April 2009 News and Views
News & Members' Contributions from Countryside Connection Village
The response has been so wonderful since I began sharing excerpts from our members' monthly newsletters! After enjoying this month's issue, you will be able to read all of those from the past year that you might have missed by accessing the individual links. March 2009 News and Views February 2009 News and Views January 2009 News and Views December 2008 News and Views November 2008 News and Views October 2008 News and Views September 2008 News and Views August 2008 News and Views July 2008 News and Views June 2008 News and Views May 2008 News and Views and April 2008 News and Views I will continue to provide access to future issues in the same way so that you will not miss any of the news from our village. To enable you to enjoy past news and members' contributions from our Countryside Connection Village please simply click on the link to the appropriate month each time you visit our site.
Please Note: As one of our members, Artist Linda Leonard Hughes from Maine advised in our February 2008 issue, you will be wise to prepare a pot of your favourite brew before beginning so that you can sit back, relax and enjoy all of the exciting news as well as the latest adventures and offerings our members have shared.
I hope you will enjoy the excerpts from our Members' Newsletter. If you have a small business in Britain or America that you would like to see featured on our site and enjoy the full benefits of membership in our unique networking community, please send me an email and I will be delighted to make contact with you and answer all of your questions. Send your request to enquiries@countrysideconnection.com ~ I look forward to hearing from you, Heléne
Dear Visitors to Countryside Connection Village,
The 2nd of April marks the end of our first two years online and I want to begin by thanking all of our members for their participation and support. You make everything I have done and continue to do to promote you and your unique offerings worthwhile. Our community continues to grow in size and strength and the increase in our networking confirms our mutual belief in the importance of supporting one another. As you read the many wonderful contributions and features this month it will be clear that spring has not only officially arrived according to the calendar but that our members are extremely busy with spring related activities; many trying to work around guests and new farm arrivals to complete their work and hopefully find a few hours to sleep. I am so pleased to have so many contributions to share, networking experiences plus another new member to welcome. Enjoy any sunshine as we all know that winter often returns in April and May!
Sara Ridsdale, www.farmingfriends.com our new member introduced in February along with husband, Stephen, www.vintagetractorengineer.com has been an incredible force from the beginning of our working relationship. Sara has already featured members Jinsy Robinson of Penyrallt Farm and Sandra Morton of ‘Perilla’ as well as two major features about Countryside Connection which benefit all members. Sara is brilliant at including integral links to your sites within everything she writes. Her features about individual member’s offerings provide great opportunities for all members who want to appear on her excellent site. In addition to all of this, and whilst coping with everyday life on the farm at an extremely busy time of the year, completing a wonderful new e-book, family and community involvements, she continues to come up with new ideas to promote and ‘spread the word’ about all of us. Thank you so much, Sara on behalf of all members for all you have brought to our community in such a short time!
Here is Sara’s most recent email filled with wonderful news from her farm – PLEASE TAKE NOTE OF THE BOLD PORTIONS AND THE OPPORTUNITIES OFFERED:
Dear Heléne,
Thank you so much for your last two emails and I am so sorry that it has taken me awhile to reply. Thanks for the food information that you sent, when I get a minute I will look into it.
Life on the farm is so busy with cows calving at all hours of the day and night (2am!) and awaiting the arrival of two litters of saddleback piglets as well as cooking all the meals which we usually share whilst Steve is busy with land work.
I have also finished writing an ebook about incubating, hatching and raising guinea fowl keets so that has kept me very busy Can you believe it tonight I've just sold my first copy of the eBook, how exciting!
My note: Sara’s book is available directly from her website for only £3.50. You can use the direct link (copy and paste into browser) http://farmingfriends.com/incubating-hatching-and-raising-guinea-fowl-keets-ebook-for-sale/ – but also have a look at her Home Page for information about ordering many other wonderful items including her book on How To Grow Herbs for Cookingat £3.00, Educational Resources for your children (Sara is a former teacher and her creations certainly show her knowledge and understanding of what children like and how they learn) and lots more. You will discover items that are perfect for you and for gifts for family and friends – something for everyone!
Last week I sold out of quail eggs which was good news after my television appearance. One of my regular forum and website members who lives in Australia got a friend to tape Ready Steady Cook and send it over, so it has generated some interest across the globe! I have been sending out a lot of duck eggs for hatching lately so little khaki campbell ducklings will be hatching out all over the UK that are related to my lovely ducks and drake (Sir Francis Drake!) Steve is being kept busy with DVD sales which are also very good. We have found out that there are lots of people wanting to restore their vintage tractors and they are being sent all over the world.
I did a review of your website a week ago and also put a link on my farmingfriends twitter page and farmingfriends group on facebook, so hopefully it will get some views and then I will have helped to bring some visitors to your site. I hope the review is ok and that I got the tone right. http://farmingfriends.com/countryside-connection-more-than-just-a-directory-of-rural-businesses/ I wanted to let everyone know that the membership is more than just sending a payment and getting a listing. I think that you work extremely hard to keep in touch with all your members and create links between us. It is much appreciated.
Best Wishes
Sara
Wonderful email from Penny Lindop of Penny Lindop Designswww.pennylindop.com to bring us all up to date on her wonderful success at The Country Living Fair and lots of other lovely news from home and business.
Hi Heléne
I'm glad I've left writing about the Country Living Magazine's Spring Fair until now, because more has happened since!
The show - well, anyone who attends shows knows how exhausting they can be. I love doing the trade shows which is where I've concentrated for the last 10 years, but they're a doddle compared to Country Living's show. For a start, it's at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, so if it hadn't been for my husband coming with me to help set up I think I'd still be driving around London!! And when you get there (bearing in mind you only have an hour's slot in which to arrive, and within that only 30 minutes to unload) it seems like the whole world is there too, all trying to use the same lifts.
But we set the stand up, and I was relatively pleased at how it looked - I'm such a perfectionist, so it can always look better! We both collapsed in an Italian restaurant (well, that's a grand word for it - plain ordinary Italian food, which was great, in more of a café) before Mike left for home, teenagers and animals.
The show was for 5 days but it was good for me. I was busy for really most of the time and came home with commissions to do. I met wonderful people - other exhibitors and customers - and it gave me a real boost. Of all the designs that I do, both on cards and in pictures, the border terrier dog was by far the best seller, followed by Westies and Scotties. I thought that was quite interesting….maybe!
I launched some new pictures and designs at the show and I'm so pleased at how well they were received. I didn't sell huge numbers of the new framed pieces, but I think that's because people didn't want to be carrying them and March wasn't the right time for buying.
Almost 150 people signed up for my e-newsletter, so now I'd better think about what to write each month! You can now sign up for the newsletter from my home page too, and go to my blog. So I've given myself some extra jobs to do, but it's all quite fun.
And then Sunday came, the last day of the show. Mike drove back into London to help with the breakdown - miraculously was able to park in the loading bay (mainly because I'd queued for a ticket at 7am on the Friday morning!). We had to carry everything down the 2 flights of stairs because the lift queues were just silly. Both being thoroughly worn out from this, we managed to load the van, but extremely badly - we had less room although I'd sold an awful lot of stuff. Just shows how differently you work when tired!
I gave myself one day off when I got home, and then there was a workshop I went on and a trip to visit Birmingham University with my eldest daughter and, and and.
Since the show I have 2 shops who saw me there who are putting orders together and I've had lots of lovely emails from customers and some other orders.
So, all in all, a show worth doing, for me, and I shall be at the Christmas one in November!!
I had a quick look at farming friends, Sara Ridsdale's site. I really liked it, and once we've chatted etc, I'll write something on my blog about it. I'm impressed that it's all done as a blog.
Thanks for being so patient!
best wishes
Penny
Penny Lindop Designs
01953 681990
web: www.pennylindop.com
blog:http://cardartnorfolk.blogspot.com
twitter name: cardartnorfolk
From Hilary Shenton of Zarza Alpacas www.zarza-alpacas.com our member now resident in Italy, comes this wonderful news.
“For the next newsletter I thought you might like to feature our lovely apartment in Umbertide, Umbria. We are selectively renting it out for holidays this year. No children and no pets though. The ideal getaway for busy ladies (or couples) who want a quiet location but in a town where they can walk to the shops, bars and restaurants and not worry about a car. Very cheap flights to Perugia from Stanstead with Ryanair and only half an hour from the apartment! Within easy reach of Florence and Rome by car or train. I am attaching the information and some pictures for you to share. Special rates for a few nights stay or long weekends.”
Here are the full details Hilary sent along, as well as some additional enticing photos:
Introducing Hilary Shenton’s Italian apartment in Umbria which is now available for rent:
It is a comfortable modernised apartment within the centro storico of Umbertide.
It has central heating in the winter, plenty of hot water and all appliances including fridge, hairdryer, iron, washing machine and portable fans. All linen and towels are provided as well as bath robes.
It is ideally situated for people who would prefer to spend their holidays ‘car free’ and is within easy walking distance to the railway station. However there is a free car park nearby too.
From Britain, Perugia airport is served by Ryanair from London Stanstead. If you are coming from another country please check flights serving your local airport to Italy. Perugia you can hire a car or take the airport bus to Perugia railway station and go from there into Umbertide.I can give you more information about travel and places to visit if you wish.
There is one bedroom with a double bed and one bedroom with large twin beds that can also form a double. The bathroom is shared.
Total apartment
1 October- 31 May 450 euro per week (7 nights)
1 June – 30 September 575 euro per week (7 nights)
Short-stays
If you wish to visit the area for only a few nights we charge 50 euros per room per night for 2-4 nights at any time of year. BUT in winter months we also charge 25 euros per stay towards central heating costs.
Booking
We accept bookings by telephone or email and a 100 euro non-refundable deposit is required with each booking. The remainder of the fee is payable either before or upon arrival at the apartment.
If there is any more information at all you would like please either telephone or e-mail me and I will be very pleased to help.
We look forward to welcoming you to Umbertide.
Hilary Shenton
Hilary Shenton’s contact details:
Email: hilary@zarza-alpacas.com Telephone in Italy: 0039 320 822 7068
Balcony View from Hilary’s Apartment.
Apartment offers a modern interior and conveniences with charming Italian accessories.
Introducing Our Newest Countryside ConnectionVillage Resident
Our newest member, Morgan Leichter-Saxby, will be a familiar name to all of you and a person many of you have known for years. We have a very long history of working together, starting with teaching cooking and baking courses to parents and their children when she was four years old, working together at fairs and trade shows when I represented artists and craftsmen, writing joint articles about parent/child relationships and activities, setting up Beckwood Pond where she and her father built both a cob cottage structure in the grounds and a large wooden octagonal deck as well as creating many new garden areas and renovating the two hundred year old farmhouse. She helped with local networking whilst working at two local farms, in a hemp clothing shop and at Common Ground, one of the oldest community-based vegetarian restaurants in America. The most recent stage of our joint cooperation was her invaluable assistance in the creation of Countryside Connection. It is with great pleasure that I honour her formal request to become a ‘full and proper member’ of our community. Morgan is very excited about the networking possibilities that will enable her to provide a wider range of experiences and a mutual exchange of ideas and opportunities with those members who work within their communities or provide visits and tours to their farms and businesses.
In Morgan’s own words:
“I have been Access Developer at Islington Play Association for nearly a year now, working with the borough’s Adventure Playgrounds and community groups to improve access and inclusion across Islington’s play provision. I also work on a project with the Play Association Tower Hamlets to try and reinvigorate a culture of outdoors, doorstep play on local housing estates.
I fell into play through my study of the places people make within public space, of the ways people have of making themselves feel at home. Children do this in particular ways, finding places behind or beneath larger structures and, with a bit of fabric or a cardboard box, making dens or forts. I studied this process for my Masters degree at University College London, and I have been talking with playworkers and facilitating it on playgrounds ever since.
Islington is a remarkably diverse borough in terms of culture, ethnicity and economics. Children from all over the world are crowded into substandard housing. We are lucky enough to have 12 Adventure Playgrounds, where children can run, climb, paint, swing, shout and watch the clouds, but many children do not attend. Many parents do not know that Adventure Playgrounds exist or what they are about. We are hoping to change that, in part, through an event next weekend.
On April 5th playworkers from the Eden Project in Cornwall will be coming to ParadisePark in Islington to lead a public den-building session with wooden poles, branches, and other materials. They have led similar sessions all over the country, and I can’t wait to see how their methods differ from the ones I have been using on local playgrounds.
Our hope is that this cooperation does more than create a link between two organizations that might otherwise have never spoken. We are hoping that by involving area residents of all ages in a massive open-air constructive play project we will remind some adults and teach some children the fun of den-building, and of engaging with the public realm in a direct and creative way.”
Morgan’s listing: Play Anthropologist – Morgan Leichter-Saxby is now in our Education Category: www.playeverything.wordpress.com e.misssaxby@gmail.com
Morgan Leichter-Saxby is a researcher, senior playworker, trainer and consultant on play and public space. She believes that unstructured, outdoor play activities are vital for the health and happiness of children, as well as their physical, social, cognitive and emotional development. Working with staff at housing associations, parks departments, schools and community groups, as well as local residents and current play providers, Morgan is working towards a world in which all children have access to a free engagement with nature and varied, challenging play activities in their local area. She has worked with Play Association Tower Hamlets, Islington Play Association, Demos Think Tank, Play England and many more.
With a background in Art History, Architecture and Anthropology, her approach is both academic and intuitive and she is most interested in finding working methods that combine research and practice – in theory that gets its hands dirty. As such, she works on a number of projects at once, teaching seminars and delivering workshops in England and America, producing resource materials and working directly at inclusive play sessions.
She believes in the radical possibilities of play to change the way we think, live and experience our environments, and is interested in how building networks between different fields might diversify and improve the current play offer. If farms and schools connect services, if community centres and artist groups and youth clubs work together, then all of our worlds are expanded.
Morgan has sent in her first contribution for members' and visitors' interest:
I've been a fan of Alain de Botton's work for some time (Essays in Love and The Architecture of Happiness in particular) and am so excited to hear him speak this Thursday, the 2nd of April, on his new lecture tour.
He's running this to promote his new book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work and has an opportunity to get involved that might interest members. Details below.:
Peep Show
What does your working space say about you? What are its pleasures and sorrows? Have you ever wondered about other working spaces, like sheds or motorways or rivers or tops of cranes? Now is your chance to reveal all, and take a voyeuristic peep at where other people spend their 9-5.
To celebrate the publication of Alain de Botton's The Pleasure and Sorrows of Work we have created www.myworkingspace.co.uk where you can not only share the true joy or horror of your working environment, but look at other people's too, and even win prizes.
Member Cally Smart of Country Gate Home Finders www.countrygate.co.uk has written this month to bring us up to date on her latest community involvements and projects which have led her to create CountryGateGardens www.countrygategardens.co.uk. I feel certain that you will be as inspired as I am with Cally's unique and every-expanding ways of following her dreams, getting back to the land and helping so many others along the way.
Here is Cally’s inspiring letter which is certain to have many of you thinking about similar ways to get involved with your own community:
Hi Heléne,
Trust you and yours are well. Life in deepest Wiltshire just as hectic as ever I'm afraid. We seem to have hit the time all parents dread - taxi time. With two growing boys with a passion for sport (and Archaeology in Matthew's case) and a horse mad girl, all of whom are highly sociable it's a given.
On the business front things have also moved forward. I have now streamlined the property side of Country Gate and am concentrating almost entirely on home finding, in particular searching for long term homes with land for downshifters. Property prices are still high within striking distance of Bath as one would expect for such a beautiful and well connected part of the world - but it is still possible to bag a bargain if you know where to look. The current housing market combined with my reluctance to pursue any more 'projects' means that I have had time and space to concentrate on my real passion - getting back to the land.
As the product of a long line of Welsh farmers it's hardly surprising. An opportunity presented itself a few months ago when we got into conversation with some neighbours. The result is that we (a group of families from the village) decided to pursue the idea of a community smallholding. We've secured land from a local landowner which has been divided up into a number of plots and are about to submit our planning application. Some of the plots are individual allotments whilst others are for communal growing for the farmer's market and our own 'farm shop'. As well as veg and herbs we're intending to plant up an orchard - with the emphasis on heritage varieties, brew cider, sell eggs, breed pigs and keep bees.......so plenty to keep us busy for the first few years. Between us we have a variety of skills to share and plenty to learn which is why we seem to have attracted the interest of Channel 4 who are currently making a series about individuals who are starting up smallholdings for the first time. I'm not sure we're quite ready (or eager) for reality TV stardom - such as it is - but it's flattering to be asked nevertheless.
It's amazing how one decision opens the door to a number of other opportunities. As a result of my work on the smallholding I was asked to run a series of workshops at the nearby Chldren's Centre on backyard veg growing for families with limited budgets and then to plant up an all-seasons garden. I'm working on a school allotment next and am planning a series of workshops on growing and using herbs to take place in a walled garden in a nearby tourist hotspot. It seems like the right time to be pursuing my dream - so CountryGateGardens is starting in a modest way, running workshops and creating 'edible' windowboxes, pots, hanging baskets, potagers and herb gardens in the first instance. My work with women and families at the Children's Centre has rekindled a long term interest in exploring garden therapy and later in the year I'm hoping to trial some work with mums who are suffering from post natal depression. So plenty going on. Keep up to date with the garden project initially at the blog The Country Gate Plot www.countrygategardens.co.uk. My property blog www.countrygate-blog.co.uk continues to carry hints and tips for househunters - or those wanting to improve their homes.
It would be lovely to link with other members of the community and to that end I have now been in touch with Hilary. Being snowbound in Weymouth prevented me visiting the alpacas on the Wiltshire site as arranged but I'll be getting in touch with Carol (who looks after them) and hope to be attending their next open day. Who knows I might be running a workshop. Do encourage anyone within striking distance of Bradford on Avon to get in touch if they feel we could help each other.
Sending very best wishes,
Cally
Excerpts from the latest emails from Jackie Miller of Colliers Hill www.colliershill.co.uk
Hi Heléne
I’m currently tied to the AGA cooking for a four day event, exhausting but fun. I’ll get one of the guests to take a picture of me by the aga but this time minus the wheelchair!
The weather is beautiful here so I’m hoping that I can take a couple of photos today or tomorrow, for you to use for my feature article. Thank you so much for offering this wonderful opportunity on your site. (Please Note ~ A Reminder: All members who contribute to our newsletters and report on networking with other members will have their turn as the Featured Member on our Home Page! You will recognise those who mention it and appear on our Home Page from all of their involvement and contributions. Hope this encourages everyone to continue to get involved.)
I will get back with some text in the next couple of days, busy tomorrow with a lunch but have a small window of opportunity before the weekend when I’m hosting a 40th wedding anniversary party for 30 guests.As always love and friendship, Jackie
Note: Jackie is offering Special Mid-Week Discount Rates for our members. Contact her for details – a wonderful opportunity for a short break in a breathtaking part of England with a wealth of things to satisfy everyone’s interests and tastes.
Emails this month from Carla Boulton never fail to make me smile and often to laugh aloud. Carla has three separate websites: Her Design CompanyNaughty Muttwww.naughtymutt.com, her Drawings on www.carlaboulton.co.uk and the business she and her husband Nigel have for Web Design on www.pinkdigital.co.uk This month we wrote back and forth about her blog after a lovely email expressing her joy, as always, in last month’s newsletter. We have agreed to feature a recent blog entry which I loved and hope you will all enjoy:
Weeks of Nothing From http://naughty-mutt.blogspot.com
In a weekly family-life newspaper column, I read recently about how the author tried so hard to relate from the heart but occasionally she had a week where nothing happened at all. She disliked engineering situations or exaggerating but sometimes there was just not anything worth writing about. Short of causing a major 'pet ate other pet' drama or deliberately losing the sports kit to initiate a morning riot I can see that sometimes life just 'is'.
This made me think about how many weeks we have in our lives and brains where nothing much happens and whether these weeks, rather than being dull are really the ones to appreciate. Just as Albert Camus suggests we should stop looking for the meaning of life and accept its absurdity, perhaps we should also accept its occasional nothingness?
Being of the mind that appreciation of something makes us think more, I shall be starting a tally of 'frothy happy weeks of nothingness'. From now until the start of July, (this is my birthday month so something had better happen then or else), I shall be keeping track of when time slides by in a haze of warm plateau-like comfort.
I realise this may appear not much of a challenge but really...with two businesses, four children, two dogs, a cat, a fish and a man, if I rack-up one of those weeks each month I will be entirely satisfied. In-fact I am now wondering whether this is one of those ideas which should have stayed firmly in my head because if I do have had a FHWON will I even notice enough to make a note?
I am spending time drawing at the new Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, (first of this batch of pictures below). My idea here is to document a building growing. Many have criticised the new development as a little-needed folly, I hope it will develop into an arts hub, a venue for Shrewsbury to be proud of.
Alongside other work, I will be showing some of these drawings at Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury from 30 March until 9th April 2009
Members who wrote about being immersed in spring cleaning and redecorating include Sara Ridsdale who is still awaiting the arrival of piglets as I write today; and as you will read in recent emails below, Jinsy Robinson at Penyrallt Home Farm is continuing with the complete redecoration of their holiday cottage in between guests; Wendy Blair at Rose Hill B&B (earlier in March she was taking a break when she wrote, in the midst of a thorough kitchen clearance and clean with all dishes and other items piled on the large dining table, floors, etc. when calls started coming in from guests wanting to arrival that day – panic did not have time to set in and ever the diligent innkeeper, she was breathless but ready when the guests arrived); Jackie Miller at Colliers Hill Guest House and Conference Centrehas had a series of conferences, anniversary celebrations and other major gatherings one after the other; Cally Smart who is always busy with Country Gate Home Finders is now also immersed in her latest project, Country Gardens with its vast array of events as well as family and community involvements and then there is Deb Bamford, ‘The Mulberry Dyer’, who is in the midst of attending Medieval Fairs and Events around the country and internationally with John whilst trying to squeeze in time to search for a new home. Here their emails describe the activity in their own words:
From Jinsy Robinson at Penyrallt Farm www.penyrallt.co.uk
Dear Heléne,
I just thought I'd drop you a line whilst I have a few moments to spare. I am having a day off from my marathon re-decorating of the holiday cottage as I'm waiting for a delivery of paint which will not come until tomorrow, so I have time to draw breath and catch up with various things including Countryside Connection.
The pressure is on to get the cottage finished as I have people arriving on Saturday...I still have the bathroom, kitchen and half a hallway to paint, though fortunately they are all small areas and I should get them all done in a day and then it is just a matter of clearing up and making the beds, more or less, though I expect something will crop up that I'd overlooked.
I've been using a wonderful eco-paint known as clay paint (made by Earthborn paints) which is superb. It has such depth of colour and a lovely soft finish and has completely transformed the look and feel of the cottage. I'll be getting pictures of the new look onto my website shortly, so you'll be able to take look.
Whilst I've been wielding my paintbrush, the sun has been shining and the daffy-down-dillies blowing in the breeze. Lambing has just about come to an end and the weather has been perfect for the lambs to be out dancing in the sunshine. It has got much colder these last couple of days but is still dry, though I think the garden and the grass are beginning to need some rain.
It is already nearly April which is a very busy month for us this year. As well as a clutch of the usual birthdays, we have a family wedding, (the first of the next generation, David's brother's daughter is being married, aged 21,) in the middle of the month, and we have Easter of course and the Easter Egg Hunt (sponsored by Green & Blacks Organic Chocolate through the Soil Association. Check the S.A website; the egg hunts are being held on organic farms all over the country) at which I am expecting about 20 children aged between 1 and 15 years and their parents. We are doing teas for that event, so I will be baking like mad in the run up to Easter Sunday.
Must go now, work and housekeeping call , so hope all is going well with you and CC.
All best wishes, Jinsy
The latest from Wendy Blair at Rose Hill www.bandbrosehill.com
Good morning to you Heléne,
I am at last able to take a deep breath and say, “Whew!” I am very fortunate that the economy doesn’t seem to have fazed my clientele. I am about to start a 17-day run of terror with all rooms booked. I know it will all get done, but when I look at my calendar all I want to do is take a nap. I am honored to be the featured site. I need to put a link on my facebook and also the Rose Hill Bed and Breakfast facebook. You might mention to the members that I have had a good and ongoing response to my Rose Hill facebook site. My friends have agreed to put a link on their facebook too and it is a good way to get the word out. It isn’t just for kids anymore and uploading photos of your inn or product is a snap.
I have recently had pairs of visitors from England, Wales, and Scotland. What wonderful times we have had. I must say that the folks from across the pond are some of my favorite guests. Of course, I have made sure they all know about Countryside Connection and those that didn’t appreciated having the information. I hope it results in increased sales and guests for everyone.
Roanoke has decided that it is spring—despite what the calendar or thermometer say—and iris, tulips and tree blossoms abound. I will be ever so happy to turn down the thermostat and let Mother Nature handle the climate in the house. I am itching to get into the garden and finally finish the back of the house. The minute it warms I will be prepping, painting, pruning and planting. I do need to remove the Raccoon who has just taken up residence in my attic before she completes her own rites of spring and produces a litter. At first I thought it must be a squirrel on steroids but my neighbor just told me that she watched the masked bandit shimmy up the downspout and sneak in through the eaves. I know that she needs a nest, but this is a business after all and if she can’t pay, she can’t stay. My neighbor is concerned that I will suffer some terrible fate if I crawl around in the attic, but I have promised to be careful and not attempt anything that starts with “Hey, y’all, watch this!”
So, in short, life goes along swimmingly at Rose Hill and I eagerly await your invoice so that I can remain a member–in-good-standing of Countryside Connection. If you don’t hear from me for a few weeks, send someone up to my attic.
Long distance hug to you, Wendy
And from Debbie Bamford, ‘The Mulberry Dyer’ www.mulberrydyer.co.uk
Dear Heléne,
I’m sorry I’m so erratic at emails – I keep promising I’ll keep up – and then don’t know where the time goes!!
As you have probably noticed we are already quite booked up for this year with dates not yet added to the calendar – and I want to move house?! We are still looking for our “ideal” place, have found many houses we like, or locations we like, but don’t seem to be able to marry things up, our biggest problem is probably that we need a place that allows us to expand the business whilst working from home and close enough to major road networks for us to get about easily! Friends have started suggesting we go onto one of the relocation programmes and let someone else do all the groundwork! Don’t think it’s me though!!!!
We started the year in Bromley (Kent) working with a young curators group at the museum – what a fun day, and what a great forward thinking museum, they have lots of members and a very active group! We’ve also been to Ashford for a weekend to the Weavers Spinners and Dyers Guild there, a talk one day and a workshop the next, again lots of interest and we were made so welcome I can’t wait to be invited back!!!. We have 2 workshops again for Arne Maynard the garden designer – May and November - see his website for details http://www.arne-maynard.com/ it’s a beautiful location in South Wales and a fun day for all!
The dyehouse has already been very busy with some lovely new yarns emerging – organic cotton boucle and blue faced Leicester slubby a really fine Peruvian embroidery wool that is great for lace knitting as well, (all my other wools are British, this is the only one that isn’t – so I’m working on it!) and I still have my original organic wensleydale and welsh wools that I’ve always done, I’ve also started a major revamp of my silks. I have a beautiful filament silk that takes the dyes so well the colours are almost hit you in the eye! I really must take some photos – not just for you but for my website!
I thought you might like to see the carpet of snowdrops we have here, it’s fantastic underneath the apple trees (maybe the fallen apples I don’t manage to pick up fertilise well!) I’ve also include one at the front of the house – not so many snowdrops but Blarty is in there my 1 sheep! (He’s a Welsh Wensleydale cross, at least 10 years old and going strong!)
I so pleased you’re going to come and say Hello when we’re in Leeds in July – it’s just the Tuesday we’re there, but the whole event is incredible, lots of really knowledgeable Mediaevalists! We’ll also be in Pontoise at the end of April for anyone in the Paris area to come and see – another multiperiod historical event. Probably the best event for people to attend in the year is the English Heritage Festival of History, that’s really surreal when Romans drink with Napoleonic soldiers etc, etc!
I will try and keep you better informed this year – as you can imagine all spare minutes are taken up with house hunting at the moment – I can’t wait to settle down now!
Thanks for all your hard work and looking forward to another great year with you all,
Cheers, Debbie
My note: Have a look at the Event Calendar link on Debbie’s website so that you can take the opportunity to visit them at a location that is near you–or perhaps an opportunity to take a short break: http://www.mulberrydyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=3&Itemid=3
One of the recent reviews on the latest edition of member Linda Moss’s book Organic Places to Stay Uk and Ireland &Organic News from Isobel Davies of Farmaround & Farmaround North, plus Izzy Lane.
This is one of the recent reviews to appear in publications in England and Ireland about Linda Moss’s latest edition, featured last month in The Irish Times:
LAURENCE MACKIN reviews Organic Places to Stay: UK and Ireland
Organic Places to Stay: UK and Ireland by Linda Moss
Green Books, £12.95
There are organisations that trumpet their green credentials from the rooftops, while others prefer to quietly get on with producing food or providing accommodation in the manner they’ve been doing for decades. Here, Linda Moss salutes both and gives Catherine Mack a run for her green money, with a stylish guide to where to lay your head without leaving a major mark. The book’s listings are divided into self- catering and more typical BB and hotel accommodation, with each listing getting an equal amount of space. The layout is clear and concise. The descriptions have been written by the establishments themselves, but Moss has put together the list, so you can be sure that the quality is of the highest ethical calibre. The Irish listings are not packed with the usual suspects (further evidence that Moss has done her homework), and although not every part of the country is covered, there are almost 50 places to pick from. Farther afield, some of the Scottish listings look particularly wild and wonderful.
Isobel Davies www.farmaround.co.uk and www.farmaroundnorth.co.uk shares her 15 year history with Organic Food Distribution - the first in the UK to offer a box scheme -and her grave concerns for organic food and farming in the current economic climate.
How It All Began and Where We Are Today
It was in 1994 and I had been interested in organic produce for some time and was surprised that there was no availability in the supermarkets of anything other than a few basic items like potatoes, carrots and onions. If the chemicals in our food were toxic then salad, fruit and other green stuff like broccoli, cabbages etc. would be worse than potatoes and other root crops as the chemicals would be applied directly onto the parts we eat.
I set about trying to discover whether indeed any farms were growing this produce organically close to London as surely there would be a demand. I contacted the Soil Association who sent me a list of local organic farmers. I discovered that they were having terrible problems marketing their products – they weren’t big enough to supply supermarkets and their only option was to sell to wholesalers in London where demand was erratic. The wholesalers were selling to the wholefood shops and the wholefood shops had such low turnover that it was overpriced, didn’t sell and invariably sat rotting on the shelves, giving organics a poor reputation. It was at the time a very niche market.
My idea was to purchase the produce from the farmers and sell it in assorted bags directly to the consumer via household deliveries. In doing so I could sell the produce at a price affordable to most families and give the farmers a good price. I would do everything in between. It seemed like the perfect solution. In the early days I would go out to the farms in the morning just after the produce was harvested bring it back to my flat which would have been emptied of all furniture and repackage it into mixed bags. I would then deliver it on the same day. A family could sit down and eat for their dinner what had been harvested that very morning – they loved it and so did I . It was a success from day 1.
That was 15 years ago and it transpired that we were the first UK box scheme. There are now some 550 across Britain.
Five years ago I moved the business from London up to my native Yorkshire and started to use local producers here. We still have many of our original customers, some 2nd generation ones in London. We deliver to around 1000 homes in London and 1000 homes in the North of England each week with a lorry going back and fore three times a week collecting our imported products – citrus fruit, peaches, melons etc., packing it into bags with all the local produce. We employ 12 distribution drivers and a team of office personnel and warehouse staff.
The demand for organics is faltering in these new hard times. We are concerned. Each day we hear of more and more farmers who had converted to organic to meet the demand, who are now returning to conventional/industrial farming. The impact of this is very sad – the loss of the eco-system for a chemically reliant one, the loss of habitat for our wildlife, more toxins in our waterways and general environment, a move away again from the sustainable practices of the last decade. It seems we have forgotten so quickly why we all went organic in the first place. There had been such great progress and we have to hang on to the progress that was made.
From the heart, an additional sharing of thoughts from Isobel about combining her passion for animal welfare, Izzy Lane & her Sheep Sanctuary www.izzylane.co.uk
IZZY LANE
The Voice for Animals in the Fashion Industry
In July 2008 Izzy Lane was asked to show her collection before the Queen at the Great Yorkshire Show. In 2008 we won the RSPCA Small Fashion Company Award. Izzy Lane won the New Designer of the Year Award at the RE Fashion Awards, the world’s first ethical fashion awards and were also in 2008, runners up at the Observer Ethical Fashion Award.
Izzy Lane’s entire range is made in Britain. The clothes are made from the wool from the 600 sheep, Shetlands and Wensleydales that we have rescued from slaughter. Destined for slaughter for being male, missing a pregnancy, being too old, too small or a little lame. In the case of Wensleydales, they are also slaughtered for any black spots on their fleece or pinking in their black skin – ‘imperfections’. A vegetarian since my teens and a passionate animal lover, I have always felt pain to the pit of my stomach at the way farm animals are treated – intensive factory farming and live exports. Faced with the argument that sheep would not exist if we didn’t eat them, I was determined to find a place and an economic model where they could exist and live out their natural lives.
Our knitwear is handknitted by ladies from across the Yorkshire Dales using our own Wensleydale wool. The Wensleydale is a rare breed, on the endangered list, there are only some 1800 left in the world. Its wool is silky and lustrous and does not contain any kemp, which is the coarse prickly itchy fibre, so can be worn against the skin.
Our beautiful woven skirts, jackets and coats are made using the wool from our own flock of Shetlands. The Shetland is a rare breed with only around 3000 in the world. It is a primitive breed brought to the Shetland Isles by the Vikings in the 8th century. Again, it has a fine, soft wool. The Shetlands produce fleeces in a multitude of natural colours which we weave undyed into cloth – herringbone, houndstooth, multi-coloured checks etc.
Around 80% of the wool used in Europe is imported from Australia and New Zealand. Izzy Lanes clothes are produced from the nurture of the sheep to the fabrication of the finished piece within a 150km radius using only local, British industry. Each week brings news of more mills shutting down. Since Izzy Lane started, just 2 years ago, their dye-house, the last in Bradford and their spinner, the last Worsted spinner in Britain, both shut up. Izzy Lane is working to help to save the Victorian mill which weaves their cloth, from closure.
Our beautiful shoes and handbags are handmade and made from faux snake, faux crocodile and faux leather materials approved by the Vegetarian Society.
We can assure the integrity and authenticity of each piece since we have taken it through the whole process from the rescuing and care of the sheep through to the finished piece.
Izzy Lane is a passionate supporter of animal causes. She is patron of Vega and a supporter of Compassion in World Farming. As ethical fashion advances it is important to us that the voice of the animals is considered and apart from all the other ethical considerations mentioned above, Izzy Lane is about giving them that voice in the fashion industry.
Fans of the label include Lily Cole and Katharine Hamnett.
Isobel’s thoughtful gaze upon one of her rescued sheep provides the perfect calm countryside vision with which to close this month’s issue. I hope that April offers lots of sunshine in your part of the world – the daffodils and crocus are in bloom everywhere around us and new signs of spring appear each day.
My warmest appreciation to all who have contributed to this month’s newsletter, Heléne