A day off, almost

Students doing chores, journaling, and relaxing in various settings at CAT today. Also the cabbage seedlings for the poly-tunnel/hoop-house -- a sign of spring.

Today was a day off to recover from jet lag and get some sleep. Most students slept through 10 am or 11. Some of us had work to do. A handful of us went to do a big shopping for our evening meals, four of which we shall cook ourselves. The bus timetable seems all messed up, so we finished up walking the 3.5 miles to Machynlleth, getting a taxi back with Nigel, our garrulous cab company owner-driver, who seems to have adopted us, or at least the students have adopted him, none the least because of all the "stick" he gives me.

After a very nice dinner of spaghetti bolognese prepared by cooking group 1, Kayla, Amber and Alicia, we had discussion. The assignment was to describe one thing that you'd seen and liked, one thing that you'd seen and not liked, and relate one of the two to an item of (small "t") theory taught in one or the other part of your Unity College education.

Some likes:

Relatively unspoiled countryside: Planning regulations and countryside preservation
Interactive environmental education displays
Wattle fences and blackthorn hedges
Sheep, lambs, and managing pasture and forage through grazing, not mechanization
Pedestrianism and planning for pedestrianism
Public transportation


Some dislikes:

Crowded public transportation
Green roofs (why not use a higher tech roof approach, and not run the risks of water penteration and collapse)
Rhododendron sp. as an invasive (native to PA)
Game animals belong to the landowner, not the people

There were more, but I'm tired and I still have to post the sunset picture.

Safe at CAT, 12 souls on board

That "souls on board" is an archaic phrase still used by the Royal Navy rescue helicopters.

But we're all here and sleeping off our jet lag. Here are some pictures of the very arduous journey. The first train was way too crowded.

And, of course, lambs.

More later as we wake up and do things.

Mick

Wales, crisp early, clear, for Saturday

This according to the BBC a minute ago, the six o'clock news.

Students will be in the air in a couple of hours.

Chartwell, Churchill and sustainability?

Click on the pictures to enlarge


Winston Churchill, as an historic Conservative Party and wartime leader, doesn't get much credit for his social program work, earlier as a Liberal Party leader (he "crossed the floor" of the house twice in his career). But we have him to thank for the start of our old age pension and disability insurance system here in the UK, among other programs. Not exactly your Ronald Reagan conservative. The traditional British land-based aristocracy had a very different ideology.

Neither does he get much credit for his understanding of countryside conservation and his love for animals. The best example of Churchill's conservation aesthetic must be Chartwell, his beloved country house, which I visited today. The Kentish landscape is exquisite, improved upon by a pleasant series of cascading ponds. Churchill also kept a farm and lots of pets from sheep to geese to goldfish.

Pictures from the top:

The walled kitchen garden: a superb example of the type, common to country houses in the UK. The walls extend the growing season. Plums and other soft fruit trees are trellised along the south-facing ones.

Crocuses in bloom. This tree was gorgeous.

The house itself, parts of which date to the 1500s. Kentish architecture relies on brick, timber, and tile. British indigenous architecture varies by geology and ecoregion. In Wales we'll see slate in all it's variations.

A drawing and saying by Churchill, on his preference for pigs. I have to say, as an admirer and keeper and eater of the porcine race, I greatly agree.

Chickens. Churchill kept a wide variety of poultry. His daughter kept wartime chickens, part of the Dig for Victory campaign.

On the road again

I'm starting my journey to meet the students at Heathrow. It's 4 am here in my parents home, now strangely empty without them. I have a little rental car outside and will drive to the airport shortly, where I will turn in the car and go to a hotel for the night. The students arrive quite early tomorrow and Heathrow is a bear of a place to get to and around, so I plan to be there in good time.

Before I finish with the car, I plan to give myself a half-day vacation today. It's been a somewhat busy and stressful week here and I need a mood-shifter.

I'm going to visit Chartwell, Winston Churchill's country house in Kent. It's only 30 miles from Heathrow, and I've always wanted to go. I have a good collection of Churchill's books and books about him, and have always been interested in this impossible but essential man and his life and times. It's time I went to his home.

The students will leave very shortly too, in about a half a day. Hopefully everyone is properly packed and ready for the trip.

And has remembered their passport!

Travel safe.

Tea and Welshcakes

I've been in Wales now for about 36 hours. Already I've had three cups of tea made for me by various Welshwomen.

I remember when I first came to America, to California, and was surprised to discover that rarely would anyone offer to make me a cup of tea, and I have to say I thought it quite rude until I realized that it was just one of those cultural differences.

But Thelma, my parents' neighbor, discovered me sitting in the car in my parents parking spot, waiting for my sister yesterday, and had me come in the house and made me tea and sat me down for a chat with her and her husband Bryn. And every time I go to visit my parents in their new care home, the caregivers make me tea.

Very nice. A very civilized country. Sorry. Civilised, with an "s".

We will have to make sure everyone has tea, while they're here. And welshcakes.

By the way, the weather is very pleasant over here, quite warm by the late afternoon, and sunny. It's supposed to hold in this pattern for most of next week. I haven't seen any Welsh daffodils in flower, but I've seen some very close to flower. And a few lambs.

Did I mention that the daffodil is the Welsh national flower?

Skyscraper scene

The view of the Boston skyline across the pan at Logan Airport.

Plane leaves very soon.