Blog Archives - Slow Life Blog from the Lake District

With Red Blaze at Britain’s Got Talent

30/10/2011

The organisers told us that 100,000 had applied for the 5th series of Britain’s Got Talent, but whatever the numbers my youngest daughter Sara was delighted to be invited to audition. From the time we arrived, at 8am on a bleak Manchester Sunday morning, the TV cameras were there. And they were there to pounce on the most outrageous, the most outlandish, the most freakish.

Mark Weir – Blood on their Hands

27/10/2011

“Live like a tiger for a day, rather than a mouse for a lifetime”
- Jan Wilkinson, widow of Mark Weir

One evening last March, Mark Weir set off home in his helicopter from his business, Honister Slate Mines, which lay near the top of a mountain in a remote part of the Lake District. It was a journey he had done hundreds of times before. The helicopter hit the side of the mountain and he was killed instantly. No one is suggesting it was anything other than an accident.

Autumn Glory

26/10/2011

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
Were her first years the golden age? That’s true,
But now she’s gold oft tried and ever new”.

- John Donne, The Autumnal

What to do with Dahlias in the Winter

25/10/2011

The other day on Gardener’s Question Time, Bob Flowerdew gave as his “topical tip” the advice that you should leave your dahlias in the ground over the winter. He said that he’s learnt that the only reason people lifted dahlias was to take cuttings in the spring and if you didn’t want to do that you might as well leave them in the ground, making sure that you give them a good covering of mulch to protect from the frost. If only it were as simple as that.

People who Eat Darkness – The Fate of Lucie Blackman

23/10/2011

One November morning in 1995 Lucie Blackman’s mother, Jane, received a phone call from a stranger, a man, who told her that her husband, Tim, was sleeping with his wife. Jane’s reaction was to throw Tim out of the front door and his clothes out of the bedroom window. From that moment her life was dominated by bitterness, vindictiveness and thoughts of revenge. Any semblance of happiness in the Blackman family was destroyed.

Weeding Out the Drongos

20/10/2011

At the Cumbria Business Awards tonight, James Timpson told us about the weird and wonderful concepts which make the Timpson family business succeed – ideas such as “upside down management” and a ban on the use of computers in their shops. One of their best ideas, which will have struck a chord with all the employers in the auditorium, is their war on “Drongos”.

Julian Barnes – The Pedant in the Kitchen

19/10/2011

It’s good news that Julian Barnes has won the Booker Prize for his novella ‘The Sense of an Ending’, but his masterpiece, as every Slow Food follower knows, is ‘The Pedant in the Kitchen’, written in 2003. It’s a small book with large print, which is a recommendation in itself, but it’s also funny and wise and tells you more about cooking than any book by Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith ever will.

There’s a chapter on Heston Blumenthal, written before this great man became a star, in which he discusses his cooking techniques and this is what he says:

Begonia ‘Red Undies’

17/10/2011

In my three weeks away, I didn’t once switch on the TV or see an English newspaper and didn’t miss them one bit. On the other hand, I did miss my garden and it was a big disappointment to get back and find that the tomatoes had finished. But the flower garden, in spite of the onset of autumn, is still going strong. There’s colour everywhere, from the maples, which are turning a dark red, to the dahlias and cannas.

Whose Garden’s are Better; England’s or Japan’s?

14/10/2011

Until very recently Paris was the undisputed capital of gastronomy. Then the Michelin inspectors turned up in Tokyo and found, to everyone’s amazement, that the standards in Tokyo were higher. Tokyo now has 14 3 Star restaurant’s compared to Paris’s 10 – and, to put things in perspective, London’s 1.

Gardens in Kyoto

12/10/2011

The first reaction of a visitor to Kyoto is often one of intense disappointment. Hearing that the city is Japan’s ancient capital and that it has 2,000 temples and gardens they expect something as resplendent as Bath or Venice. In fact, when you arrive at Kyoto station and step out into the street you see a drab urban landscape, as grim as you’ll find anywhere in Japan.

The Gardening World Cup – The People’s Choice Award

10/10/2011

Voting for the People’s Choice Award took place on the first two days of the show. All the ticket holders were asked to vote for their favourite garden and were given a voting slip with their tickets.

There were only two contenders for the award, Kazu Ishihara’s Japanese garden (garden B) and my English garden (garden C).

Snailgate

8/10/2011

We’ve had a lot of fun with the story of the snail, which has become known as “Snailgate”. It’s a story which took up half a page in the Daily Telegraph and which had me giving a live interview on radio 5’s “Drivetime” at 1.30 in the morning (Japanese time).

The Gardening World Cup – Best in Show

7/10/2011

At the Chelsea Flower Show you are notified of your award with a discrete card left at your garden in the early morning, which gives you the opportunity to gather your thoughts in relative privacy. There’s nothing at all private about receiving the awards at the Gardening World Cup. This is an “Oscar style” ceremony held in front of a bank of TV cameras, with no advance warning of the results.

This year, England handed their crown to Australia and, as with many a test match, the result was weather dependent.

Judging Day

6/10/2011

It has been fascinating talking to the other designers as we all strive to finish our gardens in time for judging day. They seem to inhabit a different world from me with their talk of ‘harmony’, ‘balance’ and ‘an appreciation of spatial awareness’. I’m just looking to create something which the visitors think is beautiful and which tells a story to which they can relate.

Disgusting Things for Dinner

4/10/2011

The last time I came to Japan it was raw chicken and raw horsemeat. This time it was turtle and black tripe. I’ve had many disgusting things for dinner in Japan, but these two took the biscuit. I tried the black tripe at a “Japanese barbeque”, where you cook the food yourself on a grill which is set in the middle of the table. It’s the Japanese take on a Korean tradition.

Smoking in Japan

2/10/2011

As the Japanese are well known for being the healthiest and longest living people in the world it surprising to find how popular and socially acceptable smoking is in Japan. It’s also surprising to find that smoking outdoors is not allowed there. But smoking indoors is. So here at the Hotel Europe, where we are staying for the Gardening World Cup, you can’t smoke on the hotel terrace, but you can in the hotel lounge.

About Slow Life

The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.

Archives

June 2017
December 2016
August 2015
May 2015
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009