my writing

Tag: family

  • Diary Pieces: A Life in 365 days – March.

    1 Mar, 1995. Hill Town Wrapped in a shroud of melancholy. Nothing deep, but a wafting tissue that makes everything a little sad. With Stella to a concert of Tallis and Byrd. Begins with ‘Third Mode Melody’, the theme Vaughan Williams used in his ‘Fantasia’. Stella is bright, full of energy, unconstrained after her days…

  • The Lune through Lancaster.

    Skerton Weir. The last weir on the Lune is at Skerton, between John Rennie’s aqueduct (1797) [Lancaster Letter 23], and Thomas Harrison’s Skerton Bridge (1788) [Lancaster Letter 7]. Built to power a corn mill, the weir created a two mile lake between it and the next weir upstream, at Halton. William Bradshaw objected to the…

  • Introduction. &, Meeting Penny : Pages from ‘Dionysos’ Island’.

    INTRODUCTION The details of Richard’s disappearance filtered through to me slowly. Or perhaps I filtered them slowly. I had lost touch, ceased to keep in touch with him several years before, having run out of patience with his lack of focus, his failure to get on. When getting on, one needs the company of those…

  • Return to La Balme …

    Day 20, 19 June, 2015 : Albi to Coupiac, 56 miles. Return to the hills. Our village revealed. The carved stone buried. The wild boy reconsidered. Our house. The one-armed man. The Virgin’s veil. The threshing-machine. Camping by the lake. Pot au feu with the young couple. I wake early. Today I will be at…