Bus Wencher

Long time no post, but l now have time to start again.

Right now I'm sitting on the 15 bus to town, will shortly change for the X7, and as these are not the snug, comfy, tall seats of the Gold buses they seem to have removed from my journey to work, I shall not be sleeping at any point in the journey unless the bus makes me. Which it probably will. Definitely on the way home anyway.

I have been using this travel time as an opportune occasion to get on with my sadly neglected TBR pile, currently enjoying Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker and feel much happier for it... Traveling by train is great, it's quick, but doesn't give you time. And I may have to get up half an hour earlier, but I get back into town quicker on the way home. The bendiness of time! Or the fact that the train is not so great: it's expensive, often late and despite the gratitude I have towards all the guys who helped me get to work on the scooter when my ankle was kaput, I just can't afford it right now. I'm saving £60 a month by traveling on the bus, baby! Sweet smackaroony!

The ankle is still very much making its presence felt in my life. Shoes are a mare. It hurts. I can't dance. Plus ca change. Running for the bus is a no no. Also, I remain quite the chubster. Haven't been swimming for a while though, and really, really must.

What have I been up to in the intervening wasteland of time?

Campaigning for the libraries was reduced to occasional angry tweets, as NCC passed the buck on the 21 libraries they want to close to 'groups' that didn't include Save Kingsthorpe Library, and slapped a big NDA on each of them. I've been keeping an eye on the politicos from the side, and watching the section 114 notices roll in accompanied by a lack of sensible financial decision-making subsequently. The ex- leader got all tired and emotional (which is the press way of saying she cray cray, like drunk cray cray, but not drunk. Though it would make sense if she was) and swore the Jeffrey et Al at the press about my young Tory fellow campaigner in the council chambers who was one of the few who delivered the et tu Brute blows that finished her off (and ushered in the equally complicit Matt Golby). That was funny. You know when you see steam coming out of the ears in cartoons? Like that. I think my young friend has quite the future in politics. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Anyway a small child took NCC to court over the library closures and won. Hooray! We now just have to see the way it plays out, but some dastardly moves are still going on, like the stripping of book stock, redundancies, cancellation of periodicals and newspapers, selling of gifted property assets (that were gifted with usage conditions, so definitely not on).

Also for the last few months, I have been organizing a festival!

View from my tent

Jimtom

Tré Ventour

Cameron Grace

  

Kezzabelle

That's the Bardic Picnic, which took place in Beckett's Park on 5th August. Still on the paperwork, report and financial side of stuff, so can't relax just yet, but what a magical day.

Quite frankly it was exhausting and I went just a tiny bit insane as I wibbled and almost fell off my coping pole. So much to organise, plus an almost straight 10 hours of MCing and performing on the day itself , whihc beats my previous longest gig of a couple of months ago by 6 hours (4 hours of storytelling at Kettering Museum - because I am a tour de force!). The sun show down, everyone enjoyed some awesome spoken word and music, and there was vegan ice cream and rhubarb cider  - heaven! A bijou crowd remained for my headline comedy performance at the end, clashing with Jono and the Uke Dealers, but I made them laugh and that's what mattered. Plus we made two fantastic new bards: Sami the 9th Bard of Northampton, and Coral McShane junior bard.

Sami

What else? Well I've been working on my downsized allotment plot. I had yellow courgete pasta for tea last night and will have homegrown lettuce on my sandwiched today! Spuds are nearly ready, plus I have more lettuce, beets, caulis, cabbage and kohlrabi on the way.

If We Took a Holiday...

It feels absolutely crazy, but I've managed to book myself a holiday... it's not for another month or so, but work has been so busy it was difficult trying to find time.

Only one question now: is this going to be a vacation or a staycation?


I think that question is going to be left spinning for a bit, but I tell you one thing that's not spinning quite so much... my head! Doc took a guess (erm, Vertigo?), and I have meds that seem to be working. Apart from first thing this morning when I was a bit spinny, but then I naughty, naughty had a naughty cider last night, which I'm not supposed to. And thus, I think it stopped working. But only for a bit. Plus points, I feel as light as a lemon mousse, though my eyelids are as heavy as an actual moose moose. Typing is a struggle... so I'm not going to do much. But I do feel better. Yay for better!

What a lovely day I've had today too. I did a lunchtime gig at Northampton Soup.


What is Northampton Soup? It is a great way to raise money for local projects.
This is an event run by volunteers, whereby people can come along, pay £5 for lovely vegan soup and a vote, and hear pitches from groups who are pitting for the pot of funds. Pitches are for 4 minutes and then pitchers take 4 questions from the audience who then have to vote for their favourite pitch. There can be for charities, community projects, social enterprise, art groups... anything community minded that will be of benefit to the town. Today's pitches were from charities to help new mums in poverty, packs for women women with breast cancer, transport for the local hunt sabotage group, and a higher esteem fitness class to help women.

I see the page has put up some great photos from today. Go have a look, see how fun it is!

That's me timing one of the pitches. These were the winners, Breast Friends. Such good pitches today. There was lots of love and energy in the room. 

I do the MCing and sometimes do a bit of poetry.

And then afterwards I spent time with my nephews in the chaos that is Wacky Warehouse. Noisy but fun. 

I've Hardly Done a Thing Lately

Sorry for not blogging for ages... I've had a very busy couple of weeks. I've been doing a lot of editing work, and other things too.

Not everything has been a fun thing. We had to say goodbye to a friend who died of cancer a couple of weeks ago. What with his being a biker, though, it was an amazing funeral, attended by lots of his friends on bikes. I rode pillion, so had to overcome some nerves for that. Such a thoughtful day. He  had planned for what he wanted for his ceremony, but he had also very much planned to live as well, and I think there's a lot we can learn from that.

I've not had much time to get to the allotment, so things have been growing again... oh my goodness.

These are earlies. I dug them up laties.

1950s Flying Wall Marrows

Some squashes

Another squash

Squish

These are definitely not pinstripe.

Pumpkin with hand for scale. Mind it's my hand, which is tiny.

Last weekend was the Umbrella Fair on the Racecourse  - a wonderful coming together of performers and artists, organised by UFO. I started doing some MCing in the Umbrella Fair Café on sturday to help advertise Northampton Soup, and then de-camped to the spoken Word Tent to watch some great acts. It was fab to see some folks I hadn't seen for ages.

Poets with Babies

On Sunday, I was an early act in the Spoke Word tent... doing me comedy 'n poems while the greater part of the audience hovered in the vicinity of the tent flap entrance thing (to run away)... but we got there. I went to the pub for lunch, but came back for The Anti-Poet, who were very good indeed.

This weekend, I've had my birthday (my 4th eleventh one), and I've done my history-based comedy show in Leicester (at the Guildhall in the mayor's parlour again!). This time OH came on the adventure! And one of my friends from uni came to watch, which was brilliant. I've had a lovely, lovely time, but I am quite pooped and ready for bed now.

Zzzzzzzz...

Staying Out for the Summer

Eeeee-oop chuffers. It's  me, likkle old Anne Hathaway what plays Emma dooin' me t'Yorkshire accent for David Nicholls Day, t'new incumber... encumber... version of St Swithin's Day. You know, when July 15th comes about and me and t'other actor what plays Dexter from One Day 'as to be seen doin' what we's doin' on account of it being an anniversary of when we didn't properly get together, like... for 40 year. 'Cept David Nicholls got fed up after 20 and ended the booook.

Hang on, it's actually July 16th today... phew! I couldn't keep that up for long. I was in serious danger of sounding less than authentic.

Love, love, love the book One Day... the film's, erm... okay.

But with yesterday's weather being romantically sunny and lovely, if the proverb is correct, we should have glorious sunshine for the next 40 days. What to do with all that sunshine if you're watching the pennies?

Well, I think once I've finished Thinner (borrowed - 0 cost), and Adam Neville's  The Last Days (99p),  I may find time to sit in the park or garden and read One Day again.

But if you fancy doing something a bit more organized, try your local what's on pages and you might find something that will either be low-cost, or won't cost a bean. I'm all for no beans.

I'm aware that the frustrating thing about me is that I let people know about stuff after it's too late for them to join in, so I thought I'd give you my pick of what's going on in Northants and Bucks. This list is not exhaustive, and there is no guarantee that you won't be tempted to part with money at these events (guard against temptation where possible!!!), but access is entirely free.

Northamptonshire:

Bands in the Park: Every Sunday until 21^st September in Abington Park from 2-5pm. Free.

Lots of exhibitions, craft sessions, writing sessions at the various Northampton museums. The guide is here. Quite a lot of the activities listed are free.

19th and 20th July Cosgrove Canal Festival & Craft Fair with trade boats, craft stalls, cake stall. children’s games plus Milton Keynes Play boat. All funds go towards the restoration of the disused Buckingham Canal. Saturday 10am - 6pm Sunday 10am - 4pm. Free event Cosgrove Lock, Grand Union Canal, Lock Lane, Cosgrove, Northamptonshire MK19 7JA

25th July Thurning Feast Mini Fair with Archery hosted by Robins Reach Archery www.robinsreach.co.uk. Games & Stalls. Hog Roast. Food Stalls. Real Ale Tent (Digfield Ales).

Free Entry. Start time 5.00pm with live music starting at 6.00pm till Midnight

Thurning Northants ( 6 miles South East of Oundle) Northamptonshire PE8 5RB

2^nd and 3^rd August – NNestival at Midsummer Meadow – bands, stalls, spoken word, lots of lovely stuff.

We are Most Amused – free comedy at the Victoria Inn, 8.30 for 9, 2 Poole Street NN1 3EX, on the 2^nd Thursday of every month, so next one is 14^th August. Got to plug it really!

Buckinghamshire:

Saturday 19^th July – Properstock in the grounds of Bradwell Abbey, Milton Keynes.

Features several stages of up-and-coming musicians, DJs and spoken word, with 50 stalls, a graffiti art showcase, food and refreshments to buy, an inflatable obstacle course, jousting and castle and a circus skills workshop. Headlining is Heart of a Coward.

Saturday 19^th The Librarians by Pestiferous perform two free 20 minute sets of physical comedy at Milton Keynes Central library. Performance times 2pm and 4pm. This is part of the festival fringe. Tickets are free, but they would like you to register attendance here.

Sunday 27^th July. World Picnic, Campbell Park, Milton Keynes. This takes place between 1 and 6 and features music, dance and the Scribal Gathering spoken word tent. Go see the fantastic Danni Antagonist and The Antipoet.

Also in Milton Keynes, a number of different arts events between 18^th and 27^th July as part of IF Festival. Here’s a link, filter by free stuff.

All summer, nationwide… Change4Life and Spogo have arranged a load of low-cost and free fitness sessions. Check here to find one near you.

What about you? How are you planning to make the most of your summer in a frugal fashion?

Images from the Bardic Picnic 2013

Once again, my hectic work schedule has meant I am only posting about an event a week after it happened, but it was a fantastic time indeed - the best Bardic Picnic so far! Well done to the Bardic Chair and Umbrella Fair Organisation for putting on such a cool, chilled, family-friendly free community event.

 

Well done also to Peter James Norman who became the 5th Bard of Northampton - my dynasty is strong! Also to Millie who became the second ever Young Bard.

 

 

I have many happy memories of the Bardic Picnic - the one two years ago was the last fun time I had with my mom and my family all together before we knew she was ill. It's important to make the most of your family, friends and life, and the Bardic Picnic is an example of the sort of thing that only happens because someone cares, because they want to put in the effort, and because they are expecting no further reward than the sight of joy in others. Love you, smiley, happy, hippy people!



my friend Alan went in for the Bardic competition

Alan had a contingent of Alan fans, all bedecked in the Alan beards and Alan vests

Jasmine Shadrack - gorgeous voice!

The drizzles cleeared quite quickly and crowds began to gather.

Joolz Denby and Mik Davis were fantastic

Peter James Norman does his stuff

The Anti-Poet succumbed to the crowd's pleas for 'Tights Not Stockings'!

Peter is stuck on the very high Bardic Chair. We've all been there...

 



Someone did take photos of me and put them all over his website, but frankly, yuk. Poetry gives you triple chins. Be warned, young Padawan!

Poetical Performances, and Stuff on the Web.

Next weekend, I will be performing at The Bardic Picnic. It's a free festival of music and spoken word, and it's held in the grounds of the beautiful Delapre Abbey. It's also where the annual competition is held to find a new Bard of Northampton - I was the very first one back in 2009. It's run entirely by volunteers; if anyone would like to help out, do get in touch with the Bardic Chair, they'd be very glad of the help.

It's always great fun... there are vegetarian food stalls, beer, crafts - and this year a fancy dress competition to find the best Green Man or Woman!

I am especially excited as this week, the headline act has been announced, and it's a lady whose work I have admired for years - Joolz Denby!

I've previously been to see Joolz perform at a couple of places, including with Red Sky Coven a few years ago, and I think she's brill.

I am not performing very often now, as my freelance work keeps me too busy, but I love this festival, so I'm really happy to have been invited to perform here.

Here's the flyer for it.

Science Fiction-wise, I've done a write up to advertise the forthcoming Andromeda One convention on the BSFA blog, with quotes about the Edge-Lit con that took place earlier this month, so that you can get a flavour of just how good one day conventions can be.

Also, there's been a lot of activity over on the Northampton Science FictionWriters Group website recently, as my talented friends are getting their work out there. I had a little piece earlier this month about my single publishing success this year. I really need to find more time to write, but I think a lot of freelancers must be on holiday or something as I'm pretty busy. Too busy to pen anything myself apart from the odd blog post. Boo.

Frugal Brownie points this week go to my OH, who made a lot of pea and bacon soup for us for pennies. I know, it's a bit hot for it, but still. My frugal win was getting train tickets cheaper by comparing across different websites and buying singles instead of a return ticket. My frugal fail was cider in a beer garden on Friday night. I am going to be FAT at 40... boo.

Plenty of Bite, No Doggerel in Sight: Project Dogwalk Northampton Art and Poetry

I'm a bit crap on Facebook these days, so almost missed out on notice that a friend's private view of her latest art exhibition was on last night. The exhibition is called Project Dogwalk, and is the result of a project that the very talented Minnie Teckman has been working on for years. The exhibition is running for a couple of weeks in the upstairs room of Made in Northamptonshire, and is free entry. If you're a fellow Northamptonian, you might know the shop... it's full of art and crafts made by people from the region and I go squee over the button bags in the window every time I walk past. If you don't know it, it's in St Giles' Street - next to the lovely cake shop where they sell Northampton curd tarts - yum!



 



Check out Minnie's website and you will see how good she is. And go and see the exhibition - it's great!







Minnie chats to an art fan.





Lucy Anderson

For this exhibition, Minnie has been collaborating with a local poet, Lucy Anderson, who has spent months creating response pieces to the sketches and paintings. I chatted to Lucy and we realised we had already worked together on the 48 Hour Book Project at our local library.

 

Refreshments for the opening were provided by local independent wine seller, Northampton Wine Lovers, and they'd chosen some lovely wines, most of them featuring doggies on the labels! I tried all the white ones, and my favourite was the sweet, apricot-scented, sparkling Moscato.

 

 

...there were also bowls of water on the floor for the doggy visitors!

 



 

 

Visitors were invited to add their own prose, poems and sketches to a wall, so this was my contribution. A little quick poem about Dylan the very overweight spaniel who passed away a couple of months ago.

 

A cushion cover;
several pairs of slippers;
logs from the log pile;
dirty nappies;
bread bags;
used kitchen roll.
Dylan ate them all;
sneaked them, chewed them,
one eye looking,
challenging,
snarling, tail wagging.
There's no end to a spaniel's greed.
But if you think that's bad,
Nanook, my sister's husky,
once at a whole leg,
arm, and some of the back
... of a leather sofa.

All in all a great night, and rescuing my husband from a sun-soaked beer garden on the way home, I got introduced to someone looking to collaborate with a poet for a musical project. Fingers crossed, eh!