To see the cherry hung with snow

I don't know if A E Housman ever came to the City of Culture but if he did I'm sure he'd have appreciated these loveliest of trees even if they are on Clough Road which is as far from a woodland ride as you can get.

Margot, who is quite possibly Mr Housman's number one fan, took this.

Perhaps Wendy Cope is a bigger fan.

I think I am in love with A.E. Housman,
Which puts me in a worse-than-usual-fix.
No woman ever stood a chance with Housman,
And he’s been dead since 1936.

Wendy Cope

Two car family

There's a fashion these days to turn your front garden into a car park. Of course not every household has two of these beasts lurking on the lawn or what's left of it. 

The traditional result

"They came on in the same old way and we defeated them in the same old way." ...

Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

Well my election predictions were accurate as far the local constituencies were concerned. How was I to know that the rest of England, for this was an English phenomenon, was to swing to the Conservatives in such a way? So we'll have five years of  cuts to public services, increased privatisation of the NHS, tax cuts to the already rich, benefit cuts to already impoverished, probable exit from the EU, more devolution to Scotland (effectively independence). Oh how could I forget the future gerrymandering of constituencies to ensure 20+ more Tory seats in England. This is democracy at work they say. Well this is the votes of 37% of those who voted outweighing everyone else in this medieval, first past the post, crap shoot that passes for democracy in this country that has given us, yet again, a House of Commons that lacks legitimacy. This may sound like sour grapes but even with proportional representation the Conservatives would most likely have won. So Labour goes off once again to pick the meat off its bones and study its bellybutton, the Lib-Dems crash back to the position they were in fifty or more years ago (never, ever go into coalition with a right-wing party!), and the little Englander party, UKIP, learns the hard way that democracy in the UK is not about winning votes.

 *Here endeth the lesson*

" a traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result”.

Tony Blair

A beck runs through it

Taken by Margot K Juby

If you wander through the snickets of Cottingham you'll come across this little beck. It may look fairly harmless but some idiot built houses right next to it and becks being becks have a tendency to spill over now and then flooding said houses. Well D'oh!

Arson about

...and that makes three. Following fires at the Cornmill Hotel and then Lambert Street chapel it seemed only a matter of time before yet another derelict building got the ordeal by fire. Investigators says they cannot rule out a link between these fires. So far no-one's been injured but give it time ....

I have posted several times  the sad tale of this place the latest is here.

I think I may have jinxed Joynsons, the shop with the scaffolding in the background. Shortly after mentioning they had been trading here since 1890 a large piece of masonry fell off the building, no-one was hurt. Ooops!

The weekend in black and white is here.

Vote grey today!

So it's finally here, the happy, glorious day. After six weeks or so what is called campaigning the great demos get to vote for their favourite teddy bear, no sorry member of parliament. I know of no-one who has changed their minds in this time, so maybe they could just cut out the BS and get down to the X on paper time in a couple of weeks.

It's roughly midday on Thursday 7th and already I can tell you the result in this constituency and the neighbouring three, without a vote being counted. The Tory will win where I live, Haltemprice and Howden. Tories have won in this constituency since the 1830's without fail. It's the second safest Tory seat in the country in this regard. Consequently I shall not be bothering to make a choice or rather I shall write in 'None of the above'. In the three Hull constituencies Labour will win as they have done since the 1960's. Does this remind anyone of the old rotten and pocket boroughs? Well it does to me. 

When it's all over then the horse trading starts and that might be passably interesting/entertaining with the present lot appointed by a Civil Service coup in 2010 (and voted for by no-body, let's be clear) claiming the other lot lack legitimacy. Pots and kettles! And when it all falls apart we'll be back here again within a year with any luck.  This is why it's known as the Mofo of Parliament.

Devil's Music

On Saturday in town there was a choice between evangelical rap (or was it hip-hop? my ignorance of pop genres is vast) renditions of bible verses or the good old devil's music; rock 'n' roll. Hmmm. No choice really. This trio were not too bad; that is to say they kept in time with the drummer which is unusual even for professionals. They drew a small appreciative foot-tapping crowd and applause (again almost unheard of for buskers) One thing I did notice is that every song they did began with "Well ...." I think that must be a fifties thang.