Jon's union blog (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
In what must be a sign of my advancing age I have had a Victor Meldrew moment upon finding today's Society Guardian supplement on the wonders of "interim managers" in our public services . To describe this as one-sided would be generous. It is full of smug articles from self-satisfied self-employed folk doing very nicely out of the public sector (at great expense as exposed by UNISON East...
peony moon (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Alison Brackenbury was born in Lincolnshire in 1953. She now lives in Gloucestershire, where she has worked for almost twenty years in the family metal finishing business. Her work has appeared in over fifty anthologies and has won an Eric Gregory Award and a Cholmondeley Award. She has recently scripted three programmes for BBC Radio [...]
An American Lion (Free subscription) | 03/11/2009
I imagine my forebears living in southern England, roughly twenty thousand years ago, firmly in charge and running things with benevolence and wisdom. I imagine the stones they carved, the talismen they carried, the knowledge they held in their heads. I know they had bad dental hygiene--there's no need to ruin it for me, okay? The places that were walked are fascinating to me. Who did the walking?...
The Bureau Of Sabotage (Free subscription) | 19/10/2009
And so, back in t' north, and thankfully while I was away the earth was last seen spinning on its axis. One strange and slightly worrying moment on the way down to the big smoke was the transfer from coach to train at the new East Midlands Parkway station, which like all stations with "Parkway" in their names is in the middle of nowhere, to wit bang opposite Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station;...
An Ordinary Life (Free subscription) | 16/10/2009
When I think about whether or not we should pull up stakes and move back to England (a decision that we have made, in the affirmative) I have to admit to feeling paralyzed with doubt and pusillanimity. Despite how frequently I might bemoan the hypocrisy, the failings and the shortcomings of life today in the Land of the Free; as often as I bitch about slanted parking, draconian vice laws, the lack...
Andrew Reeves' running blog (Free subscription) | 09/10/2009
So, despite all of the rhetoric and other nonsense from the Tory party the gay community are finally realising that under the lights, suits and slogans the awful Tory record on gay rights stands. The Pink News poll closed today at 2pm, only twenty four hours after David Cameron started speaking and the Tories were in third place with 22% behind the Liberal Democrats who had 25%, while Labour led with...
MooPig Wisdom (Free subscription) | 07/10/2009
"Without fanfare or ceremony, the most celebrated scientist in the country, Stephen Hawking, quietly stepped down this week from the most prestigious post in British physics. "Hawking's successor as Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University will be decided by committee this month, but as he moves on, leading physicists warn that Britain risks losing the next generation of...
Wisteria and Cow Parsley. (Free subscription) | 03/10/2009
This year I have been following with great interest VP's discussions on public planting and her campaign for us to record the different types of planting we see out on the streets . Now whenever I go out I can't help but look to see what is on display. Back in June I posted a few snaps of some very bright pink beds at my local garden centre in Wiltshire. So last week when I was visiting the main garden...
An Angry White Guy in Chicago (Free subscription) | 01/10/2009
A Metaphor for Wall Street? A True Story... "Excuse me? Excuse me? I'm sorry - do you have a moment?" I'm waiting for the No. 29 bus to take me from State and Randolph to Navy Pier. I do this every weekday. I have my headphones in and am jamming out to Green Day , I think. The guy looks professional. Older, clean, suit and tie, nice briefcase. I pull out my headphones and ask what I can do....
Artmanjosephgrech (Free subscription) | 20/09/2009
I like to write first thing in the morning but today Wednesday my attention was diverted first by hearing on the radio while getting up that around the time I went to bed there was the biggest earthquake in the UK with its epicentre in Lincolnshire but with people feeling the ground move over 100 miles away. Apparently twenty five years ago there was one more powerful. This surprises me as I have no...
The Disillusioned Taxonomist (Free subscription) | 30/08/2009
Hypsilophodon foxii Huxley, 1869 Hypsilophodontidae; Ornithischia; Sauropsida; Chordata Hypsilophodon is one of the most well-known small ornithischian (bird-hipped) dinosaurs. It was first thought to be a juvenile Iguanodon until it was studied in detail by T. H. Huxley, who formally named it twenty years after its discovery. It is known from many locations in England, most notably the Isle of Wight....
Liberal England (Free subscription) | 29/08/2009
Another photograph from my recent travels. The Crowland Abbey (originally Croyland Abbey) website explains its unfortunate early history: Croyland Abbey was a monastery of the Benedictine Order in Lincolnshire, sixteen miles from Stamford and thirteen from Peterborough. It was founded in memory of St. Guthlac, early in the eighth century, by Ethelbald, King of Mercia, but was entirely destroyed and...
The Fat Blog (Free subscription) | 25/08/2009
Name: Wreh-asha Occupation: Singer / songwriter /actress Age: 24 Links: http://www.myspace.com/wrehasha Hailing from the East Midlands, Wreh-asha .D. Walton is fast gaining a reputation as a gripping singer/songwriter who over the past year has embarked on a flourishing career filled with musical promise. Now at Twenty-two years old, with lippy lyrics and tones encompassing nuances of Neo-soul, Jazz,...
Waveney Valley Blog (Free subscription) | 24/08/2009
NORWICH NGS JUNGLE GARDEN WINS NATIONAL GARDEN COMPETITION Garden owner Jon Kelf celebrated a win for Norwich this weekend. Although Norwich born and bred his victory was not in relation to the performance of his football team, Norwich City. Jon has won the Daily Mail 2009 National Garden competition for “Best Garden in Britain.” Jungle Garden was voted for on-line by the public. Jon opens...
Clarissa et al. (Free subscription) | 06/08/2009
Today is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, one of Lincolnshire's most famous sons. The statue outside Lincoln Cathedral When I was a little girl we would go and explore the vast and ruinous Bayons Manor at Tealby, ancestral home of the Tennysons, Tennyson-Turners and Tennyson-D'eyncourts. It was an amazing place - nineteenth century gothic romance at its most gothic...
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