First workshop of the week and daffodils during the day

Daffodils, left by my mother, to start the day.

Then to Helston School  for the first of two workshops on consecutive days this week. An engaging discussion with 120 students (Y11), and Ewa. The teacher here - point of contact, Joe Stuteley - has said that students could have knee-jerk tabloid-fuelled attitudes towards migrant workers. And that is what we need to combat. We give a presentation at the start: they go off to their classrooms. Then return for a plenary discussion. No sign of prejudice - in particular. But it's quite an hard audience to warm up. The hall is freezing - perhaps that is part of the problem. Also on a personal level find it very strange to be back in this school. It was my old school.

Then talking to possible assistants for future workshops - in Helston and Camborne.

Heading home, quite late in the afternoon, am surprised to see the pickers still picking. It is already growing dark. 

But this is the peak season. Mother's Day - the absolute pinnacle of the daffodil season - isn't far off. So the tractors are still at work until well into the evening.

Cold snap - does the daffodil picking begin? And more planning

The Western Morning News runs its annual photo of a smiling migrant worker daffodil picker in west Cornwall. The picking has started at long last, after the cold snap, it says.
However later in the day, the local TV news has a farmer near Truro as saying that the picking is slow.  Hear from local farming contacts that the cold weather isn't a bad thing for the crop - it extends the selling period, which is a good thing for everyone.  The Western Morning News says that Cornwall produces a fifth of the world's daffodils.
Ewa and I for the second time in a week drink coffee in a Tesco's cafe, this time in Pool after a meeting at the school where our planned assembly was cancelled yesterday. The migrant worker members of staff are reflecting on how they feel the issues could be tackled in the school, where there are several children of migrant workers. The message of I Packed This Myself is the experience of migration - it's a challenging message to get across, particularly to an audience that isn't particularly receptive.
Buy my own local daffodils (from the Scillies) from a petrol station in Hayle. They are Soleil D'Or and - apparently - sailors approaching the islands could smell them long before land was sighted.

Trip to Pool police station, a Polish shop and the daffodil season on ice

To see Bev Faull, the recently appointed police officer dealing with migrant workers in the west of the county. She is inspiringly focussed and interested in the subject - consult her ahead of our assemblies at Pool School next week. There was a minor skirmish in the local press about migrant workers in the area last autumn - the West Briton carried a front page story. Again, so far from the truth that it is not worth repeating here but it can be read via the link. An example of local hysteria, whipped up against migrant workers. This was not the West Briton's finest hour. This front page story was based on quotes by un-named local residents. Not one named source.  In reality there were no evidenced examples of 'bad behaviour' by migrant workers and because of that the story inevitably died down, thankfully. Local hysteria has now turned against planned social housing for single mothers. Regrettably though, the West Briton story has left a legacy - people thinking that there is a 'migrant worker problem' in Pool.

Bev is based in a station that is not open to the public - it is almost romantically bleak ... What I imagine 'safe houses' in John Le Carre novels look like.

Then to the Polish shop in nearby Tuckingmill to stock up with goods for the Eastern European suitcase. It is a fusion of Cornish and Polish. A sign for pasties outside. And (how ironic!) West Briton advertising...

Fairy liquid, Polish sausage and Chupa Chups inside.

Then back home via the daffodil fields. The daffodil season has stalled because of the icy weather last month. Very much behind schedule. The big local flower grower, Nocton, has hundreds of workers poised to pick. But few flowers as yet. Crows are enjoying the empty fields.

Church centre stage - and meetings in London

Looking at photos of Tom Pilston's photoshoot in Cornwall for I Packed This Myself - see a church tower in the centre of the landscape, in the far distance. Just as in Stubb's landscape. But in our picture the church is a mere landmark, not a vibrant part of the community. Or is that just received thinking about our post-religious, secular society? In fact, this is Breage church, and Breage church and its extraordinary vicar Penny Stephens played a very important role in uncovering some of the exploitation of workers at a farm near Breage, a few years ago.
But ... back to London and meetings.
Meet artist Patrick Coleman and discuss including his extraordinary relic box - or reliquary (his father's tool box, crammed with artefacts from the past half century, showing his Irish family's efforts to settle in England. It bears very poignant witness to his relationship with his father.)
Then (after egg and cress sandwiches to keep going) another meeting, this time with a sensationally bright MA student on taking this and other project forwards. And finally a discussion with Kemal Ahson, Bridging Arts non-executive director, on ways of mapping - charting the experience of migration and creating new work to reflect this.