You have arrived

Should you be wondering where on earth you are when you leave the station this sign will either reassure you or fill you with dread ...either way please do enjoy that end-of-the-line sense of freedom ...

The weekend in Black and White seems to have crept up on us once again, it's here.

Les feuilles mortes

One of the downsides of a long avenue of trees is the great fall of leaves at this time of year. If, however, you still have to find the inner adult in yourself then a long path of crispy crunchy golden brown leaves is a joy forever, as you noisily slush you feet through them and kick them gleefully in the air to the obvious alarm of youths who have yet to find the simple pleasures of life.

Now to the tricky question which to prefer: Yves Montand's Les feuilles mortes or Piaf's Autumn Leaves? Personally, I think listening to Piaf sing in English is akin to hearing a cat bark mais à chacun son goût! Now I'm sure I'll get this mournful tune as an earworm, agh!

Turtle-y Awesome?

I am, thankfully, in the position of knowing absolutely nothing about this. What is an adolescent mutant ninja turtle when it's all at home and should I be on the look for one as I wander in my time? Ignorance, I'm guessing, is bliss in this matter. It looks delightfully gross but then I'm no film critic.

Flying to the moon

Margot took this daytime moon photo. It just needed a little cropping. Teamwork huh?

Purple flag

Lamp posts in town have been draped with purple ribbons for a few weeks now but I didn't get round to finding out why until this weekend. It's a recognition that if you go for a night out in Hull you are most unlikely to encounter trouble. Hull it seems has been awarded a Purple Flag for being  civilised or in the words of some bumf I read "clean, safe, vibrant and enjoyable with something for everyone". So now you know as much as me.

The Bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling

Oh! Death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling? 

Oh! Grave, thy victory? 

The Bells of Hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling 

For you but not for me.

For those who believe in such things November starts in such cheery way with its two days of the dead. So yesterday all the Saints went marching in as it were, the officer class of the holy hierarchy, a Holy Day of Obligation, fasting and abstinence. Today it's the turn of the poor bloody infantry that is to say anyone else who has ever died, and, as I recall (and it's been a long, long time since this nonsense was forced on me), you can take this one or leave it as you like. As with so many Christian events this is just a take over of pre-existing pagan rites, the beginning of November being the Celtic festival of the dead, Samhain. These two days go largely unnoticed in this country, Hallow'een being a commercial thing and well, who does all that religion stuff these days? But in other parts, I'm thinking Mexico, they throw a three day party with much macabre merriment. I think maybe we're missing out.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

A conspiracy of traffic lights

Today's theme for City Daily Photo is 'Landmark'. So here's my offering, no, not the overly large religious building in the background that has been there so long it's at the top of this blog. Nor yet the dim outline of King Billy riding off down Market Place. No, today's landmark is this collection of traffic lights which you must admit is pretty impressive (I make it 18 or more in this view). It has been noted somewhere, possibly apocryphally,  that it is possible to drive by motorway from Liverpool to Lublin without meeting a single traffic light (but do watch out for the ferry) except when passing through this slow-you-down-and-stop-now-start town of Hull. These lights, of course, are installed, at strategic points along the road, so that motorists can admire the more obvious landmarks that you see here...

I must confess that I looked for a collective noun for traffic lights, as you do, and found the title of this post in this really obscure link.