Monday 20 June 2011

Beautiful places near home







This is Woodbrooke Quaker College, 20 minutes from the centre of Birmingham. Beautiful, tranquil gardens and a real haven from the bustle of the main road just outside.





See their website - http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/ - for details of the College and the weekend and other courses run there.




Wednesday 8 June 2011

Pride in Birmingham

For some more photos, see AmnestyBrum's flickr stream - this year we supported activists from the Baltic countries who stage their Pride festival, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their friends. 
This time, the Amnesty group had a float (ie lorry) to stage their Birmingham/Baltic Pride to support the visitors and their friends back home.  Baltic Pride is in Estonia this year, but due to local difficulties a march isn't planned.  (To see the local reactions to similar events in those countries, try YouTube and "Baltic Pride" and maybe "Riga 2006" to show just how hostile the anti-lobby can be.  A shame, they lose an enriching experience themselves (the antis) and make life colder and crueller for others - in what are beautiful countries with a rich heritage.)

We are lucky to have a great celebratory event in Birmingham, which all can take part in without threat, and where friends and well-wishers can play an equal part.