Following close on the heels of the new (to me) info about women’s suffrage campaigns in Edinburgh outlined in the last post, I find that Edinburgh Filmhouse is hosting a day (4th Oct) as part of the Gude Cause centenary. The Filmhouse is showing three films about women in Scotland, none of which I’ve seen, but they look marvellous.
I am extremely miffed because I have to be elsewhere on Sunday, so missing out on this event.
Most of the important information can be found at Creative Voyage.
http://www.creativevoyage.co.uk/node/309
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/890164/index.html
I won’t completely miss out as I can listen in on Thursday to Radio Scotland where some of the filmmakers will be interviewed about their work.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074hml
Edinburgh Doors Open Weekend
It has been Doors Open weekend in Edinburgh and I took full advantage of this in the wonderful sun yesterday and found some real treats!
http://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/default.asp?page=119
I started at the Kings Buildings, which house Edinburgh University’s faculty of science and engineering. First up was the Natural History Museum, within the old Ashworth building, then the Cockburn Museum of Geoscience, in the Grant Institute.
The Natural History museum contains somewhat more specimens in jars than I can stand, so I mostly avoided those and looked into microscopes set up with various marine exhibits. This was fascinating – a word I’ll make no apology for overusing in this account.
There was worrying information in the apiary exhibit about the threat to bees and, more optimistically, the research the university are conducting into preserving bee stocks.
Most interesting was the talk from an enthusiastic youngster on his work linking his engineering expertise with the biomedical research company set up to produce innovative procedures to identify cancer cells which don’t respond to drugs and use new methods to tackle this. He also gave a brilliant explanation of the uses of nanotechnology in medicine.
I moved on to the Grant Institute and while looking at the examples of rocks, a faculty member (Professor … oops, didn’t get her name) offered to show me the Ion Microscope in the bowels of the building. She left me in the hands of another enthusiast, this time a very experienced tech who knows everything there is to know about ion microscopes.
This was utterly fascinating! He had some terrific stories about these complicated machines, of which there are only 2 in the UK, both in this department.
He showed me what he is working on right now, which is some minute Russian diamonds, which reached him by the curious delivery method of being taped into the spine of a Russian book. He is uncertain of their provenance but hopes the work done to analyse their properties in the ion microscope will be paid for!
I became quite inspired and could easily have been persuaded to take up earth sciences and train for this kind of work, but I think it takes longer than I may have left to learn all this!
I’d left a couple of hours to see round the Royal Observatory – it wasn’t nearly enough.
http://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/support/pr/opendays2009/index.html
What a brilliant site this is, and to top it all they have really great coffee in their cafe!
A young astronomer gave a talk (oops, didn’t get her name either) on her work at Paranal in Chile on the VLT (Very Large Telescope).
http://www.eso.org/public/astronomy/teles-instr/paranal.html
I like astronomers; they must have a passion for plain speaking, the way they name their telescopes VLT and E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope). Um, I might be tempted to give a slightly more explicit title to a telescope that is 42 metres in diameter.
After this short tantalising talk, I wandered round some more and got my photo taken with an infrared camera. It was a warm day but my nose was still cold and showed up green on the image. It showed even greener when I rubbed it with an ice cube, while my hands got very red holding a cup of hot water.
Time then to climb up the stairs to the observatory. Half way up there is a door onto the viewing area where there was a telescope trained on the Nelson Monument at the top of Calton Hill. I managed to take a photograph of this by placing the lens up against the eyepiece. It is upside down for obvious optical reasons and I’ve left it so at the top of this post. As the Nelson Monument was also taking part in Doors Open Weekend there are people up there too.
In the education room off the viewing area, I waded past hordes of kids playing with various astrological things appropriate to their age-group. I decided I was too old for the ‘making a comet talk’, but muscled my way into the group of adults surrounding the ‘handle a meteorite’ display.
Finally, I made my way up to the old telescope and yet more informative exhibits, before coming back down the stairs and noticing a fascinating info board detailing the ‘bomb’ set off in the Observatory grounds in 1913 by Suffragettes campaigning for votes for women. Yikes, these women obviously got pushed so far that they really took things into their own hands! However, they made sure no one was hurt and there was not extensive damage.
http://www.womenslib.org/index_files/Page324.htm
The incident made the New York Times which quoted the UK Home Secretary who described it as a “… petty annoyance to frighten the government into giving the franchise to women …”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F04E7D81F3AE633A25751C2A9639C946296D6CF
Thanks to the bravery and persistence of our foremothers, less than one hundred years later I can visit the Royal Observatory and listen to number of women scientists who have had the opportunity to travel the world and work as equals alongside male scientists and no one thinks anything of it.
What a way to end my afternoon!
http://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/default.asp?page=119
I started at the Kings Buildings, which house Edinburgh University’s faculty of science and engineering. First up was the Natural History Museum, within the old Ashworth building, then the Cockburn Museum of Geoscience, in the Grant Institute.
The Natural History museum contains somewhat more specimens in jars than I can stand, so I mostly avoided those and looked into microscopes set up with various marine exhibits. This was fascinating – a word I’ll make no apology for overusing in this account.
There was worrying information in the apiary exhibit about the threat to bees and, more optimistically, the research the university are conducting into preserving bee stocks.
Most interesting was the talk from an enthusiastic youngster on his work linking his engineering expertise with the biomedical research company set up to produce innovative procedures to identify cancer cells which don’t respond to drugs and use new methods to tackle this. He also gave a brilliant explanation of the uses of nanotechnology in medicine.
I moved on to the Grant Institute and while looking at the examples of rocks, a faculty member (Professor … oops, didn’t get her name) offered to show me the Ion Microscope in the bowels of the building. She left me in the hands of another enthusiast, this time a very experienced tech who knows everything there is to know about ion microscopes.
This was utterly fascinating! He had some terrific stories about these complicated machines, of which there are only 2 in the UK, both in this department.
He showed me what he is working on right now, which is some minute Russian diamonds, which reached him by the curious delivery method of being taped into the spine of a Russian book. He is uncertain of their provenance but hopes the work done to analyse their properties in the ion microscope will be paid for!
I became quite inspired and could easily have been persuaded to take up earth sciences and train for this kind of work, but I think it takes longer than I may have left to learn all this!
I’d left a couple of hours to see round the Royal Observatory – it wasn’t nearly enough.
http://www.roe.ac.uk/roe/support/pr/opendays2009/index.html
What a brilliant site this is, and to top it all they have really great coffee in their cafe!
A young astronomer gave a talk (oops, didn’t get her name either) on her work at Paranal in Chile on the VLT (Very Large Telescope).
http://www.eso.org/public/astronomy/teles-instr/paranal.html
I like astronomers; they must have a passion for plain speaking, the way they name their telescopes VLT and E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope). Um, I might be tempted to give a slightly more explicit title to a telescope that is 42 metres in diameter.
After this short tantalising talk, I wandered round some more and got my photo taken with an infrared camera. It was a warm day but my nose was still cold and showed up green on the image. It showed even greener when I rubbed it with an ice cube, while my hands got very red holding a cup of hot water.
Time then to climb up the stairs to the observatory. Half way up there is a door onto the viewing area where there was a telescope trained on the Nelson Monument at the top of Calton Hill. I managed to take a photograph of this by placing the lens up against the eyepiece. It is upside down for obvious optical reasons and I’ve left it so at the top of this post. As the Nelson Monument was also taking part in Doors Open Weekend there are people up there too.
In the education room off the viewing area, I waded past hordes of kids playing with various astrological things appropriate to their age-group. I decided I was too old for the ‘making a comet talk’, but muscled my way into the group of adults surrounding the ‘handle a meteorite’ display.
Finally, I made my way up to the old telescope and yet more informative exhibits, before coming back down the stairs and noticing a fascinating info board detailing the ‘bomb’ set off in the Observatory grounds in 1913 by Suffragettes campaigning for votes for women. Yikes, these women obviously got pushed so far that they really took things into their own hands! However, they made sure no one was hurt and there was not extensive damage.
http://www.womenslib.org/index_files/Page324.htm
The incident made the New York Times which quoted the UK Home Secretary who described it as a “… petty annoyance to frighten the government into giving the franchise to women …”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F04E7D81F3AE633A25751C2A9639C946296D6CF
Thanks to the bravery and persistence of our foremothers, less than one hundred years later I can visit the Royal Observatory and listen to number of women scientists who have had the opportunity to travel the world and work as equals alongside male scientists and no one thinks anything of it.
What a way to end my afternoon!
Tedious disclaimer
Having posted all of the above, I reflected that I probably, for the sake of utter clarity in case anyone could conceivably think I was in favour of gunpowder, state that I am not. Duh!
Yummy weekend food
Continuing the sunny weekend theme from yesterday's post, this is a run through of the lovely food Sig Other and I have been scoffing.
Our 'Pemberley' picnic consisted of sandwiches filled with blue cheese, avocado and chopped walnuts, then chocolate cake, raspberry & cranberry smoothy, bananas and a walk round the gardens to digest it all.
All that National Trust culture made us hungry, and Sig Other went home and created the most delicious asparagus flan. He rolled out some gluten free frozen pastry (defrosted of course) that he'd found in Sainsburys and consulted Prue Leith's Cookery Bible to get the quantities for an egg, Emmental and double cream filling for the pastry case. This was excellent and much better than my attempts at more calorifically virtuous quiches made with Quark.
Today we went to the Unicorn, a wholefood shop in Chorlton, a very naice part of Greater Manchester and one which I now want to live in. Perhaps the nearest analogue for Edinburgh would be a bigger better Stockbridge. The major drawback would be the overwhelming numbers of 'Conservative Clubs'; so perhaps no real equivalent exists in Auld Reekie.
The Unicorn is a fantastic shop which sells reasonably priced organic produce with helpful info on cooking suggestions. This season they have a vast range of squashes and a comprehensive leaflet to take away with ideas. They also sell a terrific selection of flours, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and tons of other great stuff. As it is so reasonably priced I have no qualms about trying things I've never heard of and taking culinary 'risks' on the weird and wonderful.
The company has a worthy ethical approach to business, attempting where feasible to buy local and if not, then to source ethically, fairly traded products. Today, they had a wonderful trolley made out of metal and recycled concrete bags made by a women's co-operative in India. I've frequently thought about finding a trolley, but knowing that even voicing that desire to my daughter would result in howls of horror (will I ever grow beyond the 'embarrassing mother' stage?) However, this trolley might be ok as it avoids the bag-lady tartan of the usual commercial shopping trolleys.
Still sunny later this afternoon, so we had a BBQ. Mostly cooked shop bought mushroom burgers, but I got creative with little parcels of asparagus (in butter and lemon juice), fine green beans (in olive oil with fresh rosemary), and baby potatoes, all in foil and taking various lengths of time to cook, so that extended the BBQ fun.
Garden furniture and BBQ all tucked away now till next year as I expect that is the finale of summer in these parts.
Links
http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/index.php
Can't find a pic of the concrete bag trolley, but this is a link to a similar product.
http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/12/allpurpose-cement-bag.php
Our 'Pemberley' picnic consisted of sandwiches filled with blue cheese, avocado and chopped walnuts, then chocolate cake, raspberry & cranberry smoothy, bananas and a walk round the gardens to digest it all.
All that National Trust culture made us hungry, and Sig Other went home and created the most delicious asparagus flan. He rolled out some gluten free frozen pastry (defrosted of course) that he'd found in Sainsburys and consulted Prue Leith's Cookery Bible to get the quantities for an egg, Emmental and double cream filling for the pastry case. This was excellent and much better than my attempts at more calorifically virtuous quiches made with Quark.
Today we went to the Unicorn, a wholefood shop in Chorlton, a very naice part of Greater Manchester and one which I now want to live in. Perhaps the nearest analogue for Edinburgh would be a bigger better Stockbridge. The major drawback would be the overwhelming numbers of 'Conservative Clubs'; so perhaps no real equivalent exists in Auld Reekie.
The Unicorn is a fantastic shop which sells reasonably priced organic produce with helpful info on cooking suggestions. This season they have a vast range of squashes and a comprehensive leaflet to take away with ideas. They also sell a terrific selection of flours, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and tons of other great stuff. As it is so reasonably priced I have no qualms about trying things I've never heard of and taking culinary 'risks' on the weird and wonderful.
The company has a worthy ethical approach to business, attempting where feasible to buy local and if not, then to source ethically, fairly traded products. Today, they had a wonderful trolley made out of metal and recycled concrete bags made by a women's co-operative in India. I've frequently thought about finding a trolley, but knowing that even voicing that desire to my daughter would result in howls of horror (will I ever grow beyond the 'embarrassing mother' stage?) However, this trolley might be ok as it avoids the bag-lady tartan of the usual commercial shopping trolleys.
Still sunny later this afternoon, so we had a BBQ. Mostly cooked shop bought mushroom burgers, but I got creative with little parcels of asparagus (in butter and lemon juice), fine green beans (in olive oil with fresh rosemary), and baby potatoes, all in foil and taking various lengths of time to cook, so that extended the BBQ fun.
Garden furniture and BBQ all tucked away now till next year as I expect that is the finale of summer in these parts.
Links
http://www.unicorn-grocery.co.uk/index.php
Can't find a pic of the concrete bag trolley, but this is a link to a similar product.
http://www.yourtomorrow.co.uk/product/12/allpurpose-cement-bag.php
Picnic at Pemberley
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-lymeparkTaking advantage of this brief warm weekend, Sig Other and I visited Lyme Hall, the scenic location used as Pemberley in BBC's Pride and Prejudice. You'll instantly recall it as soon as I mention Colin Firth and wet white shirt.
Sunny though it was, Sig Other was not moved to replicate this iconic scene, but in a romantic gesture soon after we first met, he took me to see 'Pemberley' in December when the frost glinted on the lawns and the little lochan (what's the English version of lochan?) was iced over at the edges. Again, no C.F. or any other exhibition of manly drippiness.
Today the Hall was open as part of the Heritage Open Days, so this time we saw round the house and gardens after picnicking in the grounds near the mill pond.
For aficionados
Festival fireworks
On Sunday I trundled up Calton Hill, as I am wont to do anytime there is a chance of standing with a crowd and watching some kind of spectacle or other. This time was in order to see the end of the festival fireworks. Radio Forth were kindly broadcasting the concert from Princes Street Gardens onto the hill so the assembled multitudes could listen as well as gasp in amazement at the bangs and sparks."The Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus joins the Scottish Chamber orchestra for a rousing night of some of Handel’s most famous works. The technical and artistic wizards of Pyrovision once again choreograph a stunning display to match Handel’s triumphant, exuberant music composed for royal occasions or in praise of God. "
Programme:
Hallelujah Chorus (Messiah
It lasted about 50 minutes and as ever, the timing of the pyrotechnics and music was fabulous.
I forgot to take my camera, so I made do with my Blackberry which is really not all that great as you can see! I mucked about with some of the pics to bring up more of the detail, but this is as good as it got.
It lasted about 50 minutes and as ever, the timing of the pyrotechnics and music was fabulous.
I forgot to take my camera, so I made do with my Blackberry which is really not all that great as you can see! I mucked about with some of the pics to bring up more of the detail, but this is as good as it got.
The best thing about it all, was the friendly crowd and that the rain stayed off until everyone was slowly making their way down the hill. And it was really quite warm. I'd dressed for the usual conditions up there - howling gale and extreme windchill factor, so I was rather overheated. Better that than shivering, although even then, I couldn't keep my hand steady to take more than a few pics that were not completely wobbly.I suspect the photographs of fireworks at this link are better than mine.
Warming recipes for early autumn
Summer is not a time for cooking in my kitchen, other than super salads and easy quick cooking, so as the weather closes in and the skies darken I've taken to scrabbling around in the food cupboards in anticipation of autumn.
Two days ago, seized with enthusiasm I dug out the seed sprouting system I'd abandoned years ago when some some exotic seeds turned into a smelly disaster. I spent some time refreshing the whole thing with very dilute bleach and making sure that was all washed off, before soaking some mung beans for 45 minutes, giving them a thorough wash then sprinkling them on two trays of the BioSnacky sprouter. I've dutifully rinsed the trays three times a day and already they are sprouting vigorously in a shady corner of the kitchen. I have a sense of pride in my little growing sprouts which by Sunday I will be able to harvest. Providing I look after them ok the bean sprouts should keep in a plastic container in the fridge for up to a week. I can think of very few occupations which provide such instant gratification for so small an effort.
Moroccan stew
This is worth trying again and again. I love finding new flavours and experimenting with them - I love it even more when I make something really enjoyable, like this dish.
3 medium carrots chopped in various sizes
same amount of cooked small potatoes (left over from potato salad in this case)
3 patties of frozen spinach
2/3 tin of chickpeas
3 roughly chopped spring onions
clove of garlic
vegetable oil
stock cube/powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cummin seeds
lots of black pepper
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
one clove
Assemble the spices then saute the carrot for a few minutes in the oil before adding the spices to let them cook for a bit. Add the cooked potatoes and fry for another couple of minutes. Add the frozen spinach, garlic and spring onion. Finally add stock and a little water. Cook until the spinach is incorporated with the other veg, then add the chick peas. Leave to cook out until the sauce thickens but doesn't dry up. Allow to sit in the fridge overnight to let the flavours fully develop then heat through and serve with couscous.
Fennel loaf
2 sticks celery finely chopped
twice that amount of fennel chopped
1/4 large onion chopped
small crisp apple finely chopped
enough wholemeal breadcrumbs to bind loosely
large tbs linseeds soaked in a little water (as egg substitute and to bind the mix)
2 tbs pumpkin seeds ground up
stock/bouillon
grapeseed oil
2 oz aged Red Leicester cheese grated
two vine tomatoes sliced
Saute celery, fennel, apple and onion in the oil until soft. Remove from the heat and mix in the pumpkin seed, powdered bouillon or stock, linseeds and soaking water which should be slightly gelatinous. Add enough breadcrumbs to create a damp mixture and press into a small greased loaf tin. Cook in a moderate oven until it looks a little crisp on top the sprinkle over the grated cheese and place the sliced tomato on top. Put back in the oven for another five-ten minutes.
Green beans with lemon and tarragon polenta dumplings
200 grams green beans halved
2 large sticks celery julienned
1/4 onion chopped
2 tbs chopped tarragon
stock
juice of half a lemon
black pepper
olive oil
Saute the celery in the oil for five minutes, then add the onion and green beans. Cook for a little while before adding the stock and tarragon and lemon juice. Transfer to a casserole dish with lid and place in a moderate oven while you make the dumplings.
Polenta lemon dumplings
2 tbs veg suet
2 tbs polenta
2 tbs SR flour
1 tbs chopped tarragon
grated zest of half a lemon
Mix together and add enough water to form a soft consistency then form into 4 or 5 dumplings and carefully place on top of the green beans. Cover and return to the oven for 20 -30 minutes depending on how long it takes the dumplings to cook in your oven.
Greengage flan
Sweet short crust pastry with one oz flour substituted with ground almonds, baked blind in a flan tin.
punnet of ripe greengages halved and stoned
caster sugar
creme fraiche
vanilla extract
2 beaten eggs
Place the halved greengages on the pastry and cover with the rest of the ingredients mixed. Cook in a very moderate oven until the filling is set. This will keep in the fridge for a few days.
Women and politics 4
One of the less remarked Edinburgh festivals is the Festival of Politics. As usual, I never get around to attending, even though I have great intentions when I see the festival programme.
Regret is deeper than ever this year as I missed Clare Short talking about her life in politics. A more principled Labour MP than most, including many of the determined, but not always impressive line-up of women climbing to near the top at Westminster (keep trying Harriet). I have a measure of respect for Clare Short and her work in development that was, to further strain an over-used word, compassionate and grounded in a people-centred approach. She recognised the need to incorporate trade as well as aid, but was scathing of other members of her government also arming idiots in developing countries simply to prop up the immoral UK arms manufacturers.
But all is not lost! Holyrood TV recorded her hour long talk at the link below. Be quick if you want to watch is as it will only be there for a short time.
http://www.holyrood.tv/popup.asp?stream=http://vr-sp-archive.lbwa.verio.net/archive/200809_FOP_clare_short.wmv
She also has an informative website with links to many of her speeches.
http://www.epolitix.com/mpwebsites/mpwebsitepage/mpsite/clare-short/mppage/home-1/
Regret is deeper than ever this year as I missed Clare Short talking about her life in politics. A more principled Labour MP than most, including many of the determined, but not always impressive line-up of women climbing to near the top at Westminster (keep trying Harriet). I have a measure of respect for Clare Short and her work in development that was, to further strain an over-used word, compassionate and grounded in a people-centred approach. She recognised the need to incorporate trade as well as aid, but was scathing of other members of her government also arming idiots in developing countries simply to prop up the immoral UK arms manufacturers.
But all is not lost! Holyrood TV recorded her hour long talk at the link below. Be quick if you want to watch is as it will only be there for a short time.
http://www.holyrood.tv/popup.asp?stream=http://vr-sp-archive.lbwa.verio.net/archive/200809_FOP_clare_short.wmv
She also has an informative website with links to many of her speeches.
http://www.epolitix.com/mpwebsites/mpwebsitepage/mpsite/clare-short/mppage/home-1/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)