Ten things for which I give thanks this week…
1 – We finally had some snow here in the Bradford area – not enough to close the roads as our accountant at work has been hoping for, indeed barely enough to cover my windscreen or even to warrant the name snow – sleet would be nearer lol. Still beware what you wish for, the Beast from the East came in March…
2 – There was a dusting of snow on the hills, however, as you can see in the background of this picture of the Mosque in Bradford, for which I have been the draughtsman for about ten years of its 12 or thirteen years of construction. The building is a purpose built mosque, unlike many in Bradford, which are converted churches, cinemas or large houses. As such, it was designed as a community facility as well as a place of worship and is relatively undecorous (for the sake of economy, since the whole building is built with donations from the congregation). This Islamic star is the exception on the outside of the Mosque and below, one of my contributions – Islamic geometrical, fretwork panels in the main Prayer Hall – they took some drawing up, I can tell you…
3 – I am grateful that uploading images to this page seems, finally, to be working normally – long may it continue…
4 – I haven’t been sharing (or taking) and pictures of textures, which I use, poentially in PhotShop artwork – here are some bubbles…
5 – An inheritance from my late and dear sister, Carol, finally came through courtesy of her partner. I looked up to see if the branch of my bank was open in nearby Keighley, it wasn’t, but the website said I could use the Post Office at the bottom of the road. fine thought I, but the PO told me they no longer dealt with my bank so it meant a drive into Bradford (where it was news to the Customer Assistant that the PO don’t work with their bank) “Oh!” says she “You could have paid that cheque in using the banking app on your phone!” until she realised the cheque was in Euros which meant fetching an A4 quadruplicate document to fill in before handing it and the cheque over the counter. Although the funds won’t clear for a week, I decided to celebrate in a way I knew Carol would have approved of – went straight across the road to Waterstones bookshop, housed in the old Bradford Wool Exchange where I bought
- 1 Bradford At Work – with details of the mills which will flesh out my A to Z on fabrics and Fibres
- 2 Depression and How to Get through It
- 3 a colouring book as a Valentine’s gift for Barabara – Pride and Prejudice
- 4 Three tiny Van Gogh themed notebooks also for Barbara – since we are both addicted to notebooks…
- 5 The Chemist, latest release by A.A. Dhand, a local detective story writer – a Sikh who trained as a Pharmacist before turning to writing – gritty…
6 – The former Bradford Wool Exchange is testament to the fact that Bradford, in the 19th Century, had more millionaires than any other city in the world! It is built in High Gothic style – reminiscent of a church and although it has had a large glass box inserted on one side, this has the effect od opening the interior to view. This one for the bookshop lover – you know who you are…
7 – On my way home from the banking expedition, and not being in a hurry, I decided to call in to British Wool – a warehouse I pass on my way to work and through whose open doors, enormous bales of wool can be seen. there are a few survivors and thrivers of the glory days of Bradford’s wool industry, British Wool is a government-controlled cooperative farmers’ organisation to market wool to wholesalers like another Bradford firm – Haworth Scourers. there is also a dyeing firm still operating in Keighley. I had long been interested in drawing together a piece on these survivors and the A to Z gives the perfect opportunity. I rang the bell and two guys came down and we conducted an impromptu interview standing in reception before one of them offered to show me around the factory where each year’s shearing crop ( these days a byproduct of the rearing of sheep for meat) is sorted into upto 90 grades of wool, budled into 8 ton lots and then sold by auction.
So now I have to correct and edit the interview’s AI transcript and it will be available here at some point in April, if not before.
8 – A little light play in the car park in Bradford…
9 – I had another “Bonus” postcard from the Poetry Postcard Festival- the festival which keeps on giving…
10 – The Ten Things of Thankful and all who sail in her…
Have your best week everybody…