Friends Meeting House

The Friends Meeting House in Ulverston has just been reroofed and the Friends (Quakers) will return their next week. It should now be good for another 75 years.
While work was underway the Friends met at Swarthmoor Hall nearby. We joined them for an hour of peaceful meditation in the wood panelled front room where Judge Fell and his wife Margaret gave sanctuary to George Fox - the founder of the Quaker movement - back in 1652.

The Old Man of Coniston

The view from near the summit of the Old Man, looking down the zig-zag path to Green Banked Tarn.

We took the back route up to the summit past Dow Crag,

Goats Water, and up Goats Hause.

Then we descended along the zig zag trail shown on the first picture, which took us through piles of discarded slate - from the old Coniston slate mines.

Port Sunlight

Near Birkenhead, model factory housing built round the Lever Brothers factory, and called Port Sunlight. We saw Bowls' greens in front of social clubs, and many buildings that can hardly have changed since they were built in the 1890s. The factory is still there, but I don't know how many of the factory workers could now afford the model housing.

Brixton railway Bridge

This bridge at Brixton always used to give me the feeling that I was entering London proper when coming from the South on the A23. To me it was the gateway to the capital. London seems to have grown, and even Purley and Croydon a few miles south with their red zones and London Corporation crests feel more like part of the capital now.

Abinger Hammer

This cyclist was with me for a long stretch of the A25. I kept stopping and he caught up and overtook, then I drove past him...

Abinger Hammer is one of those places that made a strong impression when I was young. Thats the famous Clock struck with a Hammer, jutting across the road, and the Abinger Arms behind.

The Silent Pool

Last time I went to the Silent Pool, near Shere in Surrey, it had dried out and all I could see was its muddy bottom. That was about fifteen years ago and a great disappointment. But today it was full of water but looking a bit overgrown with pond weed. Not quite the tree lined eerily quiet lake, of my imagination. There is a story that a brother and sister drowned here, and she is sometimes seen floating on the surface.

Over Cumnor Churchyard

Brick Lane artwork

When I found him, he was in one of his favourite haunts - Brick Lane in London

Monsters everywhere

Not There...

They had released him from the hospital. But to where? At Paddington Station The Great Western Staff Band played for the people waiting for trains. But he wasn't there...

Huge crowds near the embankment celebrated TFI Friday. But he wasn't there.

He was not there near Nelson Mandela beside Festival Hall ...

Two London Hospitals

St Mary's, Paddington

University College London Hospital

But he wasn't to be found at either. Where is he gone?