Pentre Ifan...

Licensed today: Pentre Ifan, a neolithic dolmen in Pembrokeshire, Wales… 

Cricket on the green...

This quote from Krishnamurti arrived in my in-tray this morning. "All religions on this earth at this moment are based on repetition, rituals, authority and a hierarchical outlook. They sustain a morality which is not moral at all. Religions say one thing and do another: they say love your neighbour and sustain the machinery of war".

Licensed today, for a really good fee, which more than doubles the takings for the month of March: a game of cricket being played in the village of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire…

Another school shooting...

There have been 130 mass shootings in America this year, and we’re not even at the end of March (a mass shooting is defined as a violent event at which at least four people are killed). The latest shooting spree, at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, was by a female ex-student, aged 28, armed with two ‘assault-style' weapons and a handgun. After planning the massacre by drawing a detailed map and conducting surveillance of the building, she killed three pupils and three adults, before being killed herself.

David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said authorities sent “heartfelt prayers to the families … of these victims”. He added: “Now I know there’ll be people who want to criticise us for prayers. That’s the way we do that in the south. We believe in prayer and we believe in the power of prayer. So our prayers go out to these families”. As for the effectiveness of all those prayers… well, that’s a different matter.

This is last year's Christmas card from Andy Ogles, a Republican who represents the district the school is in...

Frank's funeral...

I went to a funeral on Friday. If he was looking down from heaven (a long shot, I’d say, for half a dozen different reasons), Frank might have been surprised to see me there. We were only ever ‘friends of friends’. But, hey, at my time of life a funeral is a day out, an opportunity to socialise. The short service, at Rawdon Crematorium, was almost over before I realised it was humanist.

There was no mention of God, or heaven (and even Christians baulk at mentioning ‘the other place’ at a funeral), though the humanist celebrant reminded us that we too would die some day. We were not asked to kneel, or mumble prayers to a taciturn and camera-shy deity. Instead of hymns, or the call-and-response of ancient invocations, we filed out to some raucous blues by George Thorogood and the Destroyers. Despite the sombre nature of the occasion, it felt grown-up. We can handle these occasions ourselves; we no longer need the infantilising delusions – or the contrived euphemisms – of religion.

Licensed today: another useage of the gardens at Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex…

ASDA supermarket...

A rare Sunday licence: ASDA supermarket in Lakeside Village, Doncaster…

Coronation...

Looks like May 7th is a date for my diary: a good opportuniity, perhaps, to put all my CDs into alphabetical order. A ‘royal-themed’ scarecrow festival? Could be a bit of confusion if Camilla turns up… 

Petworth...

Licensed today: another shot of Lombard Street in Petworth, east Sussex…

Beverley...

Yesterday at North Bar in Beverley...

Mobsters...

Donald Trump is reacting to the news that he may be indicted today, with his usual mixture of vitriol and victimhood. “I've never done anything wrong. Nobody can prove that I ever did anything wrong. It's pretty tough when a citizen with an unblemished record must be hounded from his home. I am feeling very bad - very bad. How would you feel if the police, paid to protect you, acted towards you like they acted towards me?” However, the quote is not from Trump but from gangster Al Capone who, in 1927, was indicted – and subsequently convicted – on tax fraud…

Licensed today: the gardens at Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire…

Dalton-in-Furness...

Noise levels are rising at Blacktoft Sands as the breeding season gets underway. Bitterns are booming, and I was lucky enough to see one flying over the reedbeds. I counted a dozen avocets; fingers crossed that they manage to raise a few chicks this year. Not many other waders about – just dunlin, curlew and lapwing - but I saw a few sand martins: the first of the summer visitors. In addition to all the marsh harriers, I saw a buzzard soaring and a sparrowhawk careening through the trees. Singleton hide was full of people, as the light faded, watching a solitary barn owl on the wing. 

Licensed today: Market Street, Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria…

Petworth...

Some observations on the solitary nature of writing from Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring. “Writing is a lonely occupation at best. Of course there are stimulating and even happy associations with friends and colleagues, but during the actual work of creation the writer cuts himself off from all others and confronts his subject alone. He moves into a realm where he has never been before — perhaps where no one has ever been. It is a lonely place, even a little frightening”. 

Spotted on the Guardian website today: Lombard Street in Petworth, West Sussex...

Drax...

Approaching Drax, today...

Hereford Cathedral...

Licensed today: Hereford Cathedral and bridge over the River Wye in Herefordshire… 

Loughrigg Tarn...

Licensed today: an angler walking past Loughrigg Tarn, in the Lake District…

Erling Haaland 5, R B Leipzig 0...

I watched the footie last night: Manchester City v R B Leipzig in the Champions League. Erling Haaland doesn’t do much, over the course of a game, but what he does do he does supremely well. He seems entirely unaffected by the doubts and uncertainties which make other strikers scuff the shot, head the ball wide or lob it tamely into the arms of the goalkeeper. There is nothing half-hearted about the way he plays. Plan A is to put the ball in the back of the net as quickly as possible, and there is no plan B. He has an accelerator, but no brake.

Haaland looks like a cyborg – part-man, part-machine – who’s come back from the future to teach us how to play football. Having scored five goals, he held out his hand to the crowd so they could count the fingers (and thumb). After 62 minutes, Pep Guardiola decided that, like a punch-drunk boxer, R B Leipzig had taken enough punishment, and took Haaland off. When asked what his “super-power” was, during a pitch-side interview after the game, Haaland said, without any obvious irony, “scoring goals”…  

Haworth...

England are playing their last match in Bangladesh. Having lost the first two T20 matches, the best they can hope for is to avoid a 3-0 whitewash. The team’s fielding is poor, their body language too; the guys look like they can’t wait to be on the plane back to Blighty. The full title of the series – difficult to fit on a T-shirt – is the Modhumoti Bank Limited Bangladesh v England T20I Series 2023, powered by Mr White Detergent Powder.

Licensed today: the cobbled main street in Haworth, West Yorkshire… 

Fingringhoe Wick...

Licensed today: Fingringhoe Wick, an Essex Naturalist Trust nature reserve in Essex, where I go in springtime to hear the nightingales.

Short eared owl...

What a great way to end the day: sitting in Singleton hide at Blacktoft Sands, as the light faded, watching four owls – three barn owls and a short eared owl – hunting over the reedbeds.

Pic: short eared owl in flight (Creative Commons)… 

Howden...

Police report a 34% rise in dog attacks in the last five years, despite recording only a 15% rise in the number of dogs over the same period. I’m surprised by the second figure, but not the first. It seems like everyone in Asselby owns a dog, or two, or three, though no one seems to enjoy the company of their pets. All I seem to hear is barking and shouting. Pub landlord Paul seems very proud of the fact that his alsatian doesn’t like me… 

A quiet corner of Howden, yesterday...

Harriers...

I was alone, yesterday afternoon, in Singleton hide at Blacktoft Sands, watching dark curtains of rain sweep across the reedbeds. I heard wigeons whistling, and a Cetti’s warbler: an explosive song from such a small and reclusive bird. I heard a bittern booming for the first time this year. The birds seem to think that spring has arrived, even though snow is forecast for tomorrow. Then, as the light faded, a barn owl came out to hunt, followed by the female hen harrier which I saw a few days ago. The slimmer build, white rump and graceful flight makes it easy to recognise among the more numerous marsh harriers. I think I'm enjoying my time with the birds more than ever.

Licensed today: St Mary's Church, Hitchin, Hertfordshire…

“I alone can fix it”

Back in 2016 Donald Trump won the Republican nomination and then the presidency by being the great disruptor. And now, following four disastrous years in the White House, he is launching his next bid, at the CPAC event in Maryland, by saying “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution. For seven years you and I have been engaged in an epic struggle to rescue our country from the people who hate it and want to absolutely destroy it. We are going to finish what we started. We’re going to complete the mission, we’re going to see this battle through to ultimate victory. We’re going to make America great again”.

Trump insists that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine because of the US’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. “We’re going to have world war three if something doesn’t happen fast. I am the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent world war three.” This is the authoritarian battle cry, from a would-be dictator, that “I alone can fix it”…

Branch closed...

Licensed today, for obvious reasons… 

The phone boxes of Hull...

News today, in the Guardian, that nine of Hull’s cream-coloured telephone boxes are to be saved for a grateful nation. The K8 phone boxes are cream, not red, because Hull is the only place in England where the local council ran the public telephone network. The grade II listing is news to me. I thought that the phone boxes of Hull had already been repurposed… as urinals…

Muncaster Castle...

Licensed today: Muncaster Castle in West Cumbria…

Abbot Hall...

Licensed today: the Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal...