R's rue

Looking beyond the suburb of Fulwood to Sheffield city centre Yesterday, Shirley fancied a walk in the winter sunshine. Clint agreed that she could sit in the front passenger seat and soon we were heading up to Ringinglow, beyond Sheffield's south western suburbs. We parked in the car park up Fulwood Lane. It was here during the first COVID lockdown that I would meet with Mick and Mike and Danny for beers and happy conversation that flowed like the nearby River Porter. Fulwood Lane There were lots of Sheffielders out and about - walking or cycling or standing outside "The Norfolk Arms" supping beer from the takeaway doors. All pubs have been closed round here since November 4th. The car park off Fulwood Lane was  most unusually chock-a-block but as I say, we found a space. It wasn't a long walk. No more than forty minutes. We stuck to the lanes because the land has been saturated in recent days. Shirley hadn't walked that circuit before and it was nice ...

Another night  Another weepy film in the dark. This time it’s Pride and Prejudice with Mathew Macfadyen’s tree trunk thighs  Oh be still my beating heart! In a dark living room, I’ve watched a very careful Albert  walk slowly to the blue trendy sofa where Dorothy is sleeping.  She is snoring as loud as  Winnie used to do   and strangely Albert has just joined her, padding carefully like a panther. his big eyes golden. I held my breath as he curled up behind her, his head tucked tight against his tail and her side and briefly she stopped snoring ,lifted her head and  sniffed him just once with sleepy interest. Then she laid her fat head back down next to his as I let out a sigh A little thing, but it kind of broke my heart. from Going Gently https://ift.tt/3aRVHDb

 Last night was the most Christmasy I have felt, thanks primarily to Storm Bella, a living room full of scented candles and the film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  It’s a lovely film and is one that strangely resonates with our own lives under lockdown. In the film the Characters are under curfew of the German occupation of Guernsey.  Isolated from each other and from any cultural fellowship. Isola Pribby is a lonely spinster waiting for her Heathcliffe to turn up in her life, Amelia Maugery a widow overwhelmed with grief, Eben Ramsey a grandfather and postmaster and Dawsey Adams an isolated pig farmer.  All are hungry for the spark, a literary society meeting gives them, but more importantly it is the friendships that evolves from that shared experience that proves the most significant for each of them. The experiences of these film characters, will resonate with many of us in blog land ,for we too are little islands in isolation...

Here's an old postcard containing famous lines that are meant to sum up a Yorkshireman's character.  To me they are ridiculous. I mean, how can you generalise about 5.5 million people? I am including Yorkshire women in this figure and indeed Yorkshire children too. The final piece of advice is especially galling - If you ever do something for nothing then do it for yourself. This is very much at odds with my experience of my fellow Yorkshire folk.  If anything, they tend to be charitable and kind - not looking out for number one all the time. Of course, I realise that in saying that  I am also in danger of falling into the stereotyping trap. Nobody seems to know who came up with the lines in the first place but I very much doubt that it was a Yorkshireman or Yorkshirewoman. They are a crude attempt at caricature but the more I think about those words , the more I think - they are not funny and they are not right either. __________________________________________ In o...