Merton House

At this time of the year there must be many elderly people as well as those who are frail or who have a physical disability who long for a break in a comfortable and friendly hotel with understanding staff, pleasantly located and not too far from Birmingham.

A week’s holiday at the beautiful Georgian Merton House located in Ross on Wye could well be the answer. As a result of sponsorship by Rotary, prices for full or half board are extremely reasonable. I have visited Merton House myself and taken tea with those on holiday there - very pleasant indeed. And if transport is needed to get you there, this can be provided for a supplementary charge.

Merton House is a not-for-profit community service project and the helpful and caring staff and the ambience of the house reflect this. If you are interested in a stay, you can contact the hotel direct on: 01989 563252 or if you are on the internet you can go to the Merton House website at:

 http://www.mertonhouse.org/

Middle-earth Weekend 2011

This year as ever I had the pleasure of attending the Middle-earth Weekend at Sarehole Mill. As local residents and Tolkien enthusiasts Vivienne and I are there every year and Vivienne, as the Chair of the organising committee, is the driving force behind the arrangements for this unique event and was there for the whole of the two days - and more.

This year’s weekend was another great success. As you can see, a very large dragon was rushing around! The Middle-earth Weekend is now known throughout the world via Tolkien related sites and was rated one of the country's top ten family events by The Independent newspaper. This is a great tribute to the organisers, to Hall green and to Birmingham. Official attendance figures are not yet available but should once again be well above 10,000.

This traditional family festival, provided free of charge and with old-fashioned entertainments as well of course as the Tolkien dimension takes a great deal of putting on and every year the volunteers work harder and get older and fewer.

Birmingham has a great deal to be proud of with the landscapes of Tolkien's Shire reflecting the Sarehole Area. Birmingham should make much more of this close connection. Perhaps when the next two Tolkien inspired films based on The Hobbit are released in December 2012 and December 2013 The Hobbit there will again be a further surge in public interest.

Transition

As mentioned at the end of the previous posting on this blog, my term of office as the Deputy Lord Mayor of Birmingham has been completed and therefore there will be no further entries under this civic heading. This means however that I will now be at liberty to resume postings on the wider range of topical issues that were featured on this blog until May 2009.
I hope that you have enjoyed the brief glimpses of the mayoral life that have been provided here. For my own part I know that I enjoyed my time in that capacity immensely having met so many really good people and hopefully I managed to do a bit of good here and there as well.