I spy in Queen's Park.........

Kensal Rise Library October 2012 update

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 10:57:00 +0000

While Kensal Rise Library Campaigners wait for the decision from All Souls College (and by the way the pledge target of £70,000 was exceeded by £8,300 (and still rising), something else is planned....

Next Saturday 13th October is a year on from Brent's closure of the six libraries.
Not much to celebrate, you might think, but a brilliant idea has been hatched. Campaigners from Save our Six Libraries will run a relay between the buildings, beginning at Kensal Rise Library at 11am, then on to Cricklewood, Neasden, Tokyngton, Barham Park and finishing at 5.30pm at Preston Rd.

Great name too - it's the Light of Learning Relay

Ann John (former leader of Brent council) thinks the closed libraries are in "inaccessible locations" so I hope the runners will be able to find them.... Ann makes a brief appearance in this excellent film which you've probably already seen (but it's worth watching again)

Margaret Bailey explains "Peter Grigg has agreed to run for Kensal Rise and we would like to see as many of you as possible join us at the library to send him off. We will be having a gathering and a reading before he goes from 10am at Kensal Rise Library.

Thank you Peter for doing the running while we stay behind and eat cake.
More details on the relay can be found on our website www.savekensalriselibrary.org"

I know it's impossible to read the timings on the copy of the poster so here they are (all approx)

11am Peter Grigg running for Kensal sets off from there

11.30am Peter collects runner from Willesden Green Library Centre

12 Those two pick up the Cricklewood runner

12.30 Then those three pick up the Neasden runner

1pm Tokyngton runner joins them

1.45pm Arrival and pit-stop at Barham Pop-up at 428 Wembley High Road (near Argos)

4.30pm Barham Park Library

5pm Preston Road Library for guest readings at 5.30pm

6pm Much deserved (well for the runners at least) drink in the Windermere Pub. Also great music, raffles and free buffet! Just outside South Kenton station (Bakerloo and Overground) so no need to run there unless you want to.
See a map

More from Margaret "This day of closure of the libraries also marks the establishment of our Pop Up Library which will have been running for 12 months on October 13th. Our Pop Up Library has become a powerful symbol of the determination of this community to support the campaign to keep our library open.

The campaign itself has been going for nearly two years!
It has been a magnificent achievement and we believe our community should be congratulating itself.
We will be celebrating this achievement with refreshments and activities for adults and children.
We will also have We Love Kensal Rise Library Wall where you can write messages. Come along and bring cakes and we'll drink a toast and sing happy birthday and hopefully it will be the last birthday we will have to celebrate outside."

Suggested reading - Haruki Murakumi's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" which also covers swimming and is a great book even if you prefer reading to running or swimming.

Libraries latest - August 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:56:00 +0000

A lot's been happening in relation to Kensal Rise library recently - so here's a quick update with some stuff about places which are proud of their libraries - Chicago Central Library in particular).

First of all, if you haven't seen this film you must watch it - it's an excellent summary of the last 18 months, bringing us pretty much right up to date...

... to the viewings of Kensal Rise and Cricklewood Libraries organised by Cluttons on behalf of All Souls College at the beginning on August and recent meeting described by Margaret Bailey

"We met with All Souls Friday August 3rd. The meeting was cordial and there was a frank and open discussion by both parties. Thank you to Maggie, Pam and Paula for being a very strong team and putting the case for The Friends of Kensal Rise Library so well.
The College, who said they were sympathetic to our wish to have the library re-open wanted to know that whatever plan was put forward would mean the building had a sustainable future, and this of course means strong finance for leasing or buying the building.
This of course may be difficult for us to achieve, at least initially...... but we do have a plan .........
We continue to talk to other groups who have aims compatible with ours and will be putting our proposal to the College in early September.

Save Kensal Rise Library Fundraising Appeal - Crunch Time!

£14,858 pledged so far
Goal: £70,000 by September 7th 2012
Please put your money where your books should be! Libraries connect communities. Help our fight to prove it.

We urgently need financial support to strengthen our bid to All Souls. We need to raise enough funds to secure the first year of operations (which includes urgent repairs to the building). We have a strong business plan and are confident we can make the library self-sustaining in the long-run. But we need your help now. We are asking residents, friends, businesses and supporters to pledge a donation towards our target of 70K.

We need these pledges urgently - by September 7th when our proposal needs to be with All Souls College. We will only collect a payment if our bid to All Souls is successful. If we are unsuccessful, you will not donate anything.
Please take a moment to watch the video above to explain more about the cause.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Daniels for their continuous support throughout our campaign, and for being the first local business to pledge 10K towards our target.

Please log on to our website www.savekensalriselibrary.org for further details about making a pledge."

I can't put it any better than Margaret!

And Jodi has just tweeted this (in case you didn't see it)

‏@JodiGramigni

Day 2: An AMAZING £15,500k PLEDGED! Need additional £55k by Sept 7th. PLS DONATE NOW! http://www.savekensalriselibrary.org/ @SaveKRLibrary #savelibraries

In some places they do appreciate their libraries - Chicago, for example

The elevated "loop line" goes right in front of the library building

The library's wonderful gothic lights

No problem about returning your book after hours - you just post it in this bin

Sorry these next photos are a bit rubbish - it's the Library's mission statement from 1935, which they clearly still think applies today,

whereas here in Brent.....Public libraries at our service? what a crazy idea

Chicago and Brent do have a few things in common - they both have large immigrant populations, areas of poverty, and bored teenagers. Chicago's response to this is to maintain a large, well stocked and welcoming library in a large, handsome building, where librarians and security guards feel proud of the service they're providing. I'm not making this up - I spent a whole afternoon exploring all 9 floors of the library and talking to the staff.

And on the ground floor, with its own separate entrance is the privately funded YouMedia center

where some of the art and poetry faces outwards into the street

Have a look at the teens section of their website

My friend Alison (@nemonemonemo) just tweeted this photo of Tromsø library (Tromsø's the Norweigian capital of the Arctic by the way). What a great looking building, and...

"because of its convenient situation and spectacular architecture, the library has become a natural meeting place for the local citizens, and a "must see" experience for tourists. The vision of the library is to be a model library in the region of northern Norway. In 2006 the library was declared the Best Service Enterprise in Tromsø, an award given on behalf of the citizens of Tromsø. In 2008 the library was nominated as one of three for the award of "Library of the Year" in Norway, while in 2009 a general poll voted the Tromsø Library the best public library of the year."

But back to Kensal Rise library where the local community also have a vision and are as optimistic as ever, now running a children's holiday reading club as well as the pop-up library, and have some great ideas for fund-raising

Your name on the wall (large) £1,000 Your name on the wall (smaller) £500 Name a shelf £300 Sketch (+name) of you in the library crowd £100 pp Sponsor a chair £50 Adopt a book £20

So, as they say, put your money where your books should be... and please pass it on...

Weeds part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 23:23:00 +0000

Remember the fenced off area of meadow in Hyde Park in the last post with the "Warning Plant Movements" sign?
You couldn't see from my rather dark photo what plants were there - but as well as some yellow and white flowers (sorry to be so unscientific but I just can't remember them) there were a few cornflowers and poppies but also CORNCOCKLE!

So what? Well, corncockle is interesting. It used to be a common weed in wheat fields (like poppies, cornflower and those yellow and white flowers), but you hardly ever see it now thanks to selective herbicides. Back to Richard Mabey's "Weeds. The Story of Outlaw Plants" again.

This is what he has to say:

"Corncockle, a member of the pink family, with exquisite purple flowers... has seeds which ripen at the same time as wheat, are of much the same size and weight as wheat-ears, and which aren't easily separated out by winnowing. They turn flour - and the bread made from it- grey. The noxious glycosides in the plant, known as saponins, enter the bloodstream and cause a breakdown of red blood corpuscles and other cells. The condition (still common in India) is known as githagism, after the plant's Latin name Agrostemma githago and is characterised by lassitude, yawning, loss of weight and enteritis"

So you really wouldn't want to be eating that

By the way, I know it's not exactly local, but the North American prairie garden at the British Museum is great. That's echinacea at the front. That's a medically useful plant, rather than a toxic one.

The info boards are great, telling you which plants were effective against snakebites and so on

The garden is at the front of the British Museum until the 25th of November. And if you like taking photos of flowers with columns behind without the bother of finding a real temple (as I do) it's a must.

Weeds..... and Plant Movements

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 23:01:00 +0000

Richard Mabey's great book "Weeds" set me off on a weed-related journey. First stop my own garden to see just how many weeds were there

Yellow weeds - creeping buttercup, avens (with its crazy seed heads), nipplewort

Pink, red and blue weeds - one of the willowherbs, scarlet pimpernel, speedwell, forget-me-not, wild rose and bramble, herb robert and another cranesbill

Grasses - far more different varieties than I realised

Yellow and white weeds - goosegrass and ground elder, with the avens and creeping buttercup

More pink weeds - comfrey (a useful weed) and woundwort with a cranesbill

White weeds - bindweed, jack by the hedge, feverfew, ground elder

Today's weeds - enchanter's nightshade, greater hairy willowherb, tormentil, dandelion, knapweed (I introduced this), self-heal, white clover, small spurge

These are the coarsest weeds - nettle, dock, plantain and two types of borage/comfrey The process of sorting them for their photos was interesting - I found myself doing it partly by colour and partly by what kind of plant they are.

Once the weeds are in a bunch they look different - they turn into a bunch of wild flowers

And by the way, have you noticed wild flower meadows springing up all over the place? Hyde Park, the Olympic park, the raised bunds in Queen's Park, loads of unmown grass with different wild flowers in at Kew. The poppies, cornflower and corncockle have been fenced in in Hyde Park, with a warning sign (probably something to do with the Olympics)

But back to Richard Mabey's "Weeds. The Story of Outlaw Plants". The whole book is excellent, but I really enjoyed the chapter about greater celandine. Medieval herbalists recommended it to clean away "slimie things that cleave about the ball of the Eie", but as Richard Mabey says "It was a drastic remedy. The orange latex exuded by the plant is so corrosive it was also used to cauterise warts". He describes the stone carving of the plant on St Frideswide's shrine in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford which dates from 1289. And here it is, with its characteristic lobed leaves

The carving shows a scene from the dramatic life of St Frideswide when she had to hide among vegetation to evade her pursuers (King Algar wanted to marry her so he and his band of men were chasing her). I'd say these leaves are the greater celandine... but the reason it's interesting is that as well as being the patron saint of Oxford, St Fridewide was a benefactress of the blind, which might explain the presence of the greater celandine (a "prime eye-herb", as Richard Mabey says) on her shrine.

Other plants are also beautifully carved and easy to recognise - hawthorn, mulberries (being eaten by a bird), sycamore with keys, a grape vine, ivy and oak with acorns. I mentioned the incredibly naturalistic carving to a woman replacing the flowers on the shrine and her response was "oh, they probably carved whatever was out at Port Meadow at the time". Well these days it's mainly Oxford ragwort, but it's a bit unlikely that mulberries or vines were ever there. Maybe she just thought I was being too clever. Whatever. If you're anywhere near St Frideswide's shrine go and have a look for yourself.

More incredibly detailed carved plants - this time in wood - in the chapel of Exeter College. Amazing passion flower with perfect leaves, flower and tendrils, hawthorn and vine. And outside the chapel, a passion flower growing up the wall... I love these connections

Carving skills are clearly alive and well in Oxford as I saw this butcher's display featuring carved fruit and veg in the covered market

Aren't those citrus baskets great?
And thanks for not deciding that this blog was dead. There's life in the old blog yet... more posts soon... Libraries update next.

Kensal Rise Library 29th May 2012 Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Read Part One of today's goings on

Read Maggie Gee's powerful plea in the Guardian on 31st May 2012

And a comment from All Souls College in the Guardian to the effect that "we find it distressing. We had told the council that we would have been happy for them to have kept the library open, possibly through co-operation with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, who had developed an interesting business plan. This was not to be, however"

Aliens? Well, you could say that, but it might be unfair to aliens.

Sorry my filming skills aren't up to much. It's mainly for the chanting anyway. (Enviro/Video activist Lorraine... where were you?)

Just back from Kensal Rise Library where a large group of us waited for Mo Butt's promised visit. And... he came... he smiled... he waffled... he swore on the life of his children... he gave no clear assurances or reassurances or explanations of anything. That's the summary - but there's more below if you can be bothered. But first here are some pictures

The questions were generally much better than Mo's answers. Pertintent and to the point (and polite on the whole). He was asked

By a vicar "Why can't the Friends of Kensal Rise library have a crack at running the library... it would be an easy community win"

By a Willesden Green library supporter "Why are you surreptitiously mismanaging the libraries and treating Brent as your personal fiefdom?"

By a boy "why are you stopping kids from reading?"

By a campaigner "so who does the building belong to now then?"

By Rachael "Are you saying as Leader of the Council that you didn't know that the books were going to be taken out in the middle of the night?"

By a campaigner "Will you keep the books intact? Will you try to promise it?"

By a campaigner who was present when the books were removed "Why was there such a heavy police presence of 15 officers when there were only 5 women there?"

By Maggie Gee "If you want Labour to be forgiven round here you must act quickly. Will you bring back the plaques?"

By Margaret "Why did you jeopardise our position by triggering the reverter of the library building to All Souls College?"

By a campaigner "Is it fair to say that you are very embarrassed by the whole situation?"

Mo's replies were "All Souls College have been telling us to take everything out of the library... I've always made it clear that I will support you guys... I made it absolutely clear that the books were going to come out... I didn't realise they were going to come out so quickly...The murals are safe and sound... When we negotiate with All Souls for the library to come to you we'll get the murals back...The books were part of an Executive decision to be distributed between the other libraries... I can't promise it... It will be looked into..."

Read the Kilburn Times report

And Michael Rosen has put us on his blog

More later

Kensal Rise Library update 29th May 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:37:00 +0000

Please come to the library at 3.30pm today (Tuesday) for a gathering. Bring banners, pots and pans, whistles, football rattles if you feel like making a noise. Brent's latest betrayal of its residents does not mark the end of the campaign!

Since I wrote this writers' support has been flooding in

Maggie Gee : The cowardice of Brent's Labour Council in stripping Kensal Rise library, and the philistinism of unscrewing the brass plaque remembering Mark Twain from its wall in the middle of the night, would horrify anyone who still recalls Labour's founding mission to share education, knowledge and hope with the people. We will continue to fight for our library.

Michael Frayn: They took the books out - and the plaque down? So the library is now an unlibrary, in the way that people became unpersons in the darkest days of the Soviet Union. I hope they took the titles of the books off as well. Removing unbooks from an unlibrary - who could possibly object?

Sir Michael Holroyd: The wanton destruction of the Kensal Rise Library - its books removed, its history erased - is a gross act of philistinism which will bring lasting shame to all involved" Sir Michael Holroyd

What's going on?

If you've been following developments since the dramatic defence of Kensal Rise Library on Wednesday 16th May, you'll know that the replacement of Ann John as Leader of the Council by Mo Butt seemed to give some cause for optimisim.

But, do you know what? Mo Butt has just betrayed not only the Save Kensal Rise campaigners, not only the users of Kensal Rise Library, not only the residents of Brent, not only everyone who believes in universal access to books and a place to study, but also anyone who has ever voted labour.

Let me go back a day or two. After the defence of the library two weeks ago when the impromptu street party of supporters prevented Brent officials from removing books, murals and other fittings and furniture from the library Mo Butt agreed to meet campaigners.
On 17th May Kensal Rise campaigner David Butcher spoke to Mo Butt who said he would arrange a meeting between campaigners, the council and All Souls College, and also
"significantly he agreed that the council would not remove shelves, tables or chairs. And he will make sure they don’t remove the large murals painted for the library, which is great." (see below for the worth of this statement)

Over the weekend of 19th and 20th May I was busy organising the Queen's Park Book Festival at which Save our Six (seven, now including Willesden Green) Libraries campaigners had a stall. Imagine my surprise to spot a small gaggle of Labour councillors and members of the local Labour party deep in conversation at the SOS stall. Mo Butt, Navin Shah and others I won't name because I'm holding on to some hope that they may yet be able to help sense to prevail here (you know who you are... we've spoken about this several times). Mo and Navin were in affable mood and happy to enjoy our hospitality in the "Space Bar" and make positive noises about sorting it all out....

The meeting then took place on 22nd May, and later that day Margaret Bailey circulated a note summarising it. It began

"On 22 May representatives of the Kensal Rise Library campaign met with Muhammed Butt, the new leader of Brent Council and his Deputy Ruth Moher. It was encouraging to have the leader of the Council agree to talk to us, especially as Cllr Butt had also said publicly that he wanted to call a meeting that would include All Souls College (who originally donated the land the library sits on) as well as campaigners. His openness was encouraging and we are grateful to Cllr Butt and Cllr Moher for meeting with us but disappointed by his failure to give any kind of practical assurance

Margaret concluded, however, by saying

On [the issue of keeping the books in the library] and several other points, Cllr Butt was unable or unwilling to give way. He said he would need to consult with Brent’s legal team and other officials to see if he had any room for manoeuvre and if our suggestions were viable.

We have not yet heard back from him.

Obviously, we are concerned about the extent of Cllr Butt's goodwill. He may hope to fob us off with bland reassurances while offering nothing concrete. He may also hope he can shift blame for the loss of the library onto All Souls if they refuse a meeting, or if they resist a compromise arrangement. Clearly his main concern is to take the political heat out of an issue that has caused the Council huge problems and a lot of bad publicity. Cllr Butt and other councillors may now regret how the library closures and community aspirations have been handled, and they are obviously nervous about the pubic perception of the council and would like to change that, but if this new 'support' for us is simply a devious attempt to achieve 'good press' we will not be happy about being used in this way and this community will be very angry if this is the case".

"So we do wonder if this is what the meeting with councillors was all about - damage limitation for the very bad public image that they have created for themselves and an attempt at co-opting us to help with its restoration, because, after all, we left that meeting empty handed.

So we need to keep up the pressure, and we need to remain alert for any further attempts to empty the library."

How prescient Margaret's words have turned out to be because at 2am today this is what happened

This is Margaret's 6.33am e-mail message today

"This morning between 2 and 3am Richard Barrett, Brent's Property Officer, raided and stripped our library. About 15 workers took the books from the library and also took the murals painted in the 1930's specifically for the library along with all the plaques commemorating the library's opening by Mark Twain.

They took tables and chairs and other assorted objects including a microwave and a box of sticky tape.

They were assisted in this action by about 12 police officers.

In a meeting with campaigners last week the new leader of the council Mohammad Butt promised that the murals and furniture would not be taken.

We asked him to hold off stripping the library until he had organised a meeting with All Souls College, the council and ourselves.

This action this morning is proof that the council had no intention of trying to ensure that the reverter on the library had not been triggered.

Cllr Mo Butt said he wanted to listen to the community, engage with them.
This is how he listens. By taking this action he has jeopardised the ability of this community to run this library.

We may be finished with Brent council but our campaign continues. We will not let their cowardly, middle of the night plundering defeat us. Cllr Butt's words to us are worse than meaningless.

They reveal what a cowardly, conniving, bunch of dishonest panhandlers they are, but what else would you expect in the Banana Republic of Brent?"

Margaret Bailey

Please come to the library at 3.30pm today for a gathering. Bring banners, pots and pans, whistles, football rattles if you feel like making a noise. Brent's latest betrayal of its residents does not mark the end of the campaign!

This is a comment on Wembley Matters blog Every single labour cllr needs to be told that they are going to suffer in 2014. How can this be a council that represents us if it belligerently betrays us. The fact that this was a 2am operation shows the sheer cowardness of Mo Butt. SOMEONE in the labour ranks has got to come out and challenge him publicly on this cowardly act.

I agree. Thanks for reading - I know it's long and written in haste, but this stuff really really matters. We cannot let Brent get away with this behaviour.

Kensal Rise Library - update 17th May 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:50:00 +0000

Go to my Queen's Park Book Festival blog post here

You've heard about the stand-off on Wednesday 16th May at Kensal Rise Library between library supporters and Brent council staff attempting to empty the library of books etc?

This is the latest news (Friday 18th May)from David Butcher of the Save Kensal Campaign

I spoke to Muhammed Butt, the new leader of the council, earlier and followed up on the events of yesterday.

He is making very positive noises as far as they go. He is keen to build bridges with our campaign and find a way forward. He reiterated that he wants to arrange a three-way meeting with us and All Souls, although his legal advice is that the reverter has been triggered and All Souls have acknowledged as much.

However, nothing more will happen in terms of the transfer of deeds for now. He wants to meet with us (just us, initially - tripartite meeting later) next week and no clearing of the library will happen before then, he says.

As regards the books, he says he needs to allow them to be taken and redistributed, and the council also needs the computers. I argued the point on books and we can argue further next week.

But significantly he agreed that the council would not remove shelves, tables or chairs. And he will make sure they don’t remove the large murals painted for the library, which is great.

So the property transfer is on hold and we have a chance to take stock. And for once there's the prospect of face-to-face discussions on a way forward. Obviously we need to be careful that Mo (as he is known) is not buying us off with bland assurances only to sell us down the river later. But so far so good.

Huge credit to everyone who fought our corner and gave quotes to the media yesterday. Terrific coverage across the board today, and I'm sure that has had an impact within Brent.

Also big thank you to those of you that sent emails to Cllr Butt.

That's the end of David's message. This is me again!

Thanks to twitter word soon went round about what was going on and a sit-in, lie-in, read-in and stand shoulder-to shoulder-in was in place.

Margaret Bailey summed up the events of the day in a message which is so good there's no point in me re-writing it
Hi Everyone,
Firstly, thanks for the magnificent response to the attempt by officers of the council to remove the books from the library today. Another great holding action.

And not just remove the books. The murals that were painted specifically for Kensal Rise Library in the 1930's are also propped up ready to be taken away. For display in the new £3 million library in Wembley? To remind them of the libraries that they closed? To be pulped? Who knows? Our very own Elgin Marbles!

It is just amazing how all of a sudden when the library is under threat people seem to materialise.

Thanks to your support and action and the intervention from Cllr Mohammed Butt, the new leader of the council, the council officers left the building without removing any of the books.
It would be very good if you could email him to thank him for his intervention on our behalf, cllr.muhammed.butt@brent.gov.uk and also to remind him of the importance to this community of our library. He said he did not know there would be an attempt to strip the library today.
Hopefully we can look forward to a more conciliatory council leadership than the one we have known for the past 18 months. And our fingers are really crossed on that one.

The danger has not past and we need to be vigilant about the library.
Cllr Butt is said to be trying to organise a meeting between us, the council and All Souls, and we will also continue with our own negotiations with the college. Wouldn't it be fantastic if negotiation was the way forward, rather than the hostility and intransigence we have known during this campaign?

If it was thought that the campaign had gone away, today's action would dispel that notion.
Regards to all and job well done for today.

Margaret Bailey

Read more on the Save Kensal Rise Library website including up to the minute tweets if you're not on twitter

And another great report by the Kilburn Times

and another report

And in the Guardian

The pop-up library was open for business yesterday as usual

And on World Book Night (23rd April) there were readings and World Book Night give-aways at the Library which I didn't have time to blog about yet.... Despite the cold and damp it was a great event, and the Evelyn Waugh letter was really funny (click on the link in the photo caption) By the way, if you like letters, there's an excellent website Letters of Note by Shaun Usher, where he publishes "correspondence deserving of a wider audience". Shaun's on twitter too @LettersOfNote

Richard reading a hilarious Evelyn Waugh letter

Rachael reading from an Agatha Christie

My box of World Book Night books

Annie and Estella with "How I live now"

I'll say more about why I chose Meg Rosoff's "How I live now" as a book to give away on World Book Night once the Queen's Park Book Festival is over

Queen's Park Book Festival 19th and 20th May

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:35:00 +0000

It's nearly Book Festival time folks!
Next weekend in Queen's Park, 19th and 20th May
So the organisers are frantically e-mailing, ordering in the authors' books, putting the finishing touches to the volunteer rota, testing the best gin for a crisis and generally checking that everything is ready..... while the Festival goers are browsing the beautifully put together programme, weighing up the merits of various author events, reading the latest Linda Grant or Kate Summerscale, and deciding whether to wear wellies or flipflops. You do know there's no overnight camping, by the way, not this year anyway....

What do you mean - you didn't know there was a local Book Festival? There's only

and a great article today in the Kilburn Times online

and another great article in the May edition of Grove magazine

and another great article in the May edition of Absolutely Notting Hill magazine

and a mention in Saturday's Guardian by Justin Cartwright about his event with John Lanchester When I'm back from the pub I'll tell you more... or if you can't wait go to the QPARA website Well I'm back from the pub now... I know it's the next day, but time has to be elastic at the moment. I've put in the Bookbugs timetable on the QPARA website. The authors are great - have a look at their websites which I've linked to.

Did I mention Robert Muchamore and Sophie McKenzie, both brilliant teen authors?

And Che Golden and Lil Chase, two more great teen authors. More soon... there are tents to put up, crayons to buy (for Marcia Williams' event), signs to fix, tweets to tweet

Untidy but productive veg gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 09 May 2012 09:53:00 +0000

At last - professional endorsement for my messy gardening style! Thank you Lia Leendertz in the latest issue of the Garden (the Royal Horticultural Society mag), and thanks to Helen for the mag (as I'm not actually a member).

Purple sprouting broccoli and a muddle of other vegetation

"Every year", says Lia "we clear the ground and start all over again from scratch... We just think it's what we have to do to produce edible crops". Lia explains that this is a hangover from agricultural practices, and unnecessarily high-maintenance for our allotments and vegetable beds. Hooray! Lia's moving to more perennials - fruit bushes, Jerusalem artichokes, rhubarb, sorrel and vines.
She's right - especially on heavy clay soils with a lot of slugs waiting in the wings - where it's very hard to get new plants established in spring. The soils takes a long time to warm up and it's not that easy for the roots of young plants to penetrate it (apart from young dandelions which have no trouble). That's another approach of course - advocated by Alys Fowler - eat those weeds - dandelions, ground elder and hedge garlic - all of which grow in my garden, and can be foraged as Alys explains
Take spinach or chard for example. I left a row of chard from last year - it didn't do anything over the winter, and looked pretty manky, but in March it started to grow again (it was warm then, remember?) And I've had several great bunches of leaves from it already. Meanwhile chard seedlings which I planted out last October in another patch were all eaten by slugs and snails in February, and so were their replacements, and so were the ones I tried growing from seed directly in the patch. It is really hard to get started, but once it's established it's good to keep it going as long as possible

Chard in late September

Frosty chard in February

Last year's chard plants now in May

Another family of veg plants which can go on and on are brassicas (you know - cabbages, kale, sprouts and broccoli). Don't be too keen to pull them up - they will often do something unexpected and produce more growth - leaves or side shoots. Sprouts for example (thanks to Alison for the plants last spring) produce really delicious leaves at the top (sprout tops) and sprouts, but will then make side shoots and tender leaves.

Sprout plant with leaves ready for cutting

Cooked sprout tops

Sprout plant growing new side shoots

Even just a bare brassica stem will grow more young leaves, especially if you make a cross shaped cut in the top of the stem (my exceptionally frugal Yorkshire grandad told me this). These venerable broccolis and kales can withstand quite a bit of slug attack too as it would take a beaver to chew through their main stem - you'll just get holes in the leaves. The big, tough lower leaves are useful too - if you surround young plants with a barrier of them slugs may stop there rather than eating your young beans or courgettes. Again, it looks messy, but it works!

Picked today - chard, parsley, landcress, mizuna

Seaside - Beach huts and rusty padlocks

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:26:00 +0000

Not in Queen's Park - but I love the British seaside at any time of year - and there's something about the rusty bolts and padlocks against the bright paint of the beach huts which I can't resist. The first lot are from Milford on Sea in Hampshire (in winter) and the others from Whitby in North Yorkshire (in summer).

Springtime and random cross thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:45:00 +0000

Ready for a mixture of spring blossom and angry writing? I thought so. Here goes

There's so much to be cross about right now - the budget, the ever widening pay gap, the libraries - you've heard about the Willesden Green Library centre rumpus I suppose? It's the usual story in Brent - despite the wishes of the local community the council is set on a course of destruction. This time of the original Victorian reading room, and the Library Centre - to be replaced with flats and a much smaller library. You'll remember that this particular library is heavily used for studying, so it needs to have plenty of space for students. But of course when Brent set young people as a priority that's something different altogether - it doesn't mean something practical like making sure there's study space available

"All our services will enable local people to fulfill their potential and improve their quality of life. Public resources will be used creatively and wisely to produce lasting benefits for our residents and the borough"

Er, right. This is from Brent's Corporate Strategy 2010-14. I've tried to read the whole document, but I really can't make myself - it's a load of idealistic drivel about supporting young people, creating a network of modern and fit for purpose libraries in high quality buildings in convenient locations across the borough. How few libraries make up a network? 4, 5? Could 6 possibly be a network?

And something else that caught my eye. Who do you think this was quoted in the Kilburn Times supporting the residents of St Raphaels estate whose local bus now bypassess them: "It was great to see so many people from the community coming together to campaign for something that affects a lot of people...I think TfL has agreed to meet with them again so it's fantastic that they have got them to listen" Can you think of any other long running recent campaign in Brent where residents came together to campaign for something that affects a lot of people? And where it would have been fantastic if the decision maker had listened? Answer at the end. Enjoy some more blossom first.

Yes, you guessed it! Our very own Brent Council leader, Ann John, throwing herself behind the residents' campaign. Even more amusingly, Tfl claimed to have carried out a "detailed review and consultation" - does that sound familiar too?- but Ann John's comment on that is not recorded. I'd love to know whether she thought it was an adequate consultation and whether TfL should have taken any notice of the views expressed.

One bit of good news though - All Souls College, Oxford (to whom Kensal Rise library would "revert" if it ceased to be used as a library) have indicated that they would be happy for the library to be run by a community group

This blossom was in a van - but I like it!

More soon - like What Happened to Frugal February?

We love Kensal Rise Library and Cricklewood and Tokyngton and Neasden and Preston Road and Barham Park

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:57:00 +0000

Today is National Libraries Day with the slogan

Fine if you still have a local library to use/love/join!

The Friends of Kensal Rise library and Preston Road library are organising family activites today to celebrate National Libraries Day - muffled in hats and gloves and at the pop-up library at Kensal and in a nearby local school at Preston Road. Have a look at this on the Save Preston Library site and see if you agree with Boyd Tonkin that "no local authority has behaved with quite such pig-headed arrogance in pursuit of the destruction of much-loved branches as Labour Brent".

You've probably heard the news yesterday that the Supreme Court turned down the application by the Save our Six libraries campaign for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. This means that the legal challenge to Brent's decision cannot be taken any further through the courts. But is this the end of the fight? Not at all. Spirits were high at last night's Fundraiser in aid of the campaign - the launch party of the limited edition prints designed by artist and anarchist Jamie Reid.

Local Paul Stolper who has a gallery - the Paul Stolper Gallery at 31 Museum Street, WC2 (just opposite the British Museum) generously arranged the printing of a limited edition of prints designed by Jamie Reid and the print was launched last night. It's a great design as you can see, and all proceeds support the campaign. I think there are still a few left...

How else are you going to get kisses from Jamie Reid?

We were packed in an upstairs room at the Mason's Arms with our own bar and pub food to share, listening to "One man and his Beard" and Tim Dowling playing banjo in his band "Police Dog Hogan".

Most frequently overheard
"It's the first time I've been warm for a week"
"I could have left my thermals off"
"Pass the spare ribs"
"If you believed Tim Dowling's column you'd think his band was rubbish"
"What's wrong with Brent council - you'd think they'd be pleased we want to run Kensal Rise library?"
"We'd never have kept going this long without Margaret Bailey"
"Our solicitor was brilliant - if anyone could have won the case it was him"
"MORE BANJO MORE BANJO MORE BANJO"

David Butcher gave us a brief update on the campaign including the good news - if I heard correctly - that Brent have now agreed to look at the Business Plan drawn up by the Friends of Kensal Rise library and submitted to the council in December. Read the Business Plan here.

Thanks from all of us to Rachael Newberry who organised an evening which warmed us all up - in every sense, the Mason's Arms for hosting and to David and Margaret and all the supporters, the bands for donating cds and downloadable tracks in aid of the campaign, and everyone who came along.

You'll remember that even if we had won our legal challenge in the Supreme Court the effect of that would just have been to set the decision to close the 6 libraries aside. It wouldn't have stopped Brent making the decision again, but making sure they considered everything relevant including the risk of indirect discrimination against part of the community.

As Margaret Bailey reminded us in a recent e-mail
"This campaign has always been about keeping as many options open as possible in the face of the intransigence of the council. The legal option has been one of the options we have pursued, not the only one, but one that has allowed us to focus on challenging the right of councils to make decisions that damage communities. Cuts to local authority budgets is a serious issue but an unwillingness of the council to find a solution, co-operatively, imaginatively, has made the options that we as a community are forced to consider difficult and not without risk.

We consider these options with hope and if they are not successful we look elsewhere.

We may not be given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court in which case we will explore other options, and we have other options.

We believe this community needs a library and that is the end we are pursuing."

I can't put it better than that!

And here's One Man and his Beard with WE NEED LIBRARIES NEW WE NEED LIBRARIES NEW

Buy it to support the campaign

Garden - what worked last season and what didn't

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Maybe it's a good time for a quick round-up of the successes and failures of the last growing season. So the spring was okay but the summer cool and damp then the autumn was great. Overall that was fine for salad leaves and chard, beans - all kinds, globe artichokes and courgettes but not much good for tomatoes and chillies and aubergines (despite my home-made tomato shelter... that's a good place to start... with tomatoes)

Tomatoes then. Every year I grow them outdoors and often they get blight. Blight is an airborne virus which is much worse in damp years and which can be passed between tomatoes and potatoes.

Blight is really horrid. Once it starts on outdoor tomatoes all you can do is pick unblemished fruit straight away and use it straight away - in green tomato chutney or ketchup or green tomato curry or as fried green tomatoes. All delicious once you've got over the disappointment.

Usual advice is to grow tomatoes and potatoes as far apart from one another as possible, to leave space between tomato plants for air to circulate and to keep their foliage as dry as possible. All of which are easier said than done (especially if you're short of space and don't have a greenhouse), but this year I spent an afternoon building a "tomato house" following these instructions.
This is what it was meant to look like... but I knew it wouldn't...even if I used exactly the right ingredients (which of course I didn't)

I had to buy a few more canes of the right size but I had suitable plastic (from a new mattress). I now remember it wasn't all that suitable as it was too small so wouldn't tuck under the pots at the front.

This meant that the whole thing was in danger of blowing away so I improvised by threading string through sections of cut up old bicycle inner tube and running that under the pots. This was better than string alone which tends to slide around - and more importantly justified my hoarding of old inner tubes in the first place. Using old tennis balls to make the joins between canes at different angles was one of those ideas which end up being more trouble than having a tidy shed and remembering that you had a pack of Build-a-Balls all along. But that was later...

The tomato house was against a west facing wall so I used the plastic to create a roof and to protect the plants on the north side, leaving the south and west facing sides open. This was partly because there wasn't enough plastic...

So in May everything was looking promising - here's a few home-grown tomato plants and a couple of aubergine plants (bought from the organic veg growers at the Farmers' Market). In the end there were about 6 tomato plants and a few chilli peppers in there sheltering from the rain. The stones around the plants are to deter foxes from digging them up.
And the massive crops? Well... those tomatoes were the only ones in the garden not to get blight but they still missed the sun and they didn't do very well despite regular feeds of "comfrey tea". That's the foul-smelling concoction made by cutting stems and leaves from your comfrey plant, putting them in a bucket with a brick on top to hold them down, covering with water, waiting until the smell is bad (a lid's a good idea), then diluting with anything between 4 parts to 10 parts of water (approx) and using as an excellent, free, plant food. Once it's "brewed" I keep it in old plastic bottles by the water butt.

Bees love comfrey too. And you can eat it, but I don't bother. I use it to make the comfrey tea and also as a slug-attracting protective barrier around plants and then I eat them instead (the veg, not the slugs)

Yellow tomatoes coming along well.

The chillies had to come indoors to finish off ripening

And the aubergines? I was hoping you'd forgotten them. Nothing doing. One died early on, the other took about 4 months to make a couple of flowers and then gave up, but I'd love to have even just one, tiddly home-grown aubergine, so maybe I'll try yet again.

So will I build a bigger and better tomato house this year? I think so, using the Build-a-balls and buying a bigger sheet of plastic. I know that a corrugated plastic roof would be better, but my carpentry skills are not up to building the frame.

No skill, no effort sounds too good to be true, but I'll give it a go and report back.

While looking at photos I've just remembered another problem - distorted growth on tomatoes and beans which looks as though they've been sprayed with herbicide by mistake. I don't use any herbicide and I didn't think it could have come from my neighbours, but I got suspicious of lawn mowings from a friend which I compost (wrongly, as it turned out).

I was puzzling about this until I read an article by Alys Fowler in October where she was urging us to collect leaves for leafmould and mentioned that farmyard manures "contain potential hazards (aminopyralid herbicide residue is still about and it is hard to find truly organic manures)". A quick google later and I'd turned up heart-breaking tales of market gardeners whose crops entirely failed because of this problem. Aminopyralid is a herbicide used to kill broad-leaved weeds (thistles, docks and similar). I regularly brought horse manure and straw back from a riding stables and I worked out that the problem could have come from straw or hay which had been treated. Passing through the digestive system of a horse doesn't affect the potency of the herbicide either. Worse still, it takes about 3 years to break down and become harmless - and to do that needs to be exposed to the air - so regularly turned over - not left in a heap or in sacks. Read more about it.

Now I see why advice for really truly organic gardeners is never to introduce anything into your garden unless you're really sure where it's from and whether it's been sprayed... so, as Alys says, leaves should be fine, but be wary of manure/straw. It's maddening because straw is so great in the compost heap - adds bulk, helps the rest to rot down. I'll see how I get on this season manure-free. Part of the solution will be to grow more green manure - but the only one which works well on my soil is Phacelia balo - and it's so pretty and bees love it so much that I never want to dig it in.

I did sow loads of forage peas back in the autumn but mice/birds/slugs were very interested and even with netting there are only about 4 plants in a large expanse of bare soil.

Time to think of something which worked well! Borlotti beans which I grew for the first time. Easy, attractive, cropped well, can be eaten fresh or dried. Next year I'll grow more. Except that I've just looked at my dried stored beans which obviously weren't dried enough as some have grown mould - or maybe I shouldn't have stored them in a plastic box.

And nasturtiums - they did so well. Okay, they always do - but I really want to include a photo of something orange

In a salad with other garden leaves, grilled halloumi and toasted seeds - made on 5th November to take to a friend's bonfire party

And globe artichokes

Finally, if you're thinking of ordering seeds soon, have a look at Stormy Hall Seeds which I wrote about last August

Libraries Latest - Court of Appeal decision 19th December 2011. The fight goes on

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:33:00 +0000

No early Xmas present for Brent Library Campaigners as the Court of Appeal today dismissed our appeal - but don't go - the fight continues as we voted to take our solicitors' advice to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court (the highest court in the land).

A quick look at the written judgment doesn't reveal any in depth legal analysis of the sort one might expect from the Court of Appeal - very disappointing after all the efforts of Dinah Rose QC and the rest of our Legal Team.

Lord Justice Pill (we'll keep the bitter pill jokes for later) gave the main judgment. He agreed with Dinah Rose that, to establish indirect discrimination it was sufficient to show an adverse impact of the proposal on the Asian Community as compared with non-Asian communities. Given the scale of the spending reductions the council was required to make and the information available following earlier studies, a decision tht the library service should bear a share of the reduction was not, in his judgment, unlawful. There was no reason to doubt that the council was aware of its statutory duties, including those in relation to race discrimination.
He said it was "fanciful to suggest, taking the best view we can of the appellants' evidence, that it was so obvious that library provision, as distinct from other services, had discriminatory effects upon the Asian community that it needed to be a significant factor in funding decisions as the the apportionment of resources."
He found that "the decision as to which librares to close was carefully considered by the council... a full consultation was conducted and fully reported to the decision makers." and "I do not consider that the council was in breach of duty in failing to give further consideration to the racial dimension, in so far as it affected the Asian community in relation to other communities."

As to the second ground of appeal, Lord Justice Pill was satisfied that "the council exercised its functions in this case with due regard to the requirements under s149 [of the Equality Act 2010]. To put forward a reasoned proposal for closures was a reasonable reaction in the circumstances, including the urgent need to economise. It was not necessary for an Equalities Impact Assessment to be conducted before the forumlation of the proposals on which the public were to be consulted."

As to the third ground he found that the duty under s7 of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 "was also in mind and the council was aware of the duty specified. Decisions as to closures were taken with that duty in mind, the proposals included improved ways in which the expectations of users might be met. Mitigation measures were proposed in this regard".

So, in other words, the Court of Appeal agreed with the judgment of Mr Justice Ouseley.

But it's not the end of the road! Even though the Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal (which was predictable, and what usually happens).

Our solicitor, John Halford, from Bindmans, explained his view that the case does raise issues of public importance and that we should petition the Supreme Court for leave to appeal because
1. It's the first case ever decided about large scale library closures in the UK
2. The judgment addressed a number of points about he way to make cuts in public services, and was incorrect in what the law requires in relation to the closure of public services because of the risk of indirect discrimination to the Asian community. The court said that Brent could be excused because no one brought it to their attention until the legal case started and that anyway it was not significant enough to justify quashing the decision and making Brent start again.
3. It's important not only becase of what happened in Brent but because very similar decisions are being taken up and down the country in relation to other libraries and public services. If this court is correct then a number of legal protections which parliament put in place won't be as strong as they need to be.

Read John Halford's Press Statement on Bindmans website

With the benefit of that advice, and the amazing offer by John Halford on behalf of himself and the barristers, to continue on our behalf despite uncertainty about whether or not Legal Aid will be granted, it was unanimously agreed to continue with the fight and to take the next step which is to ask the Supreme Court for leave to appeal to it.

In the meantime, John Halford has asked Brent not to further dismantle the libraries. If they don't agree it will be necessary to apply for an injunction restraining them from doing so. The injunction which was in place was discharged today.

John urged us to press on showing the same spirit, and the mood outside court today was for doing just that. There was a vote of thanks to John and the rest of the legal team for their fantastic work on our behalf so far, and their preparedness to help us go to the next stage.

Read the view from Preston Road campaigners

From Kensal Rise campaigners

Twitter has been a-tweet all afternoon, the Kilburn Times has an excellent piece by Tara Brady

The Guardian

BBC News with a particularly apt photo of Alan Bennett looking glum

And Brent? Well, you heard about the unbelievably crass presentation of Team of the Year award to the team who have worked tirelessly to dismantle the library service? Sorry, I mean the "Libraries Transformation Team".

I think we need to end with an uplifting song - optional of course. How about Johnny Cash's Walk the Line?. Not entirely inappropriate.

You'll have realised that the Save Our Six Campaign still needs to raise funds to carry on to the next stage, so please continue to support the fundraising events and just donate here

Quinces fight back

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:36:00 +0000

Last quinces on the tree on 24th November

Ever since Giles Coren (now he really is funny) recently described quinces (and medlars) as "semi-extinct Medieval fruit", quinces up and down the land have been planning their revenge. Yes, I know, he wasn't really talking about the fruit, but trying to remember the name of a restaurant which AA Gill (why isn't he on twitter?) had recommended - which was Quince, or was it Medlar? As I'm too frugal to subscribe to the newspaper he was writing in, I can't give you the link...

Part of the main quince harvest in October

As for the medlars, I'm with him... we'll return to them for their one good point later, but for now it's the turn of the quinces


"We're agreed that Giles Coren is a semi-extinct food critic"

First to clear up some confusion. I'm talking about the big pear-shaped yellow fruits with furry down on them which grow on trees, not the "quinces" which grow on prickly bushes with white, pink or red flowers. It's a different thing altogether, but its greeny yellow fruits are also edible and people do make them into jelly (and rave about how a bowl of them will scent a room - if that's the sort of thing you like)

Flowers and fruits of Japanese quince or Chaenomeles japonica

Okay, back to the real quinces. My quince tree is very vigorous - its response to any type of pruning, even brutal (yes, that's you I'm talking about, Gordon), is to promptly double in size- it doesn't have any pollination issues, it flowers quite late so it doesn't have any frost issues (you know, where fruits which have just formed are damaged, sometimes resulting in no crop at all that year) and it usually produces an overwhelmingly enormous crop of fruit. If there's a dry spell followed by a lot of rain the fruit may swell up too quickly and split and start to go bad, but in a consistently wet (or dry) summer this doesn't happen much.


Mould caused by cracking

Now, what to do with these quinces? You do see quite a few recipes in magazines at this time of year for "pork chops with quince" or that type of thing, but they usually turn out to use only one quince "peeled and diced" or "peeled, cored and sliced neatly" per quarter pig - not much use when you're looking at about 200 quinces. Also, have you ever tried to core or neatly slice a quince? They are incredibly hard - it's difficult even to cut them in half, yet alone do anything fancy.

Nigella Lawson has a good but strange-sounding recipe in "How to Eat" for baked quinces where you peel and core them (Nigella does warn that "these fruits are rock-hard and coring and quartering takes strength") then bung everything - including the trimmings -in the dish with a good slosh of muscat sweet wine. But this is good in the end and the quinces take on that wonderful rich ruby colour (or "glorious burnished terracotta" to Nigella) which foodies rave about. Also baked quinces with pomegranate seeds in "Feast", equally delicious

What I usually do is cut the quinces into halves (or quarters if I'm feeling strong), cook them in the pressure cooker for about 15 mins (or in a normal pan for a lot longer - maybe an hour) then make either quince jelly or jam or quince cheese or membrillo (as they call it in Spain).


Cooked quince put through a mouli ready for the next stage of membrillo making

This is beginning to sound a bit Medieval - pressure cookers (they've been around a while, haven't they?), moulis. It gets worse though because once you've added vast amounts of sugar to this pulp you have to cook it for ages, stirring to stop it sticking to the pan and burning, and it behaves like lava, spitting hot jam high into the air. A welder's glove on the stirring hand is a sensible precaution, as well as covering all nearby surfaces with newspaper. Last year I was just congratulating myself on my uncharacteristically careful approach when I noticed that the ceiling above the cooker was liberally splattered with orange sticky blobs.

But we haven't finished yet - when "you can see the bottom of the pan as you draw the wooden spoon through the mixture" (as the books say) or you're bored with the whole process or your hand is burnt with molten jam, you can either put the mixture into small jars or (more authentically but with a risk of future mould spots) pour it into trays lined with greaseproof paper and dry it off further. Then cut it into squares and dust with sugar, pack in boxes. Jane Grigson in her learned "Fruit Book" says the cooking can take seven hours!

Or you could just pile them up attractively

Or leave them on neighbours' doorsteps under cover of dark

Or wait for me to give you a pot of jelly or jam or membrillo. Don't worry - I always scrape any visible mould off first

Or make quince vodka

Or make quince chutney

If you've only read this far to hear the medlars' redeeming feature, it's that their uncannily visually accurate nickname is "dogs' bottoms". Even Jane Grigson in "Fruit" again admits that "the medlar has long been the happy target of jokes in much of Europe". How do we know the medlar was that happy about it though?

"Go on then, laugh at us, see if we care"

Brent Libraries Latest - the Appeal

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:33:00 +0000

photo by Martin Francis from his Wembley Matters blog

Just back from court 63 where Lord Justices Pill, Richards and Davis have spent the last two days hearing the appeal against Mr Justice Ouseley's decision in favour of Brent Council on 13th October.

After a slightly surreal start with the usher announcing a case involving the "London Borough of Trent", conjuring up unlikely images of Ann John as Maid Marion, he corrected himself, and the hearing began. We have a new barrister - Dinah Rose - and she was very impressive. She opened the case yesterday with the complicated indirect discrimination point - but she explained it so well that I think all 50 or so supporters - (the court was packed and folding chairs had to be brought it!) may now be able to explain it to someone else.

Well, here goes... the point is that armed with the knowledge (from the last census in 2001) that 28% of the population of Brent is Asian, and that 46% of active borrowers were Asian (from Brent's own figures), the Council should have been alerted to the possibility that closing Barham Park, Tokyngton and Preston Road, three of the four libraries in the most densely Asian wards (leaving only Ealing Road library open- already the second busiest library in Brent, with 261,000 visits in 2009/10 according to Brent's figures) might have amounted to indirect discrimination against Asians. Having identified that risk, Brent should have considered it in its Equalities Impact Assessment.

Ms Rose recognised the very real economic difficulties faced by local authorities and the fact that hard choices have to be made by them but subject to their statutory duties - in this case Brent's duties under section 149 of the Equalities Act 2010 and under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. She stressed that the merits of the decision were not being examined (that's going on elsewhere - across the borough wherever there's an activist, library user or defender of places to study and read), purely the process by which it was reached.

The fact that only 21% of the questionnaire responses were from Asians should also have alerted Brent ("the red flag should have gone up" as Ms Rose put it) to the fact that they were under-represented in the consultation.

Brent should therefore have realised that any proposal to close libraries was likely to affect the Asian population disproportionately and they should have considered why this was (ie the cultural, social and economic reasons). Brent conceded that it wasn't considered at all, but argued that giving no regard to it could nevertheless amount to "due regard" under the legislation. Ms Rose's argument is that having wrongly concluded that there was no risk of discrimination against Asians the council (wrong again) didn't go on to properly consider it and therefore failed to fulfill their obligations under the legislation.

A witness statement by Sue Harper (Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services) showed that Brent had concluded that the only disadvantage would relate to mobility (ie difficulties in travelling to other libraries) and that only the elderly, young or disabled would be adversely affected. They failed to consider whether a racial group could be disadvantaged.

In fact the Asian community have been disproportionately affected because a new witness statement showed that Ealing Road library is now overcrowded, with children (mostly Asian) sitting on the floor to do their homework and great pressure on the computers.

Incidentally children have been sitting on the stairs at Willesden Green library doing homework! So much for the transformation of the libraries by digital and outreach services (well, I know, we never believed that anyway).

Ms Rose handed up demographic maps (a graphic representation is always a good idea) taken from Brent's website showing the density of the Borough's Asian population with the locations of the 12 original and 6 remaining libraries superimposed. Miss Laing, on behalf of Brent, did not accept that this detailed ward information was before the Executive when they reached their decision to which Ms Rose riposted "well it should have been: we got it from the council's website". With a good barrister you really can hear the punctuation- that colon was as clear as anything - but back to the issues.

Ms Rose went on to assert that the judgment contains errors of law relating to indirect discrimination as Mr Justice Ouseley found that Brent did a proper Equality Impact Assessment (which she says they did not)

One of their lordships seemed surprised that councils were required to carry out this exercise every time they wanted, for example, to close a swimming pool. As Ms Rose explained "these practices have been carried out by local authorities since the legislation came in. They may be novel to your lordship but they're not novel to local authorities: Brent have a form to help them make these decisions"

Dinah Rose also argued that Brent paid no regard to the impact of its policy until the 11th hour of 11th of April 2011- by which time it was far too late because it had already decided to close 6 libraries and had already set the budget.

A third point was that Brent was in breach of its duty under the Public Museums and Libraries Act, and the fourth point that it had engaged in procedural unfairness by not revealing the "seven secret criteria". The judge below said they were obvious. Dinah Rose said they were not.

An interesting factual point which Ms Rose highlighted is that Brent did not simply close the six libraries with the lowest usage figures - Kilburn Library (which has lower usage figures than Neasden - now closed) was reprieved because of the special characteristics of some of the users. This means that Brent feared that there might be indirect discrimination against certain groups who use Kilburn if it was closed, but they failed to carry out the same exercise in relation to the Asian population's usage of Barham Park, Preston Road and Tokyngton.

I'm afraid I missed the afternoon and following morning during which Ms Rose concluded her application and Miss Laing replied, asserted in essence that Brent used the correct procedure and that the judgment below should be upheld. But I was back for Ms Rose's response on Friday afternoon. She dealt with Miss Laing's assertion that the amount of regard which a council had to have under the Equalities legislation was a question of degree by pointing out that "it was a major policy decision which on any view would have very significant effects on the lives and opportunities of those who live in Brent".

Ms Rose described one part of Miss Laing's argument on indirect discrimination as "completely nuts", a phrase which is unlikely to find its way into the judgment (however appropriate it might be), but which cheered us up at the back of the court.

The final point was about the "seven secret criteria". Ms Rose dealt with the daft suggestion on behalf of Brent that engaging fully with the groups who had put forward proposals would amount to re-opening the whole consultation by pointing out there were only ten of them!

Tara Brady has written an excellent piece about the first day and the indirect discrimination point on the Kilburn Times website which is well worth reading.

So has Martin Francis, with great photos (see below), on his excellent Wembley Matters blog.

photo by Martin Francis from his Wembley Matters blog

Our solicitor, John Halford of Bindmans, again helpfully stayed behind to answer any questions after the hearing. He thought it could be about a month before the Judgment is delivered. It's impossible to predict how it might go, but Dinah Rose put the case very strongly and persuasively for us, and all three Lord Justices were taking a keen interest and asking plenty of questions to test the strength of both sides' arguments. John felt that no further steps should be taken by Brent in the meantime- no more stock should be removed from libraries or from where it's being stored.

So, fingers crossed, and keep supporting the various events - the next is the fabulous sounding Disco Dance Fundraiser next Saturday 19th November in the Preson Mall Community Centre -more details

Which has given me a good idea to end with - Dance the Night Away by the Mavericks. Just imagine that the "she" who "has gone away and can't do a thing to me" is someone senior in Brent council and you'll enjoy it even more than you usually do.

Brent Libraries Latest - update on 29th October

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:16:00 +0000

You'll have seen that while Brent Council continue to be roundly condemned on the streets and in the press for their behaviour in relation to the Six Libraries on their "shut for ever" list, they are boasting about exciting changes under the "Libraries Transformation Project". The odd thing is that I haven't spoken to a single person who can see anything exciting in it at all...

Sunday opening? It's not worth the loss of half the libraries (especially as we can apparently do everything online anyway)

Libraries, Arts and Heritage sent me an e-mail with a link to this depressing document telling me that the six "shut for ever" libraries are now shut, but that I have until the 30th November to return any books I borrowed from them to the remaining six libraries which are in "accessible locations within the borough".

This week Philip Pullman was quoted in the Guardian (26th October) in relation to the council's claim that closing half its libraries would help improve them "It ought to be quoted in every anthology of political bullshit from here to eternity"

The Evening Standard (27th October) featured Preston Road library and quoted campaigner Geraldine Cooke describing the brilliant pop-up library being run by volunteers and describing the council's decision as "nothing short of a betrayal". Read the whole article. So although Brent have locked the doors of the six libraries, two of them have thriving pop-up libraries run by volunteers. Go and say hello and do a turn on the rota if you can.

And in Private Eye's 50th Anniversary Issue (out 28th October) an excellent piece on page 35 (rush out and buy it - it's only £1.50 a fortnight - Private Eye isn't available in full on line which is fair enough):
"Brent crowed that the ruling in its favour now meant it could "push ahead with our excting plans" for the library services - but not so fast! The stripping of the buildings was quickly halted after campaigners were granted an appeal... As well as starting to empty and board up the libraries, which remain closed until the appeal next month, Brent cancelled many of the events of "Word Up", a borough -wide literary festival taking place in those libraries around Children's Book Week. These events included making heritage collages, treasure hunts and a talk entitled "Yes you can!" For many people in Brent who want to use a public library, the answer is now: "No, you can't!"

And while we're talking about Private Eye, there's a good small exhibition (and free!)about the first 50 years of that esteemed organ at the V & A until 8th January.

Meanwhile the Kilburn Times reported (27th October) that Brent council have made 24 members of staff redundant following the closure of the six libraries at a cost of £250,000.
I've just looked back at the "Libraries Transformation Project" report to the Executive meeting on 15 November 2010 (which kicked off this whole sad saga) to see what's said about redundancy payments - whether they come out of the supposed savings of £1million - or not.
There's a paragraph headed "Staffing/ Accommodation Implications" which states that "A reduction in the number of library sites will necessitate a review of staffing across the service, which will be carried out in accordance with the council's Managing change policy", so it was delightfully vague on the subject of redundancy payments.

If you've already received your November edition of the Brent Magazine you will have seen "Library Legal Battle near the end" and read Ann John's statement that the council is "confident that the court of Appeal will uphold the decision of Mr Justice Ouseley that the council should be able to proceed with its library transformation plan". It sums up thus
"So, with every resident living within 1.5 miles of one of our libraries and our libraries open every week, Monday to Sunday, there is no excuse not to make the most of over six million books, free access to the internet, DVD rentals, study space, reading groups and more!"

I'm left speechless by this jolly instruction, clearly either lost in translation from whatever language they speak up in the higher echelons of Brent's library management, or beamed to us by aliens who think that there's really no need for libraries anyway.

But as you know, the fight continues. The dates for the hearing of the appeal are the 10th and 11th of November, and there's a good chance the Court of Appeal will give its judgment quite soon after that.

And, in case the good effects of the two comedy evenings are wearing off, here are some poems made at the Brondesbury Poetry Group's tent at the Queen's Park Book Festival back in June

Brent Libraries Latest - We got leave to appeal!

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:04:00 +0000

Quick update on Wednesday 19th October - but you don't really need me - you can read about this everywhere now - particularly in the Kilburn Times (go, Tara!), Guardian, Evening Standard, Independent, back of your cereal packet, it's everywhere!

But in case you haven't heard, Leave to Appeal against Mr Justice Ouseley's judgment was given today by Lord Justice Elias, a single judge of the Court of Appeal (that's how it works) which is fantastic news.

Our new QC, Dinah Rose, then asked Lord Justice Elias for interim relief to prevent Brent from taking any irrevocable steps (ie which would make it difficult or impossible to re-open the six libraries) until the hearing of the Appeal. She explained that Brent was prepared to agree that Kensal Rise library would not be boarded up on the condition that the appellants (that's the named claimants, but in practice backed up by the whole Save Our Six campaign) pay the cost of security to secure the site.

She also explained that Brent will write to All Souls College (you'll remember that if either Kensal Rise or Cricklewood cease to be used as libraries they revert to the college) saying that no steps have been taken to date which have had the effect of triggering the "reverter covenant".

Miss Rose rightly complained to Lord Justice Elias about Brent's hasty steps to permanently close the six libraries - that they dispatched teams on the very day of the Judgment to construct hoardings (she handed up a photo of Preston Road library boarded up), and that it was only the constant presence of protestors at Kensal Rise which prevented boarding up there. All this activity was going on while Miss Laing, on behalf of Brent, was assuring Mr Justice Ouseley last thursday morning that "it was unlikely that any irrevocable steps would be taken until the Court of Appeal was seized of the matter" (ie until the Appeal was heard)

It was Miss Rose's view that it was "a surprising position for a public authority to have adopted before a Judge" (which was music to our ears)

She also explained (and this is shocking too) that on the day before the Judgment Brent wrote to All Souls college telling them that the disposal strategy for the four unincumbered libraries (ie other than Kensal Rise and Cricklewood) was being implemented, that all six libraries were closed, staff made redundant, libraries being cleared and security provided at the sites, and that they'd welcome a discussion about what to do with Kensal Rise and Cricklewood.

On Monday Brent removed all the stock from Cricklewood Library.

You might almost think that Brent wanted the reverter covenant to come into effect...

It was Miss Rose's view that "Brent's conduct, particularly in relation to Cricklewood and its contact with All Souls college, was surprising, to say the least, given the remarks by the Judge and their silence in the face of it" (because while the Judge was under the impression that Brent wouldn't do anything hasty they had already written to All Souls)

This was part of an argument about the costs of today's hearing, but it's so startling it's worth setting out at some length (sorry, this legal language is clearly catching).

Miss Laing's reply on behalf of Brent was that they were entitled to take those steps, and the Judge agreed that Brent did not have to pay our costs of today's hearing (but that doesn't matter, it was just fascinating (but depressing) to hear what they'd been up to)

There's a Save Kensal Rise Library public meeting tomorrow, Thursday 20th October, 7.30pm, at St Martin's Church, Mortimer Road

Read about Mr Justice Ouseley's Judgment

Finally, our barrister's name has given me an excuse to include these photos taken today in my garden (Philip, I think the pink rose is Spectabilis - a small, repeat flowering climbing rose)

Brent Libraries Latest - Court Decision Thursday 13th October

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:34:00 +0000

A large group of "Save our Six" supporters were down at the High Court this morning to hear the decision.

You'll know already from friends or from widespread news reports that the case went against us and the application for judicial review of Brent's decision to close the 12 libraries was dismissed. But it's not the end of our campaign - the next step is to seek leave to appeal from the Court of Appeal and, if that's granted, to pursue an appeal against the decision of Mr Justice Ouseley.

A bit more detail. The Judge had already handed down his judgment so the only argument this morning was about costs, an appeal and interim relief (meaning between now and any appeal). The written judgment runs to 153 paragraphs, and at a quick glance the judge seems to be in total agreement with the case put on behalf of Brent. You wouldn't really recognise Brent council as it's described here - a burning desire to offer "an enhanced core library... online and digital services will be expanded to widen access and comparable services will be provided to those who are unable to visit a library... community hubs with cultural activity... staff training to equip a multi skilled workforce" (all this exciting stuff is from the "Libraries Transformation Project" presented to the Executive just over a year ago, on 15 November 2010).

The consultation followed and before the consultation period ended the Council "had had to set its budget... the council was obliged to set a balanced budget" said the judgment. Then, surprise surprise, a further report to the Executive on 11th April 2011 recommended the closure of the six libraries. Officers warned that the consultation feedback might not be representative of library users, of non-users, or the borough's population as a whole (suggesting that not much notice need be taken of the overwhelming support for keeping the libraries open). The April report went on to say "as more material is available through digital routes, delivering a comprehensive service is less reliant on physical buildings." This, despite the fact that the council's own research by Red Quadrant in 2010 had found that "good quality, safe, neutral space was important and that study space was in demand".

Our first ground was that Brent had unlawfully ignored the role which community libraries and groups could play in fulfilling its duties under section 7 of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. The judge could not "see that it is unlawful for the council to start the process by warning the groups, as in effect it did, that its approach would be that alternatives had to achieve the same level of savings for the same level of service as the Council's own proposals". All the alternative proposals failed "on the ground that the business case was not robust for a variety of reasons".

As regards the consultation, there was a "very extensive consultation programme over three months using a variety of well-publicesed forms of commuintication with the public at large, users and specific roups; there was ample opportunity for anyone who was concerned to find out more about the financial background, the costs of each library, and the basis for their selection for clsure, to seek further information". The judge saw no conflict between "the council keeping an open mind (!) and its consulting on the preferred route identified by officers and approved by the executive for consultation" (ie the 6 closures)

Going on to discuss Brent's "seven secret criteria" as I've nicknamed them, the Judge found that Brent did not close its mind to working with community groups, that the criteria "are not, save for one, more than an elaboration of the test which was fully notified to consultees, and of which I accept any group capable of making a worthwhile contribution would have been aware, without it having to be spelled out to them". Well, I hope that's clear enough! I think it means we're just back to our old friend the "robust business case", except that "the contribution to diversity and inclusion is not one of which the need to promote a robust business case would necessarily have forewarned a group looking to make a contribution to running a library". Err.., but it didn't matter anyway because no proposal failed because of any "failing in the public sector equality duty". They failed because they were not viable proposals by viable groups.
So in conclusion there was no unlawful failure to consult.

Do you remember the very complex arguments under the Equalities Legislation? Well the judge found against us on all of them.

Although it's very tempting I'm not going to comment on the judgment as I don't want to prejudice the next steps which are to ask the Court of Appeal for leave to appeal (the judge having refused leave, but that's normal).

Meanwhile, what's happening on the ground? Well, Brent, heavy-handedly, closed all 12 libraries this morning and posted police outside some of them. This was apparently so that they could tell the staff what was happening. Staff will be allowed to enter the 6 closed libraries to collect their belongings only if accompanied by security guards!

Anticipating something like this, our barrister, Helen Mountfield QC, asked for "interim relief" - that is, for Brent to be restrained from selling any of the buildings until an appeal has been heard. Brent's barrister asked for them to be released as from today from their undertaking not to take any irrevocable steps, and the judge agreed that there was no need for an order. He found Miss Harper's (Director of Environment and Neighbourhood Services) analysis of staff, management and financial difficulties over the last few months compelling, and felt that there was no risk of a "rapid disposal". Provided the buildings were still there the libraries could always be opened again.

I agree that staff have been placed in a very difficult situation and I know that a lot of us have been visiting our libraries regularly to talk to the staff, to try to cheer them up and to thank them for their continued dedication to helping all customers, but I do not agree that the libraries management have done all they could to ease the situation.

There's also a risk that Brent will move very quickly to strip the libraries of their books and fittings and to make it as difficult as possible for any of the 6 libraries to re-open. At Kensal Rise library this afternoon a large group of library supporters are hoping to prevent the library being boarded up later. Little confidence is inspired by Brent's notice in the window saying that the library will be closed in the morning but open again at 2pm, when that was clearly never the intention.

Keep a close eye on what's happening at your local branch. It's terribly sad that this issue has turned into a battle between our council which is supposed to serve us, and the campaigners who are fighting to preserve services which benefit so many residents.

Read an excellent article about the judgment by local author and supporter Maggie Gee (on left above) in the Guardian

Read more about the closures on the Kilburn Times site

Read about the Brent press conference also on the Kilburn Times site

Finally, there are some really good comments from some of us (and some short-sighted "Ann John" types - you know - we can buy books in supermarkets, from charity shops and online so we don't need libraries) on the BBC News site

Read the latest (on Saturday 15th October) and see the "24hour Community Library" set up by supporters of Kensal Rise on the excellent Wembley Matters blog here

Weeders' Weekly - Sharing Produce

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:02:00 +0000

I know I'm often grumbling (humorously, I hope) about either having no produce from the garden, or too much, but what I really love is having stuff to share. The main advantage is that I don't then feel bad about wasting fruit or marrows, but sometimes it works as a swap and I get something different in return - which is great

For example, I've given away blackcurrants and got blackcurrant jam back

I've taken a picnic of bread, cheese, wine and beer to a friend's allotment and come home with broad beans, redcurrants and tay berries (oh, and empty bottles)

And the other friend who came and did map reading and weeding and picking made redcurrant jelly from the allotment friend's fruit and gave me a jar of that (photo above)

I've been given eggs from my friend's chickens (thank you Runnerbean and Chickpea) in return for plums

And a beautifully presented grapefruit (ok, it's cheating a bit - he grew it on his organic fruit farm in Majorca) in return for a jar of home made chutney

And he gave me some almonds

But back to local stuff. Quinces have come back to me transformed into pickle and a delicious thing with almonds and cardamon (no photo available - it's eaten within hours of entering the house)

Quinces are wonderful - I'll do a whole blog post about them shortly, but first I must write that letter about the Brent libraries

Yes, marrows, nearly forgot. I'm not a big marrow fan - I prefer to catch them at the courgette stage. A modest marrow is lurking back right in this basket next to some lovely courgettes. But I have a friend who loves marrows and she has offered an apple cake in return whenever it's needed. Marrows are quite good in a homemade vegetable curry (along with runner beans which also got too big - pre-steamed a bit first)

Down Salusbury Road... and Libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:14:00 +0000

But before we stroll down Salusbury Road for various surreal sights a quick word on the Save our Six Libraries Campaign. You'll remember that we're waiting for Mr Justice Ouseley's judgment when the new legal term begins on 3rd October ... well, it's still very important to write to Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture. Don't put this off - the more letters he gets the better.
Margaret Bailey explains "This is urgent. He and his officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport will be taking a decision very soon on whether Brent’s cuts would put them in breach of the 1964 Museums and Libraries Act. He has met with representatives of Brent to discuss the issue but not with resident or campaign groups, and we have contacted them to ask for a meeting. So the more lobbying he gets the better".
For the address and a template letter

The Campaign needs to raise £30,000 as a "community contribution" towards the legal costs (in case our claim fails). This is because there would be a benefit not just to the actual named claimants (who are legally aided), but also to the communities surrounding the 6 threatened libraries if our claim succeeds. I know this sounds complicated, but don't let that put you off! A week ago the total was just under £22,000, which is fantastic, but, as Margaret Bailey says "So if you’re feeling bad about not having donated a fiver towards saving libraries in the borough, now’s your chance..."

To find out how to donate that fiver

To read about the court hearings
Read about Day 1
Read about Day 2
And about Day 3

Ok, where were we? Salusbury Road... on September 13th

At first I thought this was a run over hedgehog ...

In the window of this shop ...

This poster ...

Play's great, by the way, if you missed it at the Tricycle, you can see it at the Vaudeville Theatre until 10th December

Free teas or art installation or someone who couldn't reach the bin?

Healthy van

September Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Finally there's lots of produce in the garden - the last of the plums and berries (brambles and mulberries), apples, pears, beans, courgettes, chard, edible leaves and flowers - mainly nasturtiums, cucumbers and very few tomatoes

Pears, mulberries and mirabelle plums in the basket. Mulberries ripen gradually so they have a fairly long picking season which is handy. They also have a great flavour. Only drawback is they are spectacularly messy to pick - some of the berries unpredictably squirt juice when you touch them, just the colour of blood, which makes for a gory looking harvest. Essential to wear purple or black clothing (or to pick them on National Naked Gardening Day)

A great crop of chard thanks to all the rain. The ruby chard looks great but its stalks aren't as good to eat as the white chard. They're more like spinach stalks, whereas the white chard stalks (ribs, I think they're called) are a vegetable in their own right (particularly using Anna Thomas' recipe for cooking white beans with chard, sage, garlic and olive oil). The purple flower is a morning glory self seeded among the chard.

Ordinary runner beans and purple climbing beans. The purple beans also have the lovely purple flowers and less foliage than runner beans. The only disappointing thing is that when you cook them they go green and the cooking water goes an amazing colour instead. I think they're a type of climbing French bean - known in my family as Uncle Ernest's beans- they live on after him grown by me and several cousins in Yorkshire and Sussex.

The small yellow plums are mirabelles. Last year the total crop was about 20 fruit because of a frost at just the wrong time when the blossom was setting into fruit (altho Orlin at the Farmers' Market told me that just lighting a few nightlights under the tree can raise the temperature enough to prevent frost damage! Proper fruit farmers like Orlin are roused from their beds by an alarm if the temperature drops dangerously low and they have to rush out and warm up the air around their trees).

Lots of people have also found them growing wild (they come in red and yellow). Michael Stuart and the Local Fruit Harvesters picked a massive amount from a tree in Streatley Gardens in late July. They're very good raw and also make a delicious jam but it's a bit of a bore de-stoning them - either at the start by cutting them in half and taking the stone out, or by cooking them to loosen the stones then plunging your hands in and hunting around for the stones, then adding sugar and finishing off the jam.

The other great thing about them was that they were entirely free of the unwelcome plum maggot which was in nearly all my Victoria plums this year. I used grease bands over the winter (to stop the flightless moths crawling up the trees in the first place) and pheremone traps in the summer to catch moths on the wing, but neither of these organic methods helped at all this year. I've tried to be more thorough about collecting up fallen fruit after realising (after all these years!) that leaving the maggot to exit the plum, pupate and hatch as yet another moth was not helping the situation. A friend in Majorca claims that there is a local bird especially adapted to removing these maggots from plums with a perfectly shaped beak, but I don't think we have that useful feathered friend here.

Beautiful peacock butterfly on the brambles (in open and shut positions).

Biodynamic seeds from one incredible community

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Libraries latest - Stop press
Mr. Justice Ouseley will not give judgment until the new legal term in October. There was an outside chance that he might have been able to say by Friday 12th August whether the application had been succesful. This is the better course anyway as we don't want a rushed decision. Ann John, Brent Council's labour leader is quoted (from her parallel universe) in the Kilburn Times as saying that
"the delay to the decision means uncertainty for members of staff. It is painful for them. This is a landmark case and the judge has to get it right. We will just have to be patient"
Of course it's Brent's own behaviour which has caused distress to library staff! Read the response of Graham Durham of the Save Cricklewood Library Campaign.

Back to the Biodynamic seeds
It was a chance remark by friends in Shropshire which inspired me to go to Botton village in the North Yorkshire Moors recently (although I grew up in York I'd never heard of it before). It is the most incredible community and the reason for writing about it on this local blog is that it produces an enormous range of biodynamic seeds under the name Stormy Hall Seeds.

At Botton village fields of orange, yellow and purple stripes turn out on closer inspection to be the longest rows of marigolds, yarrow and lavender I've ever seen- and beyond the fields the stunning backdrop of the North Yorkshire moors. I know, I know, it was July - it would be a different story in the winter.

There's also a beautiful enclosed garden buzzing with bees and an incredible variety of flowers

But the most incredible thing about Botton Village is that it is run by the Camphill Village Trust as a home and workplace for around 270 people, about half of whom have learning disabilities and other special needs. Everyone contributes what they can to the community, whether it's picking blackcurrants (when I visited), working in the greenhouse, making jam, working in the on-site bakery or toy workshop or wood working shop or weaving workshop. There's also an organic dairy herd (and a creamery where milk, yoghourt and cheese are made), hens (free range of course) and a print shop, and a Steiner school, two shops and a cafe - which are also used by people not living in the community.

The Camphill Village Trust first bought Botton Hall (in Danby Dale in the North Yorkshire moors), and its immediate farms and land in 1955, and since then more buildings have been added - including a community hall and a church - so that there are now almost 40 households. The residents with disabilities are supported in their daily lives by co-workers in accordance with Rudolph Steiner's beliefs. The whole place has a great atmosphere and everyone I met was keen to tell me what they were doing.

It's also a great example of a reverse of the rural depopulation trend - unprofitable farms have provided the housing for a large number of people who are all occupied in the community. Sorry, I've gone all Geography case study here, but it's true.

If you're anywhere near Pickering or Whitby in the North Yorkshire Moors go and see for yourself, and wherever you live have a look at their range of seeds.

These photos are from Botton village's own leaflets - aren't they great?

I spy - new fox on the block

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 20:17:00 +0000

This rather topical fox with his News of the World and Fox News loo paper is on a utilities' box at the Salusbury Road end of Hartland Road, part sticker and part grafitti. And just nearby is angry Policeman Pig

He's like a bad-tempered and all-fours version of a Richard Scarry animal (remember "Busy, Busy World", "What do people do all day?" and those other excellent books?) Here's Sergeant Murphy just to remind you

And here's another way of decorating utilities' boxes photographed by my friend Kathy Dalwood

Philip Pullman event on 20th July

noreply@blogger.com (Elaine) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Philip Pullman in conversation with local novelist Maggie Gee at Queen's Park Community School on a wet Wednesday evening? It was another cracking local literary event organised by the Brent SOS (Save our Six) Libraries group, following on from evenings with Zadie Smith, Alan Bennett and, just the week before, Harriet Walter (interviewed by Deborah Moggach).

Queen's Park Books have supported all these events by selling tickets in the shop and taking their now famous "pop-up" shop out on the road with the author's books, ready for signing. Thank you Lisa and the other staff for organising this - it adds a lot to the evening.

Anyway, back to the packed hall at QPCS where Maggie Gee introduced Philip as an author "who hasn't forgotten why people need stories" and this turned out to be one of the main themes of the evening. Maggie first read "His Dark Materials" with her then teenage daughter Rosa Rankin-Gee (who won Shakespeare and Co's 2011 Paris literary prize in June this year for a novella by an unpublished writer- many congrats to Rosa who also appeared at the Queen's Park Book Festival in June this year).

Philip first began writing as a child because he loved reading stories and was lucky (after a childhood growing up all over the world), to have an encouraging teacher at a Welsh school who read out one of his stories and who introduced him to Milton's "Paradise Lost" in the "A" level course. Philip then went on to Oxford to read English Literature "but I was a very bad student. I didn't know how to write essays. I should have been a cabinet maker - I enjoy that much more than writing".

He left with a 3rd class degree (in the year when they stopped awarding 4ths) and became a teacher in various Oxfordshire middle schools teaching 9-13year olds. Before the constraints of the National Curriculum Philip devoted a lot of time to telling his pupils Greek myths - "they're great stories" - and it was that "apprenticeship in story-telling" where he learnt the value of timing and that "I can tell exciting stories, I can't do funny or domestic stories" which encouraged him to concentrate on writing and give up teaching.

Philip was asked which particular collection of Greek stories he would recommend and his favourite was the excellent "The God beneath the Sea" by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen. My battered copy with its haunting illustrations cost 30p in 1973. I think it's out of print, but well worth tracking down second hand.


Apollo's Horses by Charles Keeping

The inspiration for "His Dark Materials" was books 1 and 2 of "Paradise Lost", as a fantasy in three volumes. He'd also been thinking a lot about consciousness (and self-consciousness) and one of the most exciting moments of his life was when he realised that the most interesting characteristic of the "daemons" which he'd invented would be that they would stop changing shape when their humans developed consciousness (when they were no longer children). If you haven't read "His Dark Materials", buy or borrow it and take it on holiday, or read it at home while it rains. It is gripping and not to be mistaken as a book only suitable for children (not that I accept that idea, but that's another article).
A boy asked Philip "Do you miss Lyra now you've finished writing about her?". Great news: "I do miss Lyra, but I haven't finished with her yet. I'm planning "The Book of Dust", two volumes about her and her world".

Despite claiming to be unable to tell funny stories Philip was then very funny on the subject of research ("it's greatly overrrated. I never found it helpful to go anywhere"). He couldn't afford to go to the arctic so instead went to the library and looked at maps and pictures (particularly of early balloons). He also deliberately never sets any novel earlier than when there were photographs (for inspiration) and because he doesn't want to have to deviate from modern English.

"The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" was an exception to this. It came about because Philip wanted to look at the two different aspects - of Jesus and of Christ, from the point of view of an unbeliever. The source material was the bible. Philip was asked which brother he preferred. "I liked them both equally but I was a bit surprised by Christ. He became a more interesting character as the book went on".

Asked about the importance of bible stories and Greek myths, Philip's reply was that fairy stories are important too ("they nourish us in ways we don't understand until we're grown up"), and nursery rhymes. "I'm passionate about this... children too young to even sit up should have nursery rhymes told to them... with actions... you only get a love for language, a confidence in language from being exposed to language... fun language, friendly language... I've a good mind to start a Nursery Rhyme Party and stand against David Cameron at the next election!"

The last question began "Hello Mr Pullman. I was one of your pupils when I was about twelve...". Philip was forced to admit that his great uncle who travelled down the Congo was a figment of his imagination, but it was obviously such a great story that his former pupil remembered it from many years earlier. I think Philip said "I made a shrunken head out of papier mache" but I may have misheard over a sea of laughter and applause.

If you were there, you'll know it was a great evening. If you missed it, I hope this will give you some flavour of the event.

Great photos of the event and another write-up here

Download and read Philip's excellent pro-library speech in relation to Oxfordshire libraries.

Read about Day 1 of the Judicial Review hearing about the Brent library closures here
Read about Day 2 here
And about Day 3 here

Not exactly a shrunken head, but a bird made from an artichoke