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The Yogyakarta Principles

The Yogyakarta Principles are a set of principles on the application of international human rights law in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity. The Principles affirm binding international legal standards with which all States must comply. They promise a different future where all people born free and equal in dignity and rights can fulfil that precious birthright. We as a society are keen on forwarding the ratification of the Yogyakarta Principles, as well as raising awareness about what they are.

Below are the cliffnotes version of the Principles. The full set can be found here

Rights to Universal Enjoyment of Human Rights, Non-Discrimination and Recognition before the Law: Principles 1 to 3 set out the principles of the universality of human rights and their application to all persons without discrimination, as well as the right of all people to recognition before the law.

· Laws criminalising homosexuality violate the international right to non-discrimination (decision of the UN Human Rights Committee).

Rights to Human and Personal Security: Principles 4 to 11 address fundamental rights to life, freedom from violence and torture, privacy, access to justice and freedom from arbitrary detention.

· The death penalty continues to be applied for consensual adult sexual activity between persons of the same sex, despite UN resolutions emphasizing that the death penalty may not be imposed for “sexual relations between consenting adults.”
· Eleven men were arrested in a gay bar and held in custody for over a year. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that the men were detained in violation of international law, noting with concern that “one of the prisoners died as a result of his arbitrary detention”.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Principles 12 to 18 set out the importance of non-discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including employment, accommodation, social security, education and health.

· Lesbian and transgender women are at increased risk of discrimination, homelessness and violence (report of UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing).
· Girls who display same-sex affection face discrimination and expulsion from educational institutions (report of UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education).
· The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about laws which “prohibit gender reassignment surgery for transsexuals or require intersex persons to undergo such surgery against their will”.

Rights to Expression, Opinion and Association: Principles 19 to 21 emphasise the importance of the freedom to express oneself, one’s identity and one’s sexuality, without State interference based on sexual orientation or gender identity, including the rights to participate peaceably in public assemblies and events and otherwise associate in community with others.

· A peaceful gathering to promote equality on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity was banned by authorities, and participants were harassed and intimidated by police and extremist nationalists shouting slogans such as “Let’s get the fags” and “We’ll do to you what Hitler did with Jews” (report of the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia & related intolerance).

Freedom of Movement and Asylum: Principles 22 and 23 highlight the rights of persons to seek asylum from persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

· Refugee protection should be accorded to persons facing a well-founded fear of persecution based on sexual orientation (Guidelines of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).

Rights of Participation in Cultural and Family Life: Principles 24 to 26 address the rights of persons to participate in family life, public affairs and the cultural life of their community, without discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

· States have an obligation not to discriminate between different-sex and same-sex relationships in allocating partnership benefits such as survivors’ pensions (decision of the UN Human Rights Committee).

Rights of Human Rights Defenders: Principle 27 recognises the right to defend and promote human rights without discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and the obligation of States to ensure the protection of human rights defenders working in these areas.

· Human rights defenders working on sexual orientation and gender identity issues in countries and regions around the world “have been threatened, had their houses and offices raided, they have been attacked, tortured, sexually abused, tormented by regular death threats and even killed. A major concern in this regard is an almost complete lack of seriousness with which such cases are treated by the concerned authorities.” (report of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders).

Rights of Redress and Accountability: Principles 28 and 29 affirm the importance of holding rights violators accountable, and ensuring appropriate redress for those who face rights violations.

· The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about “impunity for crimes of violence against LGBT persons” and “the responsibility of the State to extend effective protection.” The High Commissioner notes that “excluding LGBT individuals from these protections clearly violates international human rights law as well as the common standards of humanity that define us all.”

Additional Recommendations: The Principles set out 16 additional recommendations to national human rights institutions, professional bodies, funders, NGOs, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN agencies, treaty bodies, Special Procedures, and others.

· The Principles conclude by recognising the responsibility of a range of actors to promote and protect human rights and to integrate these standards into their work. A joint statement delivered at the UN Human Rights Council by 54 States from four of the five UN regions on 1 December 2006, for example, urges the Human Rights Council to “pay due attention to human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity” and commends the work of civil society in this area, and calls upon “all Special Procedures and treaty bodies to continue to integrate consideration of human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity within their relevant mandates.” As this statement recognises, and the Yogyakarta Principles affirm, effective human rights protection truly is the responsibility of all.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License


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Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Bye bye Big Blunkett

I have removed Big Blunkett from my list of links as it is no longer being updated. I suppose the site saw its purpose as being fulfilled when the bearded authoritarian resigned.

In the last post on the blog the author urges readers to support the No2ID campaign.

No comments:

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- Search Results
New Appointments In Government
Date Uploaded: Mar 14, 2016

 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

New Appointments In Government

MONROVIA, March 10 (LINA) - President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made additional appointments in government affecting the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs and Youth and Sports, as well as the Booker Washington Institute, Harbel College and John F. Kennedy Medical Center.

The appointments are subject to confirmation by the Liberian Senate where applicable.

Those appointed are Mr. Dehpue Zuo, Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration and Cllr. Deweh Gray, Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Others are  Mr. Ennish L. Fahnbulleh, Asst. Superintendent for Development, Grand Cape Mount County; Mr. Jumah Gull, Superintendent, Suehn-Mecca District, Bomi County; Mr. Lance Gbargoyon, Deputy Minister for Youth Development, Ministry of Youth and Sports; Ms. Kula Fofana, Assistant Minister for Youth Services, Ministry of Youth and Sports.

According to an Executive Mansion release, President Sirleaf has also appointed members to the Boards of the Booker Washington Institute in Kakata, Margibi County, Harbel College Board of Trustees, and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center Board of Directors.

Those appointed on the Booker Washington Institute Board are Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance &Development Planning, Ministry of Youth & Sports, An alumnus, BWI Alumni Association, National Social Security &Welfare Corporation, Firestone Plantation Company, Representative, Margibi County Administration, and Mr. Kenneth Y. Best, Institutional Historian.

Others are Upjit Singh Sachdeva (Jeety), Mr. Bill Morris, Mr. Cherif Abdallah, Mr. Ezzat Eid, prominent businessmen; Mr. Alexander Cummings, eminent
Liberian; and the Principal and CEO of the Institute, Secretary.

Those appointed on the Harbel College Board are Mr. David S. Menyongar, Chairman; Ms. Regina Benson, Mr. B. McCarthy Weh, II,  Dr. Gabriel B. Jubwe, community members; Dr. Michael Slawon, National Commission on Higher Education; Jim W. Tornonlah, Edward Karfiah, county authority; Wil Bako Freeman, Cllr. Winleta Anynn Henries and Firestone Plantation Company.

Statutory Members of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center Board of Trustees are Ministry of Health, Chair; Ministries of Finance and Development Planning; Justice; and Education, as well as the Chief Medical Officer of the Center; Dean of the Medical School, University of Liberia; and the presidents of the Liberia Nurses
Association and Liberia Medical and Dental Association.

Non-Permanent Members of the JFK Board of Trustees are Ms. Eliza Thomas, Ms. Nadu Cooper, Mr. Joash T. Hodges, Liberia Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Oscar Bloh, representing Civil Society.

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Appalachian Oral History Project

The Appalachian Oral History Project (AOHP) began in 1970, and quickly grew into an interstate consortium between four schools in three states, Alice Lloyd College, Appalachian State University, Emory & Henry College, and Lees Junior College (now Hazard Community and Technical College). This project started as an initiative to collect recorded oral histories and folklore of the Central Appalachian Region. In its effort to grow and provide access to interested researchers, the project applied for and received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant funded further collecting and cataloguing of AOHP materials, and the project has lasted for decades at E&H where it has become a significant student learning and engagement program. Dr. George Stevenson founded the E&H branch of the AOHP, and the student engagement branch of the project is currently under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Little.

Student involvement has generated data and materials for historians, folklorists, novelists, musicians, sociologists, and anthropologists. These students develop interviewing skills and learn about social problems of inequality, while also acquiring a large amount of historical information. Overall, the AOHP serves the academic needs and interests of students, faculty, and citizens and has fostered strong ties between E&H students and the community.


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Speaker - Sheryl WuDunn

 Sheryl  WuDunn  Thumbnail

Sheryl WuDunn is an author, lecturer and businesswoman who was the first Asian-American to win a Pulitzer Prize. A specialist in energy and alternative energy issues, she has also been a private wealth advisor with Goldman Sachs and was previously a journalist and editor for The New York Times.

At the Times, she ran the Times' coverage of global energy, alternative energy, foreign technology and foreign industry; previously, she was anchor of The New York Times Page One, a nightly program of the next day's stories in the Times. She also has worked in The New York Times Beijing and Tokyo bureaus, and speaks Chinese and Japanese.

She won the Pulitzer Prize with her husband Nicholas D. Kristof for her reporting from Beijing about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. WuDunn and Kristof were the first married couple ever to receive a Pulitzer for journalism.

1 Program

Empowering Women and Girls in the Developing World

09.21.09 | 01:08:40 min | 1 comment


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Immigration Statutes & Regulations

8 CFR 208.1
Available through Lexis, Westlaw, and GPO
8 USC 1101(a)(42)
Available through Lexis, Westlaw, GPO, and LII
8 USC 1158 (Asylum - REAL ID)
Available through Lexis, Westlaw, GPO, an d LII
Child Status Protection Act
Pub. L. 107-208, 116 Stat. 927 (2002) - (pdf); featuring AILA's wealth of resources on CSPA, including 2008 agency memo, BIA and federal court decisions, and more; Esparza and Mott's CSPA Review Checklist; and American Immigration Law Council CSPA Resources.
E-Resource - Hein Online Immigration Law and Policy in the U.S.
This collection is a compilation of the most important historical documents and legislation related to immigration in the United States as well as current hearings, debates and recent developments in immigration law. This first comprehensive database includes BIA Precedent Decisions, legislative histories, law and policy titles, extradition titles, scholarly articles, an extensive bibliography, and other related works.
E-Resource - Proquest Congressional - Legislative Histories, Bills and Laws
E-Resource - Proquest Legislative Insight
ProQuest Legislative Insight is a federal legislative history service that makes available thoroughly researched compilations of digital full-text publications relevant to enacted U.S. public laws.
E-Resource- AILA Link
AILALink is a resource for immigration law research providing access to immigration-related statutes, regulations, and important case law (select); agency correspondence and manuals, AILA/ government liaison minutes, forms, and a plethora of AILA publications.
INA/USC and USC/CFR Conversion Tables


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Test Your Lie-Q

Since we hear as many as 200 lies a day, we live with a hidden problem most of us are unaware of. With training in the fundamentals of deception detection, we can significantly improve our liespotting skills. How much do you know about liespotting? Before you step into real-world situations that demand watchful eyes and ears, test your knowledge with our Lie-Q quiz.


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Click to viewWith all the buying that goes on this time of year, our aging gadgets seem older, more out-of-date, and just plain obsolete in the face of all the shiny new toys glimmering on the display rack—which, of course, is part of what motivates us to pry open our wallets for newer and better stuff. But this year, instead of forking over more cash to the likes of Jobs and Gates for their newest toys, we're taking a look at several ways to make your old gadgets new again. From the iPod and Xbox to a run-of-the-mill PC, chances are you've got something lying around the house that could use a free or cheap upgrade.

Transform Your Old Xbox into a Media Center

Still haven't made the jump to the next-gen gaming consoles but not sure what to do with your aging, classic Xbox? Hack that little black box by installing the open source Xbox Media Center (XBMC). You'll be able to play music, videos, and photo slideshows; watch Apple movie trailers, YouTube videos, and read RSS feeds; and transfer files between your XBMC and computer and rip DVDs. Oh, and that's in addition to all the normal, you know, Xbox gaming.

Then again, if you have upgraded to a 360, you can use it in conjunction with your PC to build a Media Center Powerhouse (more on this below).

Revive an Aging iPod

Your iPod was once a proud ruler of the digital music market, but now that it's been replaced by iPod classics, touches, and fancy new nanos, it looks strangely obsolete. Sure it still plays music, but what else has it done for you lately? Well, if you're looking for a few ways to revive that older iPod, check out the 20 Best iPod Utilities around. With these handy little apps, you can squeeze just enough functionality out of that older iPod that you'll completely forget about that fancy phone Apple keeps pushing in your face.

Turn Your $60 Router into a $600 Router

Provided you've got one of the supported routers, you can install a special Linux firmware called DD-WRT on your cheapo router to turn it into a powerhouse of networking bliss. Boost your Wi-Fi signal, set up Quality of Service preferences so the applications that need bandwidth get it when they need it, and take advantage of several other features you're only likely to find on much more expensive routers. Of course, DD-WRT has been accused of being not all that user-friendly, so as an alternative you might want to check out the Tomato firmware.

Build a Hackintosh On the Cheap

Okay, so this one's not exactly all that cheap overall and it doesn't necessarily use your old gear (though in theory it could), but if you just can't bring yourself to slap down a couple grand for a new Mac Pro, you might just be interested in building your own Hackintosh for under $800. It's cheap, it benchmarks remarkably well, and it even updates to Leopard 10.5.1.

Give a Second Wind to Your Aging Computer

Let's turn an eye to the box that brought you here in the first place: your computer. Depending on just how old your computer is, there are tons of different possibilities for how you can breathe new life into an old (or even not so old) computer. First, a few free options:

Turn Your Old PC into a Webapp Monster with gOS: Got an aging computer that's too slow for Vista and, really, not that great with XP either? Turn it into a webapp-integrated internet computer with the free, open source Linux operating system gOS—the same operating running on Wal-Mart's $200 PC.

Take Puppy Linux for a Walk: Okay, so you're computer is really old and you don't expect to get any use out of it without ripping out the guts and upgrading every component? Install a low-resource operating system like Puppy Linux or Damn Small Linux built specifically with these considerations in mind. If you want to try them out before installing one of them on your PC, you can use either the Live CD or install and run either from a thumb drive.

On the other hand, if you're willing to spend just a few bucks and roll up your sleeves, you can upgrade your computer's components and see significant improvements.

Upgrade Your RAM: Installing new RAM in your computer can provide huge speed improvements that most people don't really believe until they see, and—even better—it's one of the easiest installations on the list. And this isn't limited to desktop PCs, either. For example, here's how to upgrade your RAM in a MacBook Pro.

Install a New Motherboard and/or CPU: If your CPU's been dragging ass for the last couple of years, you can pick up and install a newer, faster CPU on the cheap with a little know-how. And if you're upgrading to a newer generation of CPU, you may also want or need to upgrade your motherboard, too. Whatever you choose, both options are often much cheaper than that new PC you've been eying.

Install a New Hard Drive: You may or may not be surprised to realize that a lot of people use hard drive space to determine when they need a new computer. Fact is, if you're computer is doing everything you want but you're running out of space, you can buy a new hard drive for well under $100, and installation is a breeze.

Turn Your PC into a Media Center Powerhouse: If you're already running Windows Media Center (or even if you aren't), you can repurpose your old computer to record and playback television TiVo-style by simply installing a TV tuner card.

Got a few tricks of your own for giving a second wind to your aging gadgets? Let's hear how you save cash without skimping on the fun of new features in the comments.

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who never buys when he can repurpose or build. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.


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Whether you want to curb your disposable paper towel use for the sake of your wallet, the environment, or both, home management blog Simple Mom has a great system for switching over to cloth towels for good.

Image by otakuchick.

Blogger Maya acknowledges it's not easy to make the leap from paper towels to the cloth variety, especially since paper is just so darn easy to use. Once you get a system nailed down, though, Maya says you'll find it's not a hassle to go paper-free.

You'll need a batch of sturdy cloth rags or bar towels for deep cleaning, some nice fabric napkins for dining, and a pile of inexpensive, generic napkins for everyday spills and wipe-downs. If you have kids, toss some child-sized washcloths in a drawer as well. Keep a basket under the sink to collect used towels and throw them in the wash every couple of days.

If you're having trouble imagining cleaning up really icky messes without paper towels, Maya says it's time to look at the situation differently.

Change your perspective. Once you start using cloth regularly, you will also start to dispose off older cleaning cloths regularly. Such messes are good opportunities to get rid of old rags. And if you have no cloth you can use, there is really no problem with using a little paper, is there?

The post goes into more detail about how to implement a paper-free home, so you'll want to check it out to get the skinny. Also be sure to take a look at the comments. Some readers wanted to know about the environmental impact of washing all that cloth toweling, but readers say the extra laundry is actually quite minimal.

Is your home paper-towel-free? Do you still yearn wistfully for that roll of paper towels or are you really happy with your system? Share your tips and experiences in the comments.

How to Create A Paperless Kitchen [Simple Mom]


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Windows has its own built-in program uninstaller, but it doesn't always to the best job. Revo Uninstaller removes every trace of a program with just a few clicks of your mouse, and its ease of use makes it the best uninstaller around.

Revo Uninstaller

Platform: Windows
Price: Free, $40 Pro
Download Page

  • Uninstalls every trace of a program, even including cruft that Windows' uninstaller leaves behind
  • A "Hunter Mode", which lets you drag a crosshair onto any running application and uninstall it right from there.
  • Drag and drop application shortcuts to uninstall within Hunter Mode
  • Stop programs from starting with Windows, both through the menu and Hunter Mode
  • Clean up junk files with a simple scan
  • Search for a program on Google, view its location on your hard drive, and view its registry key from the context menu
  • Many more features available in the pro version

Where It Excels

Revo Uninstaller isn't the only uninstaller you can get on Windows, but what makes it the best is its ease of use. Hunter Mode alone is incredibly awesome, letting you point to an open window on your system and uninstall that program from there. You can also drag program shortcuts into hunter mode to uninstall them right from your desktop, or even stop running system tray apps and remove them from Windows' startup just by pointing at them. It's really an ingenious way to get rid of apps, when compared to looking through a giant list of programs and hitting "Uninstall". The other features, like the junk file cleaner and startup manager, are also nice touches.

Where It Falls Short

There aren't a ton of places in which Revo falls short. We kind of wish it could do bulk uninstallations, and the $40 price tag is pretty hefty if you want extra features like forced uninstallations and a 64-bit app, but overall the free version satisfies our needs pretty well. We don't really have any complaints.

The Competition

Revo is the most thorough of the uninstallers out there, but if you don't like it for some reason, there are a few programs that perform similar tasks.

IOBit Uninstaller is a pretty nice program that performs very similar tasks, though it isn't quite as thorough as Revo. It does, however, perform a bit better, especially on 64-bit machines, and it has a pretty handy 1-click toolbar uninstaller. The best feature of IOBit, however, is the batch uninstaller. It's pretty much the only reason we'd ever recommend it over Revo, so if you have a bunch of programs you need to clean out, this is probably the app to go with.

CCleaner, our favorite Windows maintenance tool, also has an uninstaller built in. It isn't quite as feature-filled as Revo's—in fact, it's really just a better, faster frontend for the Windows uninstaller—but it's still an improvement from Windows' default. Plus, if you already have it on your system, it can be convenient to just use it instead of downloading and installing Revo separately.

These are far from the only ones on the market, but they're the ones you might want to check out instead of Revo. In the end, Revo's easily the best there is, so we can't recommend it enough for you Windows app hoarders out there. If you have another you prefer instead, let us know what it is and why you like it in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.


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Too much stress can have serious effects on your health, but alleviating it isn't as simple as just not doing the things that stress you out. All the things that stress you out—your job, your boss, your kids—they're still there. What you can change, however, is your mindset and approach to handling that stress, and new research indicates that may be just as effective.

Over at The Harvard Business Review, Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. (who's work you've seen here before) explains that sometimes it's your approach to stressful events and chronic stressors that matters more than the way you handle them after the fact. We focus frequently on coping mechanisms that help you minimize the effects of stress, but she points out that with a healthy mindset and approach to stressful situations—one that looks at the stress you experience as something that can strengthen you instead of harm you—you'll weather the stressful storm a bit better.

The full study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, turned up some surprising results:

in their studies, Crum and colleagues began by identifying stress mindsets among a group of nearly 400 employees of an international financial institution. They found that those employees who had stress-is-enhancing mindsets (compared to stress-is-debilitating) reported having better health, greater life satisfaction, and superior work performance.

That's already rather amazing, but here's the best part - your mindset can also change! If you have been living with a stress-is-debilitating mindset (like most of us), you don't have to be stuck with it. A subset of the 400 employees in the aforementioned study were shown a series of three-minute videos over the course of the following week, illustrating either the enhancing or debilitating effects of stress on health, performance, and personal growth. Those in the stress-is-enhancing group (i.e., the lucky ones) reported significant increases in both well-being and work performance.

Now to be clear, the study isn't saying that stress doesn't stress you out, or that too much stress is somehow healthy. What the researchers point out is that your attitude and approach matter a lot, almost as much as knowing how to cope with the stress afterward. In fact, take the study results with a healthy dose of skepticism. The results are preliminary, and just one study in the face of a mountain of research about stress. However, there's no harm (and everything good) about changing your mindset towards the things that stress you out, and if there are tangible health and lifestyle benefits to doing so (and they're backed up by some research), then by all means, do it.

How You Can Benefit from All Your Stress | Harvard Business Review

Photo by rick.


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Sunday, August 1

Kayaking @ the park

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon again at the park. We attended a birthday party of one of our friends. After eating lots of food, barbecue and other Filipino food, playing fresbie and kids playing in the sand, the guys decided to go kayak. They brought the kids with them, and we were left behind watching the babies. I was surprised to learned that renting a kayak does not cost that much. They only paid $15 for a 30 minutes rent and $20 for an hour. It was not bad right? Sammamish Lake Park, has kayak rental, and almost all the lakes here in Washington has one. I really wanted to try that someday, maybe when Andi is old enough to sit tight.

Summer is really fun here in Washington, there are a lot of activities to do, but of course there are a lot of limitations when you have a baby in tow. We have one more month to go before summer ends !!!

1 comment:

nancy said...

sounds fun!

hi, Melanie I'm new here. I'd like to add this page of yours to my blog roll is you don't mind -:)


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Saturday, 31 January 2015

Small Business Saturday

Shepherds, for wonderful sheep's milk ice cream and good coffee.

Friday, 30 January 2015

Warren Purchase Completed

Jeff Morgan has announced this today on Facebook:

"If anyone is interested in fishing the Wye at Hay, a local community group has today completed the purchase of the fishing rights at The Warren. This has been ongoing for 2 years so it's a relief to have it finalised. The stretch is about a mile long of single righthand bank with many pools, glides & fast water. Recent catches include barbel to 13lb 8oz, pike to 28lb, chub to 6lb with numerous trout, dace & grayling, no one can remember the last time a salmon was caught here.
The fishery will be run to benefit local anglers & visitors with cost of fishing reflecting that:-
Day ticket £10
Season £60
Ten year & lifetime (message me if interested)
The 10 year & lifetime ticket holders will be able to take a guest."

He also says that "this is the stretch where the Wye record pike 37lb was caught in 1910 by Major Booth while spinning for salmon."

It's sad that salmon are no longer caught here - the Wye used to be well known as a salmon fishing river.

Thursday, 29 January 2015

A New Venue for Musicians

I was at the Baskerville Hall musical evening last night - it was nice to see some new faces. Educational, too - one of the chaps sang a song about the invention of stainless steel in Sheffield! He'd written a couple about Wainwright, the walker and guidebook writer to Lakeland, as well.
Valeryan had come the furthest, from near Leominster, to try out the new guitar she got at Christmas.
Young Jamie, who plays flute, accordian and guitar (not all at the same time!) hasn't been for a while. Bob, who runs the evening, said that he's heavily involved in Greed! The Musical, which will be performed in Brecon next month, so he's spending a lot of time rehearsing for that at the moment.
And Bob is starting another, similar, evening at Brecon Golf Club once a month. The first one is on Friday from around 8pm.
He said that there used to be a singing evening/open mic at the Market Tavern in Brecon, but the pub is under new management and the new people don't want to continue with it, hence the new venture.

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Burns Night at the Castle

I missed the kilts and the whisky and the dancing this year - it was on Friday - but I'm pleased to hear that the evening raised £1200 for Clyro School!
I'll have to try to get my tartan out next year....

Monday, 26 January 2015

I've finally got round to reading the book I got at the book launch at Booth's before Christmas.
And it's very good. Seriously - it's worth getting hold of a copy.
The idea is that the way words are used to describe things 'frame' the way you think about them, and it's very easy to manipulate people into thinking a certain way. Sometimes arguments have been going to and fro for so long that even the people making the arguments don't realise how they're being manipulated by the language - "economic growth", for instance - growth's a good thing, isn't it? Or could it be looked at in a different way?
I've certainly started to become more critical of stories in the news since I read this - and it also links in with some discussions I've been seeing on the web about films and TV shows - how the stories that are told shape the way the viewers look at the world. That's why Joss Whedon was being so subversive when he cast a dainty blonde girl as Buffy the vampire slayer, when film after film has the dainty blonde girl as one of the first victims of a vampire. He got people thinking that maybe girls weren't so helpless after all.
We're coming up to a major election this year, and politicians will be 'framing' the debate in the ways they want them to go for all they're worth. This book can help us see through their debating tricks and maybe look "behind the scenes" at the real issues we need to tackle.

Sunday, 25 January 2015

Small Business Sunday

The Chemists - this is the very place where Major Armstrong bought the arsenic to poison his dandelions (or, allegedly, his wife and business rival).

Saturday, 24 January 2015

Back on Line!

I've been having computer problems. All my own fault - I tried to download something that I thought was innocuous, and it turned out to be something nasty instead.
However, the lovely Tim Pugh came round this morning, and now everything seems to be back to normal! Apart from working to save the Warren for Hay, he fixes computers out of the electrical shop on the Pavement.

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Bee Quilt

Hereford Library have just proudly unveiled this quilt, which has been made over the last year or so:

The detail is amazing. It was all hand embroidered at the library sewing group, from images put together by pupils from Aylestone School with the help of artist Jaime Jackson, and then the pieces were machined together by three volunteers. It's part of a project on local beekeepers, which also included vintage photographs.

Saturday, 17 January 2015

Small Business Saturday

Primrose Farm stall on the market - local organic produce. They are also known as the Primrose Earth Centre, where they also do sound healing and accomodation.

Friday, 16 January 2015

More from the History Group

After the talk about Agincourt, the meeting turned to the various projects that the History Group are involved with. They've been very busy!
Tim Pugh had come along from the Warren Club with a proposal for co-operation. At the end of the month, all being well, he should be handing over the money to buy the strip of land and fishing rights around the Warren. When he went to the Town Council to ask for some money towards the total, they said that they didn't want to be seen to contribute to something that would only benefit fishermen - it needed to be something that benefitted the whole community.
Tim Pugh has taken this to heart, and this is why he was approaching the History Group. There's a stretch of the old tramway (which was there before the railway was built) on the Warren. So he wants to produce a leaflet about the history, with a walking route, which can be sold by the Tourist Information office to raise money for them. The Tourist Information office is totally independent, and needs to raise it's own running costs. He'll also be talking to the Cheesemarket group, who run the Hay Tours walks around town. There was a lot of interest in the idea.
He was also able to give some information about old photos of shops that Alan, chairing the meeting, had brought along, including the fascinating story that digging around the cellar of what is now the St Michael's Hospice shop years ago had unearthed a Civil War era sword! The chap who found it took it home, though, so no-one knows where it is now. It's the sort of thing, though, that they are looking for to fill a museum cabinet of local history. They've been talking to Jayne at the Library, and she's keen to find a space for a cabinet in there.
Tim Pugh also knew something about the whereabouts of the gravestones that used to be outside the Catholic Church. In those days, it was the Presbyterian Church, and when the graveyard was cleared, the gravestones were sold to Boatside Farm, and stored in a barn there for years. They might still be there - or at least, someone up there might know what happened to them after that. There were gravestones at the Globe, too, but no-one's sure what happened to them.

Several people at the meeting have been writing books.
Eugene Fisk had brought along his book about Agincourt, illustrated by himself when he was artist in residence in the village, and for sale at £6.50.
Alan has been looking at local wills (less interesting than he had thought they would be for local information!), and is writing about the Wellington family who owned the Castle from 1720 to 1820. He discovered from parish records that one of the brothers of the man who bought the castle was the innkeeper at the Red Lion in Hay. This was possibly the building which is now Hay Wholefoods, but there is another house on Lion Street which mentions the Red Lion, near the Police Station, so there may have been two pubs of the same name.
He also showed a copy of a letter that had been found in an old wallet, from a Captain Crichton, who lived over at Wyecliff, on the Clyro side of the river, and who died, a month after he sent the letter, at one of the last major battles of the Boer War. He's been doing some research into the Crichton family, and it's possible that some descendants still live in the area.
Tim Pugh commented that the people of Clyro and the people of Hay never used to mingle, because of the toll on the bridge - you didn't just go over there for a walk because you had to pay!
David Bennett has written small leaflets for each pub in Hay, giving their history, and he has now combined them all into a thick booklet, which he brought along. It seems to concentrate on the public events that used to happen in pubs because there was no other large public space available, like auctions and inquests.
He also brought along his new book Major Injustice. He said he hadn't intended to write a book about the Armstrong case, but he got fascinated with the story to the extent that he has talked to Robin Odell (who wrote one of the standard works about the case) and looked at the court documents, and believes he has uncovered new evidence. He comes down on the side that says Major Armstrong should never have been convicted on the evidence that appeared in court, along with Martin Beales, the local solicitor who wrote the other standard work on the case.. This book is available from Haystacks record shop in Backfold, and it's a print-on-demand book from

Mari, who was co-chairing the meeting, is involved with the Castle at the moment, doing work to help them with their grant applications, as they need to show that they are involved in educational work. So she has been getting in touch with the local schools for various projects, like the poppy making last year, where they did their own small version of the installation at the Tower of London.
She's also trying to track down the ownership of Salem Chapel. The paperwork has been lost - last seen at Gabbs solicitors - and without it, they can't do essential building work. They were also thinking about contacting the congregations in the United States that grew from Salem Chapel, when the preacher there, John Miles, emigrated with many of the original congregation in the seventeenth century. He's a lot more famous in the States now than he is here and they might be able to do some fund raising.

Finally, a new group is starting in Cusop. The Cusop History Group is, at present, mostly interested in the buildings of the area - and there are some quite interesting buildings up Cusop Dingle, for example.

The next meeting of the History Group will be on 18th March, details to be arranged.

Thursday, 15 January 2015

Which is the French spelling of the village better known in English history as Agincourt.
It was the archer's battle, which is why I was at the History Group talk at the Swan instead of across the river at the Baskerville, singing. As an archer and historical re-enactor, I couldn't miss this one.
It was an evening of filthy weather, but even so, the room at the Swan was packed out. They had to find extra chairs, and one late-comer was almost sitting out in the entrance hall.
The speaker was Bryan Davies, ex-RAF and Intelligence, who has been indulging his interest in medieval history since he retired.
It all started when he was a boy, when there was a board in Brecon Museum listing the local men who had gone to fight at Agincourt. When he had time to do a bit of research, he wondered where those names had come from - how had anyone known? Which led him to a document called the Merbury Indenture. This was the list of all the men who joined up for the Agincourt campaign from South Wales, specifically the Duchy of Lancaster lands. They wore a blue and white livery, the Lancaster colours. Then, as now, the Duke of Lancaster was also the monarch - and that means that Henry V was, at one time, Lord of Hay! John Merbury was his Chamberlain in South Wales, and mustered the men. They gathered at Tretower and marched down to the fleet at Southampton, and from there they crossed the channel in a flotilla of a thousand ships, to besiege Harfleur.

Twenty men came from "Haysland" and their names were:
Richard ap John ap Gruffudd
Philip Bailly
Rees Fferrour
Llywelyn ap David
Gruffudd ap Hochekyn
Henry Lloyt
Jankyn Lloyt
Ieuan ap Gruffudd Ston
John ap Iowerth
Ieuan ap Philip Keheryn
David ap Howel ap Madoc
Rees Penduy
Ieuan ap John ap Howell
Thomas ap Daffydd ap Madoc
David ap Madoc ap Jake
John Saer
Thomas ap Gruffudd ap Madoc
Jankyn ap Eynon
John Bailly
Philip ap Ieuan ap Eynon

Mr Davies had helpfully printed out hand outs to be given out.
When he got to describing the battle, fought when the English were on their way to Calais and home, I brought out the arrows and arrowhead I'd brought with me. It's always easier if you can see an example - in this case a long bodkin arrowhead and a broad head. The long bodkins (named because they look like a needle) were used to penetrate chainmail, and later a shorter version was perfected with a more chisel-shaped point, and these were armour-piercing. The broad heads were most useful against horses.
Mr Davies is part of the group co-ordinating the celebrations of Agincourt's 600th anniversary in this part of the world. There is a website called and also an Interestingly, he dismissed the myth that the archers at Agincourt were mostly Welsh. It was only about ten years after the rebellion led by Owain Glyndwr, who was still at large and was never captured, so there was no recruitment from North Wales at all. Only 6% of the archers, therefore, were Welsh. Crecy, an earlier English victory, has a better claim to be the battle won by Welsh archers.
There are going to be quite a few events through the year commemorating Agincourt. I forsee a couple of trips to Brecon in my future, wearing medieval kit.
On Friday 20th March Professor Ann Curry will be speaking at Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon - free but ticketed, and he said that the tickets were going fast. She's a leading expert on the 1415 campaign and the battle. There will also be an exhibition on The Welsh Bowmen and the Agincourt Campaign of 1415.
On Saturday 20th June, in Brecon, there will be workshops for children in the morning followed by the Great Brecon Pageant in the afternoon, re-enacting the departure of the men of Brecknock for Henry V's Expedition to France. This is where the names of the participants becomes important, as they want to gather children aged between eight and sixteen, and give each of them a name from the Merbury Indenture to be their character for the day. They're not going for complete authenticity of costume, but something that's accessible for everyone who wants to dress up (so a hoodie can stand in for a medieval liripipe, for instance) but they are hoping to have some blue and white material available so the children can have tabards in the proper livery. The men at arms commanding the detachments will have more authentic costumes.
In August, there will be a medieval festival at Trecastle, and the Welsh Bowmen exhibition will be popping up here and there all year.
On Sunday 25th October, St Crispin's Day and the day of the battle, there will be a commemoration service at Brecon Cathedral, where wreaths will be blessed, one of which will be taken to Abergavenny Church to the tomb of Gwladys, daughter of Davy Gam. Davy Gam was one of the few men on the English side to die in the battle, but legend has it that he recieved his mortal wounds while rescuing King Henry himself on the battlefield, with several other Welsh gentlemen, and was knighted on the spot. (Kings could do that in those days).
There will also be events in Abergavenny, Raglan Castle, Tretower, and Newport. And Hay, of course, to be decided on soon, though I think that Professor Curry will be speaking at the Castle in September.

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

Tourist Information

A couple of people have been looking for the tourist information office, even though it's the quietest time of the year.
At the moment, though, it's closed as they empty their premises on the craft centre and move across the road to the little shop next to Country Supplies that used to be Backfold Books and Bygones.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Good News for Bronllys Hospital

There have been negotiations going on behind the scenes, but now everything is finalised, and Haygarth Surgery are taking over the running of one of the wards of Bronllys Hospital. I'm not entirely sure which one, but it's for elderly patients. Apparently it's very busy there at the moment. They were having problems finding qualified cover, because of the shortage of Age related consultants throughout the UK.
The League of Friends is delighted. "We truly have a Community Hospital" said Maggie Sims, the chair, in a letter that was shared by Hay Together on Facebook.
It seems that the Pain Clinic is also secure for the future.
This year the League of Friends is going to make it a priority to take up the cases of patients with poor care packages - both the patients at home and those who are stuck in hospital waiting to be discharged.

Monday, 12 January 2015

Raquety Farm seeks to Diversify

Just over the river from the Warren is the land of Raquety Farm, which is an organic farm, and the riverside there is part of the local SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). It also offers glamping (i.e. glamorous camping), camping and bed and breakfast. They have a canoe launch point on the river, and Hayfield Gardens, the community gardens, is on their land as well. Ros Garratt, from the farm, was briefly Deputy Mayor of Hay a couple of years ago.
They have put in a planning application to extend the accomodation side of their business. They want to build a log cabin and six "eco-pods" for visitors to stay in, together with a waste treatment plant, and a new car park for twelve cars, two spaces for disabled access and space for ten bikes, with a gravel track leading to it. It looks from the plan (available on the Powys planning applications page) as if the new road will go across the hillside just above the Hayfield Garden to the woods, where the car park and the cabins will be, on a line which is a field boundary. The woods are used for coppicing at present.
This is all on the Clyro side of the river, so it is the Clyro local council which is dealing with the planning application. However, it will be visible from the Hay side of the river, so Gareth Ratcliffe has asked the planning department to consider consulting Hay Town Council for comments. So far, there are four letters of support for the project, which is designed to be eco-friendly (the document from the architect, Jonathan Lees, is 274 pages long, so I didn't plough through it!)

Sunday, 11 January 2015

Small Business Sunday

A general view showing carpets, the sock stall and the back of the fish van from Ludlow (which also sells game).

Saturday, 10 January 2015

An Afternoon at the Cinema

I noticed that the final part of the Hobbit trilogy, Battle of the Five Armies, is on over the weekend at the Brook Street Cinema. The first showing was at 4.30pm yesterday. Normally on a Friday afternoon, I go to the laundrette - but why not live dangerously for a change?
The cinema was about two thirds full, mostly older people, but with a few kids. It seemed to be a mainstream audience, whereas at one time a film like this would only have appealed to fantasy fans. Tolkein is for everyone now.
It was fun. I was expecting long drawn out battle scenes - which there were - but they weren't ridiculously over-extended like the sequence where the dwarves are floating down the river in barrels in the last movie. I found myself warming to Thranduil, King of the Wood-elves, which I wasn't expecting, because he's not the most sympathetic of characters, and Thorin's descent into dragon-sickness madness was excellent. You can see why Richard Armitage wanted to do the part.
And there was Billy Connolly on a battle pig.
The Facebook page for the Hay Ho Sunday bus service is saying "Come to Middle Earth in Mid-Wales" and suggesting that film-goers use the Sunday bus to come and see the film.

Friday, 9 January 2015

Happy Birthday, Derek Addyman!

Bucks Fizz for breakfast!
Well, almost - the surprise party for Derek Addyman's sixtieth birthday was set for 10.30am, at the shop in Lion Street.
Derek himself had been sent off to collect something, and while he was away the shop filled up with well wishers, as well as balloons and party nibbles and drinks. He arrived back to a packed shop and a chorus of Happy Birthday. There was even an overspill into the street, and a few people still arriving with cards and bottles of wine and so on.
The other Derek, at the Wholefood Shop, provided quite a few of the nibbles (and very nice they were, too). There were several booksellers and other local shopkeepers there, and other friends of Derek's - it was quite a gathering. I saw a few people there I hadn't seen for ages. Ann and Mollie were presiding over the drinks and nibbles table (i.e. the counter) and Cassie, Marina's daughter, was helping with the clearing up.
"Is this alcoholic?" the potter from Haymakers asked of the drink that was pressed into her hand, "because I've got to paint some pots later!"
I saw Judith from the Children's Bookshop filling up a bag of goodies to take back to her son Colin, who was minding the shop for her. "Just like Amelieranne's umbrella," we said (this being a picture book from the 1920s where the little girl of the title hides party food in her umbrella to take back to her little brothers and sisters).
Derek had to leave quite quickly - he was due to catch a train to London to stay at a swanky hotel and see a show with his son and daughter - that's why it happened so early in the day.

Thursday, 8 January 2015

Council Meeting - More Finance - and a Bench

There was some good news about the Warren - it looks like the purchase of the fishing rights and river bank by the Warren Club will be going ahead, with the help of HADSCO, who have agreed to a donation, and to pay the balance of the final amount, whatever that might turn out to be after all the other fundraising.

Rob was concerned that the Council's financial decisions in the main Council minutes might seem quite starkly put, and he wanted to be sure that anyone who wanted to could see the Finance Committee's minutes, so they could see that the amounts decided on were carefully deliberated. Nigel the Town Clerk said that the committee minutes were available at the Council Chambers for anyone who wanted to come in and consult them.

There was talk of an extra skip for cardboard re-cycling in the main car park, but several councillors said that they'd rather see if they could move the re-cycling bins elsewhere, so the spaces could be used for cars instead, which would make more money. The Cattle Market was suggested as an alternative location, but that would need to be discussed with the people who run the cattle market.

The Solar Energy project, that was mentioned at the last Council meeting, came up again - but as it's a commercial proposition, the council don't want to get too involved. It should be for the people running the project to get in touch with the County Council for discussions.

And finally there was the matter of the Bench.
Half way up the slope from the Swan to the Blue Boar there is a public bench, which was originally put in next to the phone box (which has since been removed). There is a BT junction box next to it, and BT want to put in another junction box to provide super fast broadband to the town. To do this they need to move the bench - and they want to shunt it uphill, right under Fiona Howard's windows.
At this point, she left the room, as she couldn't discuss the matter - it being a conflict of interests. She made quite clear that she was furious about it, though!
Everyone agreed that a public bench shouldn't be right underneath anyone's house windows, though it was useful for the bench to be in that general area. At the moment it is against a blank wall. When it was put in the building behind that was a shed, and it is now a holiday cottage.
And at that point I left them discussing the correspondence. Gareth wasn't there, so there wasn't a County Councillor's report so I don't think I missed anything vital.

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

RIP Nigel Birch

There's a good write up in the B&R about the life of Nigel Birch this week - they even managed to find a picture of him smiling!
My personal favourite memory of him is when he worked at Hay and Brecon Farmers. I used to go in to get a tray of dog food every so often (because it was cheaper from there) and Islay-dog would run round the back of the counter to say hello to everyone. If Nigel was there, he would always give her a pig's ear (which was her favourite!).

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Council Meeting - Serious Financial Discussions About Toilets, Playing Fields and a Community Centre

I arrived just after seven, and the meeting had already started, so I missed the introduction of the new lady councillor. I should think that they also had a moment's silence in memory of Nigel Birch, who died in Bronllys just before Christmas after a short illness.
This means, of course, that they need to find another councillor to fill his place.

One of the main topics of the evening was the public toilets. The Council have had a quote of £80,000, which the company involved said was needed to refurbish the toilets. They haven't looked at any other quotes yet, though. They thought it might be possible to look at what needed to be done and use local contractors, who would probably be cheaper. The figures were £35,000 for the toilets at the craft centre and £45,000 for the ones at the Clock tower, which have not been refurbished as recently as the craft centre ones. This would be separate from the running costs, for which the County Council is now willing to provide a grant of £6,500 a year for five years if a town wishes to refurbish their toilets.
Crickhowell has recently had their toilets re-furbished in an eco-friendly way, but they may have got a grant to do it because they are on a trunk road. Nigel the town clerk is going to write and ask.

One option would be to close one set of toilets, at the craft centre, since the ones by the Clock tower have asbestos in the building.
Another option would be to charge for the toilets at the craft centre and keep the ones by the Clock tower free.

So how would the Council afford this? "Have we got any assets to sell?" one councillor asked, and the only suggestion that came up was the fishing rights, though no-one was sure who would want to buy them.

There is, of course, £200,000 sitting in a bank account which the Council cannot use - though one suggestion was to draw out £30,000 from that account, and get the County Council to pay in the £6,500 a year to top it back up, so they would have a lump sum to play with. The £200,000 was originally meant to be for a new community centre that never happened.

The Welsh Assembly say that councils must provide toilets - so do they have any grants available to make it possible? Kirsty Williams the AM will be asked about this.

The Town Council will also be meeting with Jeremy Patterson from the County Council soon to discuss what to do.

The County Council will also shortly be devolving the maintenance of the playing fields and pavilion onto the Town Council, at a cost of £8 - 9,000 a year.
There was a suggestion that the Pavilion, which includes the changing rooms for sporting activities, could be combined with a new community centre to save money (though this was one of the suggestions when there were plans to build a new community centre for the millennium, and it was a non-starter because community and sporting facilities needed different rules and the grants were different, so they had to be separate buildings). If the Town Council built their own community centre, rather than waiting for the combined school/community centre/library to be built, they could use the £200,000 on that. The land that they wanted to build the community centre on fifteen years ago is still available, near the doctors' surgery.

In Talgarth, a sports association have taken over the running of the facilities rather than the Town Council.

The councillors decided that an urgent meeting was needed with all the different sports clubs - tennis, bowls, football, rugby, cricket, and anyone else, as well as HADSCO, Hay's sports association. The children's play grounds will also be affected, mainly for the grass cutting through the year.

But we're not getting a reduction in rates while these responsibilities are devolved. In fact, there will be a four and a half per cent increase. However, it was pointed out that, as the County Council are devolving responsibilities down to Town Councils, so Central Government are devolving some of their responsibilities, in the area of social security, for example, to County Councils, so the financial burden on the County Council will not be reduced.
So one suggestion was that the Town Council itself tried to devolve responsibilities - for instance getting the newer housing estates to take responsibility for cutting their own lawns - "or they could have wild flower gardens instead - that would look nice!"

The Council Chambers was the next item to be discussed, and it all relates together, as the County Council wants to sell the building in order to pay for part of the building of the new school, which will also be replacing the community centre and library - but the Town Council don't want to move out if they are only being offered half an office for the Town Clerk to share with the Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths, and the council meetings would have to be booked in the same room that all the community groups, competing for time with the WI and the cubs and so on.
On the other hand, the roof needs serious attention, which will be expensive. The lease has now run out on the building, so technically the Town Council and their tenants in the offices are squatting! However, as sitting tenants it will be hard for the County Council to remove them, especially as it was their fault that the lease ran out without an new arrangement being sorted out. So the Town Council are in quite a strong negotiating position. During this discussion, Rob Golesworthy described the Council Chambers as "a millstone with an income stream", because they do get an income from the tenants of the offices. If the Town Council offered to buy the building themselves, and later sold it, if they made any profit on the deal the County Council would demand the difference, so they don't want to do that - it would be nice, they mused, if the County Council just gave them the building - but then they would have the expense of fixing the roof....

Monday, 5 January 2015

Busy Week

Back to normal after the Christmas break, and there's a lot going on this first week of 2015.
This evening I'll be at the Council meeting, and on Wednesday there's the regular musical evening at Baskerville Hall.
On Thursday the University of Cusop Dingle are meeting at 8pm at the Swan. Anthony Daly will be giving the evening's talk, entitled The Nature of the Book and the Book of Nature.
*Edited to add: This will not now be happening, due to ill health, and will be re-scheduled in February.
However, it's also the evening for Stitch and Bitch, between 6 and 8pm, and this month we are moving to Tomatitos, just for a change of scene. Usually SnB has a room at the Swan. And since I've started a couple of new projects, and I want to show them off (and I've finished an embroidery) I think that's where I'll be spending the evening.

Saturday, 3 January 2015

Friday, 2 January 2015

Trying to get more organised

Off to Hereford this morning on a very full bus for a spot of retail therapy.

I can no longer see the glowing hands of my alarm clock in the dark, so I treated myself to a clock with a glowing display instead. I picked up a wind-up and solar powered torch at one of the camping shops that's having a closing down sale, too.
Over the Christmas break, I've been getting enthusiastic about craft projects again, so I picked up a couple of hanks of black embroidery threat to create a blackwork picture of a badger. One of my presents was a "knit your own shoulderbag" kit, which involves cable, which I've never done, so I'm working my way up to it gradually.
So I'm making the effort to get more organised, and to use up my crafting stash - I've started weaving triangles with some of my odd balls of wool on a mini loom, too, which will be sewn together to make a small blanket.

I was hoping to look in the army surplus shop for a Thunderbirds hat, too (or more correctly, an RAF flight hat) because one of my Christmas presents was an International Rescue patch - but they were closed.
I was hoping to get rid of my sofa too, having just got the new settle, so I went into the British Heart Foundation to ask about collection. They said no problem - they send a van to the Hay area every other Friday - but the sofa needed to have a label to say it was safe in the case of fires. When I got home to check, the label is no longer attached - it must have come adrift long ago - so it's back to the drawing board for that. I've tried Freecycle and Freegle, but just before Christmas was perhaps not the best time to try to shift it, and the only person who was interested asked if I could deliver, which I can't, sadly. Still, it's not too much in the way for a while.

And I discovered that Poundland (now next door to Maylord Orchards) do a very nice selection of Belgian style biscuits....

One thing took the shine off the day, though. I saw a man sitting on the pavement near the bus station with a home made sign saying that he had three children and he would take any job, please. Nobody should feel so desperate that they have to beg for work on the street. It was like looking right back to the Great Depression of the 1930s - and it shouldn't happen in a civilised modern society, especially when there was an article in the Hereford Times this week about how unemployment in the county is going down.


text:
Friday, April 29, 2011

So I know Easter was on Sunday, and now it's Friday, but I really felt that as a strong believer of Christ His death on the cross and then His resurrection.  I should write something about this.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13

Christ's death on the cross was a symbol of His love for us. L-O-V-E. Something of what I have definitely needed lately.  School is finally coming to an end.  We have one last week of classes and a week of finals followed by a five-day choir tour to Washington.  Though some of this may sound fun and exciting. It's really not.  I have been so stressed, and on top of that, things at home have been pretty tough too.

Spring break was completely different from what I planned.  I hoped to organize my room, take stuff back home, rest, practice for my music classes, complete some homework, finish the research for my music paper, etc.  Well lot's just say pretty much none of this happened.  As we were driving home we got a phone calling saying my grandma (from my dad's side) had fallen and had to be taken to the hospital.  Not good.  We got home Friday night, went out of town for my 3-yr-old cousin's b-day Saturday and then returned Sunday evening.  Things were okay at this point.  But Monday evening my grandpa moved in with us, and we didn't know for how long.  I had spent all Monday finally unpacking and doing laundry I had procrastinated on while at college.  Our house is just barely big enough for us and my room is the only one available for guests and as much as my parents wanted me to be able to sleep in my own room we didn't have anywhere else for my grandpa to stay.  So I switched back and forth between sleeping on the spare mattress in my little brother's room and sleeping on the floor in my older brother's music studio.  This was okay, but it was a pain in the butt to be dragging around my stuff. I couldn't just leave it in my room, my little brother didn't have space in his room, and the music studio had to be used for my brother's music lessons he taught.  I felt like a nomad.... in my own house.  Not very relaxing.  Plus I realized smart me had left my entire music folder in my dorm room.  So much for that.

Overall it wasn't bad. I really enjoyed spending time with my family.  Especially getting to know my little brother more.  He has grown up so much over the past year, he's a little man now.   The real hard part was returning to school.  The group I was carpooling with decided we should just drive up Tuesday morning in time for our 9:30am class, instead of Monday so we could spend the extra day at home.   Monday was probably my favorite day of Spring Break, but why did I agree to this?  6am is too early to be awake.   I was so exhausted by the middle of the day, and I was already not feeling my best since I had gotten sick over break (no voice, stuffy nose, sore throat, cough. eek!)  So I was standing in the risers during choir when I felt so tired I was about to fall asleep standing up while singing, is that even possible???  I finally decided to sit cause I seriously almost fell from the second row of the risers.... probably not too safe.  Then my eye started to itch... really bad.   Yep, I had gotten pink eye.  This pretty much ruined my week.   No one warned my that my little cousin we had visited at the beginning of spring break was sick and had pink eye.   Argh!!!!

Thus I haven't blogging a lot recently since I could barely stand using my eyes, they'd been itching and stinging so bad all week.  And living in the dorms is not as fun as everyone makes it out to be.  They NEVER shut-up!!!  All the girls have seriously since I got back have been screaming and giggling non-stop, and it's not helping my mood at all. I feel like crap.... (excuse my language.) and am not myself right now.  and I can't tell you how sad I was last night when I was sitting in our living room doing homework when I heard them running and screaming after quiet hours "OMG!!! We're going to pull an all-nighter and watch the Royal Wedding."

So in the end back to Easter.  I just feel like I need a big dose of God's Love.  Some patience, energy, and strength.   but a lot of love.  I hate living with girls.  They're such back-stabbers, noisy, and annoying, and I am definitely looking forward to moving into the apartments with the upper class-men.  instead of 16 girls we will only have 8.   Praise The Lord!

I honestly thank the Lord for His sacrifice for us.  He gave up His only son Jesus, cause He loved us, despite our hatred or anger toward Him, despite our faults and failures.  He Loved Us.  He Died For Us.  I don't know if I will ever be able to come close to the way He loves us.   But Easter is not about His death but the fact that Jesus defeated death by coming back to life.  So we can be assured a free gift of life in heaven with Him if we only accept it.   God is love.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Guest Blogger: Being able to keep the past behind

Hey lovely people :) Today an awesome friend of mine, Chris (follow him on Twitter if you want to know him better) is doing a guest post for me. Lately I have been lacking in posts and I feel so bad. I am hoping to have guess posts every week if I can or maybe one every month :). I think it would be pretty awesome (and less work for me to think :P hehehe, kidding). Here is some food of thoughts from Chris.

I'm sure everyone knows life brings it's surprises every day in life. Sometimes these are to be remembered and some are best to be forgotten. It's almost certainly very easy to see people everyday walk past and judge but next time your surrounded by people you don't usually see spare a thought for each one of them. Every person has scars of regrets and memories of fear they have to carry with them every day. Although some people carry more pain than others I am sure not one person has existed without a significant issues from their perspective.

The problem is however insignificant some of these problems may seem to us to the person these problems can be huge personally and really harm someone's confidence. So what is the answer to forgetting all of life's problems and moving along?

You can't exactly ignore them because then you aren't mending and improving yourself to learn from your previous wrongdoings. The problem is you can't dwell on them forever because regrets can begin to affect your future negatively. So where exactly is the line between these two areas and how hard is it to get there?

I think it depends on you as a person; around the point when regrets don't keep you awake at night and at the point where you can accept what you've done wrong, keeping the past in the past. You need to see how even if you wish whatever happened in the past had never happened, at the end of the day you can only become stronger from your past. I guess it's up to the individual to the most extent and how willing you are to accept your mistakes and be persistent until you achieve what you've been fighting for.

Honestly I feel like I have been there and I have not moved on yet. Maybe I should and look at the bright side, I am still here I can make better decisions and not regret any decisions I have made in the past. I need to move on :) Have you ever come across problems in your life that you regret?

Thank you Chris. This kinda made my day. :)

1 comment:

Mimi said...

this is a really good topic to think about! i think we need to give ourselves time to dwell on certain things -- we need to feel sad when we feel sad, be angry when we're angry. with that said, i think it's also important to snap out of it at some point. accept it, deal with it, and move on. i know, it's easier said than done, but it's possible. :)

<3, Mimi
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My journey through my day and my life with its andotes and life lessons of the day. The gifts and blessing of those people the Lord has surrounded me with along with the many treasure's He has left for me to open and enjoy along the way. My walk with my Lord and Savior, Prayers, Work, Play. Pictures of the gifts and blessing. My journey through life and how it has strengthened, blessed me or............

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Friday, March 25, 2011

Finger Print Friday~

Here it is one of my favorite link ups of the week. Come join the fun and see what others are seeing in their neck of the woods. God is leaving His fingerprints everywhere. Lets wee what gifts He is leaving for us to find and share. Have super blessed Friday.

Fingerprint Friday

There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that says:
I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know its true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

So look around you and see where YOU can see God's fingerprints. Is it in nature? Kids? Animals? Where do you see them? Here's how to join:
Head on over to "Rusted Chain" and link up with your fingerprint with the linky

This week as I was headed over to the Adult Foster Care to do hair I spotted this most wonderful carnival. I love carnivals they bring the child out in me.
It was a misty rainy afternoon. So I really didn't see much activity. But I parked the car anyways for about ten to fifteen minutes just to watch. Too see the laughter and fun of the children playing. Before heading on over to work.
I love the Ferris wheel. I love getting on and it going round and round and round. Then stopping when I'm at the very peek where I can look at everything from a birds eye view. I love swinging my legs back and forth. Not to fast as to move the seat gantlet crazy though, nice and gently with a gentle sway to the breeze and music playing below with a peaceful joy. As I know it can be dangerous to do such acts as swinging your legs really fast and moving the chair gantlet back and forth like a swing. Though I know they are much safer than they where when I was younger. You are literally at the top of the world looking down. Nothing like being at the peek of the top of the world looking down!
It is a view that is so breathe taking to me.
I wonder is that what God sees a breathe taking world!?!
I really loved this photo with the tree branch stretching in front of the Ferris wheel. The blue sky's breaking after the rain. A few people mingling at the bottom wondering if they should stay or go.
When I was a child it didn't matter if it was rain or shine. you stayed and played until your funds ran low or they closed the gates till tomorrow. Only to return with thrill and excitement of the new adventures to be had; until the funds ran out or the gates closed. Which ever came first.
I think God just loves the laughter and smiles of his children whatever age they are playing and enjoying the activities under the sky whether blue or grey; rain or shine. It is the peeks at the top of the Ferris wheel of laughter and fun at the top of the world of the wheel of life that brings Him joy when He sees His children playing care free with no worries or cares. Enjoying life to the ultimate they possible can in that moment in time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and time to heal,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to weep and a time to laugh,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.\,
A time to embrace and a time to refrain,
A time to search and a time to give up,
 A time to keep and a time to mend,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to love and a time to hate,
A time for war and a time for peace.

Do you like the Ferris Wheel?

1 comment:

I Am Not Superwoman said...

Is this the one over in parking lot 162nd & Stark? My mother in law lives right down the street and when I was taking kids over there the other day our 3 yr old wanted to go. Ferris Wheels, not a fan. Not sure why really because not afraid of heights or anything. I think it is more or less the ones at these carnivals just don't look very safe to me. Have a wonderful Friday!


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Dorothy Walz: striving to make Valley Stream better

(Page 4 of 4)
While some residents have complained about the changes that have taken place in Valley Stream over the years, Walz has embraced them. She said she loves the community’s mix of residents of all backgrounds. Her neighbors on one side are from Haiti, and on the other side are Filipinos. She considers them all friends. “I’m thrilled with Valley Stream,” she said of its diversity.

If people want the village to remain a good place to live and raise a family, she said, they need to take an active role in the community. That has been her philosophy throughout her nearly five decades in the village.

“I’m very proud of Dottie and her efforts in the community,” Fare said. “She is one of those people who tries to make Valley Stream a better place.”

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Review of Boots UK

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Create more engaging posts.
Respond to posts by others more frequently.
Create a Facebook campaign in order to gain more likes.

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2016-04-07 12719933 10154100697203832 1118850472 n Davidoff Horizon are giving you a chance to win a trip to Morocco Simply... 671 714 159
2016-04-06 12923223 10154098845478832 6122415910095821122 n Visibly clear skin, visibly clear savings! From daily scrubs to... 1536 13 58
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2016-04-07 12474177 10154100541273832 2131280629 n Something amazing is coming soon… 40 2 33

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2016-04-16 Many thanks to the staff at Boots in Southbourne Grove_✔👌 The lady at th... 0
2016-04-16 I look after my 81 year old Dad's affairs as much as I can to ensure... 0
2016-04-16 Beauty show time 💛 Loving Holland and Barrett Parkway Holland and Barrett Shannon Holland &... 0
2016-04-16 Absolutely appalling visit to Boots Trafford Retail Park today. Firstly being obviously followed... 1
2016-04-16 Shame on you with your greedy financial targets that are making your own staff ill with the... 1


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Review of West Hawaii Dental

Page reviewed 2015-01-02

Ask business partners, customers and friends to become fans.
Try Promoted Page Ads to gain more likes.
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Increase the variety in your posts.

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2013-12-17 1467293 649841991723714 1095648624 s Have you heard of #Cerec? These amazing #ComputerizedCrowns and inlays... 2 0 0
2013-12-04 1450091 649835085057738 1944515706 s The answer to yesterday’s #FactOrMyth is: Myth! We recommend brushing... 1 0 0
2013-11-25 1391745 634648273243086 692393695 s This is a reminder to take extra good care of your #Teeth for the next... 1 0 0
2013-11-15 1454764 634645963243317 568341095 s Now is the perfect time to take care of that #ToothAche or #Cavity... 1 0 0
2013-12-15 1463163 649841578390422 1401360865 s The answer to yesterday’s #TrueOrFalse question is: False! Nothing can... 1 0 0


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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

20 Years of Summer Goals

It occurred to me the other day that my 20 years of teaching has led to 20 summers of to do lists, big plans, and usually stress as the days ticked away and the list did not get much smaller. That experience has given me a little insight and I have made some changes to my approach to the summer.

The problem the first several years (16 or so!?) was that I just planned a little too big - organize the house, figure out a method to avoid large stacks of essays to grade, raise the Titanic, etc. The chance of getting any of these items complete during the summer was the same, zero. There were MANY items like this on my list and I was always frustrated by the time the school year rolled around again because I was still behind on my tasks!

I heard a saying years ago that went something like - if you expect nothing, you have all things. Now that is a mantra I can head into summer with! Unfortunately (and quite reasonably), my wife did not quite get as excited about that quote as I did. I needed to find a happy medium.

So, balance, realism, and prioritizing have taken over my approach to summer tasks and learning. Organize one pile a week instead of the entire house, fix one garden bed a week instead of re-landscaping the entire neighborhood, and so on.

Like many, I have a large stack of books to read. Simply figuring out what will work at the beach or around the pool (Kieran Egan's The Educated Mind = no; Neal Bascomb's The New Cool = probably) and what I REALLY need to read before the school year begins is a good way to prioritize for me. The tasks and ideas I would like to implement in school next year are listed and will be prioritized in the same way.

One particular task (or habit) I want to develop this summer is to start blogging more consistently, so one of my 11 main tasks (while 10 is a nice round and manageable number, "these go to 11" is a phrase that sticks with me always) is to write one blog post a week. It takes me quite some time to plan and write each post so this is a decent goal for me. I learned that I should not get caught up in thinking about it too much and just need to be satisfied with any length and topic. One page of scribbled notes should be enough.

Contrary to what I have heard for quite some time, I read somewhere recently that you should NOT tell others your goals. Maybe telling others puts extra pressure on you to complete the goal but since it is MY summer, I choose not to believe this research (or theory) and add that pressure. I will not delve into my list any more than that but I thought that others may want to join me in blogging a little more this summer. We can read and support each other in this task. I will report in September on my ability to achieve this weekly goal and maybe someone can add to their research about the theory of telling others about your goals.

Whew! One task for week #1 is now complete. If I stick to the plan I'll have another post published before ISTE11 and maybe by then tens of tenths of people will have read my posts and started their weekly blogging habit as well. Then both of us (or maybe all three!) can meet there and pump each other up to continue each week throughout the summer.

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Canada Day

I have never tried posting music before, but tomorrow is Canada Day, and I have been doing a number of things differently, so here are three of my favourites.
There is no video of Stan Rogers, as he has been gone 31 years now. I remember listening to so much of his music when I was a very confused, very new mother.
I hope you enjoy these...

Old Photos

Fifty some odd years ago, my sister and I tried to push my Dad out of bed.
It didn't work.
I am linking this with Vintage Weekly Photos.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

The catalpa trees are blooming,
and photographing them is a good excuse to stand and inhale the fragrance.
I love the ruffly edges of the blossoms!
I am linking this with Today's Flowers.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Lady's Mantle and Books

The lady's mantle is blooming now,
and I wondered what it would look like with some old books.

Snapping Turtle

Annie and I found this snapping turtle laying her eggs beside the river. I don't know if we disturbed her, or if she did not bury her eggs deeply enough, but I found the broken shells, the next day...

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

More Info About Tree

The city owns the tree, so it is in charge of getting rid of it, and they do supply a replacement, but you have to plant it.
I have an offer to take the firewood, if he gets here before the city's chipper truck does.

The nets from around the baseball diamond create a pleasing pattern.
I am linking this with Nature Footstep Abstract.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

If a Tree Falls in the Thunderstorm...

Yesterday dinnertime, we had a severe thunderstorm. There was barely a second between the lightning and the thunder,
lots of wind and a bit of hail. Sometime in the middle of that, the flowering crabapple tree in the middle of the front yard came from together.
Last month, a couple of big branches came off, and husband put some black paint to protect the tree from losing too much sap or getting infected. The link to those photos is here.
I have called the city, asking them to remove the pieces, and put a new tree in the yard.
My neighbor and her grandkids are going to start taking the branches apart this morning.
Neither of us expect them to get very far, but it will be a novel experience for them, and amusing for us.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Currant Blossoms

My Mom's currant bush was in bloom, and I spent some time each day with it,
especially in the later afternoon, when the sun was shining through the flowers and leaves.
I am linking this post with Today's Flowers.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Grandma and Maud

Maud is the only horse my grandparents owned whose name I know even though I never met her.
She used to be a racehorse, but just because she was retired, she saw no reason to let those nasty horseless carriages pass her when Grandma was driving the kids to school.
My Mom remembers some pretty wild rides...

Thursday, June 20, 2013

It's that time of year again -
the grass is in blossom.
I can capture the florets, but not the pollen...
To see more skies from around the world, click the icon on the right, for Skywatch Friday.

Deb, this one is for you!!!
I am linking this post to Nature Footstep Winged.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

This is what peonies look like after an inch of rain...
But I can shake some of the water out,
or admire it on the buds.
Or simply play with the photos...
I am linking this post with Nature Footstep Blo-Ma.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The morning sun peeking through the clouds caught the fleabane, highlighting the petals.
I am linking today's post with Nature Footstep Catching the Light.

I have no idea why my Dad brought home this toy truck.
Maybe the same reason I had to do a photo shoot with it...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Five Things

Weeks ago, Deb challenged me to list five things
about myself that you do not know. I think she wants me to move out from behind the camera,
1. The biggest thing just now is the sciatica. It is getting better, but there were so many days when I just wanted to cry with the pain. I have been doing a lot of reading, and not so much moving.
2. Jake has health problems of his own that I am dealing with. He will be 13 this summer, but his hearing is going,
and now he is unable to use one back leg. The vet said there is arthritis, but it also feels like a torn ligament, and the way he is holding his foot, there may be nerve damage.

3. I got my first car when I was about 5. It was a black Studebaker.
My father drove me around the block in it, then parked it near the back fence. My sister and I would spend the spring and fall sitting on the roof, pretending we were hunters, shooting the buffalo (you know, the black and white ones that go to the barn to be milked twice a day), and sending our pretend dog to retrieve our kills.
4. My first kitten was named Timothy, and he was all black.
5. My sisters and I were all baptized the same day, my third birthday. I will try and find the photo celebrating the event.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Some of the photos from my Dad's basement that are all about shapes and colours, rather than images.
I am starting to forget what some of them actually were...
Today, I am linking with Nature Footstep Abstract.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Daisies with Raindrops

The daisies have started blooming!!
It must be summer!
I am linking this with Nature Footsteps Blo-Ma.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Horseshoes and Lampshade with Flowering Crabapple Blossoms

I am going to have to come up with another way of labeling my posts...
I have labeled the contents of this one, but the title is rather boring...
or maybe you think it is intriguing...
But this is what I have been editing today,
from the photos I took while I was in Woodstock.

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About Me

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
I'm a 50 something female set loose on the world with a camera.


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english is my second first language/finding closeness in the distance

when i first moved to nj from portugal at the age of fourteen, i hardly spoke english

the only english i knew was the english that had been taught to me in school while in portugal

i said things like hoover instead of vacuum and although i was shy to speak the english language, i understood most of it and my reading and writing skills were enough to have me pass all the tests

it was a hard adjustment period

i missed portugal and everything/everyone i had left behind, i had no friends, the new kids were not the nicest, i ate many lunches outside by myself in the freezing cold, classes like science and history were nearly impossible, my own parents were strangers to me…

but, i hung in there

at the age of sixteen, my parents suggested we move back to portugal

i remember thinking to myself, wtf is wrong with these people? wtf are they trying to do to me?

by that time, i had finally pretty much mastered the english language (some will still argue with that), i had friends, i was close to getting my drivers license and i finally had the freedom i once had in portugal (believe it or not, moving from portugal to nj was quite the jail like sentence for a while)

most importantly, i finally felt like myself and that i had a life again

needless to say, the not so nice-bitchy (if you can believe it) teenage me strongly protested against us moving back to portugal

and so in the states we stayed and lived

in several states, not always together, not always happy, often times more like strangers rather than a family…

but in the same country we lived

then in the late nineties, not all together, not all at the same time, both my parents and brother returned to portugal

once again i chose to stay

since then, i have visited portugal almost every year

and every year it gets stranger and stranger for me to return

portugal is where all my family lives, it is where i grew up until i was a teen but it is not home to me

it is a place i had to put in a dark corner (along with many loved ones) in order to adapt and move on in a new country

it is a place where loved ones are no longer physically there but yet in my mind and heart they still exist, it is a place where the cousins i grew up with are now adults who i hardly know and who now have children of their own who i don’t know

it is a place where i feel like a foreigner and hardly even speak the same language anymore

that said, it is with this same distance that my mom, brother and i have found closeness

perhaps even more closeness than we ever had when we were physically together living as a family

living far away from family can have its benefits

when family acts like aholes (and we all know we have them and who they are), it is nice and convenient to be far

but for the most part it is hard

oh so hard

this past week, harder than ever

happy friday friends

hope you all have a wonderful weekend


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Monday, June 9, 2014

Meatless Monday: Sugar-free Coconut Macaroons

IQS, I Quit Sugar, Sugar-free, Macaroons

Last year I signed up for the I Quit Sugar challenge with a few friends. It was hard going giving up fructose for five weeks and quite a few other sugars for 8 weeks - not because I had sugar withdrawals (I didn't) but because the diet was so bland and joyless for me (here's my rundown of the pros and cons). I am not entirely convinced that coconut oil is the saviour Sarah Wilson proclaims it to be (there's a lot of it in the diet and it starts feeling like she's getting kickbacks from the coconut industry, much like Michelle Bridges and the obscene amount of ricotta in the 12WBT). But I did get a bit of a taste for coconut. And appreciate 'sweets' that aren't so sweet.

These coconut macaroons are a bastardisation of the traditional recipe which calls for a hefty amount of sugar. Instead, I replaced the sugar with Rice Bran Syrup (a fructose free and not-so-sweet syrup approved by the IQS gang) following Pastry Affair's lead for replacing the dry sugar with a liquid (she uses maple syrup).

In the traditional recipe you beat egg whites and the sugar together. Here's what I did:

  • Beat three egg whites until stiff peaks form
  • Gently warm or nuke 1/4 cup rice bran syrup until it's a little runny but not hot (if it's too warm it'll cook the egg whites)
  • Mix in 1 tsp of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt to the syrup
  • Gently add the syrup mixture to the egg white and beat to mix in (you'll lose some of the stiffness from the eggs - it might even get a bit soupy - don't worry too much)
  • Gently stir in 1.5 cups of unsweetened dessicated coconut until all the coconut is coated in the eggy mixture (you could also use shredded coconut that you whiz up in a food processor yourself - this will be more damp than dessicated coconut, so you may need a little more).
  • If it's still 'soupy' add more coconut. The final micture should be a little sticky but hold together when you shape into balls
  • Shape into balls (or use a piping bag and make cute little 'kisses' or besitos de coco) and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
  • Pop in the oven at 170 degrees celcius for 10-20 minutes depending on if you want white macaroons or toasted coconut macaroons. I like mine toasted.
  • Let cool on the tray for five minutes before cooling completely on a rack.
You can vary these in lots of ways. Traditional macaroons are made with almond meal instead of coconut, so you could substitute in nut meals and experiment with the texture. I added in powdered ginger to this bunch but you could add in any spices you think would go with coconut or nut meals - cinnamon, nutmeg, aniseed/anise, chinese five spice, etc.

Dear Boy approved of these only-slightly-sweet treats, and was covered in coconut after helping me make and eat them. He only held still long enough after-the-fact to let me get a picture. Macaroon demolished.

  1. These look good, I've been going to try macaroons for a while now so I'm glad you popped these up.

  2. Yum, sounds delicious! Wish I had one for afternoon tea right now in fact. Kellie xx

Thanks for taking the time to respond to what you have read here at Lilybett and Boy. I love reading through all your comments.

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Organic Key Lime Pie

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This is key-lime like you’ve never known key-lime. At once both tart and sweet, each slice is topped by dollops of real whipped cream. The art of key-lime is elevated to another level…

Organic lime juice, organic evaporated cane juice, organic milk, organic tapioca starch, organic butter, sea salt.

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