I wish everyone a Happy Festive Season! Too busy with Chrismassy things to write much but I am posting a couple of photos I took today in my garden and local park. In London, we woke up to a thin layer of snow- in other parts of the country such as Sussex (south of London) where my sister lives, they had 6 inches of snow and the children are not able to go to school so can have fun outside.

Back home in Stoke Newington, London

Views of Stoke Newington High St and Clissold Park.

Front of the house and view from Kitchen/Dining Room window to garden


I thought I would give you a glimpse of my environment so here are some photos of my house in Stoke Newington, Hackney together with some of the local area. Hackney is a relatively poor borough in North East London- a traditional area for new immigrants. When I first moved here 30yrs! ago, it was mostly Asian and West Indian but in the last 10yrs it has become very Turkish with people from mainland Turkey, Turkish Cyprus and Kurdish people. My local corner shop is run by Kurds but they dont advertise this much perhaps because of the historical friction between Kurds and Turks in Turkey. Sadly, I dont have much contact with this community except in shops. In the past there have been street demonstrations between different political Turkish groups and when the Kurds' leader was imprisoned in Turkey, some of the Kurds would go on hunger strike in protest, outside their community centre. Thankfully he was eventually released.

Over the rainbow

I visited the Leeds Gallery where I found some of our group having coffee in the beautiful tiled tea room which was once full of plaster casts of classical figures used for life drawing classes!

Despite the rain, a group of us intrepid europeans joined many people from Leeds at the local park for a big bonfire and fireworks. It was pretty muddy and the fire took a long time to really get going - probably because of the damp conditions - but it was a fantastic fire in the end and the fireworks were spectacular! Unfortunately, my camera batteries were flat so I couldn't take any photos- thanks Anna for this one.

Armouries Museum

Photos from the Leeds Amoury Museum. I was overwhelmed by the many of weapons of every kind- a million ways to kill human beings! so I was relieved to find the peace section tucked away on one floor where I felt more at home. There was a fascinating chair made of weapons handed in after the Mozambique civil war.

An eventful day in Bradford

It was raining ofcourse, as we all set off by train for Bradford! By we, I mean a lively group of people from several countries in the EU- England,Germany, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Turkey and Bulgaria, all spending a week together learning about Yorkshire culture and learning things like blogging!. On arrival, we were immediately whisked off to Carlisle Business Centre in Manningham where we learnt about how the local, largely Pakistani, community has been helped by Action for Business which helps local businesses and community groups in an area that became disadvantaged when the local mills closed down and immigrant workers became unemployed.
We were shown the local mosque , where our host Naweed, demonstrated how prayers are held in the large carpeted hall and the women are kept upstairs behind a one way glass window. The mosque is keen to encourage the public to visit the mosque and learn more about muslims (Sunni) and Islam which maybe helps us to understand their culture and life in Britain.