Shed Building Plans

My iPhone was in ICE SNOW for 44 days and it WORKS! AMAZING!

On January 26th, the windchill was -51 degrees and we had about 36" of snow on the ground with blowing and drifting.  It was this day, 44 days ago,  I suddenly realized my iphone was missing.  There were two possibilities.... it was somewhere in the house or out in the snow.  UGH!  My WHITE iPhone - in the snow?  It couldnt be.  I was doomed.


I have continued to look for it in the house since that day.  That was, until yesterday!  It was a warm sunny day here - about 50 degrees and the record breaking snow was FINALLY beginning to melt!  As I was walking along the sidewalk, THERE IT WAS!  Not my phone, but a small piece of my phone CASE laying there in the matted grass.  MYSTERY SOLVED - I did indeed drop it in the snow in January and it had been outside the whole time!  But now, how to find the actual phone.  I grabbed a shovel and began to try to dig into the copious amounts of snow still remaining along the sidewalk on the grass with NO luck.  I decided I just had to wait for further melting and so before I went to put the shovel back into the garage, I saw something.  THE REST OF THE CASE!  It was there, over 20 feet away from the drop point!  But how could that be...... And then it hit me!  THE SNOWBLOWER!





As I ran over to pick up the case, I was hoping it was still attached to the phone.... and it was!  Resisting the urge to pick it up,  I borrowed a friends iPhone to take pictures of its final resting place.  I was flabbergasted by how it could have been chucked 20 feet by a snowblower and still be intact.  But it was and the mystery of my missing phone was solved.  My mind could finally stop trying to memorize and re-trace the steps leading up to misplacing my phone.  If you have ever lost an object, you know how excruciating and frustrating it can be.  It has been 44 days of trying to remember something that would indicate my phones location.
When I got to the phone and picked it up, I discovered the screen was shattered.  Other than that, it was in great condition.  I brought it in the house and removed the decorative case and threw it away.  I dried off the phone and put it in a plastic bad.  Later that evening, I put it in a bag of rice and let it sit for about 24 hours.


After work today, I decided I was going to plug it is just to see what would happen.  And lo and behold, the charging screen came up!  OMG!  Are you kidding me?  I cannot believe it!


It took a while but at least it seemed to be charging.  And then it happened.  About 20 minutes later, I heard a few noises and my phone powered up!  You could have knocked me over with a feather - I could not believe it!  Not only that, the time was correct AND even adjusted itself for Daylight Savings Time!  OMG OMG OMG!  No way!

I have no service because I put it into lost mode with ATT that first day when it was missing.  And of course, I had NOT downloaded the all important APP - FIND MY iPHONE!  If you own an iPhone, iPod, or other Apple product, DOWNLOAD this NOW.  Through iCloud, it can show your phone on a map if you have lost it, and it can send a tone to it so you can listen for it.  It is pretty amazing.  I am not sure it could have helped me outside in the snow, but it is the first thing I am going to do when I get service restored.


When I bought my 4s in December of 2012, I did buy AppleCare a few weeks later.  I had AppleCare on my MacBook Pro and it was indispensable!  Any glitch that I had was taken care of absolutely free of charge.  Since I normally keep my phones for way longer than two years, I decided AppleCare for my iPhone 4s was the way to go.  It was $99 and it covers anything.  Even snowblowers.  ;-)  I will only have to pay $50 for a new phone but it will be worth it.  With shattered screen, I am concerned about cutting myself on the jagged glass or having pieces actually fall off the phone.  

So, there you have it.  My amazing iPhone story.  I cant believe it.  Record snow fall, weeks of below zero temperatures, deadly windchills, two days of rain and the crushing blades of the snowblower.  I am now an Apple iPhone customer for LIFE.   I am on my third Volkswagen convertible car because I believe in them.  I was in a very serious car accident when a giant Ford Bronco caused a terrible collision.  I walked away without a scratch.  A little VW against a big bad truck and my VW won.  I am loyal to the brand for that very reason - I have faith and they have  served me SO well.  This is the same loyalty I feel towards my Apple iPhone.  I know some people think it is all hype and that android is the way to go, etc.  But, actually, in my eyes, the Apple iPhone is pretty amazing.  I feel sorry for this little phone and all its been through, but it is a survivor.  I now know what the "i" stands for in the name iPhone........ INVINCIBLE!  Bravo Apple, Inc., and thank you for making such an amazing product!


My iPhone was in ICE SNOW for 44 days and it WORKS! AMAZING!

All In A Days Work New Broken China Jewelry!

All In A Days Work New Broken China Jewelry!

Heritage Days Festival at Malabar Farm

Heritage Days Festival at Malabar Farm

Twelve Days of Christmas in Dalston

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.... Twelve legends dining


This image, by OPENs Brian Cumming, shows some of the stars of popular entertainment who were associated with the now demolished 1886 Dalston Circus and Theatre buildings.You can learn about the demolition of old Dalston by watching the trailer to Winstan Whitters short film "Save our Heritage" . Hackney Council demolished the historic buildings in 2007 and sold the land (for a peppercorn) to help fund New Dalstons unaffordable private towerblock flats, brand name shops and a bus station built on The Slab in Dalston for the 2012 Olympics .The Slab turned out to cost £63 million but is only to be used by one bus - the 488 extended route from Clapton. Although it was promoted as "essential transport infrastructure" for the 2012 Olympics no use was made of it for the Olympics at all. Possibly the most expensive bus stop in the world!


On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me.... Eleven pipers piping

Last year Hackney Mayor Pipes Cabinet approved the grant of a lease of the new Dalston Square Librarys cafe to a local business selling Starbucks coffee. The Councils report bemoaned the failure of its extensive marketing to attract a national cafe chain store as a direct lessee but recommended that some Starbucks franchise branding was better than nothing. It would, the report said, confer "a sense of place for the new Dalston Town Square... and will be beneficial for local economic development." Sadly it appears Starbucks commitment to our economic development is not its primary concern 

Another of Hackneys investments may have come back to haunt it., It made a £1.3million investment in 2009/10 in strengthening TfLs Western Curve tunnels to enable their development. TfL now argues ,unless it can exceed Hackneys guidelines on building heights, the schemes are not "financially viable" so that  neither TfL nor Hackney will get their money back. Even then, it says, there can be no public green space, only 10 of 108 new flats can be affordable and the loss of sunlight and damage to local historic assets is unavoidable. .


On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...........Ten Lords a leaping



OPENs Patron is Lord Low of Dalston. A non-party, cross bench, peer who speaks for the greater common good. He is the President of the European Blind Union amongst his many accomplishments. Last year the Low Commission, which Colin Low chaired, achieved substantial reversals of the governments proposed cuts to welfare benefits for disabled people. For many thousands it will "make a difference between existing and a life worth living".

In 2013 the Low Commission will be reporting on the effect of the abolition of huge areas of legal aid next April, and particularly those preventing appeals in cases of welfare benefit and housing injustice. Another area of government cuts is to the right of citizens to challenge unlawful decisions by public bodies. It seeks to prevent bad planning decisions being overturned by objectors. The government seems to think that letting developers do whatever they want is essential for the economy.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....nine sites for listing 



A leaked report has revelaled that the "intrinsic character, local distinctiveness and unique identity of Dalston " is at risk. Dalston town centre is facing a tsunami of property development proposals in 2013. The report comments that Dalstons historic town centre environment has "wholly inadequate heritage protection at present " and recommends nine historic buildings should be listed and the creation of the Dalston Kingsland Conservation Area to protect the character of the area from excessive property development..

On the eigth day of Christmas my true love gave to me........Eight days a week


The Eastern Curve Garden has been fitting eight days of activities into each seven day week. Dalstons only community managed public green space has been so successful that last year it won the national Landscape Institute Presidents Award. This year its Pineapple Hot House was built and it had a visit from HRH Camillla, the Duchess of Cornwall, as part of her tour of Chelsea Flower Show fringe gardens.  The events list at Eastern Curve Garden is never ending, but the Council says that Dalstons only public green space was always intended to be for temporary use only. Lets hope it never ends!

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me.....Seven members voting


This year, after a campaign led by OPEN Dalston, the Councils Planning Committee unanimously rejected a proposal by Rothas Ltd. for an 18-storey "dressed in green" private towerblock on the Peacocks site next to Dalston Kingsland station. We also said goodbye to Councillor Alan Laing who resigned his seat but continued to be employed by the developers PR company Four Communications.

In 2013 Rothas Ltd. will re-apply for planning permission, this time for a 19-storey rotunda tower. Dalston also faces major development applications by TfL for the Western Curve plus a nine-storey development of the Eastern Curve plus  a plan to redevelop the Dalston Cross shopping centre with 15-storey residential towerblocks. 

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.......Six blackened buildings

In previous years they burned down old buildings on Dalstons development sites  or painted our surviving Georgian houses black - a somber reminder of the charred remains or a dark vision of more funeral pyres to come? The Council, after four fires, three demolitions and OPEN Dalstons long campaign,  bought the terraces back from the off-shore slum landlord to whom they sold them at auction (For double what it had sold them for in 2002 - Ed).

Now, in the age of austerity when money is scarce, the Council has secured a deal to redevelop the terrace for housing and ground floor shops.  It will not be the "conservation led" scheme originally promised and only, they say, the Georgian facades of the houses will be retained.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.........Five Gold Rings






Gold Dust by Mike Wells on Vimeo.

Last year saw the publication of banned Hackney author Iain Sinclairs latest book "Ghost Milk" which explores issues concerning the 2012 Olympics including the excavation, stockpiling, and burial of 7,000 tonnes of radioactive waste on the site  without any prior  regulatory inspection or planning permission at all. What will the environmental legacy be for the future generations who will live on the 2012 site ? Consultants have advised that they shouldnt eat anything grown in their gardens. Iain Sinclairs  ban from speaking on Hackney Council premises has never been lifted but he was able to read and discuss his work at an OPEN event  at Dalstons  Cafe Oto.

The award winning writer and journalist Anna Minton was also a guest speaker at the event. Her book Ground Control is increasingly relevant to Dalston where a major gated community is plannned by TfL on its Western Curve sites...."this  is the architecture of extreme capitalism, which produces a divided landscape of privately owned, disconnected, high security, gated enclaves side by side with enclaves of poverty which remain untouched by the wealth around them. The stark segregation and highly visible differences create a climate of fear and growing mistrust between people which...erodes civil society." Anna Minton Ground Control


On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.........Four Aces Club

OPEN Dalston member Winstans Whitters documentary Legacy in the dust tells the story of Dalstons legendary reggae club, its relationship with the Council and the police and how it went on to become the rave venue Labyrinth.

In 2007 the authorities demolished the clubs original home in the historic Dalston Theatre buildings at 14 Dalston Lane. They crushed it, ground it up and used it in the foundations for Barratts New Dalston tower block development of 90% unaffordable flats.

Thus we lost our historic buildings in Dalston and the thirty year cultural legacy of our African-Carribean community. So now the authorities are calling the new tower blocks after the artists who performed in the club they demolished - Sledge Tower, Wonder House, Marley House etc. Patronising hypocrisy...or what? Did anyone ask Stevie Wonder if he wanted a Dalston tower block named after him?

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me......... three green oasis 


A TfL image illustrating its present proposals for "greening" Dalston which is limited to planting some street trees.

In one of the most populous wards, in one of the most populous boroughs in London, Dalston has virtually no public green space at all. OPEN Dalston, with backing from award winning Growing Communities, has identified three areas on TfLs Western Curve development sites which would be suitable for small managed public green spaces.TfL have so far rejected our proposals but the issue has been raised with TfLs boss, Boris, the Mayor of the Greater London Authority.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me........two subsidies

This year Barratt, who are building the Dalston Square towers, succeeded where Oliver Twist failed. Last year it got second helpings of the tasty tax- payers subsidy which it first had earlier in the year. This yeat it announced profits for shareholders. With house builders struggling, and banks asking for 25% deposits on new build properties, the government has set aside  further £millions to lend first time buyers towards their deposits on Barratts and other flats.  Barratt loves it - it helps keep prices, and profit margins, high. With insufficient homes, and rents soaring, buy-to-let landlords think they have found a safe haven and taken 60% of the East London new build market.and Barratt has opened an office in Beijing
Barratt have also been pulling strings to support the recently announced "simplification" of planning rules - the "presumption in favour of development". Hello to the Big Business Society. Goodbye bio-diversity and local character and, if you cant pay the rent or the bank, then its goodbye to you too.



On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me.........a retail opportunity

In 2012 the Dalston Area Action Plan ( DAAP  - Hackneys blueprint for the "regeneration" of Dalston) - was examined in public by a government Planning Inspector. One of Hackneys big ideas is "creating the conditions for national high street stores to be attracted to the area" by creating a new "shopping circuits" linking Dalston Square with a re-developed Dalston Cross shoppping centre. Hackney hopes this will mean locals dont need to go shopping at Westfield, Stratford City or the Angel. How paying money into the off-shore bank accounts of national brand stores, rather than local independent businesses, will boost our local economy remains a mystery.

The Eastern Curve Garden - a managed green public space

Late amendments to the DAAP saw the Councils "vision" change from a Dalston Park, where the award winning Eastern Curve Garden presently is, into an overshadowed pedestrian thoroughfare lined with shops and nine-storey blocks of flats which they call a "shopping circuit". How will this fit with Hackney Mayors recent announcement that  "What we do not need is retail space and housing that, using the governments affordability criteria, is well out of the reach of most Hackney people "


Hackneys vision of the Eastern Curve Garden transformed into a shopping circuit

"....Towers for people who need gifts and coffee Only available from brandname shops...."
From "Regeneration Blues" by Michael Rosen





Twelve Days of Christmas in Dalston

Open House Sundays 2 My Creative Days

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Open House Sundays 2 My Creative Days