Oxford (Brookes) University students road building

The Coniston Water Festival starts today now completely run by the village with a fair bit of help on the management side from Lisa, they have a packed programme of stuff, including the world skimming championships and Britain's top unsigned band (that sounds a bit like top of the bottom). A full weekend. Lawson Park will be taking a stall at the Odd Market - a kind of farmers market meets craft/local enterprise. We will be featuring the work of local folk art guru Peter Hodgson (work in the collections of Jurgen Teller and Peter Greenaway). And the Dog Planter man Peter Inman (collected by fashion superstar Giles Deacon) We will also feature produce from the garden, wild food and other material from the Honesty Box network.

The baseball cap featuring the reversal of a famous Ruskin quote was described by the Coniston Corporate Embroidery company as 'overthought', an uncommon complaint almost unknown in the area.

'There is no life but wealth'

www.conistonwaterfestival.org.uk

The assault on the paddy fields by artist/lecturer Steve Duval and students from Oxford Brookes University and a brilliant lunchtime talk by Site manager and Liverpool John Moore's University lecturer John Byrne was only slightly marred by a continual downpour...

For a change from building work I dropped in on the Furness bee keepers skep making workshop and a found a farm kitchen strewn with straw and weaving enthusiasts, a medieval scene. For Lawson Park we are planning to use this material to back the window seats but of course it is harder to find someone to to it - mostly being used in Orkney and the Orkney weavers being unwilling to come so far south. So.... it doesn't look so hard, unless this was a particularly talented group with a special affinity for straw. This great example illustrated on the right is made with orange plastic baler twine, now that could be nice.

Peter Inman's animal planters await TNT for their trip to the 'Far West' exhibition at Arnofini in Bristol.

Along side many other 'products' from the Japan and China projects as well as products from the honesty stall network, there will be a stall running the duration of the programme, so if your in Bristol and have a sudden and urgent need for a dog planter, mare's milk, a bone comb or some wild Chinese mountain honey in an old coke bottle you will find all your needs quickly met at the Arnofini art gallery, and it's not often you can say that.
Works and collaborations from:
Myvillages, Pope and Guthrie, Seven Samurai, Happy Stacking 7, Public Works, Peter Hodgson, Peter Inman and many others

Go Alistair

Alistair does dynamic as he wrestles with the Box of Kurt Schwitters over in Langdale. The site is the garden in which Schwitters made his Cumbrian Mertz barn (funded by New York MoMA), now in the ownership of Littoral - an arts agency based in Lancashire. They are bringing the buildings, garden and Mertz barn back into use as a research/education centre. We are planting some of the Box as one of those urban place signs

The Great Table of Cumbria

Oh boy, what a table, the conference table at the Malcolm Wilson Rally Headquarters in Cumbria. I was at a meeting there, something called Culture Cumbria - I know a contradiction in terms, but.

The venue was supposed to illustrate the great things of Cumbria, this mighty table must be one of them. The whole place was a kind of heart of Darkness experience, plastic trophies everywhere and a racing driver wife sensibility throughout married to this manly beast of design excellence. Looks like the kind of thing that a man that does all his Christmas shopping in Halfords would come up with, 'what's wrong with a steering wheel cover, an ideal ladies gift'.

The meeting did its usual Cumbria centric fanfare of self importance we were told that the Kendal Mountain Film Festival was the most diverse film festival in Europe, thats a film festival centred around one screen over a weekend, blows Edinburgh and London outta the water, The clue to the falseness of this statement is in the title of the festival - Mountain Films, not really leading in terms of diversity being mostly about mountains. Other great things we have include the largest outdoor art festival in Europe, all run on a budget of 30k - Munster shmunster. I could go on, but it really is too embarrassing.

The over zealous apprentice was apparently killed for overdoing it with this column and is buried under it

When Ruskin was in charge of the Oxford museum, he, following his own doctrine that the architect should have practical skills - insisted on building one of the columns himself. It was later rebuilt by the builder. I feel a column coming on.

Building work in Narnia

Bufo Bufo (the Toad) Spring ball

Now is the time of year for all good toads to go to the ball - this somehow reminds me of some art thing, maybe a good title for the extended Agrifash project, now planned to roll out across Europe

A typical Lake District-visiting couple

Great local story I heard this week. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were hanging around at the boating centre on Coniston Water and after tea at the truly average Blue Bird cafe (this is sooo hard to believe) Tom hopped up to the hut they rent boats from to ask if they could privately hire the Gondola (a big grand boat) for dinner on the lake.

David (he who told me the story) phoned the National Trust (who own the Gondola) and they just flat went 'no'. David was a bit like, 'are you kidding, do you know who I've got here, like mr and mrs money no problem!' but no, no private hire certainly no food on the gondola. Just as David was turning to tell Tom and Nicole to bugger off, a waitress from the cafe rushed in shouting 'you wont believe this but Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were just in the cafe' so David slightly embarrassed says 'What this Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman here?' - the waitress ignores him and runs off.

A couple of points :
Like no one thought to tell me this story years ago ?!
Tom and Nicole just casually toured the Lake District, going to shit places for tea
National Trust can't see a marketing opportunity when it's shoved hard in their face and rubbed in

BTW Apparently Nicole is much more beautiful in real life...