Purple PawPaw

Gordon and I have been canoeing of late – not the skillful kayaking type – but the floating down the river in a Canadian type – well I float – Gordon does all the work – and instructs me as to what to do and when.

We had planned a 4 day expedition on the Wye with Ross on Wye Canoe Hire Co. However there had been so much water for the days preceding the trip that we were unable to complete the second 2 days and instead had to abandon the adventure at Tresseck Farm on day 2 when overnight the river rose by 4 foot. However we did have fun and intend to go back and finish the trip at a later date.

Day One – Hereford to Lucksall.

I took very few photos this day as was too busy trying not to rock the boat – literally – and was bit disorganised. We did however see 2 kingfishers and a whole range of ducks, swans, geese etc.

 

Camping at Lucksall

Day Two – Lucksall to Hoarwithy

Able to take photos, although it was wet on and off so pictures are dark. We hardly canoed at all on this day as the river was running so fast – kingfisher count of 6, flotilla of swans of nearly 60 – amazing!!

My view for most of the day

 

Day Three – Hereford and Hoarwithy

Hoping the Wye would drop and the canoe people would let us continue we spent the day in Hereford, mostly at the livestock market.

Hoarwithy church

 

Auctioneer in action

Day Four – Ross on Wye and around

We had eaten and dunk well at the nights at Hoarwithy at the New Harp Inn and decided to go and find out to where the fantastic perry and cider we had been drinking was made. This took us to Ross on Wye Cider and Perry Co. at Broome Farm where we sampled considerable amounts of the good stuff, and purchased even more.

Lamas guarding perry trees

 I pottered off to Goodrich Castle in the afternoon

Day Five – Symonds Yat

Classic view

Although it was lovely to return to Symonds Yat and look at where we should have canoed the highlight was seeing 2 perigrine falcons in flight – not photograped – beyond my capacity and the capabilities of my camera!

It was a good trip and it felt as if we were away for a lot longer – I think the pace of the river slows you down and there is nothing to do other than float about on the water…highly recommeneded!

Which one in Shaun?

I had a lot of problems getting photos into the last post – they seemed to jump out of it all the time so instead I though I would put some others here and hope that they would remain.

A great face......

I am spending some time trying to identify if there is any useful research or theories that can support me with a problem I have identified.

I work in the field of youth participation/empowerment and we are quite successful. I work for a county council who are taking the work very seriously and investing considerable money and time into ensuring that young people have voice and influence. However we are starting to identify tht young people are becoming a threat to some staff.

As young people recognise their power and use it effectively some staff are feeling concerned about what ‘might be said’. As a team we are able to support young poeple to use their power and influence responsibly and effectively however the gap still remains about how we support staff.

There is a school of thought which says that young people have the right to be heard and adults should handle whatever they say – but this just shifts the power balance and moves away from effective partnership.

I was thinking about banks and how they have moved from a place where a manager sat in a room with a pipe and worked limited hours and we were all beholden to his whims and relationships, to a situation where they are open 24/7 and work to the needs of the customer – but I seem to have drawn a blank.

I am looking at power theories but there seems to be nothing around on how as you empower one group another becomes potentially disempowered. Up until now I always saw the power as just needing to be redistributed.

Does this point to how staff feel themselves?

Are they disempowered?

 

We live in Buckfastleigh a small town on the edge of Dartmoor.

 When we moved here the big lure was the sea but we hardly go there at all…instead the big thrill is Dartmoor. I drove across it this week on my way back from an afternoon working in Tavistock. It was pouring with rain but it was still really alluring. I find it hard to express how I feel about the beauty of Dartmoor. I think what I love most is how although people have lived on it for ever we still don’t seem to have robbed it of what is it’s essence.

I love to go back to the same place and watch it through the seasons – noting how the colours, animals and plants change. It is a very special place for me.

Bellever

I am struck more and more about how passionate colleagues are about their work and it continually impresses me. It seems that particularly colleagues who are younger have such fire in their bellies about making all that they do really good. I don’t know if I ever have been that keen to get it completely right, or whether I thought about things so much…

…and then I remembered the  things I got up to as a generic youth worker in my mid twenties; the hours I spent with young people, sometimes 7 days a week, the projects we developed and the experiences we had, which were life shaping.

I think the big difference is (and the thing that especially impresses me) is how these people work really hard and then play really hard – I never had the energy for so much balance – and I am envious!

Having known each other for 7 1/2 years and lived together for nearly 6 we discovered this morning that we both like to play games on a wet day. So off we went to the nearest toy shop and spent some hard earned cash on a range of games; some we remembered from childhood, some we had always wanted and some new ones.

We spent some considerable time setting up Mousetrap – it was even better than we remembered it to be…how often does that happen?

Mr H with his new toy!

 We then went onto Pass the Pigs and Pass the Bomb – possibly the most stressful game ever.

If you are wondering what to do in the middle of August when you might have been planning a day on the beach but are forced indoors I can fully recommend a day of nostalgic game playing.

This evening we went to see Gemma and Al, friends of ours who have just had a new baby, the lovely Alexander Michael. He came an unexpected 6 weeks early and so he and Gemma are still living in hospital with Al visiting in between work, washing and dog walking duties.

We felt really priviledged to have been able to spend some time with them all and made me think a lot about the unexpected responsibilities of parenthood.

Do you think that Alex gets paid for advertising?

Its been a very exciting day so far today. The team – Devon Participation Development Team- met to look at the training we deliver and to work on shaping it up and honing it.

We have now been working together as a group for about 6 months and although we still have little storms we are now pretty much at the performing stage. We worked on the basic training for youth workers we deliver and the introductory activity training we also run.

The team have really challenged me recently, as have other colleagues, and as a result we are starting to look at how we hold people who run consultation with young people more to account and how we can track that. As blogging is my new favourite thing in the world I somehow feel a blog may be coming on looking at what consultation takes place, reviewing it and then what happens as a result of the commitments made to young people.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot around in the field of Participation around accountability. There is a lot about how to do it and the importance of letting young people knowing what you will do – but that doesn’t really go far enough. It’s certainly a gap – maybe we will just have to fill it. I’m currently thinking about how we adapt the Plan, Do, Review Cycle.

Lots to think about over the next week or two…any ideas gratefully received.

Tonight I have mostly been learning about galleries and how to upload them etc. It seems a world of confusion and madness but I am sure it will get easier – when I get it sorted I will have a great record of all the photos I have taken on my travel for the last 10 years or so and you can see them too.

Thanks again to my very patient husband.

Well I was…and now I’m not!

What a palaver, finding a theme, then getting one that would download, then learning an entirely new language…all in the space of one evening. All this so I can use my website in a more profitable and sensible way than the current manner which requires a serious geek to be found and negotiated with – and of course denies me any control.

Hopefully I will become Mistress of my own Blog…tomorrow will be another day – maybe I will wake up understanding all things Blog (and thin) – I suspect that was a pig passing overhead!!