Yay! Another great photo submitted this week by Richard Overy, showing a glimpse of life gone by. This photo shows a gathering outside a house, possibly capturing generations within neighbouring families.
Wilson & Mrs W. Hoskin
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Category Archives: photography
Blue lights and learning, landscapes and inspiring
This post, the summary of Week 19 Year 2 posts, is the 1,194th on this blog. There have been 16,577 views of the blog. We have created 193 categories and 1,771 tags. 246 people follow this blog, and there have been 970 shares (using the buttons on the posts – so does not count all the sharing activity), mostly on Twitter and next most popular are LinkedIn, and Google + (someone does use it!). I have just binned 71 spam comments. There were 17 posts in Week 19.
Healthcare, tourism and leisure were key topics that emerged during the week, with a mini theme of stages of life, and a lot of learning threaded through many of the posts. If you lack inspiration for a post, do just tweet about it to @WeeklyBlogClub and someone will try to help – or you could look back on previous posts (be aware that some links will be broken due to Posterous shutting down last month).
Health-related posts during Week 19
Scot Health monthly is settling in and Becoming part of the landscape, pulling together health blog posts from throughout Scotland. The number of health bloggers in Scotland seems to have grown every month since I first read the Ayrshire Health blog last year, set up by Derek Barron. This week’s post on Ayrshire Health blog – Interprofessional learning…bridging the paradigm gap - was by a paramedic for the first time. John Burnham started his post with an example of learning from another emergency service’s ‘hot debrief’ held immediately after and by the site of the incident. The recent BlueLightCamp unconference (which included organisers and participants whose names are already familiar to Weekly Blog Club readers) focused on how digital technology and communications are and could be used by the emergency services.
Catherine Howe used the Dan Slee approach to unconference blogging and wrote 20 things from BlueLightCamp13 as her ‘general’ post on the event and issues raised. It is always interesting to listen in on such unconferences and to read the blogs about them since the issues raised are often relevant to other areas of the public sector (note to future historians, once upon a time, the UK had public fire, police, and ambulance services).
Joseph Conaghan suggested some radical solutions to the problems in staffing Accident and Emergency in hospitals in Accident and Emergency in Trouble….Quick, Paint Out The Signs. The Dumfries and Galloway Health blog contributed a post with the most authors for a single Weekly Blog Club post thus far with Maureen Stevenson, Laura Graham, Mhairi Hastings, and Natalie Oakes writing London 2013- International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare by The Patient Safety Team. They picked out some of the key points at an international forum, including learning from healthcare professionals in countries with far less resources, and Robert Francis QC talking about his report on the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust Inquiry.
Chris Bolton had been thinking more about jargon and specifically about National Health Service jargon and shared what he had found in Don’t spend any money on NHS Jargon Busters – it’s sorted! Download the Apps. Having worked on hierarchical word lists myself (including a rather substantial one), I was very interested in this post. The NHS must have several different ‘languages’ with the different types of professionals that work within it, and including both the medical and the non-medical staff. It would be a fabulous challenge to pull together an NHS hierarchical word list.
Stages of life
Phil Jewitt contributed a lovely guest post to the Shropshire Family Information Service blog on the challenge of being a parent of children as they become adults: Letting go. Jayne Holgate of Age UK Business Directory (Nottingham & Nottinghamshire) wrote a guest post on Weekly Blog Club about one of the challenges that face people at the other end of adulthood: Protecting Older People from Rogue Traders. Hannah Chia wrote about a very busy stage of her life as she settles into a new job at the same time as trying to arrange her wedding from several countries away in Excuses & Being A Good WAG.
Learning
Louise Brown asked What can I teach about content licensing in 15 minutes? in her post. She was preparing a short teaching session as part of her course about teaching adults. It is a complex topic and requires accurate information. Her question certainly made me think a lot, even though I have quite often had to give people some basic information about it in my work. Feedback by Sarah Ball at Participation Cymru covered learning from the learner angle. She had been on the same course as Dyfrig Williams (his post last week about it was Drilling down), and it was interesting to read what had resonated with her.
Tourism and leisure
Karl Green was looking into the future and trying to forecast whether and how television might change in TV Programmes: The Future? Will people in the future be sharing the Eurovision experience at the same time and still sharing comments about it with complete strangers online?
Richard Overy showed a more active leisure experience in his post this week of a vintage photograph of Swimming, taken at a busy lido or outdoor pool. I found myself wondering who took the photograph.
Photographer Mark Wood contributed his first blog to Weekly Blog Club - New blog & inspiration - and told us of his week which, although full of work rather than leisure, did include a trip to the major tourist centre of London.
I take photographs wherever I go (or, at least, I did till my DSLR stopped focusing on 1st January this year), and find the stunning Northumberland landscape one of the most difficult to photograph because the views are so wide and often so distant, so sometimes I paint them instead. I rediscovered a couple of my old watercolours of Hadrian’s Wall landscapes recently. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Northumberland. Ross Wigham wrote about his and his team’s work in promoting Northumberland as a tourist destination to local people as well as those more distant, and reveals some interesting statistics on the use of digital and more traditional offline methods of promotion in Travelling in your own back yard (and getting a social buzz for your event).
Karen Hart’s description of a narrowboat holiday experience in Out of town was so lyrical that I felt really tempted to try it myself. It is almost magic realist in feel and conjures up an England that you think you recognise as an idyllic past, perhaps over a century ago, although it probably could not have existed then. If you only have one post to read out of this week’s collection, perhaps this is the one, especially if you need to be transported to a more peaceful place.
If I have left out anyone’s post, please tell us – it can be difficult to sift through the hashtags at times. As always, thank you very much to all who contributed by writing, reading, liking, following or retweeting the Week 19 posts. If you are inspired to join the contributors, more about how to can be found on our About page. I did not set the [entirely optional] theme for Week 20 since it was already through by the time I wrote this but if you need help or inspiration, tweet us and someone usually helps quite quickly.
Many thanks also to lovely Kate Bentham for taking over for the next week. If you would like to help look after Weekly Blog Club, all you need to know is here.
Janet
Summary of Week 19 posts
Hadrian’s Wall landscapes by Janet E Davis.
TV Programmes: The Future? by Karl S Green.
Letting go by Phil on the Shropshire Family Information Service blog.
Travelling in your own back yard (and getting a social buzz for your event) by Ross Wigham.
Becoming part of the landscape by Scot Health monthly.
Interprofessional learning…bridging the paradigm gap by John Burnham on the Ayrshire Health blog.
Excuses & Being A Good WAG by Hannah Chia (aka @SportingWag)
New blog & inspiration by Mark Wood aka @f8_media .
What can I teach about content licensing in 15 minutes? by Louise Brown.
20 things from BlueLightCamp13 by Catherine Howe on the BlueLightCamp blog.
Don’t spend any money on NHS Jargon Busters – it’s sorted! Download the Apps by Chris Bolton.
Accident and Emergency in Trouble….Quick, Paint Out The Signs by Joseph Conaghan.
Protecting Older People from Rogue Traders by Jayne Holgate - Age UK Business Directory (Nottingham & Nottinghamshire)
London 2013- International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare by The Patient Safety Team by Maureen Stevenson, Laura Graham, Mhairi Hastings, and Natalie Oakes on the Dumfries and Galloway Health blog.
Feedback by Sarah Ball at Participation Cymru.
New blog & inspiration
Mark Wood makes a first-time contribution to Weekly Blog Club with a fascinating glimpse of one week of his work as a professional photographer. His varied week included working in the West Midlands and London, seeing the West Midlands police interact positively with young people, working in a location overlooking Buckingham Palace Gardens, a day of editing on the computer, a West Midlands wedding, and photographing foster carers and staff.
New blog & inspiration by Mark Wood aka @f8_media .
Swimming
Richard Overy shares another vintage photograph that he has found. This one of swimmers seems to be taken at a lido (I wonder if anyone recognises the place?) and is quite possibly a family snap.
Uncle Joe
See if you can guess what Uncle Joe did that resulted in the visible rewards in this picture, another intriguing old photograph found and shared by Richard Overy.
I’m twenty one to-day
Another wonderful postcard find from Richard, this time two swimmers enjoying a dip outside.
Urban walk March 2013
As a big fan of Janet Davis’s photography, we always look forward to her Urban Walk posts. As an artist Janet see beauty in what others might miss. On this walk, rectangles and circles stood out in some really interesting photographs.
Horndean 1935 Part II
A few weeks ago Richard Overy shared a photo of a group of young men on a cycling adventure. He returns this week with another photo from that trip. This wonderful photo includes high trousers and God’s Gift, apparently.
I had an idea about images for a band.
A short post with a snap of a power station about what I might do if I had a functioning camera and other things.
The Untitled One
Hello lovely people, it is me, Kate Bentham standing in this week as guest curator. I have to say I’ve had a fabulous week reading all your blogs, there were 23 in total, so great to see the numbers still so high into week 10 of the second year. If you too want to have a good a week as I’ve had, why not think about volunteering to be a guest curator? All you need to know is here.
Anyway, now I’ve done my sales pitch, back to those blogs. It is currently Saturday night, and I am staring at the list of 23 blog titles listed below trying to find a theme, a thread, a commonality among the blogs, but I can’t. So, I’ve decided to hold a competition. I’m leaving this blog as The Untitled One, until you have read the blogs below, applied some of the imagination I am clearly lacking, and you suggest a more suitable title. There is of course a top* prize for the winning suggestion, but as we know it’s not the winning**, it’s the taking part, so do take part.
One of the key features of the blogs this week focused on women, with a couple of posts shared to celebrate International Women’s Day which was Friday 8th March 2013. Karen Hart’s blog Simply the Best for International Women’s Day introduced us to some of the amazing women volunteers who support the work of Stepney City Farm and who join Karen on the Communications Committee. In No Excuse for Domestic Abuse, Kate Bentham used International Women’s Day to announce a new role she has as a trustee for a charity which supports women and children affected by domestic abuse. Kate also shares some startling statistics. Also looking a gender this week is regular member Phil Jewitt. Phil attended CommsCamp13 recently and is Questioning Y not many women pitched a session. This has been in interesting debate to watch since CommsCamp13. Phil also uses his blog to look at good ideas, and questions, if it is such a good idea, why hasn’t it been taken forward already?
One of the Weekly Blog Club mantras is ‘a blog can be an image with a few sentences about it’ and this week we’ve had a couple of bloggers proving the point perfectly. First up is Janet Davis who takes us on an Urban walk February 2013. I’m a big fan of the walks which Janet shares with us; she sees some amazing images along the way, which others may miss. Another blog I am also fond of is the Lost and Found blog where Richard Overy shares historical photos. This week Richard shares a group of chaps with their bikes in Horndean 1935 – Cycled Aldershot to Weymouth.
We had a couple of How To blogs this week. The first was from Louise Brown with Google Alerts for charities. In this blog Louise shares information on how to use Google Alerts to listen to what the web is saying and to give information to support an organisation. Jo Smith from Vindicat PR also offers some top tips on how to get the job you want without fluffing the interview, You’re hired – if you can nail the interview is a useful read for anyone currently looking for their next employment opportunity. Kenny McDonald also shares his pain of remembering numerous passwords but offers some useful tips on how to keep passwords safe from the hackers in Name’s not down, you’re not getting in. In Engaged employees are happy employees by Carolyne Mitchell there are some useful tips and tool for internal collaboration and communication.
Ross Wigham blogs about how PR/Communications has changed over recent years, often sparked by budget cuts, but also technology developments. Ross shares the positive results this change has had for his organisation, whilst also looking at how further change is inevitable. Change. Adapt. Evolve. is a must read for anyone involved in comms or PR.
A warm welcome to Russell Todd who has contributed his first blog to weekly blog club in When Community Development becomes a pejorative term. Russell writes about two neighbourhoods and how one had significantly greater cohesion, solidarity and a sense of community – and yet this was a community considered in need of development. Russell looks at the important factor of social connectedness.
This week Lorna Prescott shares with us a review of a few chapters of a book she is supporting in getting published. The book is called Anarchists in the Boardroom by Liam Barrington-Bush. The book looks at how organisations can be ‘more like people’ and what they can learn from social media and technologies.
I felt very privileged to be able to take a look behind the scenes at the restoration work going on at York Minster in Samuel-James Wilson’s blog. Samuel-James shares some really interesting photographs and also his knowledge of the work which is going on, work which he has previously been involved in.
There were some great blogs from healthcare professionals this week. One which was of particular interest to me was The challenges ahead for Improving Outcome for Children and Young People in this first blog written by Kath Evans. The blog looks at how professionals, parents, schools and the wider public all have a role to play in improving health for children. In
Whisper it: UK Cancer Care is Better Than We Think by Martin Brunet the issue of an over reliance on out of date statistics is considered. Finally in Creativity and its place in recovery by Derek Barron, Derek looks at how art and creativity can offer some therapy for those who suffer from mental illness.
I took lots of ideas from Information sharing and feedback – our February / March Participation Networks by Participation Cymru on activities for network meetings and group activities. This latest Participation Cymru network meeting looked at Information Sharing and also feedback.
A heart-warming story in Place and time by Phil Jewitt who was in the right place at the right time to help an elderly and distressed lady to be reunited with her worried family, and thereby proving that Phil is the good egg we knew him to be.
Another good story this week is from Rough Cat in Happily Mourning the Death of a Car where we hear the story of a Ford Focus who has gone for recycling after developing one costly repair after another.
A great blog from Chris Bolton this week not only about polishing shoes but on memories a routine can evoke, how rituals makes us think about our possessions and how the smallest of tasks can show how much we care for our loved ones. Rituals, routines and how to polish shoes is a great read.
A couple of our regular contributors shared blogs on hobbies and interests this week, in Vegetable growing is go by Louise Brown Louise has read the books, ordered the seeds and is now ready to get planting. Peter Olding shares Looking for aircraft in France, Ireland and Portsmouth Harbour about his hobby of aircraft spotting and considered how technology might help.
And finally I loved seeing the Scottish Health Monthly blog, Settling in – Scottish healthcare blogs in February. This blog curates the best healthcare blogs of the month and posts them in a handy summary blog – I wonder if this idea will ever catch on…
So, have you thought of a suitable title for this summary, if you don’t hurry up I’ll end up*** eating the curly wurly myself.
Anyway that’s it from me, go do great things this week, and then write a blog about it. I’m doing something totally random on Monday, which I’ll blog about, so maybe that can be the completely optional theme for this week – randomness. If you’re a first timer to Weekly Blog Club you can find out how to join in here, or tweet one of us and we’ll be happy to support you. I’m handing back to the amazing and inspiring Janet Davis now, but will see you again in a few weeks.
*a curly wurly
** it is the winning, there’s a curly wurly at stake for goodness sake!
*** I’ve eaten it already.
- Information sharing and feedback – our February / March Participation Networks by Participation Cymru
- Questioning Y by Phil Jewitt
- No Excuse for Domestic Abuse by Kate Bentham
- Simply the Best for International Women’s Day by Karen Hart
- Looking for aircraft in France, Ireland and Portsmouth Harbour by Peter Olding
- You’re hired – if you can nail the interview by Jo Smith from Vindicat PR
- Place and time | between personal and professional by Phil Jewitt
- Engaged employees are happy employees by Carolyne Mitchell
- Name’s not down, you’re not getting in by Kenny McDonald
- Urban walk February 2013 by Janet Davis
- Horndean 1935 – Cycled Aldershot to Weymouth by Richard Overy
- The challenges ahead for Improving Outcome for Children and Young People by Kath Evans
- Rituals, routines and how to polish shoes by Chris Bolton
- Vegetable growing is go by Louise Brown
- Google Alerts for charities by Louise Brown
- York Minster by Samuel-James Wilson
- Settling in – Scottish healthcare blogs in February on the Scottish Health Monthly
- Whisper it: UK Cancer Care is Better Than We Think by Martin Brunet
- When Community Development becomes a pejorative term by Russell Todd
- Creativity and its place in recovery by Derek Barron
- Anarchists in the Boardroom by Lorna Prescott
- Happily Mourning the Death of a Car by Rough Cat aka @Llama_Rockette
- Change. Adapt. Evolve. by Ross Wigham
