Chatting Behind the Lines - Curator's tales and musings

It's been a contemplative sort of day today. From the comfort of my own hammock, I have been doing quite alot of thinking. Not 'I wonder if we will get a vaccine for covid-19' sort of thinking, more an assessment of life, the universe and everything (in the words of Douglas Adams). I suppose it was the opportunity to relax in the shade with just the background bird noises and gentle breeze rustling the tree branches that got me thinking. I started to ponder - funny old thing is life. The people that I have met and the things that have happened over the years. You can see I was going straight in for deep and meaningful here. I started to think about work and how my employment had changed since my first flirtation with work, on a paper-round aged 13 to where I am now, Museum Manager. At 13, I didn't really have a definate idea of what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go. So here I am many years later, in my garden on the edge of Carlisle in sunny Cumbria, contemplating. ...

T onight is another night out in the garden camping. Tonight we are having a Ranger Guide campout with all the girls either camping in their garden or inside their house. We have arranged a call at 7pm and may even burst into song with a virtual campfire. We have all arranged to photograph the evidence of our group sleep out and post it in our WhatsApp group. Luckily the weather is good and it is set to be a warm night so we shouldn't have many mishaps. We were due to go camping as a unit in July but this is unlikely to happen. It is good to encourage the girls to enjoy the great outdoors and camping is an excellent way to introduce them to this primitive way of living outside. I have camped since I was a Guide enjoying weekends, weeks and even longer camps all across the Country from Cornwall to Scotland, Yorkshire to Norfolk. Obviously the weather is a factor in making camp a wonderful experience but it is good to teach the girls that you can still have a great time in the wind a...

I was interested to see that the Government could announce some changes to the furlough scheme today. Sensing something was afoot I tuned in avidly to the 5pm broadcast.  Obviously as myself and two of my colleagues are currently furloughed, I like to keep abreast of announcements and notifications.  All through this pandemic I have tried to keep abreast of news that could have an impact on the Museum.  Armed with a much-needed juice, I settled down on the sofa for the arrival of the Chancellor. The changes to the scheme could affect the Museum so I need to take all this on board. At the same time I am having to put plans in place for reopening. Sourcing a firm to make an acryllic panel for our front desk, working out where signage should go, purchasing hand sanitiser. I scan the internet for information and advice, see what the cultural sector suggest to help with the writing of a risk assessment. It's been a hot day when I quite fancied sitting out in the garden with a ...

W e are currently looking at plans to reopen. As a charity, reliant on income from admissions, it has been a difficult few months. We have missed two periods when we receive quite a few visitors - Easter and May half term. Although we have accessed the Govt's furlough scheme and the small business grant, deferred HMRC payments and have rates relief for this year, things are tough.  So we are keen to reopen as soon as it is safe to do so. Government guidance is currently suggesting 4th July, but this is not definate. However, we need to start planning and working towards an opening date - the 4th July is the earliest date that we can go for. Of course, reopening will not be straight forward. We sit within the English Heritage managed site of Carlisle Castle and need to work with them to ensure that visitors receive the same message from both organisations. There are open spaces on-site, but we have a small building. We need to reassure visitors that we have their safety at heart bef...

I don't know about anyone else but my week seems to be turning into one long series of days. There is no definative weekend, no start of the week and therefore no end either. The only activity that helps me identify where I am in this onslaught of days, is my weekly wednesday visit to Sainsbury's and my thursday team catch-up followed by the weekly on-line Veteran's hub gathering. I do have other activity scheduled throughout the week, mostly virtual catchup with friends or work related meetings. And this evening is one of those catchup friends meetings - the first between the three of us. The glass of wine is ready. These lovely ladies have become firm friends, strengthened by our connection through the Historical Association. All three of us sat on the Primary committee of the HA, which Bev now chairs. We all have a strong love of history and are passionate about sharing this love. Both Sue and Bev are university lecturers who teach on the Primary Education course at thei...

In 2017, the film director Christopher Nolan released his film Dunkirk. A s the Telegraph on-line said it was    ‘a retelling of the Allied evacuation of occupied France in 1940, is a work of heart-hammering intensity and grandeur that demands to be seen on the best and biggest screen within reach.’ At the Museum, we always watch with interest when films like this are released. No more so than a movie about Dunkirk, as it involved  three battalions of the Border Regiment.  This blog post is taken from an article I wrote as part of the response to the film.  Imagine the surprise when we received a letter at the Museum from a Border Regiment Dunkirk veteran. He was complaining about the Daily Telegraph review of the film which described the situation on the Mole as 'chaos.' Serving with the 5th Battalion, he was adament that although the situation felt chaotic it had some sort of order to it. After 77 years, he was annoyed that the circumstances he found himself i...

One of t he things I have started to tackle is sorting out our                                 enormous quantity of photographs that we have accumulated over the years. One of those lockdown tasks that seem to be taking longer than I had first anticipated. But what a treasure trove this is turning out to be! A real trip down memory lane. I have attached some to today's blog post. A lovely studio photo taken with my sister. I remember the trouser suits that we are wearing in the picture. They were orange with an orange patterned waistcoat. Very 1970s and I remember I thought it was fabulous. The chubby baby photo, where I had obviously decided shoes were not the way forward. A fabulous photo with me and a wee Naomi - is there a similarity between the two babies, mother and daughter? What fun I have been having looking at these over the last week. The great piles of photos have brought back some...

Another lockdown weekend. What to do? Meal out? Trip to the cinema? A virtual catch-up with friends? Such a dilemma, but despite the choice I would always opt for a friends on-line chat. Back in April, I mentioned on this blog that we had set up an online evening Saturday Night In for a group of female friends. We had recently returned from our annual Girls on Tour weekend at the beginning of March and although we are in contact via WhatsApp, we thought it would be a great idea to establish a Saturday night drink and chat. What initially started as an opportunity to check-in with friends has now become a regular opportunity to meet up which we can all dip in and out of.  I have to confess, most of us turn up with an alcoholic beverage (or two!). It's the nearest we can get to recreating a visit to a wine bar. We check everyone is okay, find out what people have been up to, share stories and forthcoming plans - just as if we were on a night out together. There can be anything from 1...

The one thing about being furloughed is that I get the opportunity to access talks and workshops on-line. Last week it was Florence Nightingale but this week my friday lunchtime was shared with one T.E. Lawrence. A great discussion between staff from the National Army Museum and Dr Rob Johnson, who has recently published a book on Lawrence, I thought would be an interesting subject to listen into. And I wasn't disappointed. I had done a little bit of research into Lawrence when I was at University so I thought it would be good to refresh my memory and learn something new. A well-known historical figure, who was characterised by Peter O'Toole in the David Lean film  Lawrence of Arabia. ' Big screen romanticism' as it was described by Dr Johnson. And he is probably right. I wanted to be prepared so turned up to the virtual talk with a brew and my copy of Jeremy Wilson's biography on Lawrence. Why? Well not sure really, but gave me confidence that I knew a little about...

Over the last two days, I have volunteered to help write social media posts connected to the little-known train crash that happened in 1915, at Quintinshill. On a Saturday in May, just outside Gretna, the quietness of the local countryside was shattered by a major rail accident. In total, five trains were involved with approximately 230 people killed and 246 injured, the biggest loss of life in a rail accident in British history. The resulting fire burnt for over 24 hours. Once extinguished, 82 bodies were unrecognisable and 50 people were never traced at all. You may wonder why this post is focussing on this particular event. Today is the 105th anniversary of the rail crash. This tragic piece of history was kept fairly low-key at the time, after all the nation was at war and many men were losing their lives on the battlefield. The morale of the general public was important to the Government and an incident like this, on home soil, would not be good news. The sadness of the Quint...

Okay. I have been methodically writing this blog on a daily basis, commenting on life around me and bringing in a few historical tit-bits to keep everyone on an even keel. So imagine my dismay today when I logged into my blog to find that although I had written yesterday's entry last night, I somehow hadn't published it!  Not sure what w ent on there folks, so today there are two posts albeit this one is a little bit fragmented and disjointed... And that is probably because I have spent my morning on video conferencing calls and checking in on folk. In-between, I have managed to make a version of the infamous rocky road cake (see today's delicious photo) and re-plant a few seedlings. Currently, I am being pestered by the great big ginger tom who thinks if he purrs loudly enough that I will let him sit on my lap. Think again moggie.  I am quite missing the structure and daytime routine of work today. Seeing the Museum team this morning was a great tonic and it is good to cha...

Just a short blog entry this evening. With the sun out today, I was tempted to spend some time in the garden. Not soaking up the rays but getting to grips with a few tasks. Today I was going to be green fingered, a cross between Percy Thrower (known to those of you of a certain age) and Monty Don. Okay, maybe not quite a natural in the garden but not afraid to get my hands dirty! I had planted some seeds a few weeks back and recently replanted the seedlings into larger pots. Housed in my greenhouse, the seedlings had sprouted additional leaves under my tender loving and daily care. The time had come to transfer them to grow bags to enable them to grow and hopefully produce some food. A good task to do today only I hadn't appreciated just how hot it would be under the glass. Not sure of the temperature but it certainly felt as though I was somewhere in the tropics. Good for growing tomatoes and cucumbers but not for humans. The next task was to plant some seeds. My other half has lo...

I am not quite sure where the quote above came from, but I quite like it. There has been alot on the radio today about mental health week. Concerns from some about how people are coping with the current situation, the lockdown, social distancing, shielding. Life is certainly putting a strain on many people at the moment. It is important that we all look out for each other. As a Ranger Guide leader, we have been holding regular weekly on-line chats. An opportunity for the girls to catch-up with each other and provide a break to the lockdown situation. It also allows the leaders a chance to check up on everyone and make sure that they are all okay. For these teenagers, this regular meeting keeps them engaged with the familiar structure of Ranger Guides giving them ideas and suggestions for activities outside of school. The girls are from a wide area, some live on local farms, some in the City but what they all have in common is they are part of a worldwide organisation where all the memb...

It doesn't take long for my blog posts to return to the age old favourite subject of food. Notified as I was that today was another cancelled Veterans' Lunch, my mind was immediately drawn to sustinence. No getting away from it, today had to be a 'foody' post. My weekly shop has become a highlight for me. An escape from the house with the grandest of shopping lists added to throughout the week by the other inhabitants of the household. From sweets to vegetables, milk to cereal, my weekly shop is the outline of our weekly meals. Spaghetti bolognaise or curry? Chips or roast potatoes? The list is an insight into Wooding Towers kitchen delights. Of course, throughout lockdown my intake of snacks has increased. It is so easy to snuffle a packet of crisps whilst typing this blog or have just another cake with my numerous cups of coffee. Luckily, these are still widely available. Whilst planning (what, plan how she writes this blog, I hear you gasp...) today's offering, ...

It is Sunday evening. Traditionally a time for preparing for the new working week. As a family we like to chill on Sunday evenings. We always have our main meal around 6pm then relax usually watching a bit of TV. Of course, with lockdown and the current situation our normal routines have altered and adapted. At the moment there is no pressure to be ready for the new working week.  Today started with a video call to New Zealand, chatting to our friends and checking they are all okay. About to come out of more restrictions, they enquire about the situation in the UK and we compare notes. It is always good to catch up. This was followed by a little baking fest by yours truly. Using up some ready made pastry I tackled frangipane, the first time I have made this dish. Not bad. Back to the big photograph sort out. The floor is now covered with negatives, photos and memories. I seem to be embroiled in a vicious circle of nostalgia which is quite time consuming! A little time in the garden...

I am trying to use my furloughed time usefully. Tackling those jobs that I have put on hold due to lack of time. So I felt quite self-righteous when I decided to go head-long into one of those tasks. My mission? To sort out and repack all our photographs. However, it is taking me much longer than originally planned... This is possibly because we have alot of photos. Infact we have photographs all over this house. Years worth of polaroids loitering in various locations: photo drawers in the spare bedroom Under the shelves in our bedroom Around the house I think that covers all known domestic sites.  At the beginning of the week, I ordered some jazzy photograph boxes (so they all look nice and neat when the task is finished) to push me into undertaking this task. I planned to do this job in the evening so it didn't tempt me away from hoovering or making tea. So last night, I ventured into the spare room to remove packets and packets of pictures. As I started to remove them, I began t...

Today, as a bit of a change, I signed up for a free lunchtime lecture provided by the National Army Museum. The subject was 'Florence Nightingale at 200' and I thought this would be an interesting subject with the current situation. Like many others, I clapped for the NHS last night, and I tweeted for International Nurses Day on Tuesday. Both a nephew and a niece are nurses and I am very proud of them, so I pressed the button and signed up, ready for the presentation at midday. The beauty of this talk was I could attend it from the comfort of my own sofa, complete with coffee, and not worry about my mismatching attire. We were encouraged to submit questions beforehand in a bespoke box on-screen, all questions then laid out for attendees to read. Many asked about the link to Mary Seacole, the hospital in Scutari and Florence's illness. I was attending as a spectator not only to learn more during her bicentenary year, but to see how the whole on-line lecture process worked. A...

Sometimes social media brings back some great memories. Today was such a day when I was sent a wee photograph from a Museum project which I worked on nine years ago. It was one of those activities in your working life which you are incredibly proud of. More so, as I am still in contact with the majority of the participants who have gone on to do such amazing things. You may look at this photo and wonder what it has got to do with Museums. This was the early stage of a HLF Young Roots funded project working with the newly established young peoples' group at Tullie House. Nicknamed 'YakYak' the group had decided to support the opening of the new Roman Frontier Gallery with a project that enabled them to explore the Roman history of their locality, and walk Hadrian's Wall. An idea was born and developed. Obviously, a group of teenagers undertaking a vast project like this needed a bit of planning...and sometimes a reality check. We decided to find out more about the Romans...

My turn to go into to work today to check the building and ensure everything is still standing. A glorious spring day always makes the Castle look spectacular, in complete contrast to when the weather is awful and the Castle looks austere and formidable. But that's what makes it attractive. That's why I love the place. We are starting to put plans together about how we might return to work, ready for somepoint in the future. We need to work closely with our site landlords, English Heritage, to ensure that we keep visitors and staff safe. I met with the new Cumbrian regional manager today. We sat with our respective coffees, at a good safe two metres apart, outside the Museum on the cafe patio chairs. We chatted in the sunshine about opening, outline plans, things to consider, what we did and didn't know about the whole COVID-19 situation and the impact it could have on the site. As the Museum is situated in the outer ward of the Castle we have to have a cohesive approach to...

My plans today were to relax and start undertaking some of those crafting activities that I have promised I would undertake for the past few months, sorry years. My creative fingers are itching to spend an afternoon with pencil in one hand and sketch pad in another. It is not that I can neccesarily draw so much as attempt to sketch, but it certainly is very therapeutic and soothing and I quite enjoy it. Usually undertaken when I am travelling, occasionally if I need to design something at home, but not as often as I would like. I love the thought of creating some mega piece of artwork. I once did a small oil paint collage artwork and entered it in an open art exhibition at the local theatre where I lived. I felt quite proud seeing it on display and promised myself that I would design and paint more. It never happened. When we hosted an open art exhibition at the Museum a couple of years ago, with the theme of 'Remembrance' we didn't have as many entries as hoped. Cue an opp...

Many people have been commenting on how they have noticed more birds in their garden, that there are more bees , butterflies and flowers in the hedgerows. Surrounded by trees as we are here in Wooding Towers, we often have an influx of feathered friends but birdsong does seem to more prolific, although this may be because there are less cars on the road and generally less noise all around. Of course, in my quest to document the local lambs recently I commented on the fact that they were hard to find but on my bike ride this morning there were many fields peppered with the little white creatures. The sheep have returned to their fields and are now evident everywhere. Taking onboard the comments on the natural world, I have been keeping my eyes open when on my daily exercise. This is no episode of spring watch, more amateur observations when escaping from the house. In a nearby field, we have a family of horses with a wee foal shadowing its mother and father, a rather lovely scene and so...