Veg Cooking Class at the City Farm

Brian had to work one Saturday so I decided to find something to do and ran across this opportunity for a vegetable cooking class sponsored by Riverford Farms. It was an hour or so of cooking and then lunch and the price included a cookbook and a box of vegetables (veg in British speak). There were 7 of us total and it was a great afternoon.

The location was the Windmill Hill City Farm. This is a small 'farm' right in the heart of Bristol - you'd never even know it was there walking down the neighboring streets, but once you step through the gates, you're in this cute little farm complex complete with geese, ducks, two cows and a few goats. They also have a garden of veg and lots of herbs, a little cafe and a few meeting rooms for classes and lectures. A really cute little place.

Our prep area and yes, that's a glass of wine before noon!

The first dish was a Romesco  sauce/dip of tomato, garlic, cilantro, almonds, ginger ... you can serve it on veg or bread or sandwiches. Pretty versatile.

Our instructor, Polly putting some finishing touches on the food.

This was a chopped salad of peppers (capiscum), grapefruit, broccoli (shredded!), onion, spring greens, zucchini (corgette) and an Asian dressing. It was amazing - super fresh.

And our main dish was a vegetable curry with cauliflower, ginger, cilatro, tomato, onion, chick peas, coconut milk ... Yum.

After lunch, I strolled around the city farm.

 I know, an odd piece of metal art for a city farm, but hey.

Two of the goats sunning themselves and probably trying to hide from all the kids trying to pet them. It was a gorgeous sunny day so there were quite a few families at the farm, which is open to the public.

Apparently, the female goose in here is 22 years old and blind. The two males with her protect her and lead her around when needed. We were told she falls in the little pond a lot!

A Visit to the Vet School

I had the opportunity this week to visit the University's Vet School, which is about 30 minutes out of city centre in Langford. The complex houses the University buildings, a small animal vet practice, an equine vet surgery and a working farm. Even though I was there to learn more about the administrative processes, I took a few minutes to look around and snap some photos.

Like most of UK there are some gorgeous old buildings and this campus is no exception.

This isn't a working barn, but the study center for the Vet school students. It's got couches, desks, computers. showers and a game room.

Not a real cow - those are across the street at the farm that's owned by the University.

 Unfortunately, this is a poor quality photo, but the daffodils were amazing.

This is the administration building where I spent the day with the school administrators. Oh, and Gerti. Gerti is one of the administrator's dog and she comes in from time to time to help with classes. On this day, she was with the vet nurses helping them practice bandaging! Any staff member can have their dog assessed to see if he/she has the right temperament to help out with classes. And no, they don't take any cats!

This lawn is where they hold the graduation ceremony for the vet students each July.

The grounds are beautiful - what a lovely place to go to school.

 There are 7 Vet schools in the UK and still students are turned away each year. Here they get roughly 1000 applicants each year for 150 places. Makes things very competitive. If you haven't had some experience either on a farm or in a clinic before you even apply, you won't even get considered.

 It's lambing season and the field on the grounds was full of sheep and frolicking lambs! All first year vet students spend spring break helping with lambing. They are placed at farms all over the UK and spend two weeks with the farmers learning and helping.

Vets attend 5 years of school, which is a combination of classroom and practical experience. They are rigorously assessed on skills and knowledge throughout the 5 years and spend almost every break doing their practical experience. They don't even get a break between years 4 and 5. At the end, they earn their degree in Veterinary Science and are registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and can then practice.

The installation of a new chancellor

Sounds like we bought a new appliance, doesn't it? Nope, it's actually a ceremony to officially welcome and 'install' the new Chancellor of the University. The chancellor is a primarily ceremonial role as head of the university with a term of roughly 10 years (sometimes extended). So when I had a chance to see this relatively rare event, I took it.

It was full of all the pomp and circumstance one might expect at a British ceremony. There were robes and hats, books carried on velvet stands, a formal register for the new Chancellor to sign and even a scepter of some kind. It was quite the event.

The event was held in the Wills Memorial Building's great hall which is as impressive as it sounds. In addition, the Museum of the Moon art exhibit was there as well. This is a huge balloon of the moon, which has been created to be an exact replica from space photos and research. Pretty impressive to have the moon hanging overhead for the ceremony.

The formal robes. Part of the ceremony was to dress the new chancellor in these formal robes. Yes, it seemed odd - especially since they had two women do the dressing, but I was determined to be respectful and culturally sensitive. Meanwhile, a British woman who I'm pretty sure works in the Registrar's office kept giggling!

This is probably hard to see, but it's the Academic leaders carrying all the 'stuff'. You can also see the choir in the background. The students played a strong role in the ceremony with music before and after from a jazz ensemble, a dramatic poetry reading, a speech to introduce the new chancellor and the choir.

Here's a nice view of the hall and the moon from the balcony. It was an interesting adventure and I'm glad I went.