All posts by Tim Lenton

14 February 2009

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Busy week. Carrie turned up in hospital, but is recovering. Meanwhile I’ve met Sandra, who I’m collaborating with for the Norwich 20 Group exhibition. She lives off Earlham Road and showed me a series of pictures she’s doing on Norwich. Happily, I really like them, and we found we were on a similar wavelength, so it should go well. I have written a poem, and it may or may not be the final one: I’m quite pleased with it. It’s called Stretched Stone. At the moment, anyway. However, I was then approached by another artist who wanted to collaborate, and after some initial caution (wasn’t sure I should be collaborating with more than one artist for this exhibition) it transpired that she knows Sandra, who is quite happy about it. I should see her next week: I’ve left a message on her answerphone. Exciting times!

On Tuesday Dot went out to a couple of schools at Tacolneston and Wreningham, wearing her DSSO hat, and I had a long list of things to do, all of which were completed and have now been forgotten. On Wednesday she spent the first part of the day with Barbara at Metfield discussing the P4C project, while I walked to Surrey Chapel to deliver my talk to Joy’s afternoon group. Turned out I had completely underestimated the length of it, which meant it was rather unbalanced, with the poetry only just scraping in at the end. Rather too much on my early life, I suspect. Still, could have been worse.

On Dot’s return from Metfield we travelled to the King’s Head at Bircham, which is a lovely hotel, quite sophisticated in an unpretentious sort of way. Quite difficult sometimes to find a member of staff on the premises, but a very warm welcome when you did run into them. We had a good meal in the evening, and I indulged in steak, which was excellent. The next day I took Dot to her inspection at Flitcham school, about five miles away. One of her interviewees was the Queen’s chaplain, who is the local incumbent. I went for a brief walk in the Fring area. Found a white owl which looked snowy but was almost certainly barn. Followed it for a while. Walked up a hill on the Peddar’s Way to Dovehill Wood at the top. Not exactly a stiff climb, but the guidebook calls it “an Everest for Norfolk” at about 200ft (61m). Very cold morning, but the sun made it pleasant. The back roads were pretty icy. After I picked up Dot we had a sandwich back at the hotel bar and then went for a drive to Thornham on the coast. Brief stroll, but the wind was bleak and bitter, and we retreated to the car. We then tried Sandringham, but it was pretty cold there too, though the shop, restaurant and toilets were all open. We decided to go back to the hotel, but took an excursion first to Wolferton, which I hadn’t realised was so remote. The old station was well preserved. It used to be kept open purely for the Queen, but eventually shut in 1969. While we were there it started to snow, so we drove back to Bircham as the snow got heavier. It kept snowing for about six hours, and I was concerned about getting Dot to Flitcham the next morning, but by then the temperature had risen above freezing, and the roads were actually better than they’d been the previous day. Still plenty of snow, though: the photograph was taken from our bedroom window at about 7.30am. Another good meal at the hotel while the snow fell, and the only two other people there turned out to be colleagues of Birgit at the nearby Construction Industry Training Centre. They clearly liked her, and the hotel owner liked one of them (possibly both), so he provided all four of us with a champagne-type drink on the house. Which was very nice.

While Dot paid her second visit to Flitcham yesterday, I returned to the hotel, had a bath and packed and wrote a bit of a poem about the owl. Left at 11am, drove round by the training centre to see what it was like and then by a circuitous route to Flitcham, where I parked and looked round the church, then walked down to the River Babingley. Dot emerged a bit late, and we drove straight back to Norwich, eating as little as possible for the rest of the day.

9 February 2009

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Yesterday morning in the grounds of Eltham College, South London, where Paul Henderson is headmaster. Also in the picture are his wife Maryta and my wife Dot, and their dog, who may be called Jim, if I remember rightly. Dot is sporting a spectacular fur coat given to her by her aunt, and Maryta has a hat from Poland which originally has tassels on it. We were taking a walk round the playing fields, which featured a few giant snowballs but mainly green grass. We travelled down on the Saturday, and the roads were no problem at all. We left fairly early on the Sunday, after brunch, and the drive home was even easier. Both times we took the Blackwall Tunnel route: went slightly wrong a couple of times on the way south, but nothing serious. No problems on the way back. Paul has done a fantastic job at the school: lots of new ideas and some brilliant progress in the music department especially. Lots of work done by the pupils in the community as well.

On the Friday we went out to Park Farm, where we had lunch, then called in to Waitrose, where we ran into the vicar’s wife. Bitterly cold day, but almost no snow left, so no trouble getting around. On the way south on Saturday we saw plenty of snow in the fields north of London, and David and family are stiill grappling with deep snow, though today the roads are OK, and Vicky has been to work. Oliver has been quite ill with a high temperature and a cold that has now gone to his chest. Amy has also had a bad cold but seems to be over it. Both are at home today.

We had out hair cut this morning, and Dot is now in the city: she was due to meet Carrie, but she didn’t show up, and her answerphone is full up, so Dot is rather worried about her. I’m due to meet a painter this afternoon with a view to collaborating, but haven’t got a time yet. Have left a message for her. More snow is forecast, which is a bit worrying as Dot is due to visit two schools tomorrow, and on Wednesday we’re both booked in at the King’s Head, Bircham, in preparation for an inspection she’s doing at Flitcham. Not feeling in peak condition myself. Got a recurrence of flu symptoms, though of course only in a very minor way.

5 February 2009

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This is Barbara and Dot as they set off for their head teachers’ conference on Tuesday. The snow had miraculously melted overnight, and there was no problem in reaching the venue – either for Dot and Barbara or anyone else. It was all a big success, with universally excellent feedback. The only problem came afterwards when an exhausted Dot sent out the invoices for the packs all addressed to the wrong school. This turned out to be a technology problem, which I helped her sort out yesterday. Lots of people indicated that they would be booking them to do in-school sessions. I greeted them with champagne on their return home and did all the cooking and preparation for the Tuesday Group, which makes a change. I usually sit around and let Dot do it. The only thing I’m worried about now is that Dot is practically working full-time at the moment. She visited two schools yesterday with her DSSO hat on and has more in the pipeline. She is also down for two inspections next month – following one next week. Today she has spent all day on her PIB (don’t ask) for that. Meanwhile the man came to change our electricity meter, which he did remarkably quickly.

This morning we woke up to more snow, but during the day it melted. Meanwhile in Caddington it is still thick, and the children and Vicky were all at home because of the treacherous roads. Here a meeting at Diocesan House was cancelled, though probably not for any good reason. Helped Dot, though.

Yesterday, while Dot was out at Hapton and Tasburgh, I picked up the Paston book from the library. The librarian kindly protected it with cardboard for me, and I just had to carry it down to the car. It is now in the guest bedroom, which is a little bit worrying as it’s worth over £1000. Of course, the average burglar wouldn’t know that and would be unable to sell it anyway. Lucy has sent me loads of stuff for her upcoming guidebook in the hope that I will be able to knock it into shape. I now have to work out which shape to knock it into.

2 February 2009

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Snow arrived just too late to spoil the big day yesterday, when relatives converged from far (Wolverhampton) and wide (Portsmouth) for Auntie Ethel’s 85th birthday celebrations at her niece Angela’s house in Dereham. David and family were up for the weekend and came too. An awesome buffet defeated everyone, and goodwill was everywhere. Oliver and Amy were on best behaviour, and Oliver spent much of his time looking after Maddie, who must be some relation; let’s think – it’s his father’s mother’s cousin’s son’s daughter. That sounds fairly close. Anyway, she’s two and having fun. Justin and his friend Heidi drove up from Portsmouth (and back), Donna came from Wolverhampton with her friend Andy, and Rosie came from Buck Brigg with her friend Roger. Sadly Peter (Maddie’s grandfather and Ethel’s nephew: are you following this?) is in hospital with pneumonia. I am reading his autobiography and have just reached the bit where he went into hospital with pneumonia and hoped that he would never have to go through that again. Well, it would have been nice.

I have just discovered that you can generate primes by the formula x2 + x + 41, which is neat, and what’s even neater is that I worked out how to include superscript in that by using html. Very satisfying.

Anyway, David and his family arrived on Saturday. We looked after the children while David and Vicky went into the city, and had a generally pleasant day, culminating in a game of bridge, which Dot and I lost conclusively. It was the cards, you know. That and superb play from our opponents.

After the Ethel extravaganza they went straight back to Caddington, because snow had started to fall and it was bitterly cold. They got home safely, but today Oliver’s school was closed, and there was heavy snow over much of the country, especially the London area, which was pretty much crippled. It snowed here too, but nowhere near as much, and tonight it was above freezing and soggy rather than slippy. Nevertheless we felt it prudent not to go the PCC meeting…

On Saturday evening we went to the Eagles for dinner and met Roger’s brother Tim, who works at Hansells and knows Jonathan, who he described as “very good”. He was with Jackie, who was Scottish and knows all the places we do, plus a good many more. So there was plenty to talk about, and we didn’t leave till well after midnight.

Today I wrote an article on the Paston book with the hope that Eco Echo might like it. I also attempted to book Blakeney for our reunion in June, but found that their single rooms were booked up. Will try again tomorrow: Maureen has agreed to accept a double room if necessary. Dot is busy over-preparing her stuff for tomorrow – her big day.

30 January 2009

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How Hill nature reserve, near Ludham. I did a 4.8-mile walk in the area yesterday, after Dot and I had visited Jessie and then left some flowers at the cemetery in North Walsham. It was her mum’s birthday. We also left some on what Dot thought might have been her grandmother’s grave, though there was no gravestone. Then on to Ludham where we shared a turkey baguette in the King’s Head before she dropped me off and went on in her DSSO role to a school at Sutton, about four miles away. I walked some very damp roads before venturing into a deserted How Hill, where I walked down to the River Ant and took a couple of pictures before continuing back to Ludham church. No sign of Dot, so I walked on to Womack Staithe and back. I was about to go into the church when she pulled up. The longest walk I’ve done since my operation, and I felt reasonably OK, though tired. In the evening I went to a St Augustine’s local ministry team meeting in the Ribs of Beef on Magdalen Street, which ended with Nicholas, Howard, Phil and I (the only attenders) discussing concerts we had been to and the first albums we’d bought. Dot stayed at home. She’s been working too hard recently.

It was a cold day, as it is today, with a wind that’s biting if not particularly strong. We’ve just heard that my second cousin Jeanette and her husband, who were emigrating here from South Africa, have decided to go home. They did pick a particularly cold winter to come over here, and their holiday home rental in Cornwall has not given them much warmth. And in the current credit crunch crisis they haven’t been able to get jobs. Sad, really. I’d been hoping to get to know them via visits to Cornwall!

Today I’ve spent a few hours at Paston learning how to use iMovie with assistance from Lucy, who also gave me lunch. She’s a bit better at the moment, though long-term prospects aren’t much different. Naomi is also going through a rough patch and will have to come home for treatment, since the medical people in Durham have proved particularly inept at looking after her.

27 January 2009

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This is Dot’s cousin Roger in typically relaxed style, pictured at Jessie’s last week. Another family meal looms on Sunday, when quite a large number of people are due at Angela’s at Dereham to celebrate Ethel’s 85th. This was supposed to be a sort of a secret, but the cat has been let out of the bag by someone who shall remain nameless. As the nameless person’s husband is in hospital with pneumonia again, she can be forgiven. Dot has been at Ethel’s this afternoon, calling in with presents on her way back from Yarmouth, where she has had her first school visit as diocesan school support officer, followed by lunch with her friend Anne. She is keeping pretty busy: a long afternoon yesterday was spent with Barbara preparing for next Tuesday’s head teachers’ conference, including a visit to the venue – St Luke’s Church Centre.

This morning I got over an appallingly shoddy loss at chess last night by going for a walk that turned out to be nearly four miles. It started innocently enough with a call at the sorting office to post a letter for Dot, but then got out of hand. I walked up through the Rosary, down the steps to Cintra Road and down on to Thorpe Rod, left and up the hill again via Stanley Road and Harvey Lane, then through what was Pinebanks and down a footpath back on to Thorpe Road and up to the River Green. I sat on a seat for a while in the sun – the weather was really mild compared to what it has been recently, people were feeding ducks, geese and swans, and it was all pretty idyllic really. I then went really mad and walked up to Whitlingham Lane and over the rail footbridge on to the river path, where I noticed that work on the third Whitlingham Broad was far advanced. All we need now is a bridge over the river from Thorpe to Whitlingham. Someone … Anyone? A couple of pretty ramshackle vessels were moored there, and an old man had got a fire going on the bank. Not sure what for. I returned to the main road and caught a bus back to the station, feeling I had earned my favourite cheese and onion sandwich, which I bought from Budgens.

The rest of the day I’ve spent writing some liturgy for our Tuesday group. Sort of experimental, based on a book we went through for Advent and Epiphany. I had a phone call from Annette last night saying there had been a radio programme about the Paston book, following a page of publicity in the EDP, and as a result we had sold another four of the big hand-made books at over £1000 each. It would have been nice to have had this news the day before, when 15 artists and poets met at Cringleford to discuss the future of the project. The meeting was at poet Adrian Ward’s rather splendid house, and was followed by an InPrint meeting, which didn’t last long after I’d persuaded everyone to admit that they didn’t really want to apply for a grant to do stuff they didn’t really want to do and didn’t have time for. So we shall proceeed with the Paston project, producing more work, hopefully, and maybe running some more workshops. I’m not too bothered about the workshops, but Annette, Caroline and Lisa are keen. Fuller story on InPrint website.

Before the Cringleford meeting, Dot and I went to Martin Laurance’s exhibition at the Grapevine on Unthank Road – a splendid gallery which will be home to a Paston exhibition from March 29. Martin is a superb artist and worked on the Paston project (he used a couple of my poems for collaborative pieces). The private view was pretty full, and Rosemary, the librarian from Archant was there. So were Annette and Caroline, and so were some other Paston people, though I didn’t see them. They had probably already left by the time we got there. Dot and I only had a few minutes there because we’d been to church (I had been preaching on the conversion of St Paul), and Caroline gave me a lift to Cringleford so that Dot could take the car home. Later Dot picked me up and we gavc Lisa and her two children, Dash and Blossom, a lift to their place in Pottergate.

This afternoon Phyllis Seaman from church called unexpectedly with a gift of some windfall cooking apples. I love stewed apples. It’s my one weakness. No, it’s really one of many.

24 January 2009

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Just for the record, the scene outside our house when I discovered the wing mirrors had been smashed up. Our next-door neighbour, Mary, came round yesterday and said she had heard something at the same time. She was very sympathetic. Dot told her about our plan to invite neighbours round, so it’s beginning to look as if we’ll have to get our fingers out and set a date. The last few days have been very wintry – two of them extremely wet too. I seized on a bright moment about 4pm yesterday to do a walk of just over a mile that included two stiff climbs. To my surprise I managed Gas Hill with no real problem and without stopping, so my energy must be back. At the time Dot was in Ipswich at a Philosophy for Children meeting: she went by train after discovering it was only £8.50 return.

I’ve spent quite a long time preparing my sermon for tomorrow on the conversion of St Paul, mainly because I kept discovering interesting things about him – for instance, why he changed his name. As usual I got far too much material, and it’s a bit long. Dot says it can’t be too long, but she’s just being nice. Spent some time today photocopying some material she got from Ipswich.

We’ve seen the Bob Dylan film, I’m Not There, which I got for Christmas from my son, and it was fascinating. Not easy, but really interesting followinig the director’s train of thought. Cate Blanchett was brilliant in her impersonation of Dylan.

21 January 2009

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Beautiful day, but cold. To celebrate Jessie’s birthday, she took her niece Dot and me, with her son Roger and her friends Janet and Ray, to Elderton Lodge for lunch. Lovely setting: deer in the park, folly in the distance. Meal was delicious: I had game and duck terrine, followed by game casserole with short crust pastry and a fantastic Eton mess dessert. The wine was good too. Afterwards we repaired to North Walsham, where I had another cup of tea and Jessie (pictured) tried to make us eat even more – unsuccessfully, in my case. Left just after five to pick up my car from the garage, where it was having its wing mirrors replaced.

You may wonder why it was having its wing mirrors replaced. I woke on Monday morning, after winning a long chess game the previous night, and found both mirrors smashed, and bits scattered around the path and road. As I was taking pictures Sam, who lives at Number 15 and has a two-year-old called Ellie, told me she had seen a gang of five youths running up the road at 1.30am and kicking all the cars, then wrenching off my wing mirrors. She yelled at them, but they just made a rude gesture at her and ran off. I reported it to the police and had my fingerprints taken for elimination purposes (I had handled the pieces from the wing mirrors). I believe the police have also spoken to Sam. Obviously they dusted the pieces for fingerprints as well, but I’m not optimistic. I rang the garage and discovered the mirrors would cost £260 to replace. As I have a £250 excess on my insurance, it was clearly a waste of time making a claim. So the vandals owe me £260. Fat chance. Tonight the car is in the drive. It is only six months since it was badly damaged by vandals climbing over it and denting it.

I’ve made entries to several competitions – mostly poems but also a short play and a short short story. These range from Kent through Wales and Ireland to Scotland, so I am casting my net wide. I’ve also entered the annual Norwich Writers’ Circle poetry competition. Well, you have to give it a go. Today we picked up the printing for Dot’s workshop next week. All looked very good until we noticed that a number of apostrophes hadn’t printed. As it was done through PDF files, I can’t understand how this could have happened, but Dot will give them a ring tomorrow. It’s not a complete disaster, because it’s easy enough to insert the apostrophes without making a mess, but it would be tedious. Dot is working extremely hard on her Philosophy material and had another two people sign up for her workshop today.

Through a Genes Reunited contact I have discovered that my mother’s grandfather and great-grandfather came from Sussex. Her grandfather, Charles Brown, lived in Brighton and then moved to Cambridgeshire, where he was head gardener at Hall Lodge, Milton, and married a local woman. My mother’s father was also a gardener, so I guess the skill was handed down. Her great-grandfather, Henry, was an agricultural labourer. So many agricultural labourers in my family tree… All ploughing the same furrow.

19 January 2009

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Dot on our walk near Caistor on Saturday. She has been with Barbara today, working on her philosophy with children stuff. I have been up to collect her pills, but otherwise have been working on poems and plays to enter into competitions. Have made some progress, but need to buy some more paper and A4 envelopes. Keep getting bizarre phone calls, from Zenith, market research people and other odd unknowns. Quite wintry today.

Yesterday I booked a couple of holiday cottages – one in Scotland for July, to be shared with David and Vicky and the children, and the other in Cheltenham in August, when we plan to go to Greenbelt with the Greens. Appropriately enough.

17 January 2009

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Another three-mile walk today, and the halfway point turned out to be French Church Farm (pictured), on Caistor Lane, where my paternal grandparents lived when I first knew them, in the early 50s or very late 40s. Later they moved up the road to The Hawthorns, a bungalow about half a mile away but on the main Norwich-Poringland road. I suspect the first at least was rented, and possibly the second. Strangely, despite all the changes in Poringland, The Hawthorns remains more or less as I always remember it – at least from the road. I assume that the chemical toilet has been replaced. French Church Farm now looks smart and is probably worth quite a lot. The barn where the pigs used to be has now been converted into a rather swish-looking quite separate residence.

The countryside there is quite undulating and strangely beautiful, at least in winter. There was a bit of a wind, but it wasn’t too cold, and we would have walked further if Dot hadn’t had stomach problems, which meant we had to cut it short. We’d parked on the low ridge where we saw the shrew a few days ago and have now completed another section of a walk given in a book we got for Christmas from Dot’s cousin Peter.

On Thursday we went to Bernard O’Brien’s funeral at Earlham Crematorium. I didn’t know he’d died till Peter Wright rang on Wednesday to let me know. Apparently he died on Christmas Eve: he’d been unwell for some time – with bad arthritis apart from anything else. His death resulted from pneumonia and heart failure. Bernard and his wife Barbara (and son Bart) had been our neighbours at Yelverton for 12 years. They lived in a chalet bungalow called Mallow, and Bernard was very mellow – a gentle giant who was generous and kindhearted as well as rather eccentric and full of esoteric knowledge. He made me a 7×7 “chessboard” which I still have beside my computer. There’s a Viking game you can play on it, and I may take it up in his memory. Barbara looked quite well, and Bart was extremely emotional.

I’ve decided to sort out all the files in my room, which is a bit of a mammoth task, but I suspect it will free up lots of space. I am determined to enter some competitions and am digging out a couple of plays I wrote but never got round to offering to anyone. They don’t seem bad to me, but then they probably wouldn’t, would they? I wrote a very short piece yesterday to enter in a short short story competition. I’d also like to continue with my autobiography-up-to-a-point, encouraged by Peter Beales publishing his. He sent it to us yesterday, and Dot has already started reading it. Haven’t written any poems this year yet, but I’ve discovered a few from the past that I think are quite good and might be worth entering in competitions.

We’ve just been practising the songs for tomorrow. I’ve written a new one, called Echoes of God, but I’m not sure it’s quite ready to be sung.

Norwich City have just won 4-0 after sacking their manager. Brian Gunn was the caretaker manager for today. Perhaps he should have a shot at it…