*swoons*

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birdbox ,bluebells & butterflies.

In the Garden:a Birdbox Chris just finished today.

Below a slideshow of my visit today with Cath to Hardcastle Craggs:

Joan

I travelled over to  Royton,(nr Manchester) today to attend Joan 's funeral ( Hydn's wife).Held at St Pauls Church .A massive place ,which  was packed.
www.saint-pauls-royton.org/

An impressive attendance for a beautiful lady.

Rest in Peace X

[Capo ]Martin took this photo of me near Royton Cricket Club, which hosted a meal for the mourners afterwards.

Thank You Martin for the lift to & from the Mills Hill railway station.

As I say, hundreds attended Joan's Mass.
 It lasted 80 minutes ( with a seperate cremation afterwards).
An Anglican/Cof E affair...yet  much "smells& bells"..more 'Catholic' than even recent roman catholic services I have attended  (remember I'm Polish,I know about such things!)
It's the first time ever I have taken the host &wine from a protestant vicar......very moving......
It was also good to meet up with 40 or 50  people i hadnt met up with for at least 12 months.

Labour Day in Hebden Bridge.

The fortune-telling lady. Has even taken all her things inside.........

A photo taken near Todmorden in 1975 by the splendid photographer Martin Parr

This week's sepia saturday

has , as it's prompt someone hanging out washing to dry.............

 The above is cheating really....i took it out of my Abruzzo bedroom window only eight years ago,Hardly "old".....but I think it perfectly captures the timeless ballet that is "hanging out one's  washing"...an art form that crosses both time and space ...........
(click to hear the BobCat) I see Bob from Bacup on Wednesday who celebrated his 81st Birthday  last week.He has moved house recently  & has just come out of hospital after eye surgery.

***

Bob from     Bacup

I also go to Royton to attend the funeral of Joan,Hydn's lovely wife. Hopefully  i meet up with some  friends from The Rochdale Hamam.

 ***

Also ,thru the week,I should be seeing Ken& Phil in Calderdale for a drink.First time for ages........

 ***

 Incidently.....Great News from Newcastle.The Turkish Baths there  will be reopening !
 I expect I shall eventually be testing the facilities (I hope they provide clean towels.......)
You may check  progress  [here]

me,as human clothes- horse, in an Istanbul Hamam.Look at my Gut!

Clare Road , Halifax    HX1 2JR

"......In one doll, the upper half spun and where her hand pointed at the end of the spin was the fortune for you...".       [read more...]

Another Martin Parr washing line.

a walk along the tow path between Hebden Bridge & Mytholmroyd today..

zimnoch.smugmug.com/Dropbox/Hebden-Bridge-Tow-Path-23rd-April-2017/

life size: full size anatomical skeleton

C'è un medico in casa?

I nearly kicked myself as I was driving through Sowerby Bridge today.
Could it be  the onset of election fever?

Driving past a mid terrace house, a van was unloading boxes & furniture 

A family was moving into the house .

Just as I passed, a young lass,maybe 9 years of age, was carrying a life size anatomical skeleton ( bigger ,of course,than she was ..) through the open front door.

What are the chances of that happening? 

You could easily go through your entire life & never see such a thing! I didnt have any  time  to find my camera. 

This May well rank as one of the best photos I never took.....

Peter Hitchins (writing in The Daily Mail) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hitchens

Below ,Mathew Parris  in  Friday's TIMES
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0ba87434-26a8-11e7-bc20-132b509ff5ce

 

A DONALD TRUMP PRODUCTION ™

 

*"Life After Death" by Chris Stone.*

*The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran [microform] ; their cults, customs, magic, legends, and folklore : read the entire book. *

Joppa

This week's sepia saturday prompt photo is of a sister & brother looking happily,lovingly at one another.
I took from this that the two  kids didnt really  care that the photographer was there or not. (S)he was incidental and  accidental .

They would have  looked  that   way anyway......

With this thought in mind .My offering for this week's post

is  below.

A photo of my Mum.Aged about 3-4? 

It's taken in a bus shelter on Portobello seafront in Edinburgh.1930-ish?

. The elderly lady is My Mum's Aunt Nellie.

I remember Aunt Nellie well from my own young  childhood.She was ,obviously much older/smaller & wrinkly then! She was  nearly 100 when she finally died.
I even stayed in her house in Joppa .We used to visit her when i was roughly to same age as Mum  in this photo.I remember travelling upon a   steam train  ( The Flying Scotsman?) directly from Halifax Railway Station to Joppa Station ( pre-Beeching )

My bedroom   in Joppa  had a  big brass bed! If i stood on tip toes & looked outside  I could (if  I stretched!)  view a tiny corner of the sea ,' just visible from the  top  right hand corner of the  window
There was lots of "family politics" floating about on the horizon...... .Even by the late 50's/early 60's.
Aunty Nellie lived alone in that house near the sea.
Her sister Aunty Margaret lived with my Aunt Brenda 100 yards away on the other side of the busy main road into the city.
They never visited /talked to each other for  perhaps 20   years......
(How strange  to be so close , yet so invisible........)
We stayed at Nellie's and visited Margaret for Tea. Nellie of course never joined us.
 I still dont know the cause of the feud.They didnt have blogs then.Who Knows.......
My Mum as a child was  passed around various family members ( Her own Mum dead in childbirth & her dad at sea and remarried)
.My Mum showed me this photo a few years before she died.
Here  we  see  her and Nellie.
She said they had not been "allowed" to meet at the time......
But evidently they did! but in secret .
(I never thought to ask who the photographer was. )
What is even more poignant , Nellie looks very much like my Mum did  in her final years.......
Make of that what you will.
Your guess is really as good  as mine.although I cant help thinking that that Me ,brother Zyg my Dad & Mum staying at Nellie's &  not at Margaret 's was meant as a "statement".......

Meanwhile.Things are still shit for me.
Various worries currently.
It really pisses me off how people seem to think me laid -back . I'm not really .I keep it  too myself generally ( apart from here.now.and to the world!)     😎😎😍😎
We even got a letter recently criticising us for posting a photo of us smiling on New Year's Eve. We must not be "that bothered" ,obviously!
Photos hide more that they reveal. Although that is ,i    believe ,a bloody good haircut wot i got today !!
Not bad for a bloke who is 65 on July 30th........!
Anyway.The best bit of news I,ve had this  week is that "The Blitz" Tearooms in the Square in Hebden Bridge is closing down!
(tripadvisor link)
Bloody Appalling place IMHO.
Perhaps they may now open a Tea Rooms in Syria instead?
'Never did like the concept. Fake Nostalgia. Now, had  they served Spam& Powdered Eggs & dressed the waitresses in stripy Concentration Camp threads..well,maybe it would have worked..

but,as it was, the place just reeked  of Brexit & Nigel Farages socks and farts.......

Saturday update: we went to an Art Exhibition in Hebden Bridge at north light studio.I saw a very regal (royal) family hiding behind screen ,spying on us.........

 

jesus in a basket

we   are   all playing  at dying......

My son Chris took this photo of me hanging-out in the Republblica Grimy region of Italy. Even i can get a little cross sometimes.Although (notice) i was still  vain enough to take my glasses off for a "photo opportunity".

a big ciao to all my visitors & "friends" in "Italy"

e 'altamente probabile che ........

La famiglia di mia moglie che vivono nella Repubblica Grimy  ,  sono così crudele stupido e prevedibile che la prima cosa che farà è andare e tradurre questo testo "Google Translate"! fica tristi

n.b.   for those who dont know the region ,  a  rough guide to The Repubblica Grimy can be found [ here]

 https://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/real-easter-egg-1971.html

i died laughing when i read this on twitter.......

A Polish Radiologist living inLondon who  i follow of twitter.

I love her Anger.I love her intelligence .

 You can follow her too,if you have a mind.......

at

https://twitter.com/CromulentTweets 

all my pictures r falling from the wall i placed them yesterday ......

Chris took this photo in Italy a few years ago. He was travelling around with Mick & Nick..it was  Spring in the mountains of Abruzzo.{They later travelled down the spine of Italy to the beaches of Sicily }In Chris's photo here , it was cold enough to still ski:but warm enough to begin thinking about getting a tan....!

This is a sepia saturday 

post. 

click [here] to see others. 

I took the prompt to be about the beach &   it's  possible  substitutes or alternatives..
Neil Young's "on the beach" pops into my head ( hence the title) 
It's a very dark & sombre album.
I'm in a similar place myself, at the moment.
I havnt been away & relaxed for some time now.

I keep getting obsessive dreams that I am swimming in the ocean.
Perhaps I am in  need of  Mr Jung not Mr Young? !
Me ,Cath Don & Margaret saw& heard Bashti  Bunyan sing in the Bridgewater in Manchester once.

 Her voice always   soothes   me.....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vashti_Bunyan 

  Vashti Bunyan ( after the goldrush) :Janine Nichols & Kevin Hearn ( expecting to fly) : 2010 .Hal Willner's Neil Young Project: Queen Elizabeth Theatre.Vancouver.
thesnipenews.com/music/concert-reviews/neil-young-project-vancouver/ 

me & my Mam on Portobello Prom ,near Edinburgh ,when I was a nipper.
The late 50's?

a photograph by Francesca Woodman: via: www.newshelton.com/wet/dry/?p=14369

"ever since I left the city you"

the thickman of europe

The irony is that I  have never been a big fan of Europe.Under different circumstances: at a different time,I would probably have voted "out"too. But not at this time:with these people.
They are going to fuck us royally.
Maternity Right: Sickness Benefits .Pay  etal etc
You Stupid  Fuckers.........

museum of childhood......

".....It means a fallow field in winter 

When frost is on the land

 when the fox is on the run down by the riverside 
where the furrow meets the sun 

where the furrow hugs the riverbank 

and nothing can be done...."

READ: lyrics to  " call mother a lonely field" by Jackie Leven. 

 LISTEN:"call Mother A lonely field" Jackie Leven.

Another Jackie Leven song ."Museum of Childhood".Live: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Leven
https://everton.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/mystery-of-love-is-greater-than-mystery.html 

what me mam taught me (reprise)

 This is slightly redacted , replenished  &   republished version of a post I first published in July 2013. See the original [here:]

I dont know how my image for this week's Sepia Saturday. fits the Theme.......It's a group of people.They share a common purpose (unknown).It's not not prescriptive,you can imagine your own narrative around it.I find it hopeful in a strange sense.I also cant help thinking it compliments Mike Garry's words ......................
I dont know anything about the image itself, other than it was taken in 1967.In South Parade Halifax.

When his Mum died two months ago, Michael Garry's family asked him to write this poem for her funeral .He also read it on stage at The Hebden Bridge Picture House on Sunday 30th June.(which i recorded for you here). Michael is from Fallowfield in Manchester.

{In The Interest of Balance, here is some beautiful writing to celebrate a Father.}

 thanks again to Bob Piper for  your help.( he kindly donated free tickets for me & Cathy).
John Cooper Clarke was as funny as fuck! A grand night.

'above poetryis  by Robert Montgomery. See some of his other stuff [here:]

me mam

"Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes.

Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation."

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī جلال‌الدین محمد رومی 

memory is more like art than fact

PLANETS

Our man Dizzy , in the prompt photo for this week's sepia saturday ,seems to be in dreamland.
Which reminded me of  this story of Commandant Darget.The man who photographed dreams.

EAGLE

here is a link to a recording of Ella Fitzgerald playing live in East Berlin  in 1967

http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1857
The Internet Archive also holds several of Ella's live concerts {here} 
They are copyright free.You can listen/download them there at your leisure. 

 

the mysterious dancing epidemic of 1518.

[Hebden Bridge Trades Club.]

Reading this today reminded me not a little of Trump,s Inauguration.

 “...............they suggest that hunger and psychological stress were the likely culprit, with a healthy dose of religious belief thrown in: “In times of acute hardship, with physical and mental distress leaving people more than usually suggestible, a fear of St Vitus could rapidly take hold. All it then took was for one or a few emotionally frail people, believing themselves to have been cursed by St.Vitus, to slip into a trance. …..........”  

{Read More:}

 kY1l19qn7B16540Z89X5

 BUY THE ALBUM HERE!

caught by the river

Me & Cath went this afternoon to Caught By The River

at   Machpelan Mill in Hebden Bridge .

An  afternoon of poetry   &    short stories.

Splendid .......

......although odd at times.They were  holding a "Laughter   Workshop" in another part of the mill.

It seeped through occasionally. 

Shakespeare competing with a stranger trying to smother Les Dawson with a duvet!

 Only in Hebden Bridge........

A special mention for  Zaffar Kunial

His poetry was top ~notch.

The afternoon's photos (+short video) are here