Wrapping up well, I took my dog Bryn on a walk tonight. I stopped on a hill, high on my estate, to take a photograph (1) of the lights of Oldham, shining in the distance. Photographs 2 and 3 shows just what can happen when you’re taking a photograph while holding a dog lead and the damn dog decides to go for a run 😂
Maybe I’ve discovered a new art form. To go with the new puddle.
In my last post of four days ago I mentioned, among other things, my admiration of the RNLI whose volunteers are routinely heading into conditions that would make the rest of us falter.
Well it just so happens that, this time round, my wife knows the relative of one of the three crew members of the missing fishing vessel Nicola Faith. Despite two days of searches by seven lifeboats from different stations, it is looking like the search has now ended without success.
Prayers for the three fishermen and their families, and thanks to all the agencies involved for their heroic effort.
Mornings following mornings following mornings, sitting with a coffee and nowhere to go.
But I can still travel. Without going out of my door as Harrison sang.
During this lockdown we are all becoming islands, but still part of a vast archipelago, casting our messages in technological bottles that lap against each other’s shores.
Tides and tidings, what do they bring today?
The RNLI had launched a vessel from their Aberystwyth base, just twenty minutes ago. I follow many of the stations around our coastline on Twitter, marvelling at the courage of the volunteers who regularly head out into the kind of conditions that would make me blanch.
As well as the personal Twitter sites of the bases around the shorelines that I’m familiar with, it’s the RNLI: Out On A Shout that gives the regular updates. The listings though are sparse, just postings of times and places, critically cryptic (or should that be cryptically critical?), prompting a visit to the named stations in the hunt for further details.
‘Cold cleavings of the sea’ now comes to mind, something from George Mackay Brown’s The Masked Fisherman which I was reading last night. Everything leads to something else, an ever moving current.
Closer to home I learn of the death of a local church minister that I was acquainted with. I didn’t know him well, but he was a popular figure around here as the many technological bottles testify to. The last time I’d seen him he appeared quite gaunt, the way time affects those who have not a lot of meat on their bones to begin with.
There seems to be a lot of people leaving us at the moment. People once present now cut adrift, disappearing beneath the surface of vision.
I decide on a refill, taking a glance out of the kitchen window. It is yet another cold start, the sun is trying its best, though.
Well done everybody, we’ve just made it through another day on lockdown and we’ll do the same again tomorrow. Stay strong, stay safe.💪✌️
After two days of heavy rain there were flood warnings throughout the country. I’m fortunate that I don’t live near to any river unlike those unfortunate people whose homes always seem to be at risk at this time of year.
I was sat with a coffee, watching the rain outside the window.
It reminded me of the time I was on the island of Rousay. I’d had some time to kill before the ferry arrived to take me back to what is known as mainland Orkney and so sought out a cafe overlooking the jetty,. I was sat with a coffee then, too, again watching the rain that had behind it the force of an ocean wind. The last of my coffee drained, I’d then ordered a hot-buttered bannock. Very Scottish, I know. When in Rome and all that.
Panoramic though it was, that view didn’t include an ornamental giraffe like mine did now. A giraffe which, if you look very carefully, you’d see is missing an ear thanks to Bryn, our Welsh Springer Spaniel.
Scottish, Welsh, for the interests of inclusivity I think my next drink should be some nice English tea.
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Who’d have thought it? After forty-eight hours of heavy rain winter blew in during the night and we were moved to make the most of it. Heaving on boots and heavy coats, we went out into a blast of cold air, even though it was 10.40pm on a school night. School night- that’s a laugh. They are now known as stay at home and do school work nights.
Millie walked ahead, giving an unsuspecting Bryn his first experience of snow.
With Millie’s arms aching we changed over and she managed to catch a second’s worth of our expedition.
The night wore on, the snow continued, and as we decided to head back we spotted a bus crawling up the road towards us. On the rare occasions that we get a considerable amount of snow around here the bus services are often cancelled as we live on a hill, but this one made an admirable job of it, its lights carving through the gloom as it succeeded on its way past us to its frozen destination.
We got in, dried the dog, dried ourselves, closing the blinds on that cold January night. The next morning I drew back the blinds in great anticipation on what would be waiting for me, ready to go again. Wrapped in layers and past experiences for reference.
Even my notifications are taking the piss.
I’m a little behind the times, and for that I apologise, but on the 5th of January Colin Bell, widely regarded as the greatest player to ever pull on the sky blue shirt for my team, Manchester City, passed away.
I’d meant to do a post about the time my wife and I met him, in memorable circumstances, a few years ago, but I got caught up in ‘stuff’ and haven’t written it yet. I will post that at a later date.
In the meanwhile, I’ve posted below a short tribute by 007 himself, Timothy Dalton, an avowed City and Colin Bell fan. It refers to the player’s beginnings and how this shy, most unassuming of men gained legendary status without really acknowledging that. There could be no more apt title for his autobiography: Reluctant Hero.
The tribute also shows him running through the streets of Manchester in a vain attempt to come back from the injury that prematurely called time on his career.
Please give it a watch.
I took this photograph a few days ago of a local fishing pond, frozen over.
There’s not much colour in it, is there?
January has always been bleak, even without the added burden of a national lockdown.
The lines of a poem in my first collection, Heading North, come to mind:
There’s not much colour in that either, is there?
But that was the particular tone of that poem, it is called Laments of the Urban Dead after all.
But we can still hold hope, if not joy.
I know I keep banging the same drum, but before we know it spring will be sprung, to be followed by the first fruits of summer. You know how it works.
Seasons don’t follow lockdown rules, nature doesn’t adhere to restrictions.
So hang in there, Jackdaw friends, wherever you are and whatever circumstances you find yourselves in, there are brighter days to come.
City Jackdaw 