the theatre



 

I'm not one of life's weepers and wailers...in fact you will hardly see me cry. It's not that I'm cold hearted or unemotional...far from it. I just hate crying in public, preferring to hide behind closed doors and sob.

 

Crying in public makes me feel very vulnerable, and I'm not one of those women who can cry prettily. You know the type I mean....the ones whose eyes well up luminously and dab at their eyes gently with a freshly laundered handkerchief .

 

Because I cry so rarely, when I do....the floodgates open. I can't just shed a tear...oh no, they come streaming down my face ...my eyes become blood red like a daughter of Dracula, my nose runs...and I end up snotty nosed , blotchy skinned and looking a complete fright.

 

That's why I avoid sad stories at the cinema or the theatre.

 

I thought I would be safe on Tuesday night at the current production of the Hired man at Curve in Leicester. I knew the storyline well, the musical based on Melvyn Bragg's novel set in the tumultous years of the early twentieth century. I knew that certain characters die against the backdrop of the First World War....I knew that the story line was inspired by Melvyn's grandfather. I'd interviewed Melvyn Bragg the week before, and had a lovely long chat with him about his novel and the musical.

 

Originally he said "No"when first approached by Howard Goodall the composer who wanted to transform the novel into a musical. Thank goodness Melvyn changed his mind.

 

I didn't think I would cry....but I was swept away by this production, by Howard Goodall's heartbreaking lyrics and stirring music. so beautifully performed by the whole cast. I was lost in the worlds of Cumbrian hiring fairs, love and loss in a mining town and the horrors of the First World War.

 

 

 

 

 

Julie Atherton was superb as Emily Tallentire , the wife of hired man John. Young and flirty at the beginning...she caught  every nuance of passion and conflict , and yet she aged convincingly on stage .  David Hunter as her husband John was so credible.. and Kit Orton as Jackon Pennington sizzled in the love scenes with Julie Atherton, as well playing the violin. Just not at the same time you understand....



 

Julie Atherton and Kit Orton

 

 

I loved the way the cast all multi tasked ....with brio, with zest, with pathos ,playing a variety of roles and instruments. They were wonderful...even if at one point I wondered whether  Mumford and Sons would joining the ensemble .

Because I was so engaged with the whole cast, the storyline and the sheer emotion emanating from the stage ,I started to cry. A few tears at first...luckily I had a few tissues in my bag. I should have taken  more though...by the time the cast were taking their curtain call and the lights went up, I was
...yes you've guessed it, snotty nosed ,blotchy skinned with red rimmed eyes.

But I wouldn't have missed this production for the world, and as I drove home through the night singing the Song of the Hired Man loudly to myself in the car....I thought what a life affirming night it had been.

The Hired Man is showing at Curve in Leicester until April 27th.

Here's the trailer for the joint production with Colchester........

But for today's music track...it had to be this ...

 

Another Richard III day...and a new book

The discovery of the remains of King Richard III really is the gift which keeps on giving....for the city of Leicester and for lovers of mediaeval history.

Attendances at the exhibition about his discovery at Leicester's Guildhall have now passed the 50,000 mark, and every week there seems to be fresh developments on the story.

On Tuesday a new biography of Richard was launched at the University of Leicester. But this isn't any old book brought out to cash in on the King on the car park phenomenon.

It's a biography by David Baldwin,who lives in leicester and taught at the University of Leicester for many years.He also happens to be an expert on mediaeval history , on Richard III and the house of York.

More importantly, it was David Baldwin who made a startling prediction back in 1986....saying not only that Richard would be found in the 21st century...but also that his remains would be found in the northern part of Greyfriars.

After hearing that I simply had to go the launch of the book on Tuesday night and meet him. What  a lovely, quiet unassuming man he is  and what a part he's played to help solve the mystery of what happenened to Richard III.

 

+

 

 

After interviewing David, there was time to have a glass of wine and catch up with familiar faces in the audience.Richard Buckley, the archaeologist who led the dig for Richard III was there as was Professor Lin Foxhall, Head of the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History...both were singing David's praises ...

Also there at the book lauch were Louise Carr and John Vorster. Louise studied and now works of the University....she's been a member of the Ricardian Society in Adelaide since she was seventeen. An old friend of hers from the society, John Vorster turned up too with his wife...an eleven thousand mile journey to Leicester. Now that's what I call having a passionate interest in something!

Click on the link below to listen to my interviews, both with David and the Antipodean members of the Ricardian Society....





I'm thoroughly enjoying  David's book about the King he called "an enigma". Brought out by  Amberley Publishing in paperback, it costs £9.99

Today's track is by the Beatles...what else could it be but this? "Paperback Writer" by the Beatles.........

Showing the way ...a day of cooking up a curry

Politicans are performers. They all are ...and over the years I watched them hold forth on stage like Shakespearan orators, pretend to enjoy kissing the ugliest, snotty faced babies as part of their election campaigns...and generally strut their stuff in front of audiences of all sizes and types.

But I've never seen a politican, the Deputy City Mayor of Leicester no less, give a live cookery demonstration.That's definitely a first!

But Rory Palmer wasn't auditioning for Masterchef, or for a job on the telly.He was cooking a curry in the middle of Leicester Market last Friday....

 He worked up quite an audience..and really seemed to be enjoying himself. He was, because I know he's passionate about food, both cooking it and growing it.

But why was he doing this? Well, it was  part of the city council’s ‘Have One on Us’ campaign which aims to help people make healthy lifestyle choices and keep well.

Market goers were given samples of the curry, a recipe card

 and a free bag of fresh vegetables to have a go at making the dish at home.

It was all to highlight the fact that responsibilities for a wide range of public health services transferred from the NHS to Leicester City Council at the beginning of April, as part of a national reorganisation of health services.

So what does areas does public health cover? Well,  it's all about  helping people to stay healthy and avoid getting ill - so it includes immunisation, nutrition, fitness, sexual health, tobacco and alcohol use and children's health.

So while market goers were eating the curry and picking up a swag bag, there was the chance to speak to lots of public health officials  about the benefits of plenty of cheap vegetables in a healthy diet.

So what did I do with my free veg?

I have to confess didn't make the curry....instead the cauliflower was smothered in a cheese sauce with some leeks I had knocking around , but the carrots and onions were used to make a low fat , healthy home made soup. But yes, I will be making some low fat curries in the future....

Any initiative which gets people cooking healthy, cheap food from scratch is a welcome one...and  I'm sure the Assistant City Mayor much preferred getting his message across in this way....by cooking up a curry,rather than having to kiss snotty faced babies.....

Today's track is an oldie...."Show me the Way" by Peter Frampton...