A local bar in Chapel Allerton, LS7.
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Further North
3
Fire
The fires in my garden were festive, exciting –
Stars and sparks mingling
Woodsmoke a spicy scent, in your hair lingering.
The fires in my fireplace were friendly, inviting –
Warming and mellowing music and wine
The glow in the hearth made your eyes gleam and shine.
But this was a fire that was bitter and frightening
It came uninvited
Rapacious as lightning
Tore through the house, left my life dark and hollow
Its flames soon extinguished
Then long-lasting sorrow.
Weeks of toil, months of mourning, confusion and grieving
And realisation of what is not here –
Then sweep up the ashes and dump what we’re leaving –
We’ll build a new bonfire
The first of the year.
Poem by TW
Sailing Under the Humber Bridge
The Humber Bridge crosses the estuary between Hessle in East Yorkshire and Barton upon Humber in North Lincolnshire.
At the time it was built in 1981, it was the world’s longest single-span suspension bridge (1.4 miles). That record was beaten in the late 1990s but the Humber Bridge remains the longest in the world that can be crossed on foot or by cycle.
The bridge is a beautiful achievement, and I am not the only one to be inspired by it.
Thanks to Skipper Bruce, for giving me the opportunity to see it from this viewpoint!
Liverpool Cathedral
‘One of the great buildings of the world’
– Sir John Betjeman
A dark and rainy winter afternoon last year. Liverpool Cathedral is a complicated and difficult building to draw. I was in my hometown to show paintings in ‘Who is My Neighbour?’, an exhibition about migration and refugee issues.
Isle of Tiree III
The sky meets the sea
on the Isle of Tiree
Isle of Tiree II
The Isle of Tiree is the most westerly island of the Inner Hebrides.
It is relatively small – about twelve miles long and three miles wide
– and very flat.
Isle of Tiree
Sky, sky, sky, sky.
And a bit of flat land.
View from Pasture Lane, LS7
My new view walking home, looking across Chapel Allerton Park. I moved across the border to Leeds 7 a few weeks ago. The house is on a very steep hill but so far I’ve only fallen over once. There are lots of dogs and cats here.
In the bleak mid-winter
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan ;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone ;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow ;
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago…
From the poem ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Christina Rossetti, published in 1872.
View from the A61
I was driving, so this is a memory of a glimpse of the view from the A61 near Pannal, North Yorkshire.
