Exhibition of working sculptures Cirencester

Today I went for a trip to Cirencester (pronounced Sirensester..why ever? when Gloucester is pronounced Gloster not Glosester!). It was an old Roman town, once the centre of England and equal in size to London! It also has an old Roman amphitheatre..more of that later. Well, I just stopped in the centre of town near an old brewery that has been converted into an art and craft centre, with the craftsmen and women working on site. Anyway, they had an exhibition of the craziest sculptures called automata by someone called Robert Race, an old man who has travelled the world looking at traditional working toys. he uses reused and recycled materials, as they have a story that they carry (eg driftwood could have come from miles away and carried many marine plants and animals along the way.

this exhibition was made with and by old people, bringing back a little of their past. As you enter, there is a sign saying that adults must be accompanied by a child. This is a simple figure on a piece of wire that flips and dangles when you move it.

If you sit on this beach chair and pull a handle, the umbrella swirls around.
This sculpture is full of moving figures.

This is a close up of one of them. If you push this double base pram, things start happening
 

This is a punch and judy show, with an incorporated old gramaphone. And another totally crazy scene.
 Also in the old brewery was glass blowing and a weaver of fine scarves so delicate.

Then I went in search of the Roman amphitheatre, which I imagined would stick up above everthing (THINKING colusseum). Well I went past twice. I dont think it has been excavated, and is really more like mounds of grass. I have attached a drawing of what it should look like and what it does look like. Britons do not seem to value their Roman origins as much as their British ones. In Rome this would have been a crime.   Another odd place is Minchinhampton common. (Britain is so ancient that there was no such thing as town planning. This is what makes it an interesting place. )It is just on the top of the hill above where I live. (Equivalent to just outside Bishopscourt). It is open grassland of about 600 acres separated from the other towns by a cattle grid on all sides. The village is in the middle, (so is my house )and the cows, of which there are about 600, owned by various locals run free except for ear tags to identify their owners. There are no fences and it is a meeting of 6 roads that go different directions. The weirdest part is that it is also a huge free golf course as well. Used also by the mink and manure for horse riding. The cows herd down to respective farms at certain times of the year..ie when it becomes cold and they live in their respective barns until summer. The common is constantly manured and kept in trim by the cows.!

The Biodynamic Farm

Gables farm is part of Ruskin mill. And is a biodynamic farm. This means it is farmed using the principles outlined by Rudolf Seiner, who is also the founder philosopher of Waldorf schools. So what makes it biodynamic, other than the fact that the vegetables grown are extremely healthy and vital?

The Farm is treated as an organism as a whole, and so you need all the ingredients: the physical soils, the etheric: the plants, the astral, the animals, and the ego: the farmer. One of the great secrets is the preparation of the soil. In the winter, the plants and animals withdraw from the outside, but the earth becomes alive. At this time it is gathering forces for the spring, where it pours the energy back into the plants. So autumn is when certain herbs and substances are buried in the ground to make full use of these forces. So here some of the Biodynamic apprentices, tutors,farmers and us volunteers are making BD 500.

Here fresh manure of a lactating cow, note the beautiful green colour..essentially partially fermented grass from all over the farm, full of bacteria and other organisms is placed in cow horns that are then buried and concentrate the winter energies into the dung. In the spring, when forces rise again to the surface, the horns are dug up and used in homeopathic doses all over the farm. It enhances the etheric forces, and believe me, the etheric forces are incredibly strong here..sometimes a bit too strong, and we spend a lot of time cutting back.

The other biodynamic preparations are made from the flowers of herbs..also enhanced through burying them through the winter in various animal parts. These are used in the compost heaps that are the foundation of Biodynamic farming. Here, myself and Nils, an apprentice from Sweden are making chamomile prep by stuffing dried flowers into a natural sausage skin from a cow.

The pigs prepare the soil from grass.
The Heavy horses are fantastic for ploughing and farrowing, as they do not step on the plants that are there. Here they have rouched up the soil around these huge leeks without crushing one!

There is a tractor on the farm, but you rarely hear noisy equipment. I have learnt how to use a sickle and a scythe..they are both very effective instruments and go no slower than a weedeater. You never need to go to the gym, as you get good exercise here. The heavy horses also just munch slowly as they walk. It is just so peaceful. This is part of the therapy of the farm. Long walks through the peaceful forest to your class, or past the flowforms,,listening to water running.

The students learn how to use all the instruments including setting up the plough and they love harnessing the horses, but also drive the tractor. Tutors don’t discriminate, and girls work as hard as boys, but they never force them to work. They have to watch if they don’t work, and usually end up wanting to do things, because its boring watching. Ultimately they all work very hard.

VISITING CHILDREN

Working mostly with grumpy teenagers and adults, it was wonderful to hear a whole lot of High pitched voices full of enthusiasm. This was a visit from class 3 of Wynstones school. Gaia and Kesh, you must have done this when you were there! They spend the day at gables farm. They loved it.

Ruskin Mill and my work

There is a lot to say about Ruskin mill. It was a textile mill in the industrial revolution. (England has a History that goes far beyond South African in years, and this is what makes it interesting.) It is now a college taking in 16-20 year olds who have dropped out or been referred by a school for any number of reasons, and need some adjustment towards a working or independent life. The essential ethos is based on Rudolf Steiner and is run biodynamically. In the earlier days, they received semi criminal students, but now deal mostly with asbergers syndrome and autistic spectrum. Each student has unique combinations of issues, and a teaching body decides what is the best form of therapy for them. They are then each assigned a support worker, who helps them to achieve their goals, many of which they decide themselves. The course is 3 to 4 years, and will involve them in many activities. Ruskin mill trust operates 5 colleges and one school, each of which has a different flavour depending on their main activity but all for students who struggle at “normal” schools: The glasshouse does glassblowing as its main craft, the Freeman college has metal work and jewelry, and the other two colleges are land based, doing farming type activities.

Each college runs like a business, essentially using all things made within the college and selling excess to the public. The main focus is the use of them for education into skills necessary for working independently.

At ruskin mill college, where I am,  we have a biodynamic farm, a woodland, a trout farm, as well as a bakery, forging and a coffee shop open to the public. Each feeds into the other in a self sufficient way. The woodland makes charcoal used in the forge, the forge makes items used elsewhere, the farm feeds the shop and café and so does the bakery. The students help with everything led by a tutor. They also learn various crafts and do other therapeutic things like drama, singing and crafts like pottery and leatherwork.

We are 2 volunteers who help to complete the jobs that students often start but don’t finish, as the entire enterprise has to work as a functioning unit. There are also a few biodynamic apprentices who are learning about biodynamic farming who help with this. We are assigned a timetable that takes us through different areas of the Mill and we do a craft as well. That’s a bit of background.

My day starts with a long walk from my home base  2 miles (a bit longer than 2 km) away to ruskin mill. I am getting very fit, as Nailsworth is in the Cotswolds which is made of hills that go up and down quite dramatically, so there is no easy walk, but it is truly lovely and thus far the weather has been fantastic. When I say fantastic, it is never really hot. This is autumn, and there is always a chill in the air, especially as there are so many trees that it is always shaded. The only way is to wear layers, as activity makes you hot and sitting still makes you cold.

The college only starts at 9am. Most schools in England start at 8.30 or 9..even 9.30, but then they go on until 4. We get a lunch and tea break, and food is provided for everyone. Some of the students naturally don’t like the food, and bring their own sandwiches. Our lunches use the produce on the land and are highly nutritious and delicious. This is fish and chips on Fridays with a curry sauce.  I cook my own supper, but often don’t feel like anything, and just snack when I get back at about 5pm. I have a little bedsit cottage overlooking Nailsworth. Very quiet, no streetlights. Its equivalent to Bishopscourt, but you always have farmland inbetween and people keep cows and sheep and chickens. When I say quiet, you don’t really hear birds frogs and insects. I am not sure why, perhaps it is related to the season. This is the view from my door.

STUDENTS AND TEACHING AT RUSKIN MILL

Before anyone deals with children at all in England, you need to be cleared to do so, and so have a long and intricate form to fill in. Then they also train you in working with aggression. I wish I knew this before. Everyone has to know how to de-escalate aggression appropriately, and so there is a calmness that pervades the atmosphere. Some students cant stand this and spend the day singing and talking. This is one of the best therapeutic effects. There is also no haste to do anything. Everything has no time limit and we all break for tea and lunch in the middle of a task. This is a lovely social affair with some fighting over biscuits and toast.

The students don’t work in large groups..usually only 2, but with the volunteers and support workers (who also have to work) and the tutors, it makes about 6-7 at a time. Support workers have to keep their students within eye range at all times and always know where they are. The students are not really aware of them. They report any progress after each session, and set goals together with their support worker. Sometimes, the tutor will spend time explaining the background and theory of an activity, and this is where they learn the theory from the activity, and most places have some computer where things can be shown, eg how charcoal is made, or the theory of bow bending for archery or knife making.

Although they have some mechanical tools, much is done without. They have 3 heavy horses that pull a small plough. The horses are calm and beautiful. Just their presence is therapeutic.

MY TIMETABLE

I do something different for every day of the week. Mondays is in the market garden sieving compost, cutting flowerheads. Tuesdays is hard work on the farm doing everything from tagging sheep to cleaning hen houses. There are no “labourers” here, and I felt for vanesssa as I mopped the toilets. This is the barn where we painted the walls and shifted tons of winter feed.

Wednesday is baking day, and I have made everything from sourdough breads to focaccia, baked in a wood fired oven. This is Luisa, my co-volunteer making a harvest bread for our Michaelmas festival. 

here are some other photos from Michaelmas, which is essentially a harvest festival.

This is  weird scupture in the forest that the students decorated with flowers just for fun. There are lots of these odd areas with unexpected things.  

They also do face painting of something you fear, and it is about facing your fears (the dragon). Here I have a couple of spiders painted on my face. one of my selfies.

Thursdays is horticulture on the biodynamic farm. Here we are filling cow horns with fresh cow manure to make biodynamic preparations

Fridays are woodland management. Here we are cutting up a HUGE fallen branch from an enormous ash. We make charcoal from much of the wood, used in the forge, while we also send branches for greenwood turning, and otherwise spend a lot of time chopping wood for fires.

This is me picking lots and lots of HUGE Black berries. My namesake, and nickname given by Athenkosi. These berries look good to eat but have vicious thorns that fester for weeks if they pierce your skin.

To Gloucester and visiting Alexandra in Totnes

I tried to book the bus to Gloucester it on my new smart phone, but it kept spelling things wrong. You have to have incredibly small fingers to type right. So that attempt failed, so I am now going straight to the Bus station to TALK to a human. My problem is going to be luggage. I packed the maximum because I am staying for  year, but getting around with luggage is expensive as you have to use taxis. Oh, Here there is NO fixed price on anything. It depends on demand. Prices can jump daily and hourly. My plane ticket cost 2000 more 2 days later, even the hostel has different rates depending on the day of the week and demand for beds. The train depends on the time you travel. Oh, you don’t realise how lucky you are in SA to have fixed prices on trains and buses and rents.  However, I am amazed at what you can do! I managed to book my plane, a bus from the airport and 5 days stay in London over the internet, and while here have managed to simply use my card as normal..although 1pound is 20 rands and so you get a shock at what seems cheap but isn’t. But I also managed to send money back and pay my obligations back home without a flicker.

We live in a global world, so I thought, so I was also quite shocked at what I had to go through to get a visa for a year. Beaurocracy rules okay here. There are so many details you have to fill in just to prevent immigration. It literally took me a year to get here. Even my mother and fathers details..and theyre long dead. Also you have to know where you’re going, where you’re staying, when you’re returning. The size of your shoes… They also only give a months visa, and then you have to go to your UK  address and pick up your extension within 10 days of arriving.

Gloucester cathedral. This is where Harry Potter was filmed…Hogwarts at last, but my train wasnt a train and it wasnt at platform 9 and a half, but Victoria station platform 4.

Well I finally arrived in Gloucester to pick up my extended visa. It is impossible to find an address even with google maps being my close companion, as the streets go around in circles. I decided to hire a car to go and see Alexandra, as the car hire was cheaper than taking the train! This was freedom, and I didn’t have to lug my years luggage around with me, except I spent hours just trying to find where I was going and getting used to driving in Britain. I hired a smart little fiat 500, which you need as it has a small turning circle, and as I kept getting lost, I’d have to keep turning around.

This is a hotel-pub I stayed at where no walls were straight and your head literately hit the ceiling!

So I headed for Totnes (pronounced TotNASS by the locals). Well, I missed the turn, followed the signs, found myself going backwards on the same road and ended up going right around Dartmoor (a huge reserve) into a big  city (Plymouth) at peak hour traffic, and finally found Totnes. this is a shop in Totnes that basically only sells HARPS. I am not sure such a shop would survive in SA.

This is Totnes castle built by the Romans!

It was good to see Alexandra, and at last someone I knew. Of course for her, it was during the week and she was in the middle of a main lesson, but nevertheless we managed to share some time. I visited the South Devon Waldorf school, which is very much like Imhoff except the High school is wooden. They also only go up to class 10, which is usual for Steiner schools here, because they do the Cambridge matric which starts in class 11 (They do this at other schools). This school is planning to go up to 11 next year while offering the International Steiner certificate offered by New Zealand (ISSC). This school is very land based, and the curriculum has extensive gardening and agriculture. The other lessons are squeezed as an after thought inbetween the main lessons and agriculture right through the High school. The woodwork and forging area is to be envied, and Tracey and Kath you would love the light airy art room.

Greenwood turning..look how many pole lathes!

They are having some financial problems and I think we are a bit tighter here on fee payments, threatened to close, but in the Waldorf community spirit, have risen to the challenge. The school remains.

This is an outdoor kitchen where they serve lunches and at functions.

One night on my travels I failed to book a bed for the night, thinking that I would stop in a small town (Frome) where I was certain there would be lots of space. They however had a pub festival on, and there were no beds at any Inn, and I was too old for the YOUTH hostel. So I travelled down these wiggly windy roads and found an old church yard, parked the car next to gravestones and smelly silage barns and TRIED to sleep in a Fiat 500! Impossible.

Also driving through Glastonbury, you see these unexpected hills..man made, where the rest of the land is flat as a pancake. This one is called a mump. (halfway between a mound and a hump) It has an old church on top.

So finally, I went to Nailsworth, where I would be staying and checked out Ruskin Mill and my landlord and dropped off my luggage. Went past Wynstones finally (Howards old school and Gaia also went there.(.I did say Hi, but it was Saturday and no one was there), envied their Hall and workshops and dropped off the car, taking a bus back to Nailsworth, where I promptly got a bad dose of flu (thankyou Lily and Jack , who got sick while I was in Tones), and slept for 2 days. Luckily it only lasted that long.

First stop London

So it has taken me a year to get here, and I am sitting on an iron bunk in London. Travelling at a time when the rand is weakest, in one of the most expensive cities. Everything is paperless and electronic, even flushing the toilets. In four days I had to go from Nokia cellphone to booking everything on line, paying on line, a new smart phone that was so smart, I couldn’t keep up with it..yet it was bottom of the range. It did help me keep in touch in real time so that I didn’t feel the distance so much. Its like leaving home without your mummy and getting lost in the supermarket when you are five. So much that is familiar isn’t. Luckily they speak English here, well mostly, I heard a group of scots talking, and literally it took me a while to realise that it was also English.

So there is so much that is different in this huge city, and I keep wondering how it came to be what it is. Also wondering where are all the beggars, the black people, yes there is quite a cosmopolitan group of people, but they all have British accents unless theyre a tourist, and there are hordes of tourists. Of course I decided to come during the world cup rugby. So the world and his brother and sister are here.

So why does it feel so different? First a lot of the the buildings are all dark and made of old brick, and they all seem miniature in size. (the roof starts low down and is steep. This gives the impression that the houses are small. Some of them are small, hardly head height)  Theyre also always in long row and semi detached. Streets are rarely in fact I can now say, never, straight so you have to really keep your sense of direction..no mountain to guide you. Then they all have rows of chimney pots on the top. Never seen so many. Are they all still used?

The weathers not that different..yet. Apparently we have been having good weather. I have only used my brolly twice. Its just very changeable and you have to wear layers and always take a brolly, as the rain comes down whenever it feels like it, and when it does, it is relentless, gentle but persistant. I prepared quite well, thanks to kway and the schools gift. A good raincoat, feather waistcoat, good brolly, waterproof shoes and small backpack, I have wandered the streets of London. The telly always quotes the weather as “sunny patches”, rather than “rainy patches’ I suppose they are trying to be optimistic. But I have been lucky as we have not had rain for 2 days now. Its just the beginning of autumn and you notice how GREEN everything is. Super green. There are many parks in London with HUGE trees. To give you an idea, I am on the fifth floor of a hostel (cant afford a hotel with the rand at 20:1) without a lift, so I am getting very fit., but out my window is not even the top of an average size tree).

Many of the parks are surrounded by iron gates and are private. I always wonder what would happen with a more socialist government. I think I would feel put out by all the private property. However, there are also HUGE parks and gardens free for all, that are all so immaculate, you have to look hard to find a weedy patch, and you know I love weeds. However, I was heartened to find occasional South African plants like COSMOS and melianthus (the smelly plant growing outside Imhoff high school). I also wonder how they manage to sustain the perfect upkeep of these gardens and realise that much is tax. It is a wealthy country but also highly populated. Lots of people. Lots and lots!, all living  on top of each other in expensive rooms. But lots of garden in between. I think a lot of my sister Claire, who loves gardening. Here it seems so effortless that things just grow so well, you spend more time cutting back than encouraging growth.

I decide not to plan my day, but to head in a direction and see where I get to. This was all very surprising as I’d suddenly realise where I was, looking at some place I’d only seen in pictures, or remembered vaguely from my first visit 20 years ago, like Buckingham palace or Trafalgar square or Big Ben even. Then when my feet could not walk anymore..literally,  I would take the tube to my hostel. In this hostel I am lucky to get a 4 bed room. Many have 20 beds. There is no sexism or
racism, and I particularly had to confront my own sexism, as I was in a room with 3 burly men! I realise how entrenched is this fear of the opposite sex, and soon got over it. Then one night I woke up with two of them in one bed together, and I had to confront my own homophobia..okay they werent having sex, and it seemed quite sweet really. I only realised later, that one was female, but still, it was quite a shock to realise my own resistance.

So, as I was walking the street, I realised that I wanted to share it with certain people. The fashions in the window, made me think of Jamie Lee, Lindi and Yolani, and of course, Gemma and I realised that I couldn’t tell them. so, finally I downloaded whatsapp and promise to send some fashion out of London top of the range shops. Then there were so many theatres..all familiar in name, I found myself taking hundreds of photos wanting to send them all to Charisse, Sinetemba, Joseph, Bianca

and of course the globe to Janis! (Shakespeare productions)

The art struck me the most and again I took hundreds of photos thinking of tracey and wanting to share with Indi, Adam, Courtenay and Chryssea. Weird stuff. Very little beautiful, I must say, other than the portrait exhibition which was HUGE..over 4 floors of old and new portraits..Chryssea you would have loved it.

Of course I took a photo of Lord Byron..the famous portrait, after which my dearest son is named. Here there is a design festival and I know he would love it all. Byron, you have to come and visit me and see this all for real. Then of course the Tate modern, where the most famous artists like Picasso and Miro and Kandinsky sat side by side with unknowns and other 20th century artists..it made you think, as they are usually exhibited in periods, where as these were in themes. Also they re not protected by armoured glass or fake copies. Adam you would have loved the surreallist, Salvador Dali, the paintings were so small and fine, (when printed it seems so big,) it looked like airbrush, but wasn’t. And the enormous installations. The Tate modern is in a HUGE old power station. The spaces are HUGE and perfect for exhibitions of everything BIG.

In London, you walk around expecting to pay for everything, but get good surprises when so much is free, while others are horrendously expensive.  Here I am lost in Turner land, with the most exquisite rooms of Turners work. He is truly an inspired artist. Nothing else touches the quality of his work.

I gave up on Madame Tussauds and a visit to the inside of Buckingham palace at R400 a shot and never mind the queues. To me these are overrated. I unexpectedly found some HUGE scuptures in surprising places. Everyone photographs Marble Arch, but theres a HUGE horses head..just a head standing on its own, called still water, and a fantastical dragon, called She guardian, with a cats face, bat wings, by a Russian artist, Dashi Namdakov.

Now lets not say anything about the architecture in London. There is truly a meeting of old and new. The skyline is so diverse. Really experimental spaces right next to ancient cathedrals.

Kept thinking of Tracey and her Architecture main lesson. You would have a FIELD day/week/month/year. Took lots of photos showing these contrasts.

Of course my excitement at being here finally was marred by the unexpected and horrifying news about Amani. I suddenly felt like wanting to be back and feeling so awful for Mandisa. Also unbelievable in some ways. London is so remote from Africa and what is happening there. Here, everything is so concerned for polish and image and I sometimes rail against the damage that was wreaked in Africa that led and still leads to this extreme wealth that fortunes are spent on gardens (mowed literally in stripes so that it looks like astro turf but isn’t), while Africa struggles with what was left behind in the wake of the colonists leaving it to cope with the after effects, while the real wealth still travels daily to the North. There are a HUGE amount of office buildings, and I wonder who fills them. All the men wear suits and women dresses. (very few jeans). What are their jobs? Is it all about finance and wheeling and dealing stocks and shares..virtual money. I sometimes have found it hard to explain what a place like Masi is like..no concept exists here. I spent time googling all the news I could find. Even going into the beautiful churches here to find some expression for my grief around Amani felt very remote. I went to a service on Saturday at Westminster cathedral..one of the largest and very catholic and felt very remote. On Sunday I went to another old church that was a bit more transformed by a young christian movement, and felt more moved, and the singing was heartfelt, but the only prayer for south Africa was because we lost the rugby to Japan.

Yet in the streets of London, there are few shopping centres. All the shops are small and unique, very few franchises, although I did buy a mac double cheeseburger and chips because I was starving myself because food is so expensive. (R60 for a breakfast consisting of white bread, artificial coffee, a slice of cheese and ham..and that was cheap. I cant get over R40 for a decent coffee take away). Shops are always small and tucked together down almost every street, mixed up with houses. I notice that there are no awnings to shade the rain! No garages even in the wealthiest areas they park in the street although they are reserved for residents. No one other than the wealthy have cars in London and you can hire bicycles at every corner..R40 for half an hour…is considered free! Of course you have to have a card to use. Everything is by cards, buses trains, that you swipe everywhere and it deducts preloaded money. An electronic nightmare trying to work out how to use machines for loading money, machines for taking it off again. I keep thinking of old ladies, like my dear departed mother, who couldn’t operate an atm, and how they would get around. Someone needs to make a movie of Aunt Agatha going to London. In some ways I feel like that. Cant ask anyone anything, because theyre all machines..supposedly user friendly, but very unfriendly..well you cant even use that word because it has a human edge to it. Even on the aeroplane, it felt like science fiction. Everyone sitting in chairs each with their own video screen and speakers on ears, each visiting a different world watching everything from horror to romance. All the windows closed to stop the glare on the screen. No one looking where we’re going.

And this of course..charging your electric car outside your house.

Okay, enough for today. I am going to book a bus to Gloucester and get out of this infernal city.             One place I HAD to visit, was Neals Yard dairy. Being an erstwhile cheesemaker, I have lusted over this place for years. Its small and tucked away, but oh the cheeses!