Flash Demo, Leeds: ‘Stop the Coup’

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that we’ve been on another demo: a Flash Demo – one of the many that sprung up around the country as a direct and horrified response to Boris Johnson’s decision to ask the Queen to Prorogue Parliament: here’s an explanation.

If you’re reading this on Saturday, we’ll be in York, demonstrating again, alongside thousands of other in Leeds, and cities all over the country.

On Thursday, we heard from politicians from different parties, cooperating to fight together.  We heard from campaigners.  We heard from those from mainland Europe who’d chosen Britain as their home.  We heard from individuals terrified of the effect of No Deal on their own health or that of a loved one, dependent on prescription drugs.  And best of all we heard from children, some still in primary school: informed, passionate, articulate speeches.  Those children, still a long way from voting age, are our future.

This time, these rallies aren’t about Brexit.  Not really.  They’re about our Democracy.

Here are photos.

Shaffaq Mohammed, Yorkshire & Humber MEP (LibDem)
Louise Houghton, South and West Yorkshire for Europe.
11 year old Laura.
A very impassioned 10 year old.

But I’ll leave you with this one, snapped through the window of a barbers’ shop in Leeds.  You might not like the language.  Gotta approve the sentiments.

My post for this weeks’s Six Word Saturday.

Framing North Yorkshire

There’s an invitation  this week, in Amy‘s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, to consider Framing the Shot.

Walking in the Yorkshire Dales gives so many photo opportunities that I thought I’d stay right here, on my home patch, to give this a go.

Here’s a wintry shot from just outside my own village. Trees provide a traditional frame.

Over in Reeth, I  made use of some less-than-attractive wire fencing to frame the distant hillside.

Harlow Carr Gardens provided its own frame above a pond.

While at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, (in West Yorkshire, this one) Henry Moore  provided a frame through which to view the landscape.

But there’s no need to take framing so literally.  There are other ways of a picture inviting you in.

The Pennine Way, near Gargrave North Yorkshire.

Those fields of rape plot the path we may take over the hills.

Near Semer Water, North Yorkshire.
The Strid, near Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire.

While these two suggest the limitless landscape lying beyond the dry stone walls.

And these sheep, this cormorant, highlight the vastness beyond them, just as the tree below, utterly unframed, suggests the famous bleakness of the Top Withens moorland near Hawarth, home of the Brontë sisters

Sheep near Conistone, Grassington, North Yorkshire.
A cormorant on railings at the end of the pier, Whitby, North Yorkshire.

Let’s finish with typical Yorkshire weather.  A view taken in the Crimple Valley one very dismal day in May.

 

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #60– Framing the Shot

 

 

 

Wood: ‘All is Safely Gathered in…..

…. ere the winter storms begin’*.  Farmers round these parts worry about getting the harvest in at this time of year.  Malcolm and I worry about getting wood for winter,  for the log burner.  So we ordered some and it came this week.

From this, three large bags of it ….

to this … in two long, sweaty and back-breaking shifts, warming us every bit as much as a blazing winter fire does. Unpack the bags, and neatly stack every single log in tidy tall rows in the shed.

You’re meant to be impressed at our hard work.

We’ve got ash, valued for its steady heat output and bright flame: and oak, a dense, long-burning wood with a small flame.  We’ve stacked them so we can access either.  Can you spot the difference?

Ash.
Oak.
Ash – oak. Oak – ash. Which is which?

* This is a mis-quote from the English Christian harvest-time hymn ‘Come ye thankful people come’.

My offering for Six Word Saturday.

‘Wish You Were Here’

Summer used to be a time for postcards.  Sending them.  Receiving them. Receiving was better.  What to say to your friends and relations with only such a small space to play with?  ‘Wish you were here’ maybe?

The views were standard, wherever they came from.  The castle.  The cathedral.  The fisherman’s cove. The crowded beach.

Today I’m reviving the tradition, but with a different angle on the standard shots.

St. Paul’s Cathedral, seen reflected in Angel’s Wing (2000) by Thomas Heatherwick, Paternoster Square, London.
The Leeds-Liverpool Canal passing under a bridge near Gargrave.
The Port Olímpic area of Barcelona seafront, reflected in nearby buildings.
Hull Minster, as seen in a nearby office building.
An honest view of a British holiday? The countryside near Penrith on a soggy Sunday.

This is my contribution to Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #59, Angles. Leya so often joined in when I was contributing to the Ragtag Daily Prompt that it seems only fair to return the compliment.  Thanks, Leya!

 

Two Reservoirs: the Back of Beyond

The view from the dam of Scar House Reservoir.

You don’t have to go very far in Yorkshire to feel remote.  You don’t even have to get beyond the reach of the man-made.  Those adjacent reservoirs in Nidderdale for instance, Angram and Scar House, both built to supply the City of Bradford with fresh water: Angram in the 1890s, Scar House in the 1920s.  They’re off the beaten track, isolated.  You’d never guess that when they were being built construction workers had their families with them on site: a shop, a place of worship, a school, all built for their use.

Now the construction workers are long gone, and their community too.  Only the odd foundation stone remains. The area feels remote, reached only after a long drive down a narrow B road and one belonging to Yorkshire Water.  It’s home to a rich variety of wild life.  Walkers love to tramp its walking routes, relishing the emptiness, the silence, the bleak beauty of this spot.

Walking by Angram Reservoir, Even the distant view of the dam doesn’t change the feeling of remoteness.

Debbie from Travel with Intent is responsible for this post.  Because of her, I’ve joined her Six Word Saturday Challenge, and been led to the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Remote.  Thanks, Debbie!

My Life in Linocuts

Today I went to Dulwich Picture Gallery, with a friend I’d never have met except through my blog. We wanted to see Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking. We weren’t disappointed. Dynamic and vibrant, these block-printed images, mainly linocuts, celebrate the everyday. I thought I’d use some of them, photographed there and then, on my phone of course, to illustrate aspects of my own life. I’ve mainly chosen female printmakers whom I know little about. I want to know them better now.

Just now, we’re all contending with Weather. Rain.

Ethel Spowers. Wet afternoon. Linocut 1929 – 30.

And Weather. Wind.

Sybil Andrews. The Gale. Linocut. 1930.

And the life of a Country Mouse was well-represented.

Ethel Spowers. The Plough. Linocut. 1928.

Sybil Andrews. The fall of the leaf. Linocut. 1934.

And Sunday mornings on the main roads into the Yorkshire Dales. Motorbike Central.

Sybil Andrews. Speedway. Linocut. 1934.

And my trips into London.

Cyril Power. Not female! Whence and whither. Linocut. c.1930.

Cyril Power. The Tube station. Linocut. c.1932.

If you’re in London before 8th September, it’s worth a visit.

Country Mouse visits the Big City

Country Mouse, Country Mouse from Yorkshire ventures south this week, to The Great Wen, the Smoke – that’s London to you.

We Yorkshire Country Mice like to put it about that we are friendly, neighbourly, affable. That them southerners on the other hand, are not. London folk, we opine, don’t know their neighbours, wouldn’t lend you a cup of sugar, and Keep Themselves to Themselves.

That’s never been my experience of London.

And here’s the proof. I stepped off the train and headed for Coal Drops Yard. You need a bob or two to live or shop in this newly gentrified area.

But anyone at all can and does enjoy the public spaces here: the canal side, the water play in the large open squares, the markets.

Families, tourists, couples, youngsters all amble happily, taking advantage of the open spaces, an impromptu jazz band playing on a barge (aka a second hand bookshop), and children playing in the water fountains.

My photos haven’t really captured street life. I simply can’t see what I’m taking on my phone, and my camera is in Intensive Care (the bill will be expensive: no NHS for photographic equipment). But enjoy strolling round this area, a mere five minutes from Kings Cross and Saint Pancras Stations. You’ll be in friendly company.

Jo’s Monday Walk is on holiday. But I’ll send my stroll along anyway.
Capelas, Sáo Miguel- not quite a Monday walk