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3rd May: Ten Things of Thankful

May 3, 2026May 3, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

I am glad to have finally finished the A to Z 2026 Challenge at last, for whilst I enjoyed learning everything I hoped and more, and have had comments of similar enlightenment from readers, I did set myself a mighty task this year, and if I do it again, I will give myself someting simpler which will also allow me more time to keep up with other participants…

Normally, I shower, but on Sunday mornings, I have breakfast in the bath, with a book! I am grateful for having allowed myself this small decadence and I sometimes read non-fiction long-form which I otherwise have little space for, however, I have been reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and even if I manage 20 pages, at 433 pages in total, it has taken a long time. The title, is eventually revealed as the flag of the short-lived Biafran republic and the novel is, in the author’s own words, about Love and War. For who would want to read a novel purely about war without being fleshed out with real characters. I have been writing a similar novel in a desultory way for about the last 20 years. Similar in that the Rwandan genocide lies at the heart of the story and similar in that it concerns fictional characters caught up in a history which is ultimately the result of colonialism and equally awful post-colonialism. Writing and reading such books is hard, because the material is dark, however it is not all dark and there is a sub-plot (with a little humour) which is finished and can be read alone if anyone is interested… I hope that now the A to Z is over, I might return to the novel and nudge it toward completion…

Barbara and I have made an agreement to go out somewhere each weekend, use her boot scooter to get around and so far we have stuck to it…

The weather has been sunny all week, saving the rain for the Bank Holiday Weekend – still, it saves me watering the garden – since everything is in containers, that needs keeping an eye on all the time in Summer…

Finishing the A to Z has let me get back to writing poetry and the first offering at dVerse Poets Pub, was a Golden Shovel for which I chose a quotation from Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. This is my favourite piece of poetry (even if it was a radio play) and if you have never heard the Richard Burton original version you can find it here.

We had some awful news last weekend, Barbara’s niece went outside to find her husband dead having stuck hi head on a stone wall – at under fifty, the only gratitude is that it seems to have been instantaneous. His widow and two almost-grown-up children live in Geneva – a long way from the support of her sisters and parents… Our hearts go out to them…

The big early flowers – daffodils and most of the Tulips are gone over and this week has been about small flowers (and Dandelions)…

I found this shrub growing in a pot and brought it on – I have no idea what it is but enjoy its small white flower having their moment…

And here is the next one starting to open…

The clematis Montana also coming into flower – they are smaller than this picture makes them look…

I saw an article about “Rebel Botanists”. Inspired by French botanist Sophie Leguil, they label wildflowers at the edge of pavements – I could o with that as I often wonder what the plants are called…

More than weeds: the rebel botanists on a mission to celebrate urban plants

And in the lane, this little wildflower is enchanting…

Wishing you all your very best week, wherever you are…

25th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 25, 2026April 25, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – We are having a run of good weather here in the UK, so yesterday, after collecting Barbara’s new glasses, we headed over to Hebden Bridge for the afternoon. Barbara needed to get on her boot-scooter again to prove to herself that it was not unique to the holiday in Holland…

The central square of Hebden Bridge showing the Bridge Mill – a watermill that dates back to 1314. In the foreground is a sculpture in the form of a giant weaver’s shuttle.

2 – A visit to Hebden Bridge is a chance to appreciate trees – this Copper Beech, its new leaves backlit by the sun, cried out to be photographed…

Another view out of the square showing the slopes to steep for fields, covered with trees and steep streets growing outwards around the town centre.

3 – Good weather means turning off the heating and putting the washing out on the line…

4 – Another of the tulips I bought and planted last Autumn – a double pink…

The first of the Dutch bulbs has flowered – on the small size this first year and I am not sure which one it is, not the fringed but it could be either the Parrot or the “Black”…

5 – And talking of black flowers, the Variegated Pittisporum is in flower with its strange, tiny black flowers…

6 – The end of the A to Z 2026 is in sight and it has been a marathon effort and I am grateful for the support of our very own Cai who has faithfully visited and commented throughout and although I can see the number of visitors who come but don’t comment, it makes a difference to know that a friend has read and appreciated… This is the latest https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-v-fabrics/ and just four more to go (and to get written by Monday evening).

7 – I had a day and a half of graphic design at work making a Powerpoint presentation for one of the bosses Moldovan Waterpark – we don’t have an inhouse graphic designer at present so it fell to me, which makes a change. The slide had to be in Romanian and repeated in English and Russian and I used AI to do the translation which with a few minor changes were approved by the bosses’ friends in Moldova.

7 – Also on the tech side, I learnt how to post the 278 item list in the form of an Excel table on my WordPress site as I have been promising to do… Still trying to figure out how to create a spreadsheet that will automatically send an email reminder to the relevant member of staff for tasks that need doing at work using “Power Automation”…

That’s all I have this week but I wish you all your best week with fair winds and blue skies (unless you are craving rain, of course)…

20th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 20, 2026April 20, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Like Marilyn, I am grateful that it is Tulip Time! Last year, realising that we didn’t have many tulips, I planted several varieties which have now come up…

Also this lovely White narcissi which carries two flowers per stem…

2 – Of course, we had to bring back “Tulips from Amsterdam” – they were already growing in a pot inside a packet and were a little cramped by the time we got home but they have greened up and are growing rapidly – not sure which is which but there is a fringed, a parrot and a black tulip,,,

3 – Although I have yielded the allotment to Beverley (it was her idea to take it on some years ago) as she is ready to put more into it and my hip protests too much on the soft paths we put in – however. we are still welcome to pick the rhubarb – there are two varieties here – the thin ones have made jam using my mother’s tip. Cut the stems into very small pieces and instead of cooking straight away, weigh the equal amount of sugar and pour over the rhubarb and cover overnight – in the morning, the juice has been extracted and the fruit pieces are compressed so they hold together instead of dissolving when you boil the jam…

4 – My grandson and his girlfriend returned from India and are living at home with Bev and Don for a while. Izzie, a doctor, had been away for some months with a side trip to China and Dillon had joined her in India for the last two weeks…

5 – The A to Z 2026 Challenge is well on now – we are up to “Q”, posted, and I have just 5 left to write… If you want to see what it’s all about – https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-q-is-for-qualamkari-plus-gold-and-silver-threads/ or for the whole kit and caboodle – https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2026/

6 – I am glad to live in an area so full of history. Some years ago, I came across this colour thread sampler from Dewhurst’s which I would have snapped up even if the Belle Vue Mill wasn’t just up the road in Skipton. Of course, it had to feature in my A to Z under A to Z Challenge 2026 – Military and “M” Fabrics plus a few Mills

7 – Thankful for this community and for all my friends online around the world…

8 – Thankful that one authoritarian has fallen to the will of the people of Hungary – just waiting for Israel and America to come to their senses and vote out their disastrous leaders…

9 – Fearful that the effects of the war against Iran have not peaked by any means but thankful that we are not to badly placed (I hope) to weather the storm compared to some both here and around the world…

10 – Grateful to have thought of ten Things of Thankful…

Have a great week y’all!

12th April: Ten Things of Thankful

April 12, 2026April 12, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – My apologies for not visiting all your TToT’s last week but I am in the midst of the A to Z 2026 Challenge as are some others of you and I have had 66 comments to respond to as well as visiting back and continuing to write new ones – 2 more done this weekend – just 8 to go (for which I am thankful!) If you want to look in its at https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-challenge-2026-h-is-for-historical-fabrics/

2 – I thought I would share a few more pictures and thoughts from our holiday in the Netherlands. One of the things that defines the landscape, certainly in “The Green Heart” where we were, is that every tree has been pollarded and in some cases, espalliered and the branches then pollarded. I asked a lady in a posh clothes shop we visited why they were so keen on pollarding and after aa moment’s thought she replied ” Because it makes them all look the same…”

The road to Bodegraven, the nearest town – crossing some fields delineated by drainage ditches.

It seems like it was too early for cows to be out in the fields and this is after all, a cheese (Gouda) producing area…

3 – In the picture above, you can see a cyclist and from the advancing car you can see that this is a single-track road (with passing places) but cyclists, of which there are plenty, are given a wide bert. In the cities, rather than graduate to a car when you have children, you buy an “Urban Arrow”…

You can see that this is an electric bike which lends assistance to the parent…

4 – We made a visit to The Hague – not the most successful day out, partly because we didn’t have a clear plan of where exactly to go and partly because finding a parking space was difficult and once found, expensive. Parking for 3 hours costs about 33 Euros ($38.70) which is clearly designed to encourage people to use bicycles or public transport…
Eventually we parked in a disabled bay, unloaded Barbara’s boot scooter and set out to explore what turned out to be an African quarter. We decided to have a meal at an Eritrean cafe – chicken and eggs in a spicy sauce served on asoft, sourdough crepe cooked only on one side. Whils sitting outside, we were able to people watch but also to admire the architecture which I judge to be late Art Deco…

5 – One day I would like to write abook on Signwriting (something I used to do in a previous life) heavy on pictures, so I never miss the chance to photograph signs – especially abroad and the signs below have a different style, and age to those I am familiar with…

This shop has a sign dating back to late 30’s, I think, but laid inside the window are signs from an earlier period…

6 – In Bodegraven, there is a working windmill (well, on certain days) and although I didn’t manage to get the tour, I took these pictures. I was told that this windmill can be used both for grinding corn and for pumping water.

It appears that the windmill is turned to face the wind manually using the “steering wheel” on the balcony…

7 – and from one old windmill, to a modern one in the Port of Rotterdam as we sailed out into the North Sea at sunset…

In the gathering dusk, even an oil refinery can look like fairyland…

Farewell to the Netherlands as we sail west…

8 – And back home, some new solar lights that Barbara ordered grace the garden by night…

Gratitude

April 3, 2026April 3, 2026humanist55

Dear Mum and Dad
I carry you in my heart and head
for I neither believe
and most certainly hope
that you not looking down
from some heavenly crows-nest

for most of your lives
you did not believe either
and your latter-day church going
was, I think, more social
– a way to integrate in
the many places you moved to

but your taking us to church
not only gave us the choice
but sharpened my scepticism
into a personal humanist credo
according to which
I carry you in my heart and head

I thank you, Mum
for refusing to teach me to cook
reserving that for my sisters
and for launching my student cuisine
with the gift of a Sabbatier knife
and the condescending choice

of “Cooking in a Bedsit”
which made me seek out
the racier author Elizabeth David
sailing round the Med with her married man
garnering recipes to change
the cooking of a nation

and Dad, though you never
took me sailing, you taught me
to whip finish a rope and splice an eye
to coil a cable neatly and I took
pride in your designing a dinghy
and slipped into design too

I carry you in my heart and head
but I wanted to make concrete
these, amongst many things
I am grateful you gave me
– to put them out into the world
just as you birthed and shaped me…

You can read more about my parents in my last year’s A to Z
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-dad-draughtsman-designer/
https://how-would-you-know.com/a-to-z-2025-challenge-elsie-jill-mum/

Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft, invites us to write an Epistolary Poem, either as a Verse Epistle, or, as I have chosen to do, a Prose Poetry Epistle. I will also share this with my Ten Things of Thankful group…

30th March: Ten Things of Thankful

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – So we are currently on holiday in the Netherlands in which case, this is a TTOT travelogue…

https://youtu.be/ltd34wDpnTE sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see the massive port of Rotterdam…

2 – Gouda is the nearest city and here is its impressive Town Hall…

3 –

3 – https://youtu.be/B3xx5dH8u0k sorry the embed is not working but click the link please to see a street organ playing the Rolling Stone’s “Satisfaction (I can’t get No…)”

4 – Barbara in handbag heaven! She had purchased a suede handmag some weeks ago and asked me to get some waterproofing spray. I duly sprayed it and thought that the darkening was the wetting effect of the spray – only to find thar, in very fine print, the spray was labelled “Black” – so I owed her a handbag…

5 – After a quick trip to the local supermarket to practise on her new “Boot-Scooter”, Gouda was her first experience of driving round a busy town and she passed with flying colours! Note all the bicycles outside the Library/Cafe… Bicycles often have a separate, parallel road and where they crossover the car roads, each a re traffic-lighted. Families drive bikes with large child pods and youngsters graduate to riding at an early age! This is a country where cycling is truly important…

6 – The Gouda LEGO shop…

7 – Just to prove I know how to take a selfie – still working on the smiling bit…
We drove to look at the flower growing area and these are fields of Hyacinths. Whilst buying some tulip bulbs nearby (its a bit too early to see the tulips) the shop owner told us a lot of interesting stuff including the fact that these hyacinths are being grown for the bulbs, not the flowers – so all the flowers in the bicture will be picked and thrown away in order for the bulbs to grow quickly – its still a three year plus project to grow them to a saleable size…

Note the windmill in the background – these windmills are for pumping water, not grinding corn and there is water everywhere, here – all in the process of draining the land (largely below sea-level) and raising the water to higher and higher channels before pumping it into the sea!

Even in the centre of town – nearby Leiden – there is a large windmill for pumping – they are kept working as a backup for the electric pumps – the Netherlands are very flat – we have yet to see a hill – and there is a lot of wind!

8 – Monday we drove to Amsterdam (under an hour away) to visit the Rijksmuseum. We had discovered that the Van Gogh Museum is booked up ten days ahead which was a disappointment, however we did see four Van Goghs in the Rijksmuseum…

The location of the four Van Goghs was marked by a small crowd! Barbara slipped in from the side since she was low enough on the scooter not to get in the crowd’s line of sight!

We also chatted to the Museum Attendant who was full of stories which he was dying to tell but most people ignore him. The small painting in this picture was painted in twenty minutes by Van Gogh while he waited for a friend to join him in visiting the newly opened Rijksmuseum. Also, The painting at left in the crowd picture, is one of the few paintings Van Gogh sold during his lifetime – to his sister.

Not “The Girl With the Pearl Earing” but painted in the same spot, I think, “The Milkmaid” by Vermeer – this was Barbara’s favourite painting. It cost us 50 euros to visit the museum which made us very grateful for the free entry to British Museums (though they are talking about charging tourists in future…).

Sunset from the living room window of the houseboat which is our home for the week…

9 – The A to Z Challenge 2026 started today (April Fool’s Day – perhaps because many participants are wondering why they have let themselves in for this – again!) – ! have got 16 0f the 26 posts in the bag though… https://how-would-you-know.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-weaving/

10 – And we visited Utrecht…

Utrecht’s Dom Tower, the remnant of a cathedral destroyed in a storm in 1674…
Needless to say, we did not attempt the 465 steps despite the promise of an unparralel view from the top…

…and I leave you with this rather cute building!

Wishing all of you a very happy week ahead…

8th March: Ten Things of Thankful

March 8, 2026March 8, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I give thanks today for another years juant around the sun, and at the youthful age of 71, I wonder at the Beatles imagining that 64 (Will you still love me, When I’m sixty-four) was old…

2 – Glad that I checked Barbara’s Passport which, it turns out, expired last March! So on Monday, we have to drive to Liverpool for a ten-minute face to face interview as part of the one-week fast-track passport renewal process so that we mat go on holiday in the Netherlands…

3 – grateful that training on the computer and other processes at the Storage Warehouse that my bosses have opened, turned out to be pretty simple – since they, and all the staff, are Moslem, I will be manning the facility on my own on the 20th March whilst they celebrate Eid. This in fact, the little Eid that marks the end of Ramadan and there is a separate, main Eid celebration at a different time of year.

4 – All local family ar coming over this afternoon for a birthday tea, I am going to serve Skordalia – chickpeas and vegetables, prepared in different ways, boiled, fried etc. and brought together with a sauce comprising Aioli (garlic mayonnaise) enriched with ground almonds and lemon – a treasured recipe from one of the earliest cookbooks I bought whilst still a student – Elizabeth David’s Mediterranean Cookery – I fell in love with her food, herw riting and her…

5 – An American poet friend, Akua Lezli Hope, suggested a collaborative poem idea – to both ask the online I Ching the same question and write a poem based on the answer – done and dusted in under 24 hours – if they get published in my friend Melissa’s online poetry journal Collaborature, I will link you in…

6 – The A to Z writing about Fabrics and Fibres proceeds though I still need to speed up to avoid pantsing it in April…

7 – a photograph taken at the supermarket car par, where the sunset always highlights the Winter tree skeletons…

8 – Melissa asked me to play Crossplay (Scrabble) and we seem to be evenly matched which is always a relief between friends…

9 – Grat for this community…

10 – Dropped an ear-bud right here next to my desk – still not found it, very strange – but glad to discover, through moving things around, that some microscopic creatures are eating the carpet so glad to have caught it before it spreads… Perhaps they ate the ear-bud too…

Have a great week everyone, and don’t forget – this is International Women’s Day…

2nd March: Ten Things of Thankful

March 2, 2026March 2, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Here in England, on the BBC, we have a programme called Springwatch – which does what it says on the tin! In my own personal Springwatch, the picture below shows the progress of the daffodils…

These ones must be self-seeded, because I certainly didn’t plant them in this pot of Stargazer Lillies – just beginning to show…

2 – The downside of Spring advancing is that the weeds are also demanding attention – still, Spring is sprung and that’s a grat!

3 – I found time to stop and photograph this elaborate gateway that leads into the lower grounds of Castle Farm ( a Victorian folly castle) and for the poets amongst us, this is of course, a liminal opportunity…

4 – Further along the road, I am grateful to see evidence of the stuff I learned at school and at university – evidence of glaciation – these boulders were plucked from the crag above to become erratics, had they not fallen where they are when the ice melted…

5 – There is a delicate shade of mauve in the trees at the centre of this picture, which is never the colour one imagines naked trees to be…

6 – On my walk to the Doctor’s surgery this morning, I noticed these original railings – fortunate to survive the Second World War when most of their ilk were taken away to melt down for the war effort…

7 – Somehow, the moon seen during the daytime seems to show that we are on a celestial body even more than the nighttime view of it…

8 – Continuing my A to Z writing and research, I came across a blog by a Hawaiian-born, New Zealand Resident – The Dreamstress – who writes about historical fabrics and fashion and even designs historical patterns for you to try – who could resist a design called The Barbara Bum Roll and Support Petticoat…

9 – We have booked a holiday towards the end of March, whence we will drive to Hull, take the night ferry to Rotterdam and spend just over a week on this houseboat which is in the “green heart” of the Netherlands, between Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the Hague…
“

10 – The A to Z has reached “I” – I need to speed up but progress is being made…

Have your best week, everybody…

21st February: Ten Things of Thankful

February 21, 2026February 21, 2026humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – There is an organisation that runs “Repair Shops” at various local towns hereabouts, and today was Silsden’s turn so I went to investigate and see whether any of my skills might be usefully offered. It is only 3 1/2 hours once a month, and I’m not sure yet whether my specialist painting skills, wood-graining, marbling ets, will be required but first I would have to do a session of shadowing followed by some H & S training – so we shall see…

2 – On my walk down to the Methodist Church where the Repair Shop is held, I saw some signs of Spring advancing…

Daffodils already “swan-necked” at the duck pond…

Nature will force it’s way – Snowdrops coming through a pile of rocks…

3 – See if you can guess what the source this texture shot is…

This is the white stripe of a Zebra Crossing – it’s eroded nature is a reflection of the fact that local councils cannot afford to keep road markings up to scratch…

4 – This is my favourite gravestone amongst all those of our quiet neighbours at the back of our house (upper right) – must have been a musician…

5 – Not sure whether this is a grat or not, on the one hand it shows the resilience of nature, on the other, the roots of this tree might affect our house foundations and the top of the tree is now growing across the view from our kithchen window. When we came back from Crete in 2021 after Covid, we found that someone had taken it upon themselves to cut off the top of this Christmas Tree (originally planted by a neighbour post-Christmas) at the edge of the graveyard behind the house. The truncation did not stop the tree growing and it has put out a new crown which grew 4 feet in just the last year!

6 – On Thursday, I had a major Annual(ish) check by the Environmental Health Officers from Bradford Council which went off okay and afterwards, I went to Skipton which has the nearest Wholefood Shop – to stock up on seeds for the low-carb diet and baking I am on at present. Walking through an area of Skipton I was not familiar with, I took a few snaps…

We have so much history here in Britain, that we are so blasé that this building, embellished with a Royal Crest, does not even have a plaque to say what the building was…

Skipton has many reminders of the importance of the wool trade in the past – some more quirky than others…

7 – The sheep is outside a craft/gallery/antique shop and in the window, was this treadle printing machine which took me back to school where we used a somewhat bigger treadle Heidelberg machine to print school event programmes. This one is still used by the proprietor for a similar purpose.

A side view of the printer with another old printer behind it – also used by the proprietor to make reduction Lino prints…

Also in the shop was a Jones brand antique sewing machine which has a swinging arm bobbin which apparently was a better design than the rotating bobbin promulgated by Singer, however, Singer was more successful as a company so we became stuck with their bobbin design – just saying…

8 – I have almost finished “E” (for Embroidered fabric decoration) in my A to Z – I need to get a move on to be ready for April.

9 – Our rapper grandson is staying for the weekend whilst he does some studio recording in Leeds. Last night we watched the first half of Martin Scorsese’s documentary about Bob Dylan – excellent…

10 – Starting to think about a holiday – possibly to take a car ferry from Hull to Rotterdam and stay in a couple of AiBnB’s in Gouda and perhaps in the coastal lowlands – although it is only a nine hour drive to Copenhagen, hmmm…

Have your best week everybody…

15th February: Ten Things of Thankful

February 15, 2026February 15, 2026humanist55

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…