Shoe chains

I missed the gallery Christmas Eve party. The first time in 24 years. Snow and ice are wonderful until you want to go somewhere. The untreated roads were lethal. Angie was similarly immobile. Our lovely neighbour, Louisa, from the Quince and Medlar Restaurant opposite the gallery opened up for me at 1pm, lit the fire and did a roaring trade all afternoon. I think she enjoyed it. I've offered to take over the restaurant for an evening in reciprocation but ... spot the snag!
So, I didn't manage the Christmas food shop and I can heartily recommend this. No jostling for the last parking space in the town. No mad trolley dash round the supermarket. No queue at a crowded checkout with a jaded person in Reindeer antlers and flashing Christmas tree earrings pushing stuff past in a catatonic state. No unpacking of split bags overfull with so much food that you feel nauseous just unpacking it. No - just white tranquility at home. You have no idea how liberating it is to be freed from traditional requirements as laid down by Delia, Jamie, Nigella et al. We ransacked the fridge, pantry and freezer and came up with interesting menus and strange combinations - even found a packet of out of date Maltesers in my knicker drawer. Maybe I should put together a Non Christmas Cook Book based on what's lurking at the bottom of the freezer and the back of the cupboard.
I have a very big birthday alarmingly soon and my son has ordered me some wheel chains on Ebay as a very original birthday present. Swedish car - Swedish solution! When I announced this news, both Michael and our neighbour looked at each other and said in unison 'Who's going to fit them?' Who do they think eh? I'm more concerned about what happens when I hit the gritted road and start clanking along like the Tin Man in Wizard of Oz.
The same resourceful son also produced a pair of Postman Pat shoe chains which work a treat on solid ice. (Not for driving in though!) I just skipped across the field to feed our neighbours' cat deliberately dancing on the worst bits of sheet ice to test them out. Good job the only spectators were sheep.

Let's hope for a better year in 2010 for all of us but particularly for those who have lost their homes and businesses in the floods. Surely things can only get better.
I've put our 2010 exhibition programme up on the web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. Have a look. Whatever else it's going to be a new start and a bright and interesting year.

Footsteps in the snow.

The penalty for living in the most beautiful corner of England is occasional immobility. In my 24 years here we have had very little snow being close to the West Coast. But that was before the Climate Changed dramatically, bringing floods and pestilences and snow.
I was last at the gallery on Saturday but have been unable to move since then. 'Great' I thought - 'I shall go into writing purdah and get on with the next book.'
I was in heaven. The above is the view from the Pink Egg. Perfect. And an excuse not to do any last minute shopping or join the supermarket trolley dash madness. We can live out of the freezer - could be a strange Christmas menu but who cares? With a well stocked wine cellar, what more do we want? 'Have we any chocolate?' Michael asked last night when his perceived blood sugar levels were getting low. The answer was negative. 'I'll have to start on the Christmas cake then.' he said pathetically.
The call from GMTV came yesterday afternoon. They were on their way from Heathrow (?) to Manchester and wanted to do a live optimistic interview in front of the gallery fire about life after the deluge. 'Fine I thought. What time?' Live at 6AM was the chilling answer. Alright - no problem. I would go straight over now and stay the night in Cockermouth. I rang a neighbour with Land Rover. 'No Problem. I'll pull you to the main road' he said confidently.
The ice under the snow had frozen in solid sheets. I slewed about uncontrollably on the end of a tow rope. Just crossing the field was alarming. The sheep scattered.
'Why am I doing this?' I asked myself when I reached the gate. With a knee-trembling mile in front of me to get to the main road which was also problematic, I decided I could do without the excitement and retreated to the Egg. Breakfast Television could do without me very well I guessed. And they did.
This morning I saw a burly figure carrying a box approaching on foot through the snow. It was the intrepid Interlink delivery man bringing the catalogues for our part-exhibition at Messums in Cork Street in January. They are superb. It will be a great exhibition. Suitably called The Elemental North, it opens on 13th January and includes work by Sheila Fell, Percy Kelly and Karen Wallbank. If you are anywhere in or near London pop in and see it..
We are now seeing the big melt. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We always have a gallery party with drinks and mince pies. I will do my best to get there,though it will be hard to leave this peaceful paradise, cocooned from commercial Christmas. I shall scurry back quickly.
May I wish you all a good, safe holiday. Hope you all get to where you want to be and do what you want to do.
I'm just finalising a cracking exhibition programme for 2010 - see web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. We are open every Saturday in January and February
Hope to see you. Take care

Pop-up Tesco!

Do you believe in miracles? They are being performed on a daily basis up here in West Cumbria. Overnight we have a pop-up Tesco - yes,truly - in North Workington.
We now have a Meccano road bridge built in a week and a Lego railway station built in a weekend. An origami Barclay's Bank appeared in a tiny space outside Sainsbury's Cockermouth within hours of the flood abating. It folds back into a neat cube every night. Not to be outdone, Penrith now have an inflatable Morrisons (well, temporary structure, I think I'm getting carried away!) to replace the massive supermarket burnt down a few days ago.
Our dark powerless day in the gallery yesterday was lightened by the visits of good-humoured people anxious to support. They came from Wakefield, Doncaster, er Bassenthwaite ....... and they cheered us. Angie lit a roaring fire and, ever resourceful, was making coffee on the gas stove for the stalwarts who made it when I arrived. We sold paintings, pots, books, cards even though people couldn't see them properly through the gloom. Hope they still like them when they get them home.
Headlines on the news boards were depressing though. The Cumbria Tourist Board are reporting devastating holiday cancellations. This isn't good.
Hey, our fabulous adventure playground of a landscape is still the same (minus a few bridges), the fells and rocks are as they were a hundred years ago, the waterfalls even more dramatic and our people are even more friendly and welcoming.
I'm here in the Pink Egg looking up the north face of Skiddaw and it is magnificent. There's nowhere else I would rather be.
Think about it. Come and see us. We need you more than ever.

Monday morning blues

So, the power has been off since 5am. The gallery is cold and dark. Tried to ring Angie to save her driving in but she's already left.
Feeling down until this note appeared in my box - cheered me up.

Hi,
I was one of those who came to the Gallery on Saturday for welcome cup of tea, having travelled from outside Manchester in the morning!
Thanks, Chris again, for the warm hospitality.
Yes, it was lovely to see the shops opening up, including the lingerie shop, which is incredibly up and running in Market Place so soon - so I had a spend. But my conversion from 34B to 32C was reversed! Different make! Yes, I was the one.
And I did quite a bit of my Christmas shopping at the shops at Mitchells- with my presents bearing the proud sticky labels "Bought in Cockermouth"! And some of beautiful Christmas cards in aid of the Cumbria Flood recovery!
On Saturday evening there was a great concert given by Castlegate Singers, a ladies' choir drawn from Cockermouth and the surrounding area, at Christ Church, with a supporting group of a ladies' recorder group called Piping Hot- excellent musicians. The singers normally practice each Wednesday at the United Reformed Church but have a temporary home at Christ Church.
And a friend gave me a run down of the Jazz at the Kirkgate Centre on Saturday lunchtime - again an enjoyable event.
And then Sunday morning - welcome service at Christ Church again, followed by a community meal in the "soup kitchen", i.e. the church rooms where the 24/7 refreshments, including the trolley service, have emerged, and provided such a welcome service to the flood victims and the many workmen over the last weeks.
In the church rooms the children have created a notice, Cockermouth, the town with bounce back ability- the slogan is already on the town website! Apparently the original blue cloth badges are like gold dust- but laminated badges will be soon created.
Thanks for the space on the blog, Chris, and keep up the good work.
M

Soup kitchen

Sunday 13th December
The soup seems to be working its magic - though I won't be giving up the day job as yet. Cockermouth businesses are in the recovery position - working together to lessen the impact of anything that might hit us.
A Guardian journalist came to the gallery on Tuesday and sampled the magic soup (tomato, basil and secret ingredients). On Thursday there was this brilliant 3rd leader in his paper which probably wasn't anything to do with it but was very heartening. The high profile politicians and VIPs may have gone but we are definitely not yesterday's news.
He wrote
Cumbria has given the world the best in scientists, comedians and of course poets, but a prime minister has yet to come out of its beautiful landscape. Perhaps one is in waiting among the young people who have witnessed, and are taking part in, an exemplary expression of civic virtue which has followed November's floods. A bridge has been built in a week at Workington, a railway halt in a weekend. Devastated shops in Cockermouth have relocated to the town's auction mart, taking their Main Street signs along with them. The strength of the response has been partly a matter of efficiency by all the agencies involved, but it owes more to Cumbrians' priorities. They drew on their own strength first . The yellow jackets of Churches Together volunteers were on the streets almost as quickly as the orange ones of the emergency services. Only later came the justified request for extra government funding. The money was offered with enthusiasm because so much self help had already been shown. The long haul back to normality remains a test, but Cumbrians in the Northside community centre at Workington, or Cockermouth's temporary surgeries, are planning long term. Shallow obituarists of broken Britain should visit the county to learn these wholesome lessons (as should anyone else within reach, to do their Christmas shopping). The county council's motto Ad montes oculos levavi strictly means "I shall lift up mine eyes to the hills". It might be better translated as "Looking out for one another".

It has been a good weekend. The feeling of support from far and wide is wonderful. We sold paintings, we sold books in exchange for tea and soup and a place by the warm fire. People came to the gallery from the North East, Manchester and London and they came to spend money in the town. This is not easy (well spending money is) but it's not as easy in a wrecked town as going on the internet or a one-stop shopping mall but you have no idea the difference it makes to us all here. Main Street at Mitchells is buzzing and the warehouse round the corner is miraculously almost fitted out with loads of small units. The shop signs are going up. People visiting for the first time since the floods were deeply shocked at the level and extent of the damage.
And the drying out process just keeps going. The Main street is an anthill of activity. We are all making things happen rather than waiting for somebody to do something. The support agencies are there for us and the bridge builders in every sense of the word are doing their best. We none of us realised how utterly important bridges are. We took them for granted until we lost them. We drove over some of them without realising we were even on a bridge. To lose one bridge is inconvenient, two is unfortunate, but the number we have lost is catastrophic and life changing. My six mile, ten minute drive to the gallery from home is now a twenty two mile trek (with temporary traffic lights and a four mile contra flow system) stretching it to at least forty minutes on a good day.
But none of us is disheartened. Our communities are not divided - we are working together for the greater good. Just keep on coming - we need you to keep the town alive.

Head above water.

We had a great time unpacking the new works which arrived on the van from Menorca last Friday. It was just like Christmas-come-early and took our minds off the depressing scenes just down the road.
We were in Menorca in October with artists Kenneth Draper RA and Jean Macalpine which was loads of fun and now feels like years ago. It rekindled memories. On our way to a beautiful beach for lunch, we passed an area of burnt ground. There had recently been a huge fire there. Both Ken and Jean went into raptures about the colours and said they'd return (when we'd gone) to do some work there. Of course we would have just driven past thinking what a shame without noticing the detail. The first work by Ken that we unpacked is called 'Embers' and is the result of that fire. Ken is a sculptor turned painter and his works are pieces of sculpture encased in a box frame. This one immediately transported me back to that day. Jean is an extraordinary photographer. She sees beauty and potential in very ordinary things. She will photograph a piece of rusty metal and transform and enhance the print into a remarkable piece of art. While tourists are taking their holiday snaps, Jean can be found making a close-up of a tatty piece of wall, climbing on a skip or haunting a demolition site.
Come in and see these new arrivals to the Christmas show. Enjoy a bowl of soup or a coffee. We are accessible now. The near-chaos in the town itself is miraculously being sorted out and we are open for business every Friday, Saturday and Monday until Christmas. It is still better to approach via Embleton if you can. The army and co. have done a miraculous job in Workington building a railway station and footbridge in record time. This has eased the traffic build up here in Cockermouth 8 miles away because it is the nearest bridging point between North and South Workington on the coast. With some of our own bridges down, it is still difficult at peak times.
If you can't come in person have a look at our website www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. Ken and Jean's work is now up on the Christmas Exhibition page.

We had a break from the floods on Monday morning - some light relief at Theatre by the Lake Keswick. They were introducing next year's programme on this year's panto set (Grimms Fairy Tales) - and it's a good one. Something to look forward to. Our friends Kay and Stephen who run the Literary Festival - Words by the Water, revealed their March 2010 programme as well. Let's hope it will be BY the water and not under it by then!
There are some real goodies in there - something for everyone - several novelists including Fay Weldon, Sarah Hall and Jane Gardam. Broadcasters including our very own GLC (Greatest Living Cumbrian) Melvyn Bragg, as well as Lynn Truss, Stuart Maconie, Martin Bell. Politics, architecture, history, poetry, religion, art all have their day. The programme is packed with unmissable events and speakers - all crammed into 10 days.
I am giving an illustrated talk on the secret life of an art gallery on Friday 12th March which will be fun. In the morning I will be part of a discussion with James Long and Sarah Hall about whether Creative Writing can be taught. That should be interesting.
You can pick up a full programme at the theatre or the gallery or on line at
www.wayswithwords.co.uk
www.theatrebythelake.com
Take a holiday in this beautiful theatre among the hills and lakes. We need you more than ever now. It will help with our recovery.

switch on the lights!

Cockermouth had a mini switch on of Christmas lights in the Market Place on Friday evening and it was very emotional. I know it's kitch but loads of people singing 'You'll never walk alone' especially in the midst of devastation was a real tear jerker. There were stalls, an ice cream van, a Jennings stall and more. It was lovely to see everybody out. Banks ironmongers had lights in their ravaged window so we could see inside.The ancient mahogany counter is away safely being restored but all those little wooden drawers which stretch way up the walls look forlorn. What treasures they hold ; screws, knobs and widgets of non metric dimensions.Things householders in a predominantly Georgian town constantly need and can't get in the big DIY stores. Vanessa had a few things on an old barrow outside - lamps, ropes, candles with the message to come round the back and ask if we need anything. Her message is widespread round the town traders 'If we've got it, we'll sell it!' You can now find relocated businesses in surprising places. I noticed some of Jacy's knickers in a market place window (possible an accountant - something financial!) so she is up and running again. There are some strange alliances forming - makes me laugh!
Now that the bridges are open (to pedestrians only at the moment) we are seeing more people at the gallery and served vast quantities of soup and coffee on Saturday. I always said I'd never get involved with food ............ Mind you I also said I'd never do a blog ...........
I will give you a link to my blog when I've worked it out - need to make it so you don't need to be a google person to access. At the moment it's only got these e mails on it going back to the dreaded 20th November.
The paintings arrived from Menorca late on Friday. The driver was very confused (aren't we all?) because my instructions disagreed with his satnav so he mistrusted both of us. I tried to explain that his satnav hadn't been told about the floods.
Happy days
chris
Angie's manning the soup pan Monday!