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Journal entries prior to May 2008 can be found in the old archived site here
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Journal: August, 2008
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Cider Museum
31 August 2008
Having enjoyed cider so much - or so much cider - at Bryanston, and having enjoyed Dabinett cider in recent years, and having met Sue Clifford and Angela King of Common Ground at Romy's last night, two people who have done more than pretty much anyone else to preserve and rebuild this country's apple varieties and orchards, it seemed a good idea to drop in on the Cider Museum in Owermoigne. So we did.... more >
Tolpuddle Martyrs
Closed for repairs
31 August 2008
Having learned about their courage and ordeals in history at Bryanston, I felt we should stop off at the museum dedicated to the Tolpuddle Martyrs, but we found it closed for repairs, following flooding. Not sure what to make of the sculpture of George Loveless outside, but it was striking from some angles. ... more >
Maiden Castle
31 August 2008
Finally realised a childhood dream of making my way up Maiden Castle. We walked around the ramparts in a haze, but the experience was spellbinding. Several times we bumped into a delightful couple, once by the pit that held a series of much-the-worse-for-wear skeletons that Sir Mortimer Wheeler dubbed long-ago war victims. Whatever the truth, there was a sense of generations of lives lived out here, through thick and thin, and the spearpoint found in one spine was graphic evidence of the distress caused by the Romans turning up in the neighbourhood. In the distance, Poundbury shimmered through the haze, like something out of that old TV series, The Prisoner.... more >
Frampton House
With thanks to Alastair Sawday
31 August 2008
A while back, I bumped into Alastair Sawday when I spoke at an event organised by Tomorrow's Company, and tahnked him for his extraordinary guides - which Elaine has used for years. Yesterday, we arrived at Frampton House, which was another Sawday treasure, landscaped by no less than Capability Brown. Wonderfully sunny when we arrived yesterday afternoon, en route to Musbury, but pouring down at times as we got ready to leave this morning - after a wonderful breakfast. ... more >
Hambledon Hill
Almost 360 degrees
31 August 2008
I'd be happy for my ashes to find their way up here
Arrived late afternoon at another Sawday find, Manor Barn in Child Okeford, which Elaine had chosen in large part because it looks out onto Hambledon Hill, the extraordinary hill fort where I spent many charmed days during my time at Bryanston, just down the road. A sloping window allowed a star to peep in as I went to sleep - but that was after we had walked to the top of kestrel-accented Hambledon, in the gathering twilight, taking in the breath-taking views, that are almost 360 degrees,and has supper at the nearby Talbot. ... more >
Trill Farm
Gathering of the tribes
30 August 2008
Janet and Elaine walking down to Trill Farm
Drove down to Frampton, Dorset, to drop our bags at a rather grand B&B, before heading further west to Trill Farm, near Musbury, Devon, for a celebration of the launch of the Trill Farm Trust, This has been set up by Romy Fraser, who founded Neal's Yard Remedies - and recently sold a majority holding to Peter Kindersley. Wonderful dancing to ceilidh band as the sun set. ... more >
Video of ITT watermark panel
29 August 2008
A video of the panel session I took part in as part of the launch of the launch of the ITT watermark initiative in Stockholm (see 24 August blog entry) can be found at http://www.ittwatermark.com/. ... more >
Riders for Health
28 August 2008
... more >
Environment Foundation, woodpecker and Melody
27 August 2008
Malcolm, Geoffrey and Tim
A fairly energetic day, starting with a train trip down to Newdigate for a meeting of the Trustees of the Environment Foundation, hosted by (Sir) Geoffrey Chandler. Others there were Malcolm Aickin, Ian Christie, John Lotherington (of the 21st Century Trust), Tim O'Donovan and Halina Ward. A key decision was to push forward with the theme of 'Democracy & Sustainability'. Geoffrey's wife Lucy and their dog Pickles ducked in and out during the day, as did a Great Spotted Woodpecker. ... more >
Man on Wire
25 August 2008
Dreading vertigo, I went along with Elaine, Gaia and Hania to see the film Man on Wire this evening. We were totally enthralled by it - and couldn't stop discussing it as we walked from Soho to Charlotte Street to have dinner at Roka, in Charlotte Street, with Hania's long-standing friend Emma. ... more >
Homo volans
How we learned to take flying jumps
25 August 2008
Otto Lilienthal
Homo Volans; The phrase occurred to me a few months back - and, Googling, I found a number of East European references to Faust Vrancic. He was brought back to mind yesterday when I read about the exploits of the Swiss airline pilot and adventurer, known as 'Rocket Man', who is now significantly closer to becoming the first jet-powered bird man to cross the Channel - and saw the final programme in Andrew Marr's excellent Britain from Above, in which he took to the skies below a giant parasail.... more >
As time goes by
Life becomes a bit of a blur
24 August 2008
Sam's shot of me at my desk
Charmian and JP Renaut after the SustainAbility/Volans London session
Charmian (Love) and I, with BlackBerries
Water cannon at the Water Conference in Stockholm
Dots of light on the wall as Sam and I confer at SustainAbility on Friday 19 August
Life is becoming a bit of a blur at the moment, mainly - I suspect - because my head is full of the various sections I am drafting for the new Volans website, due to launch early in September. One thing we did recently was to present the latest developments at Volans to the SustainAbility teams, in London and Washington, DC. ... more >
The Humpback's back
Memories of Roger Payne
12 August 2008
When I came into the environmental movement in the 1960s, the emblem of what we are losing that meant most to me was the humpback whale. Later, in the 1980s, I played The Songs of the Humpback Whale - which I had bought way back in 1970 - to Gaia and Hania in the dark when they were very young, songs recorded by Dr Roger Payne. For more on all of this, see Wikipedia entry. Today, happily, The Times reports that humpback numbers are back up to around 40,000, suggesting that the magnificent creatures have managed to haul themselves back from the edge of the precipice. But climate change, by impact ingthe evailability of food, particularly krill, could still reverse the process.... more >
Mobile library
... transporting books across to Volans
10 August 2008
Spent the morning ferrying boxes of books from home - and from my desk SustainAbility - across the the new Bloomsbury Place offices of Volans. Nice and bright when we started out, but by the time Elaine and I got to Bloomsbury Place the wind was fairly thumping through the trees there and in Bloomsbury Square nearby. ... more >
Britain from Above
... and London
10 August 2008
Just watched Andrew Marr present two quite stunning programmes, on BBC1 and BBC2, the first on Britain from Above, the second on London ditto. Seeing the pulsing webs of energy, telecommunications and road, air and sea traffic reminded me of the ecosystemic perspectives on landscapes and cities that first drew me to planning in the early 1970s - and then the Abercrombie Plan sequences in the London programme reminded me of some of the reasons why I fled the discipline once I had my M. Phil. ... more >
Remobilising the Space Maggots
A night out with Wall-E
06 August 2008
Across to Leicester Square this evening to meet up with Elaine, Gaia and Hania and see Wall-E, the new Pixar/Disney robot-loves-robot film. Absolutely stunning and, while Elaine spent much of the film with her hands over her ears because of the volume of the Sensuround sound system, I was transported. Best of all, the grudging remobilisation of the human space maggots gave me a degree of hope that America might still reclaim its soul.... more >
Sisters
02 August 2008
We had our first joint meeting of SustainAbility and Volans yesterday, in which Charmian (Love), our new Volans COO, expained the progress we have been making on our visual identity (very exciting), organisational structure (clarity can be a wonderful thing) and Advisory Board (some stunning developments there, too). We are working on a range of changes in anticiaption of the Volans 'soft' launch early in September, follower by a 'hard' launch in November. ... more >
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