Pumpkin Personalities II

Happy Halloween!

Keep on running…

According to old story, gingerbread men are speedy little chaps, out-running all but the crafty fox.

Unfortunately for this little batch of runners, they were cooked, cooled, decorated and promptly tinned!

The recipe roughly followed one on the Channel 4 website, with the omission of cinnamon and cloves (bizarre ingredients for a gingerbread man) – and golden caster sugar replacing the soft brown sugar I’d forgot to buy!

It’s Snow Time!

I don’t know what’s wrong with the youth of today around here – I haven’t seen a single snow-building project on the go. Even their snowball fights are half-hearted five minute affairs, presumably before rushing inside to their snowboarding video game?!

After a fresh blanket of snow had tidied up the construction site, a Robin came to inspect the strange being under his bird table… (it’s a snow bear ok!)

No tripod to hand for that night time snow shot? Use a handy ‘no swimming’ warning sign instead!

Ah! No! There’s bus coming, it’s going to ruin the photo…but…oh, ummmm, maybe not?

Pumpkin Personalities

For the record, I don’t worship the occult, I hate scary films and I really don’t care for Halloween – I just like the annual ‘carving silly faces in pumpkins’ thing!

Food for thought on urban agriculture

Well it started as an off-the-cuff remark to a colleague, but thanks to the power of twitter and blogging, the idea of utilising the undeveloped spaces of Birmingham’s Eastside for a community food production has gathered some momentum! The very impossibility of the idea is motivation enough to make it happen. There are of course a few obvious barriers to an Eastside City Farm:

* The land is owned by various people and already earmarked for development.
* The site is ‘brownfield’, probably not very fertile and quite possibly contaminated by years of industry.
* Site security would be non-existant and it might be an all too tempting venture for the mindless vandals in society.

However, it would still be good to put this as yet unused land to constructive use. It surely cannot make business sense to build anything for a while, so why not ride out the economic storm with a community food producing venture? That’s a lot more use than patches of grassy wasteland.

Considering all the healthy eating campaigns and the soaring cost of food, the prospect of engaging the people of Birmingham with a grow-your-own fresh produce scheme has got to have some merit. Having it slap bang in the middle of the city centre is a bit mad – but what greater place to attract attention?!

I’m imagining that such a venture could take the form of some or more of these:

* A co-operative community project that shares the harvest spoils.
* A charitable venture where produce is distributed to those in need.
* A social enterprise where produce is marketed and sold to the public to fund operations.
* An education centre to encourage and enable the public to produce their own cheap fresh food.

For sure, there are a lot of big scary unanswered questions – mostly money ones, even if someone did lend their grassy Eastside patch to the cause. But, anything can happen if you let it……. if not in Eastside, there’s got to be another site in Birmingham for some urban agriculture?!

As with all good ideas, someone’s thought of it before! Middlesbrough has an urban farming scheme on the go (thanks to Dave Harte for the link) and there’s also a national Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, with some projects active in Birmingham.

Anyone up for a Birmingham urban farm/grow your own project?!

The Eastside City Farm

Peering out of the window of Millennium Point this morning, I can see another team of council workers laying turf over the latest Eastside demolition site. We now have an increasingly green, albeit patchwork, open space on the east side of town.

Now I can’t imagine any sensible business person will be pressing ahead too hastily with all the plans for apartments and offices down here, given the current economic climate – so I suspect we’ll be seeing grassy wastelands down here for a little longer than the planners had planned.

So…here’s an oddball idea for the interim…..the Eastside City Farm! There’s surely enough space for a few dairy cows, some chickens and a rather fine vegetable patch. Given the long term value of the land, it’s hardly a permanent venture – but would be a top way to make use of the space whilst times are hard. Be it with the community and or with Birmingham schools – we certainly need all the young peeps to be more into their fruit and veg!

Moseley Rugby…and a little bit of luck

Born, bred and still living in Moseley, it defies all logic and belief that only today did I finally go and see my local team play! It’s been one of those “yeah, I must do that” things for many a year – and finally, thanks to a freebie ticket out of the blue, I got round to it.

What a bloomin’ glorious day for it too! Glad I ditched the car in favour of a sunny autumnal stroll to the ground on Billesley Common. Cutting through Swanshurst Park, I didn’t dare think how many years it had been since I’d last been there – a school summer holiday playing cricket no doubt. That is a minor travesty itself – it’s such a lovely open space, though hardly anyone was making the most of it on a fine sunny day…except for the ducks.

Anyhow, after spending the last couple of Saturday’s at St Andrew’s, the atmosphere at Moseley was a refreshing change. There was no rival supporters shouting abuse at each other, no singing “sh*t on the villa” and no segregation. “Come on Mose” was as far as the chanting went, with just a few sharp jokes directed at the referee. Oh and rugby fans can be trusted to swig their pints pitch-side!

So Moseley V Otley kicked off, with Moseley scoring three early tries in quick succession. Who knows what the rules of rugby are, I’m a round-ball football fan, but so long as the egg-shaped thing was going in the right direction, the finer points of the game aren’t that important!

At half-time, I moved away from the further temptations of the bar, to sit on the grassy bank at the far end of the ground…..right behind a familiar voice. Why it was my old History teacher, Mr “bullsh*t lad, don’t give me that bullsh*t” Taylor! I hasten to add that he never actually said that to me.

Moving a little further away and finding myself sat in a patch of clover, perhaps with a couple of fizzy pops on my mind, I thought ‘I wonder if four-leafed clovers really exist’. At that moment my eyes turned to this (no really, it happened just like that):

Whilst Moseley did go on to win the game 36 – 26, I’m hoping that I didn’t just use up my newly discovered luck! I could do with it on a more personal level…this year isn’t going to plan! I suspect however that one makes their own luck, but I’ll savour that little moment in my memory banks.

Bluenose for a day…. Blues 2 – 0 Barnsley

Today might seem so massively unremarkable to anyone else, but after many years of not going, for no apparent reason, I finally went to a football match proper! I told you that would seem unremarkable! But, it’s another thing ticked of the to-do list of life, even in its insignificance…and oh what the hell, it’s made me feel like a 10 year old, so I should probably stop playing down my excitement about it all!

I’m counting it as a first, as going to a few non-league games many years ago doesn’t really count – and whilst I did see a Premiership game last season, it was courtesy of the nice Post & Mail people – and the “box” doesn’t really count either – you’ve not “been” to a game unless you’ve sat amongst the cheering masses. “Shit on the villa” – apparently!

As a born and bred brummie, I know it couldn’t have pleased my dad when I first asked for a Liverpool kit for Christmas. Yes, I was a glory supporting child of the biggest team of the 80’s – and it has stuck. However, since leaving school, I’ve slowly cared less and less about the game – I check the scores if I remember and generally find it boring when it’s on telly. The Premier League just doesn’t appeal, they don’t seem to play with half the passion we did as children, in the park, jumpers for goalposts, re-enacting the FA Cup final. Money has killed the game I used to enjoy.

But anyway, after a session of random ticket booking last weekend, I sat in the Kop today at St Andrews as a bluenose for the day. I’ve always been a blues sympathiser, if not a fan! That’s probably sacrilege and I’ll get my head kicked in if I go again!

I did remember to jump up and celebrate when blues scored – but when the chap next to me starting talking ‘blues’ at half time, I had to blag my way through it by vaguely recalling the blues team in my 1986 Panini sticker album!

I’d give a match report, but the only player I recognised on the pitch was blues’ Kevin Phillips – the first goal scorer. Blues look dangerous going forward, but the midfield was a bit woeful. Barnsley were much the better team passing the ball through midfield – though, if they had a striker on the pitch, he was invisible! A bloke behind me moaned all the way though the second half – I really wanted to turn around and remind him that blues were 2-0 up!

There’s only one thing I really didn’t enjoy about my day – the price. £27 to watch a game of Championship football……£27! St Andrews is no Anfield…although since they named the ground after me – and won – I might well go again.