Snippets

Veganuary

This month isn't just January, it's Veganuary. Organisations such as The Vegan Society are encouraging people to enjoy a meat-free month, consuming plant-based dishes and even avoiding eggs, cheese, fish and butter.

Now as some of you may recall, our son Ian became a vegan a couple of years ago. For the past six months he has been working with "Jungle Creations" in London, producing a series of vegan recipes that are displayed on a Facebook page called "Bosh!". Go here.

 

Some of these recipes, revealed in fast-paced video clips, have received well over a million hits. Usually, it's our Ian's hands you see in the video clips. He has invented or adapted all the recipes and it's his drive and creativity that is currently making Bosh! successful. Of course it helps that there is a growing interest in vegan cooking and the attitudes that underpin veganism.

Here in Yorkshire, our local BBC TV  news programme is called "Look North". As well as serious news stories they like to include what you might call magazine features - no doubt to counteract all that gravity. Yesterday, they wanted to do a feature on Veganuary.

Having been interviewed by BBC Radio Sheffield on Monday, Ian was invited to play a leading role in the "Look North" item. He prepared a simple vegan recipe in a friend's spacious modern kitchen and the food was later enjoyed by James Vincent - the BBC reporter. The item also included a cut to Sheffield's Moor Market where two or three older Sheffielders were quizzed about the idea of becoming vegan. Naturally, the idea didn't go down too well with them.

The item included a clip from Bosh! and Ian came across pretty well. It's another feather in his cap as Bosh! advances into the future. There is even talk about a publishing group building a new vegan recipe book on the back of all the interest that Bosh! has engendered. But of course that remains to be seen. So far so good.

Tweeting

Though the internet has gradually claimed a significant chunk  of my life, there are features of it that do not appeal to me. This aversion is instinctive. For example, I don't "do" Facebook and I am anti-Twitter. Regarding the second facility, I guess it helps that I have never owned a mobile phone - smart or otherwise - and Twitter seems to be principally designed with phone technology in mind.

It might be argued that blogging is itself a self-indulgent narcissistic activity but surely far less so than Facebook or Twitter. As someone who earned his living on the back of the English language, I am repelled by the very idea that thoughts or arguments might be effectively dealt with in just 140 characters. It is an insult to scholarship and rather boorish too. Facets of human experience usually deserve and indeed require far more than 140 characters for proper expression. 140 characters should be no more than a headline or a title but certainly not the whole caboodle. No way.

In contrast, President Elect Trump seems to be a Twitter enthusiast. Since his election, he has been firing off tweets almost on a daily basis with little regard for the gravity of his office or the responsibility that this will entail through the next four years. 

I imagine him in his silken bathrobe, lounging in the penthouse suite of Trump Tower. Melodramia has already gone to bed having once again successfully dodged The Donald's crude grabbing technique. He pours himself a large glass of Trump whisky and grabs his smartphone instead. Frigging Melodramia! What can he tweet about tonight? Hillary's e-mails? The Great Mexican Wall? American car companies?  Obama's birth certificate? There's nobody to stop him. He can say what the hell he likes - if he could only spell Guantanamo.

It's disturbing. It's scary. The Leader of the Free World creating policies on his smartphone in the middle of the night. Stirring hornets' nests, not giving a fig for the ripples his tweets might cause. He's like those spotty keyboard warriors who fire out nasty remarks, smugly believing they are safe behind their pseudonyms. They can say what they want - just like The President Elect.

Meanwhile over at Donald J. Trump's official website they are selling badges for his inauguration, bumper stickers, baseball caps and T-shirts. You might also be interested in Trump eyewear, Trump suits and neckties. Trump leather accessories or perhaps his latest book, "Time to Get Tough" which is of course subtitled "Making America Great Again". When did it stop being great? I suspect it stopped on November 9th last year when  Mr Trump crossed the line.

Life is filled with questions. Who the hell is Jackie Evancho? What is the "Movement" and why did The President Elect choose to put that word inside inverted commas? Was this choice significant and does "Movement" really mean something else?

Reflections

Down by the old Sheffield and Tinsley Canal, I snapped these pictures of reflections in the water. Isn't it interesting that we use the word "reflection" in two ways? It  may concern an image of something echoed upon a water surface or on glass. But of course it can also concern thought processes after an event - weighing things up, mulling things over. Connected wise sentence openings might be - "Upon reflection..." or "I  will need to reflect upon that...".  

The second kind of reflection is about establishing clarity but a visual reflection is often unclear - not an exact image of the scene or item reflected. Ripples on water or cracks in glass will alter the image - perhaps making it slightly surreal so there is a sense in which it is rather odd that the term "reflection" is applied to both processes. 

Anyway, I must stop reflecting on reflections and go upstairs for a shower. There I shall see my manly physique reflected in the bathroom mirror. I shall be off to Oxfam in an hour. Reflecting upon charities, I should like to send a giant "Boo!" out to all those mean-spirited people whose ignorant excuse for not giving to charities is that donations are mostly squandered upon administration and wealthy chief executives' salaries.  It is a myth.

Out of every £1 that Oxfam receives, just 10 pence is spent on support and running costs. 37 pence is spent on emergency response work and 42 pence is spent on ongoing development work. Upon refection, I deduce that this is a very acceptable balance. For example, the full-time manager of our shop, Catherine, receives a salary of just over £20,000 a year. Would those charity ignoramuses really expect her to work for free? 

Now cease this sofa-based indolence - to the shower Moriarty!

Urban

The River Loxley at Hillsborough Corner - soon it will feed into the Don

For one reason or another, my first two strolls of 2017 have been within Sheffield's city limits. One day I plodded around the Hillsborough suburb and the next day I was downtown by the River Don, close to the site of this city's huge medieval castle. It is such a shame that almost nothing remains of this fortress - just some foundations that were hidden beneath market halls built in the early nineteen sixties.

Sheffield was built on steel and the production of steel products. That industrial growth depended on several locational factors, not least The River Don. It flows through the city where it is joined by smaller rivers including the River Sheaf which gives our city its name - Sheaf-feld, field by Sheaf, Sheffield.

Sheffield Canal Basin

Before steel came along, The River Don was rich in salmon. They came up The Humber, into The Trent and then up the Don to its headwaters north of Stocksbridge. Even today there is  a section of The Don in Sheffield that is called Salmon Pastures. However, steel making was a very dirty process and during the industrial revolution The River Don became little more than a sewer or drainage channel for industrial waste.

With post-war decline in steel manufacturing and improved pollution controls, The Don is now a much cleaner river. Brown trout are back and industrial weirs are being attended to in the hope that salmon might one day return.

The River Don near Lady Bridge

On March 12th 1864, Sheffield was devastated by a terrible flood caused by a dam burst at Low Bradfield. Flood waters surged down The Loxley Valley towards The Don. In that process many homes and businesses were destroyed and 293 Sheffielders were killed. Yesterday I spotted the flood monument erected in 2008 within a new riverside development. It is pathetic and an insult to those lost souls. This was the worst civilian tragedy in  Victorian England and yet its visible commemoration is utterly underwhelming.

Changeover

Yesterday, after the hullabaloo of The Laughing Horse Awards had dissipated somewhat, I drove off to Rud Hill for fresh air and a little downtime. 

It was cold and breezy up there as I looked out upon the dying light of the old year. A surfeit of molehills (right) peppered the last sheep pasture before rough open moorland begins. It was as if the green sward had suffered a barrage of mortar bombs. And I thought about those industrious little creatures tunneling beneath my feet in search of earthworms. Once I spotted a weasel up there. He darted into a drystone wall and paused to inspect me with his fierce blackcurrant eyes. But that was in summer T-shirt weather.

Beyond the three reservoirs at Redmires and over The Hallam Moors I could see a fire burning at Moscar Heights (top). Meanwhile to the north east, sunlight spotlighted the centre of Sheffield one final time before the dawning of 2017.

In the gloaming I drove home. It was pitch dark when we ordered a Chinese takeaway from "The New Hing Lung" on Abbeydale Road - a New Year's Eve treat. Frances was going out to a party and we were going down to the local for a knees-up, a few beers and a raucous rendition of  "Auld Lang Syne".

Indeed, more than in other recent years it's surely the right time to drink a "cup o' kindness" as we enter the unvisited plains and the rolling valleys and hills of 2017. Let us hope that when these next twelve months have passed by we can all look back on happier times for our Earth. Happy New Year Everybody... Happy New Year!

The Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield
Viewed from Rud Hill -  four miles away

Winners

Winners are entitled to copy one of the 2016 prize 

widgets before pasting into their own illustrious blogs. 

_______________________________________

The Laughing Horse Awards Committee have instructed me to announce the winners of the 2016 blog awards. This is a duty that I feel immensely honoured to execute having been associated with the Laughing Horse organisation since its inception way back in 2008. The central remit of Laughing Horse is to encourage excellence in blogging and to honour leading exponents of the craft of blogging.There is no truth whatsoever in vindictive rumours that suggest The Awards Committee are influenced by  monetary backhanders or bribery.

Without any further ado, here at the very end of 2016 AD, let us go straight to the awards...

SENIOR BLOGGER OF THE YEAR - Pat (Mrs Weaver) for "Weaver of Grass". This Yorkshire-based blog gives us a window upon country life in the Yorkshire Dales. It is about friendship, family, memories, poetry and appreciating the simple joys that life presents. Written in a kindly, contented manner the blog demonstrates that being an octogenarian does not mean one's zest for life should shrivel up. Pat deserves credit for excellent blog maintenance and for responding thoughtfully to comments that are received.

BEST WELSH BLOG - Once again "Going Gently" by John Gray is honoured. The Committee stated, "It is an antidote to The Archers on BBC Radio 4". Having gained worldwide popularity, "Going Gently" continues to surprise us all as John reports on his various animals, The Prof's eyebrow, the legendary Mrs Trellis and of course the machinations of The Flower Show Committee. There is a heart-on-sleeve humanity about this village blog which keeps its readers returning.

BEST AMERICAN BLOG - Jennifer for "Sparrow Tree Journal"  . Emerging from Florence, South Carolina, Jennifer writes a very candid blog. In 2016 she considered the ups and downs of working life in a retail environment and her struggle to stick with it. There's her beloved dogs Ginger and George, her parrot Marco, her husband Gregg, reading group meetings and all of the rest of the paraphernalia of everyday life in a typical town of the southern states. Jennifer's thoughtful and supportive comments on other blogs were also noteworthy. (Runner-up in this category was Bob Brague for "Rhymes With Plague", Steve Reed's blog, "Shadows and Light" was dismissed from this category as it is mostly produced in West London, England)

BEST REGULAR FEATURE ON A BLOG - Ian Rhodes for "The Sunday Round-Up" in "Shooting Parrots". Every Sunday - almost without fail - Ian treats his readership to a quirky look at the previous week's news. There are links to news stories from around the world and an obituary section too. It deserves more visitors. His "Sunday Round-Up" is bound to make you chuckle and perhaps your jaw will also drop. Ian even posted a "Sunday Round-Up" on Christmas Day which is most commendable.

BEST CANADIAN BLOG - For the second year running this has gone to Red of Red Deer, Alberta for his calm and friendly "Hiawatha House". One of the best features of Red's blog this past year was recollections of the time he spent working as a teacher in the far north of Canada. We also learnt more about the infamous "micro manager" who lurks in the background, monitoring Red's activities and no doubt keeping him sane. Red continues to leave pleasant, supportive remarks on other people's blogs.

Two previous Laughing Horse Blogger of the Year winners were highly commended by The Awards Committee for outstanding services to blogging. They are of course Ms Lee George for "Kitchen Connection" and Ms Meike Riley for "From My Mental Library". The former blog is forged in Queensland, Australia and the latter blog is mostly manufactured in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Both blogs are carefully crafted, well-maintained and enjoy loyal followings. They remain a credit to the blogosphere.

And now, drum roll, we move on to the major award - 

The Laughing Horse Blogger of the Year for 2016

Here's a clue:-

And here's another:-

Yes folks! The Laughing Horse Blogger of the Year for 2016 is none other than Steve Reed for "Shadows and Light"

In  selecting Steve's blog as the overall winner, The Awards Committee noted "...the clarity of its expression, its grammatical accuracy, its regularity and reliability, the ceaseless high quality of accompanying photography." The Committee enjoyed tales of outings with Olga the pet dog on Hampstead Heath and Steve's recent Caribbean cruise which took followers to faraway places such as Belize, Key West and Cozumel. But above all, it was those amazing, expertly formed and often quirky photographs that clinched it for Steve to whom we send a huge... 

Well Done!