A year, and what a year it has been, lots of tears and anxious moments, journeys to Bristol and back, arrangements to make, furniture to move, alterations to the house and B to welcome home to Dentdale. A year, perhaps we cannot have a party but we could have a Thanksgiving and believe me we will!
  Brother and I have both been away on holiday, with different people to places miles apart and both spent an enjoyable time, he to the Lakes and Auntie Rose and I to Warwickshire with a trip to London thrown in. The hi-light however was to go to the RST to see Romeo & Juliet, excellent, we also helped to make Sloe Gin, walk the dogs and play with the grand-children and hearing 6 yr old T call his Gran "Nana" with such love in his voice made me realize it will never really matter what any grand-children may want to call me so long as we enjoy the same loving relationship!
  Not, I hasten to add, that we expect any for some time yet. Driving through town I saw a chap pushing his working Lawnmower along the pavement and not a blade of grass in sight, is it me or is that not a bit strange? Possibly a perfectly sensible explanation but it made me think ... as I expect I often make others do. Just to keep them on their toes.
  The animals survived in hubby's tender care while we were away, no home comforts like conversation or daily brushing, except of course we do not really know, perhaps he did both those things?
  Cleo spent a while, about 2 hrs to be exact, down by the road waiting for my return the eve before I came home and was very excited when I did come back. Aww.
  Our married offspring are well and happy except for the footy fan who has a bruised ankle, just to make life a bit more interesting. Our un-married offspring is also well and happy, working hard as always. I recently was in touch with someone I worked with in my teens who could not grasp I have married children or that I have gone grey, the same day I saw a wonderful card which said "Grey? You call it grey? It is stress highlights- if you don't mind!"
  Quite. As a fridge magnet reminds me "I used to have a handle on life but it broke!" Enjoy your thanksgivings and your hilights!

  'Plastic Recycling is Coming to Town..!' was the heading I used in last month's Lookaround article and it was surprising the number of questions it raised about recycling and what happened to the materials we all leave at the collection boxes on the car park. I am really pleased that this is a topic that generates a lot of thought and interest. So, I did a little investigating on your behalf, liaising with Margaret Blackstone, our Recycling Officer for SLDC and this is what I discovered …
  One of the concerns expressed was, that though recycling materials were collected, was there still not a danger that some of these materials were put into landfill sites? Not at all… glass that is collected from the collection points is done so by a local firm and tipped into three separate bays at their site: clear glass, brown glass and green glass (blue glass is recycled with green). It is then crushed and taken to Barnsley where it is used by a company who process the recycled glass back into bottles and jars. Incidentally, I have learnt that glass is one of the best examples of recycling, because it does not loose its clarity or quality no matter how many times it is recycled. It also saves on the natural resources and uses less energy to make the recycled glass than it does to make glass from raw materials.
  The paper that we recycle goes through a major national company and is recycled back into newsprint again. Many of you may already be aware that paper can only be recycled so many times and the fibres get shorter. When this happens the recycled paper is made into cardboard or jiffy bags. Cardboard is recycled back into cardboard and packaging.
  The textiles are either re-used or recycled through the Charities directly, and not as the national press have suggested, via none charitable companies. Likewise the books and music are collected by Oxfam and the shoes either recycled or re-used in developing countries.
  The materials from the kerbside collections go through a different process and perhaps I can share that with you next time… but in this edition, I also wanted to share my experience with you at the full Council Meeting on Tuesday, October 18^th. It was a very challenging meeting and an intense debate was had, because the decisions we are making about addressing our 1.6 million pound deficit (that has accumulated over some time) needs to be got a grip of and addressed once and for all. But immediately prior to this debate, we watched three short video clips presented by three different youth groups about the issues that they face in different part of the constituency and what they wanted us to do about it. One of those video clips was produced by Sedbergh youth and it was done in a highly creative and thought provoking way and it certainly caught the attention of Council Members. Well done to all who were involved! As a result, there will be cross party site visits and meetings with youth groups and of course, I have put myself forward to meet with the Sedbergh youth group.
  I know a number of you have heard and had concerns that there have been suggestions mooted to remove the cattle grids at the entrance to the motorway (Junction 37). The suggestion has been made on grounds of safety for motor cycles and others who may skid on the grids in wet weather. Let me assure you that the three SLD councillors consulted: Kevin Lancaster, Peter Thornton and I, have all strongly objected to the idea of the grids being removed and called for more safety measures, rather than their complete removal. There is, as I mentioned in my objection letter, a real and significant danger of livestock roaming onto the motorway. No matter how much care farmers take in maintaining fencing, livestock inevitably break out from time to time. There is also a feeling that the cattle grid actually slows people down and acts as a safety mechanism in itself.
  Well, I hope you enjoy reading my articles and as always, don't hesitate to contact me, if you have any issues you wish me to follow up.  Craig Stephenson

A Tribute
  Peter Fraser, the Scotsman from Wales! I am sure many of you were welcomed by his cheerful ruddy face if you visited Farfield at the back end of the week as you passed through the loom area. Unfortunately you will see him no more but many I know will be grateful that he agreed to spend five years of his life at Farfield and offer it the benefit of his lifetime's experience in textiles.
  From the beginning, the restoration of Farfield was all about rescuing the looms and getting them going again. There are many people in Sedbergh who remember mothers and fathers, grandads and grandmothers, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles, whose lives revolved around working in one of Sedbergh's mills. Two looms were only a small reminder of those days, but the original group of people who formed the Buildings Preservation Trust treasured them and were determined that those yet unborn would have a glimpse of those times.
  At first we did of course have Bryan Hinton and his wife to help us demonstrate the looms to the public, even before the building was restored, but by 1999 we knew we were going to need someone more permanent, Finding such a person for what would probably be a part time job, was not going to be easy.
  The answer came after a visit to a wonderful mill at Trefrew near Conway in North Wales - if you are in the area do go and see it - you can see every process through blending and carding to spinning and weaving. The owners gave me Peter's Telephone number.
  Much later Peter told me what he thought about our project after his first visit to Farfield. He thought we were just plain mad! He was never a one for polite talk for politeness sake! He had visited almost every mill in the Borders and Wales, had watched the rise and fall of many of them and had sold textiles from Land's End to John o' Groats. There was hardly an outlet in the country selling rugs, whose threshold he had not crossed, and as far as I know he had never been thrown out.
  Never-the-less his imagination was caught by what we were trying to do at Farfield. He was brought up in a small town in the Borders and his first job was weaving, on a Hattersley. He learnt about the Dobcross looms later. He was so passionate about weaving, the looms and about Farfield that he once said to me that if he won the Lottery, he would pay back all the wages Farfield had ever paid him.
  Peter had many skills and excellent contacts within the textile business. He used these to buy yarn at very competitive prices, and found the Trust a new 'finisher' when the one in the West Riding closed down. He did all the designing at Farfield, not only for those rugs sold at the Mill but also for the clients who came with big orders for rugs for their chain of holiday properties. For them he needed computer print-outs which could not be done at the Mill and he had them done in the Borders for the price of a bottle of wine (which he paid for). There was nothing within the scope of his experience that he was not willing to do for Farfield.
  His wife had often suggested to him, after he reached retiring age, that he gave up travelling to Sedbergh every week from Abergele, but he would not agree. The one ambition he had at Farfield was to teach someone to follow on after him. He wanted to see the tradition of using these very special looms, which are far more versatile than the fast modern looms, carried on by future generations. Do you know by the way that modern looms cannot produce kilt fabric because they do not make a firm selvedge edge? Kilts cannot have a hem!
  There are few people in life that one instinctively trusts on first meeting. For me, Peter was one of those people. He made so many friends, and they were friends for life. As someone said to me, " The Mill will be a far lesser place without the likes of Peter."
  The Mill of course desperately needs some-one to replace him. If anyone has any ideas on that, I am sure the Management at Farfield would be only too pleased to hear about them.   Maureen Lamb