Archive for the 'Places' Category

Following on from my previous blog post “What’s Your Summer Read?” I promised to tell you about my summer read - so here it is. I love books that evoke a place or time so vividly that you feel that you are right there. It’s even better when I know a little about that place or time where the story is set — in such cases, my own memory or knowledge adds another layer of texture to the experience of reading.

I’ve recently been enjoying the memoir and history, by Adam Nicolson, grandson of Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson. He writes about his family home with a tangible passion, evoking his childhood in this famous house – or rather, castle. The place is, of course, more than just his family home: it belongs to the nation through the National Trust, and all of us who visit it. In some small way, whenever any of us visit National Trust properties, strolling about the grounds and grand rooms, wondering what it must be like to live in such places, we all take part of those places away with us in our own memories and snapshots and souvenirs. So the story of Sissinghurst feels familiar to anyone to has been there and also to bookish types like me who’ve read about Vita and Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury set - and also new and fascinating by revealing an insiders view of these people and of this famous place.

Part of what makes the book intriguing is the behind-the-scenes glimpses we are given to the Nicolson family relationships. We see Nigel Nicolson (Adam’s father) as the well-known literary figure but also as a father and husband who could not easily bond with his wife and children. We also get to share in what it was like to grow up in the private family areas of this historic national treasure – just what National Trust fans want to hear about!

Nicholson also tells the story of his vision for reviving a working farm is part of the historic Castle and Gardens — and the challenge of making that vision a reality. The Castle and Gardens blong to the National Trust and he and his family are merely the donor residents who have a right to live there rent-free. He has to bring the National Trust and also the Sissinghurst management and staff on board to his plan and the journey is fraught with tensions and conflicting values. He describes difficult meetings and tense conversations with everyone involved. It takes a kind of courage, I think, to write about these less than noble aspects of people that you have to live and work with!

The book also offers a brief history of the National Trust and discusses the philosophy behind what the Trust does. It gives us a view into the workings and philosophies of that body behind the frontage of its well-kept heritage buildings and landscapes, which I found interesting and also amusing – especially in his throwaway comment that many of the Trust’s founding members were gay…

I also enjoyed the evocations of Kent and the history of its landscape. The descriptions made me want to get out of London right now and head on out to the woods and meadows of the Weald.

I would say that this has been a perfect summer read, combining history, family drama, the struggle to realise the vision and also beautiful descriptions of a gorgeous part of England.

Although – I should confess that I didn’t exactly read the book. It was read to me – as you know, I’m a fan of audiobooks and this one was read perfectly by Jeremy Clyde. I could be taken away to Kent and Sissinghurst as I did the ironing, sat on the bus, or just stared into space…

You can buy the audiobook from :

Or, if you prefer the actual physical book, Amazon.co.uk has it:

You can also find out details about visiting Sissinghurst on the National Trust website.

photo: thanks to alh1, from flickr.com (CCL)

As part of my occasional series on My Local London, I describe a visit to Beddington Park to look for the Lost Village of Beddington - in the otherwise unremarkable Greater London commuter town of Hackbridge

Here are the pics from our stroll:

I stare out at sea from The Cobb in Lyme Regis, pondering on the illusion and reality of John Fowles’s “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and later, meet a friendly Fossil Hunter who shows us his “catch” from the rocks of the Undercliff.

And these are the snaps:

I share the views from the cliff tops of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast on my summer holiday via a live mobile podcast from my mobile phone.

Here are some snaps:

BTW, I was inspired to visit this part of the UK by the A Mile With Me running podcast after its host, Steve Chopper, who lives in Bournemouth podcast about his walks along the coast. So, thanks, Steve for inspiring me to come on this lovely holiday!

As part of the occasional series My Local London where I share with you a favourite or interesting spot in London, this week’s mobile podcast episode takes you to the Horniman Gardens in South East London.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Here are my snaps from the afternoon:

Are you a Horniman Gardens regular? Or if this podcast has inspired you to visit, it would be great to hear from you. To share your views about this podcast - or anything else - via voicemail or email, you can do so via my Contact Page.

Links:

Horniman Museum and Gardens

My Local London series on Fusion View

loclon

I shared with you some blogs by Malaysian foodbloggers the other week so, to counteract all that calorific content, I thought I’d check out some blogs about running by Malaysians. It’s a more surprising topic and I wasn’t expecting to find many but to my delight, there are quite a number of running enthusiasts who trot out quite happily in the sticky equatorial heat.

I haven’t run around in Malaysia since I was a kid, preferring the cool of a swimming pool whenever I go back for a visit - I’ve got so acclimatised to the UK cold that I find it quite a challenge exerting myself to much under a hot sky and even the heat of an English summer can be a little too much for me! - so I’m really impressed by these Malaysian fitbloggers who race marathons and even ultras (ie more than 26.2 miles) out in the midday sun!

Running With Passion is a Kuala Lumpur based runner who seems to run “in most road races all over my beautiful country, MALAYSIA and also in oversea places that I have visited”. He has some great photos and videos on his blog as well as lively write-ups of the events. He also blogs about music, the blogging scene and a wide range of other activities and festivities in Malaysia.

Living, And Loving Life is the public diary of Haza, “A working mother of two who would like to believe she can shuffle on a relentless forward motion and explore her boundaries.” That’s a very modest description as she’s an ultrarunner! She’s also a great photographer (many Malaysian bloggers seem to be!) and there are some lovely portraits on her blog, too.

KL Runner focuses more on race stats in his write ups but it’s the photos of race events that really bring his blog to life - it’s great to see the Malaysian scenery that the runners are slogging through as well as all of them going hard at it in many action shots.

Photos: L to R
L: from Running with Passion, with thanks
Middle: from Living, And Loving Life, with thanks
R: from KL Runner’s blog, with thanks

In September 1987, a group of four of us cycled the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. We were four girls who didn’t know much about bicycles or even how to change a flat tyre and who didn’t really think of ourselves as endurance athletes. But we cycled over 500 miles in about 10 days across rugged wilderness and over the Galician mountain ranges to win - what? A certificate in Latin forgiving us of all our sins and a sense of personal satisfaction.

In this episode of my mobile podcast, while laid out on the sofa with a bad cold, I look back at this personal journey and a moment of transition in my life:

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

More about the pilgrim route:

The Caminon del Norte (northern route) that we took

The Confraternity of St James - the society where we obtained our pilgrimage pamphlet

Walk St James’s Way - a holiday company that will arrange your pilgrimage holiday, with or without bag transfer

Photo: thanks to Nick in exsilio from flick.com (CCL)

While I was out on my run this evening in my local park, I came across a TV crew filming an episode of the long standing kids show Blue Peter. A whizzy young man from Rollerski.co.uk was teaching the “talent” how to rollerski for the cameras - and they were kind enough to smile for my snapshot as I whipped out my Blackberry to capture this moment.

When I used to live in Central London, I’d come across film crews quite often but here in the suburbs, it’s not so glamourous so it was fun to have something unusual to run past as I did my triple circuit…

I’ve had a go at rollerskating but spent most of the time on my bum. I’ve never tried rollerskiing and it looks quite fun - the poles should help you stay upright!

Snapshot is an occasional photoblog series featuring moments or images captured while I’m out and about.

snps

Continuing my exploration of the volcano ash travel crisis, I reflect on the silent skies above the UK this springtime. Podcasting guru Neville Hobson also adds his voicemail, reflecting on a silent London.

There’s also a round up of travelling friends who’ve been posting about being caught up in the air travel chaos on Facebook, including a voicemail report from Ingrid Beazley of Dulwich OnView who is stuck in the US after a museums/ heritage sector conference.

You can subscribe to the Fusion View Mobile Podcast by clicking on the “Subscribe with iTunes” button - it’s free and new episodes will be downloaded automatically to your iTunes application.

Here are links to the articles I discuss on the podcast:

Social Media and Stranded Travellers

Dunkirk-style mission to transport travellers

Also, I mention Dulwich OnView wins an international award

Other resources:

Liftshare.com - social network site for car sharing

My snaps from the park:

I’d love to hear about your experiences of the air travel ban - have you been enjoying the quiet in the skies above your area? Or have been caught up in the chaos, trying to get to your destination? You can send me an email or voicemail via my Contact Page

This is a spectacular view of the powerful forces of nature that we’re up against this week: