KAZ

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[above:outside a junk shop in Lanciano]
Can I point you in the direction of the Koast to Koast Kaz Fund.It's a sponsorship journey through Northern England in memory of Kaz. who died in March.Money raised  by blog following fan Rodger will go to the Ovarian Cancer Charity.Please give here if you can.
Kaz was a Lovely Liverpool Lass  (+ Everton supporter) who lived in Manchester & was a daily commentator here.,back in the day.Sail On Beautiful Lady.
I am now back in Hebden Bridge..I flew back into Leeds Bradford Airport at 3pm on Thursday.By 8pm Me & Cathy were sat in Bury Met watching The Fairports [[my photos:] A jet-setting Rock N Roll lifestyle non? Thanks To Don & Margaret.
I'm very tired.Apologies to Ex-Cappo Martin & those at the hammam.I was due to go to Tony Ts Birthday meal late last night..but far too knackered.
Work progresses on my place in Abruzzo
.But so much still to do.I seemed overwhelming at times . View Some Of My Photos Thunder in the Mountains over last weekend  forced me to stay inside and work.I stayed 4 nights  in the house .I want to get to a stage where it is fit for friends (eg Phil The Ex-Fireman) to be able to come over and help......but until the basics are in place I wouldn't want them to have to stay in a total tip.It's nearly ready to invite them over.Me & several people should be going over next month.
The village is very quiet.I found it quite spooky staying on my own there.I was alone for 90% of the time.Although can I thank Sora for feeding me one day (the best Dutch Risotto I have ever tasted!:).Sora is staying 3 weeks at Iona's house in the village.
I also met up with Mick Goggins& his his new squeeze Shelley.
I spent the best part of Wednesday in Lanciano sorting out paperwork .A special thanks to Massimo at the Bank for ,with great patience,walking me through the dark art of Italian Internet Banking.Also to Piero who explained & sorted  my Water,Electric & Council paperwork.Both are good teachers!
here are a few photos I took this time in Italy.

It's Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday next week.Out of respect for His Bobness, here is a video I took in Hebden Bridge at the recent anti-royalist street party.A band (i know not who) sing the opening riffs of 'All Along The Watchtower.''












P.S. Don.I bought a copy today of "Grateful Dead:Broadcasting Live" DVD if you don't have, I will runoff copies.We watched it tonight (2 discs) Rather suburb! A stunning "Knocking On Heaven's Door".
Finally.I just found this video on Youtube. It was posted 3 days ago. I minute of ".....the only known (existing) professionally filmed Sandy Denny footage with Fairport Convention...."Enjoy & Weep.

Finally............I found this rather strange carnival video from the village in which my house is ! Check the video here
It's an Isolated mountain region.Cut-off historically from the rest of Italy.Frankly, it shows that here...........!
Shot  in March this year.............looks like some outakes from  The Wickerman

Pennadomo :Wikipedia

P.S. watch the News over the next couple of weeks.Italy is about to come the next Southern European country to go belly-up financially. Remember.You heard it first here!

Shelley-Anne Crawford.Sora van Brummelen
Piero Nasuti

"MARJORYS BIRTHDAY PARTY AT BIRCHLEA 1932 LEVEN"

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

I've mentioned My Mum often enough here ( e.g.)
  Here is a photo I found (while clearing out the attic this week) of her Birthday Party ..
My Mum always spoke of her childhood as a lonely desert of a place,.My grandmother had died in childbirth.My grandad (pictured here, top/middle) was a sailor ,away from home & who had little to do with my Mum.She spent her childhood in the care of aunties in Fife & Edinburgh.She thought it a lonely existence I think.
All the more strange, then, to see this photo.It must have been her 6th birthday .Here she is , right in the middle with cake+doll.All those people around her!Even her dad!Although, I dont recognize anybody else in it.Maybe a school affair?Was "Birchlea" a school? I just dont know........... 
Maybe this is the opposite of  last week's post ?Just another way of "covering things up"? The camera never lies? Maybe this was just staged - managed? A cunning ploy to convince her she wasn't  really alone?Am I being cynical? I'm sure ,objectively , it was more complicated than that..................
One thing for sure........most of the photos I have of her childhood , she appears clutching a doll of some kind.

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photos in  Halifax tonight . Tracy's Leaving Do . A Special Thanks to Nick & Dave for arranging the evening for us all+ making it all possible......

who am I when there is a sea?

A raindrop,dripping from a cloud,

Was ashamed when it saw the sea.

'Who am I when there is a sea?' it said.

When it saw itself with the eye of humility,

A shell nurtured it in its embrace.

[ 'Pearl' :  سعدی  Saadi]

They say that toddlers often enjoy playing more with the box the Christmas present came in rather than the present itself! Not so Me. Before Christmas , I bought myself the present of a negative scanner from the new Aldi's thats just opened next door to The Rochdale Hammam.I was royally pissed -off when I opened the box on Christmas Day to find it empty.
Yesterday I returned to complain.I now have the contents!
The first old negative ( 4x4 inches)I scanned was the above.It gave me quite a jolt.I think it was taken in Perth,Scotland.Late 1880's/early 1890's? I have never seen a photo before of my Great-Grandmother, but it must be her, she looks so much like My Mum  that its a bit disturbing.given the stern look on her face.

This is a Sepia Saturday Post.

My Thanks to Labour Councillor Bob Piper for these nice words.

+I Want To Send Some New Year Love To The Beautiful KAZ.

In Manchester.

A heart needs a home

Theme Thursday test

The Unthanks perform Robert Wyatt's 'Dondestan' (with clogs dance).

London, Union Chapel - December 8th, 2010

Palestine's a country / or at least used to be.

Palestine's a country / or at least used to be.

Felahin, refugee (Kurdistan similarly)

need something to build on / rather like the rest of us.

Palestine's a country / or at least used to be.

Palestine's a country / or at least used to be.

Felahin, refugee (deportees similarly)

need something to build on / rather like the rest of us got

Its just a year ago that we saw The Unthanks at the  Hebden Bridge Trades Club [ my photos].. This week I booked my tickets to see them play Manchester Cathedral on 30th April.

Becky Unthanks (2nd clog dancer from the right) although born in  Northumberland , now lives less than a mile from my house in Hebden Bridge.I see her shopping in the CO-Op & suchlike........
Halifax born Dominic Rivon threw out a challenge this week on his blog Choose one question from All Soul's College exam paper & write a blog post on it.
I have picked..................... Is exile always a misfortune ?

"Exile" might usually be seen as a geographical idea. To live apart.It's also tied in with a feeling of banishment . The majority have exile trust upon them. Those who choose exile do so out of circumstance.
I guess my Dad's life could have been described as one of "Exile".Living in Britain because he couldn't return return to his home in Poland.I am sure he saw this as his total misfortune.
[Incidentally , I am looking forword to seeing the new Peter Weir film The Way Back based around the life of
Sławomir Rawicz born in Eastern Poland near my dad & like him, conscripted into the invading Soviet army, in 1939 from which both deserted and fled through the World to escape.]
The problem with this geographical exile is that truth & fact can become hidden\lost & incomprehensive in the exile's new home. It difficult to pass the legacy on..........I , for example, still don't fully understand how my Dad got from "A" to "B".I know he escaped Poland. I know he traveled via South Africa.I know he ended up in Scotland to join the Free Polish Airforce. But I don't know how this was done. I guess I never will...............
My dad hated his exile. Maybe if you chose it yourself it is different.? The World is full of happy expectant migrants Sailing to "New Worlds".in the hope of a better life.I,m sure it's not always a misfortune. The misfortune is not having a choose in one's life.................
How odd , at this point I was going to quote something Bryce Taylor said to me once.
" To Have True Freedom You Must Always Have 3 Alternative Options In Any Decision ". You Are Not Free If You Have No Alternative.........
I studied under Bryce when doing a 2 year Transpersonal Diploma with Oasis Human Relations. He had a very powerful influence on me.I lost touch after I left in 1996.It's a measure of my exile from him that I only tonight learned just now of his death in March via the Oasis
facebook page.
How strange ,reading his obituary  in The Yorkshire Post I found out things I never knew about him.He was born in Rochdale and he was a "keen photographer, gardener and Bob Dylan aficionado."
He was full of Power............To Say I liked the man would be wrong.But I respected his power & insight. He Saw me better than I saw myself (which was a worry !) bryce was one of the most influential people in my life.It is strange now to know of my exile from him.............He changed my life is ways I still have to discover.

His position was ,maybe, that We are all in exile.but we have the fortune to find our way home.
The facebook site carries photos of tree planting ceremonies to him on October 20th in Boston Spa,Yorkshire & Boston Massachusetts ( GRLI GA).Below a photo of Bryce (holding a carpet someone thought looked like a tree stump) & me.on the grass, in exile............

Another final point.You might find yourself in Exile and never need to move an inch! You stay still & the World changes around you.The current political & economic climate a case in point.Maybe it's not a geographical thing at all......................

A Polaroid Photo taken (By My Mum?By My Dad?) on the morning of 6th July 1977.It's in the Garden of my parents house in Halifax.
It must have been early morning.My Dad later would drive me & my Mum to The University of Lancaster to a degree awards.I was to recieve my Bachelor of Education Gong..
I had been out drinking & smoking the previous night & was a little hungover.The photo almost seems to mirror my inner-state.Digs those trippy flowers!
I remember being very proud of myself. The Duchess of Kent did the awarding.The first & only member of The Royal Family I have met,shaken hands with & spoken too.She died 13 months later from a brain tumour.She seemed very nice
A month after this photo was taken I moved to live in The East End of London to begin my teaching.

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

pretending to board a ship

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

A photo of Me.Taken by My Mum?Leith Docks.Early 1960s.
I've always had trouble with  naff jackets! No taste at all! This one must have been during my "Biggles Phase"?