Spring Break

Rowan has gone down to Ben & Kari's in DC for her Spring Break [a long weekend]. She takes the Amrtak from Trenton New Jersey to Alexandria Virginia [where they live]. Rowan vibered me this photo from the trip. She's got an eye for a picture!

Hogs Walk

I revisited Hogs Walk, a dry valley in the Wolds and got this shot. I think it might be a keeper, and a popular one at that. Only time will tell. For now, I'll print out a rough copy, pin it to the wall and live with it for a while; then I'll know.

York Tap

Last Friday evening Danielle and I met at the York Tap on   York Station. It is the exact opposite of what you might expect a station bar to be like. Loads of good beers [we had one with seaweed in it] and a great atmosphere. We ended up talking to some visitors from Nottingham who were up for a heavy weekend by the sound of it. When we moved to York the building was a rather run down model railway set which Rowan liked but which you could tell had not long for this world.

http://www.yorktap.com/

The photo is of a quite different railway set, but it's a nice photo, so here it is.

Ride!

I went a ride with Dave to Knaresbrough whilst Danielle was making her candles. Good to be out again, gradually increasing the length of rides. We saw a Red Kite in a tree at Cowthorpe; a magnificent site.

This photo was taken on Hob Moor by one of the attendees on my Photography Workshop last week. She is good!

Candles - The Product

And here are the results - pure beeswax candles. Fair to say we would probably get a plain mould for future candles. Very exciting.

Candles - The Process

One of the by-products of honey production is beeswax. For years we have collected it and not done anything with it - just accrued strange looking lumps of the stuff. So it was with much anticipation that Danielle invited Eunice around to show her how to make candles from the wax. Here is Danielle pouring the molten wax into the latex moulds. Tune in tomorrow to see the results.

Sally Arnup

Sally Arnup was a local Quaker sculptor who lived near York and died recently. I photographed her for the Quaker newsletter 12 years ago [above], and also when she was commissioned to do a sculpture of William Wilberforce a few years ago. She was very supportive of my work and bought a couple of pieces.
Today was the Quaker meeting for remembrance, held at Bootham school. Many many people, a positive celebration of her life in an informal setting.

C90 go!

Sorry about the absence, no real excuse. Book group on Wednesday discussed Penelope Fitzgerald - The Blue Flower. Much lauded by critics, split our group, with me being on the No side of the fence. A fairy story with no fairy. Or story. As usual the discussion was good, the wine flowed etc.

The photo is the view from my window in the flat on Princes Road in Liverpool 8 in 1978. Cassettes, don't you miss them?

Gateway

A gateway on the Wolds

Le Weekend

Friday night we went out to the Coconut Lagoon south asian restaurant [great food, far better than the name suggests] with Dave and Emma. Saturday morning I ran a photography workshop at York College as part of Open Studios 2016 - went really well and I loved doing it. Saturday afternoon I went back to look for my camera - no joy. Meantime Danielle was in London for a book group reunion; her London black women's book group started over 20 years ago. I met her off of the train at 8. Then Sunday was a bike ride with Sue and Eddy for lunch at Beningborough. Cold but enjoyable. Just time to get ready for work tomorrow then watch War & Peace this evening.

Wolds Again

After the joy of the Wolds walk I described in the blog, I set off again. Friends John and Katy who have renovated a farm house the other side of the Wolds in  Holderness have just finished their first self-catering flat to let. They wanted some of my Wolds photographs to put on the walls. So I combined taking them over with getting a walk in first.

Milo and I set off in beautiful sunshine and walked to Camp Dale near Fordon, which in Julian Cope's book The Modern Antiquarian is described as one of the most spiritual places. He is right. Took some great photos, got back to the car, for some reason put my phone and camera on the car roof and drove off. The first clump I thought little of, the second cranked my memory into action and I stopped the car. I walked back 500 metres or so, then remembered my phone had my rail card in it "Oh no, all that hassle as well as the phone, and the camera" As soon as I had this thought there was my damaged railcard lying in the middle of the road. Relief, or partial relief. I looked around and around for the phone, eventually finding it in the long grass. A bit more relief. I picked it up to see if it worked, if I could call John to say I would be late. It did, so I did. More relief. But no camera. I drove back looking for it, but had no joy. Those great shots I took will never see the light of day.

I set off for John and Katy's and noticed that the extra driving and pushed me to just 18 miles left in the tank. Those miles ticked off like kilometres until it read nought and I feared another tedious experience of getting gas, and a can etc etc. Immediately I looked up and saw an Esso sign. No Entry this way said the sign, I ignored and came to a dry halt at the pumps. Thankyou God.

So the farmhouse looked brilliant, great to see John and Katy again, phone is OK, but the camera is gone forever. This photo is from the previous trip.

Wolds Again

After some hectic work, it was good to get out and walking in the Wolds this week. This is Fordham Dale, one of the strange anomalous areas that you are allowed to be in [it is open access land - thankyou New Labour] but not actually allowed to get to without trespassing. Consequently I have never seen anyone else there. You can see how the frost is still on the north facing slopes, with the greener grass on the warmer south facing slopes. It all felt a bit magical. I was listening to In The Light Of Air by Anna Thorvaldsdottir, an Icelandic modern classical composer whose music is as weird as you are probably imagining.

Bowie 2

Here are all of the Bowie tracks I have on my ipod.

Bewlay Brothers
Quicksand
Both from Hunky Dory. Standard story; I listened to them over and over as a teenager in my bedroom [in the Lakes]. Didn't understand them, didn't matter.
Queen Bitch
Only got to like this recently, great acoustic/electric intro, love the repeated lyric. Why is there no statue to Mick Ronson in Hull?
Memory Of A Free Festival
Twee, but a great outro chorus. Uplifting
The Width of The Circle
I like The Man Who Sold the World album more than most, and this track is just perfect. Great muddy sound, Ronson on song.
Moonage Daydream
John I'm Only Dancing
Five Years
Rock & Roll Suicide
I remember hearing Starman when it was a hit, and wondering what the hell it was. These are the four best tracks from the Ziggy years.
Sweet Thing / Candidate
The live version, from David Live, with Earl Slick and David Sanbourn burning it up is fantastic and raw. I love the lyrics. Remember listening at school over and over again.
Neukoln
Warswaza
When Bowie put out these electronic weird instrumentals, I loved them at once. The songs on Low I could live without [I do] but this stuff gets better with time.
Somebody Up There Likes Me
The track I like best from Young Americans
Heroes
About the only one of his big hit tracks that I have.
Wild Is The Wind
Station To Station
Stay
Tracks from the Station to Station album which has a great threatening ambiance. Stay is a crazy live version,
Black Star
Lazarus
Two tracks from the new album which pass the strict Palmour iPod criteria.

Bowie

Saturday I downloaded the new David Bowie album. I had not bought a Bowie record since my teens, but this sounded good. Anyway last night I used it to send me to sleep, and then when I awoke in the night I put it on again and drifted in and out of sleep to this strange ethereal sound. It was a pleasing experience. This morning I got up very early for the train south, and got on my way. Danielle texted me - David Bowie is dead. Strange.

The photo is another of Framlingham.

Where did you leave the van?

Probably the last photo from the flood. Self explanatory. The river is still very high in York but the extraordinary flooding is over [just regular flooding now]

BMS

The latest BMS chamber concert was Rosanna Ter-Berg [flute] and Leo Nicholson [piano] playing a program of mainly French music. http://rosannater-berg.co.uk/ Very talented.

The photo is from Framlingham Castle when we visited last week.

Walking

Another photo from the Thames walk. I waited to get the figure in the right spot, and the bus turned up too. Added bonus.

Danielle and I did a good long walk today that included sections on an airstrip runway that was being used, and a landfill sight - but it was really good. Honest.
Watched the film Wild in the evening, which wasn't.

Thames 2

Another photo from the London walk. This was taken at the gloaming of the day; incredibly still with a strange light.

Rowan heard from Oxford that she did not have a place; took it well. Their loss - time to move on.

Hammersmitten

Rowan flew back from Heathrow on Monday. I travelled down to London with her, then got a great riverside walk in before staying at Carl and Jill's then going up to Northampton for work on the Tuesday. Had a work meeting with someone I had not seen for 20 years, good to catch up.

The photo is of Hammersmith Bridge. It might not be as big as Brooklyn Bridge [maybe one tenth the size] but it looked just as dramatic this sunny still Monday morning.

Track 9 - Kacey Musgraves - Blowin' Smoke

Not this year at all, but Kacey has been a constant presence in Palmour Family conscience for the past couple of years, so here is one of her best tracks.

Track 7 - Foals - Mountain At My Gates

Something about the intensity of this band and this track that I like.

Track 8 - DakhaBrakha - Divka Marusechka

Sometimes a track from somewhere in the world stops me in my tracks. First time I heard Bulgarian singers on Charlie Gillett in the 80s was like that. When I saw this Ukranian band on TV it was the same. No idea of what they sing, it makes no difference at all. The music cuts through every other type of language

Happy New Year

The daffs were up on December 28th this year [or last year part 2] which is a new record for us.

Track 6 - Izzy Bizu - Give Me Love

Just a great pop song.