Category Archives: ramblings

amusements, ramblings

5th Annual Tweed Run, London

This Saturday, 13 April, sees the 5th Annual Tweed Run through London.

It is a celebration of old fashioned values as up to 400 ladies and gentlemen cycle through central London in high fashion and on a range of antique velocipedes.

You need permission to cycle along with them – and all the tickets have been allocated. Although the exact route is not published in advance (why?) the following viewing points are suggested (times are approximate):

12:00 Marylebone High Street
12:30 Regent Street / Savile Row
13:00 Piccadilly Circus
13:30 Houses of Parliament
14:00 Trafalgar Square


More information on the Tweed Run website at http://tweedrun.com/.

ramblings

National Gardening Week

Continuing the gardening theme from National Beanpole Week, 15-21 April is designated National Gardening Week.

The benefits of gardens and gardening are felt by many millions of people every day. Gardening protects our environment, strengthens communities, helps children learn and contributes to happy, healthy lives.

Through National Gardening Week, thousands of people across the country come together to help keep Britain beautiful by sharing and celebrating everything about gardens and gardening.

National Gardening Week is run by the Royal Horticultural Society along with half a dozen major sponsors. The RHS are organising many events around this year’s themes of horticultural careers and planting for wildlife.

There’s more information on The NGW website at www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk.

beliefs, current affairs, nudism, ramblings

Kids and Nudity

I’m getting increasingly worried about society’s attitude towards children and nudity. Both allowing kids to see adults nude and adults to see children nude.

Neither is actually a problem, but society is making it into one.

There’s an interesting opinion piece by Laura over at Catharsis under the title Why NOT Being Naked In Front Of Your Kids Is Weird:

[A] single father, recently found himself under Child Protective Services investigation after some mothers of his 6-year-old son’s friends reported him for showering with his child.

These mothers apparently think because the dad showers with his son, he’s a pedophile. NOT because the kid reported his dad touched him inappropriately or because the kid reported his dad demanded to be touched inappropriately by his son.

Simply because the dad showered with his 6-year-old son. Period.

You know what I think about that? I think that’s bullshit. And I think anyone who takes an innocent act like being naked around a child to the level of pedophilia ought to be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

There are real cases of sexual abuse out there — cases of children being seriously harmed by the adults around them. THERE ARE REAL PREDATORY ABUSERS OUT THERE SCARRING CHILDREN PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY. Simply because a parent is naked in front of his children does NOT make him an abuser, and threatening a parent’s custody of his child with no evidence of such activity is both negligent and irresponsible.

(Emphasis in the original.)

Which, of course, is absolutely right.

OK, so that’s in America. But we’re very little different in this country.

I am concerned at the vilification of artist Graham Ovenden for his portrayal of naked children. OK, Ovenden has recently been convicted of inappropriate conduct with some girls many, many years ago. I don’t know how much abuse, if any, really did occur; I wasn’t there at the time, I wasn’t at the trial and I haven’t seen the evidence only some of the press reports. But the very fact that an artist can be pilloried in the way he has, so long after the event, and when he appears to have taken care that children he was drawing/painting were chaperoned, is deeply worrying. The fact that the charges relate to events 30-40 years ago, and in large part it seems to be the girls’ word against Ovenden’s, smacks of trumped up complaints and something which probably should never have got to court. Although as I say I’ve not followed the details closely, so I may be wrong. But it has been enough to set my alarm bells ringing.

That’s not to condone paedophilia; far from it. As Laura says (above) there are predatory abusers out there; and it is right that where there is sufficient evidence they are brought to justice. But I worry that we are straying into witch-hunt territory, where merely making an allegation is enough for a conviction and that having to provide evidence and to prove a case “beyond reasonable doubt” has gone by the board. This is gutter-press, mob justice.

Merely painting, drawing or photographing a child naked, or showering with a child (yours or anyone else’s) does not constitute paedophilia. Just as a mixed, nude, adult sauna (the norm in Scandinavia!) does not ipso facto mean there is sexual abuse.

We are rapidly approaching the stage where it will be a criminal offence for anyone to see any child nude at any time: parents will not be allowed to bath their newborns; and doctors will not be able to examine child patients. Clearly this is a nonsense and would lead to a major deterioration in health.

As I have observed before nudity and sexuality need to be normalised, not marginalised and ciminalised. I have always maintained that if we had a healthier understanding and acceptance of desires, sexuality, nudity and our bodies it would have far reaching positive effects on our health and our attitudes. Bring children up to understand their bodies, their sexuality and to accept nudity as something normal and they will be more balanced as individuals; more able to discuss their inner feelings and worries; more at ease discussing their medical problems with their doctor. All of which has to be good, if only in terms of catching serious disease earlier and when it is more easily, and more cheaply, treated. But I believe it would also be of great benefit psychologically.

natural history, ramblings

National Beanpole Week

Saturday 13 to Sunday 21 April is National Beanpole Week. And yes, well may you ask!


First celebrated in 2008 and it is run by the Small Woods Association.  The event recognises Britain’s traditionally managed coppiced woodlands along with the wildlife and plants that also live in them. Did you know that Britain lost around 90% of its coppiced woodlands in the 20th century — so there is a real need to support the coppice workers who continue to manage the woodlands we have left.

Simply put coppicing is a way of managing shoots at a size they can be used by cutting them every 10-20 years.  The coppiced wood allows plants to grow in a way that makes them a much more eye-catching addition to a beautiful garden. Not to mention the attraction from butterflies, the endangered doormouse and other creatures like the willow warbler.

Woodlands looked after in this way are known for their fantastic floral smell.  A real treat for the nose and the eyes!

And those coppiced hazel cuttings make superb beanpoles.

There’s a bit more information on the SmallWoods website at .

amusements, ramblings

International Pillow Fight Day

Contrary to my previous post about Tartan Day Scotland, International Pillow Fight Day, which is also on 6 April, seems to be purely about having a bit of fun.

Yes, that’s right, on Saturday 6 April, there will be massive pillow fights in cities around the world! There may be one near you there are happenings in cities across the globe from Amsterdam to Zaragoza!

All over the world, groups like [the Urban Playground Movement] organize free, fun, all ages, non-commercial public events. From a massive Mobile Clubbing event in a London train station to a giant pillow fight near the Eiffel Tower in Paris to a subway party beneath the streets of Toronto, it is clear that the urban playground is growing around the world, leaving more public and more social cities in its wake. This is the urban playground movement, a playful part of the larger public space movement.

One of our goals is to make these unique happenings in public space become a significant part of popular culture, partially replacing passive, non-social, branded consumption experiences like watching television, and consciously rejecting the blight on our cities caused by the endless creep of advertising into public space. The result, we hope, will be a global community of participants, not consumers, in a world where people are constantly organizing and attending these happenings in every major city in the world.

On Saturday April 6th we will once again celebrate World Pillow Fight Day with a massive pillow fight on [London’s] Trafalgar Square. It’s the most fun you can have on a city square and on this day, it happens in hundreds of cities around the world.

Because this is supposed to be fun the rules are kept to a minimum; there are just two: Don’t hit anyone with a camera and don’t hit anyone without a pillow.

What a shame that at the time of writing the only UK event listed is the one in London, but as usual there is up to date information on their website at .

history, ramblings

Scotland's Tartan Day

Saturday 6 April marks Tartan Day Scotland and the start of the eponymous 10 day Festival. It is not so much a celebration of tartan but more a celebration of all things Scottish:

Tartan Day is a celebration of Scotland. Our vision is to see Scotland at the heart of a global Tartan Day celebration, bringing to the world’s attention our creativity, our innovation, our heritage, our business success — and our people.

Tartan Day marks the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320 at Arbroath Abbey. This historical occasion sowed the seeds of modern day democracy and was used as a basis for the American Declaration of Independence. Tartan Day was inspired by this historical occasion to celebrate all that is good about Scotland — its people, its heritage, its history, its culture and its amazing legacy to the world.

The Tartan Day Scotland Festival takes place at the beginning of April each year. The Festival is a 10 day programme of very special events which commemorate all that is best about Scotland and the Scots, home and away. Find out more about why we celebrate Tartan Day, read about famous Scots and keep up-to-date on news stories from around the world.


Tartan Day is also celebrated in the USA, Canada and I suspect many other places where there are people with Scottish roots.

There’s a lot more information at www.tartandayscotland.com.

amusements, arts, ramblings

Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering

Being Eastertide here is a lot on this week and Friday 5 to Sunday 7 April sees the Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering. As their website says:

In September 1966 a modest concert of Northumbrian music and song was held to raise funds for Morpeth Antiquarian Society. It was the inspiration for a one-day Northumbrian festival in March 1968 which evolved into the Morpeth Gathering.

The festival includes a vast array of competitions including crafts, performance and writing. Events of local interest have been added to the programme of concerts, singarounds, barn dance, storytelling, theatre and street performance which includes a young people’s pageant as part of the Border Cavalcade.

The emphasis of the Gathering is firmly upon the native traditions of Northumberland and, whilst there is plenty of scope for traditional music from all over the British Isles within the festival, the wealth of local culture is well to the fore.

For the curious the guy on the left, playing the pipes, is my godfather!
More information at www.northumbriana.org.uk/gathering/index.htm.

amusements, ramblings

International Carrot Day

Yes, I kid you not; this isn’t an April Fool! Thursday 4 April is International Carrot Day.

Indeed you may well ask, “Why?” I did.

Well as it says here …

Carrot Day was founded 2003 to spread knowledge about the carrot and its good attributes around the world. [It] is celebrated every year on April 4th and is the pinnacle for carrot lovers all around the world. It is the day when the carrot is celebrated through carrot parties and other carrot related festivities.

More information at http://www.carrotday.com/.
There’s even a list of Carrot festivals and a link to the Carrot Museum.

amusements, ramblings

World Coal Carrying Championships

Easter Monday, which this year is on All Fools’ Day, 1 April, is the date of the World Coal Carrying Championships at Ossett, near Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Each year men and women race the streets of Ossett carrying big sacks of coal. There is a women’s race, two men’s races (all over a course of just under a mile) and also much shorter events for children. The races start at 12 noon at the Royal Oak Pub, Owl Lane, Ossett.


The Coal Carrying Championships are recognised by The Guinness Book of Records.

More details at www.gawthorpemaypole.org.uk.