Burnsall...

A couple of days ago, by the River Wharfe in Burnsall...

Lambeth Conference...

There’s an article on the Guardian website today about the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, when more than 650 Anglican bishops are due to meet in Canterbury for two weeks of “prayer and discussion”. The Guardian’s write-up employs the weary “will this do?” tone we might use when reporting the latest outburst from a reliably racist uncle.

The main talking point will be, as always, same-sex marriage and relationships, highlighting the divisions between the liberal and conservative wings of the church (essentially the global north and south). Can the bishops come up with some carefully contrived euphemisms which might placate both sides? Just as importantly, is anyone outside the church even remotely interested in what these bishops have to say? Let the Anglican church split in two. Who cares? There are now about 40,000 denominations which, despite their many differences, define themselves as Christian. What’s two more?

Licenced today: Thirsk Hall in North Yorkshire... 

Humility...

A quote from Krishnamurti arrived in my email in-tray this morning: “Humility is not to be acquired or cultivated. Only the vain cultivate humility”. I’ve often wondered about humility, and why anyone would want to search for it. Is it even possible to achieve humility without also being afflicted by the sin of pride? Though asking people to do impossible things is a familiar biblical trope, insisting on humility is incoherent (and asking people to do the impossible is, of course, morally indefensible).

Licenced today: a street in Watchet, Somerset… 

Ring for sex...

I made a rare visit yesterday to the North Cave carboot sale. I don’t know where else I could find a stall offering ‘haircuts and pre-loved clothing’, or autojumble and home-made scones for sale… on the same table. I kept my money in my pocket until I saw, on one stall, a tiny red bell with ‘Ring for sex’ printed on it. “Does it work?”, I asked. “Of course”, the stallholder said. “Then why are you selling it?”. That’s 50p well spent.

The village of Lyddington, Rutland...

Time to stand and stare...

Leisure… by W H Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Pedal-crankers cycling through the village of Weston by Welland, Northants...

The Devil’s Dictionary...

Though I decided, weeks ago, that I had reached ‘peak stuff’, I’m still buying a few books from charity shops. Yesterday’s find was a most welcome addition to the library: The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, first published in 1906. A few samples…

Redemption: “The deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through the murder of the deity against whom they sinned”…

Pray: “To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy”…

Irreligion: “The principal one of the great faiths of the world”…

Licenced today: house-for-sale signs in Mytholmroyd...

England 2, Spain 1...

I watched the women’s quarter-finals last night, England v Spain. Not a bad game, though an objective judgement would have had Spain ahead on points after 90 minutes, for technical ability, running with the ball and stringing a few passes together. Most shots at goal, from both teams, seemed tame and lacking conviction, which is why extra time was needed. England stayed in the competition with a wonderful solo goal from Georgia Stanway. With a kick that nearly knocked her off her feet, she scored a 'screamer' from outside the penalty box.

Licenced today: the view, from the old slate quarry, of the village of Chapel Stile in Langdale… 

Mr Tony...

Yesterday was the hottest day since Sodom and Gomorrah went up in flames - with 40.3C recorded at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire - and it’s still roasting today. So it seems appropriate to be writing about Christian martyrdom.

Another busy day in Hebden Bridge...

Flood levels...

It seems we're either burning or drowning. According to this flood prediction map, areas marked in red will be below the annual flood level by 2050…

Heatwave...

It's 9am and the temperature in the Old Sunday School (but out of direct sunlight) is already 30° C. No plans to do anything today except write, drink iced lemonade and watch how high the mercury climbs in the thermometer…

Penny Mordaunt...

Tories can be an unsentimental bunch when sacking - or choosing - the leader of the party. In their current search they seem be motivated less by their preference for one candidate than their animosity to all the others. If my memory serves me correctly, this mindset of grievance and grudge-bearing is what propelled relative outsiders like John Major, William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith to land the top job.

The field of five will have to be whittled down to two, when the final choice will be made not by MPs but by Tory party members, who are overwhelmingly male, white, middle class and aged over fifty. Penny Mordaunt, a name unknown to most people just a couple of weeks ago, has been installed as favourite to win the vote - and thus become Prime Minister - if she is one of the two names on the final ballot.

Licenced last week: a house sold in Beverley...

Weston-super-Mare...

Licenced today: the promenade at Weston-super-Mare…

Cawood...

Licenced today: All Saints church in the village of Cawood, North Yorkshire…

Death by stoning...

A woman in Sudan has been sentenced to death for adultery, the first known case in the country for almost ten years. Maryam Alsyed Tiyrab, 20, is appealing against the decision. The majority of stoning sentences are overturned in the high court, though one consequence of the military coup, last October, may be to re-introduce some of the more draconian aspects of sharia law. Death by stoning, prescribed in the Quran for adultery, is predominantly used to punish women, though, since the ‘crime’ of adultery requires two people, we may wonder where the man was. Apologists for this hateful religion should examine their consciences.

Licenced today: a bed & breakfast establishment in the Devon village of Beer...

Sutton Bassett...

A thatched cottage - with some interesting rooftop action - in the village of Sutton Bassett, Northampton...

Neighbours...

Even on the Guardian’s home page, the war in Ukraine has gone from ‘top billing’ to just another story, accompanied by the reunion of Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue for the last episode of Neighbours, and the idea of using oral contraceptives to reduce the number of grey squirrels. I’d prefer to issue them with tiny condoms instead… and some for the squirrels too…

River Tone...

The River Tone in Taunton... 

St Andrew's Quay...

Ah, the places I get to, the things I get to see… Licenced today: stores at St Andrew's Quay retail park in Hull…

Rugby League Museum...

Licenced today: the George Hotel in Huddersfield, presumably sold because the hotel is to be repurposed as The Rugby League Museum. Fittingly, the George Hotel is where the sport that would become Rugby League was born. On August 29, 1895, 21 clubs met at the hotel to agree a breakaway from the Rugby Football Union to enable working class players to be compensated for wages lost when playing rugby…

Political upheaval...

Licenced today: an ambulance on a country road. Inside is Boris Johnson’s shredded reputation, heading for the knackers’ yard with a ‘do not rescusitate’ order. Sam Allardyce, known in football circles as a “safe pair of hands”, while saving ailing clubs from relegation, would make a good choice as stand-in Prime Minister, while the twenty-odd candidates for the top job are busy burnishing their CVs and writing their manifestos…

Test cricket...

England beat India yesterday, at Edgebaston, by scoring 378 runs in the fourth innings: more than they have ever scored, to win a test match, in their previous 1,051 matches. Wow! And, equally amazingly, they achieved the feat with such apparent ease that the result barely seemed to be in doubt. Yorkshiremen Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow each scored a century, reaching the mammoth target with two sessions, and seven wickets, to spare. If this is the future of test cricket… then bring it on!

Licenced today: a couple walking in the village of Cartmel, Cumbria, on their way to buy some sticky toffee pudding... 

Maryport harbour...

Licenced today: a fishing boat leaving the harbour, Maryport, West Cumbria…

Sutton Bassett...

Shot on my tour of the south-west: All Saints church in Sutton Bassett, Northamptonshire, an 11th century church which, unusually, has no graveyard...

Taliban clerics...

An all-male gathering of Afghan clerics and elders has ended with a call for international recognition, because, to date, not a single country has officially recognised the Taliban as the legitimate government. In their final communique, the clerics made only passing reference to the need for “religious and modern education” and to respect “the rights of women”. Of the 4,500 participants only two clerics called for the reopening of secondary schools for girls. The ban on secondary education for girls is one of the main reasons why the Taliban remain international outcasts. Yet anyone who has read the Quran will know that the Taliban’s repressive views represent an entirely orthodox understanding of Islam. These pious men aren’t extremists or fundamentalists; they’re just following quranic teachings… to the letter. 

A woodpigeon ponders the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death...

Rain stopped play...

As we entered the county ground at Taunton, for the test match between England Women and South Africa Women, I opened my backpack for inspection. The guy pulled out my Swiss Army knife with a quizzical look. I said I always kept it in my bag, in case I needed to tighten a screw, loosen a nut, open a bottle of wine or remove a stone from a horse’s hoof. He looked at the knife, then looked at me, and said “Do you promise not to take it out of your bag?” I assured him that I wouldn’t… and that was that. I am now, officially a harmless old geezer.

The game itself, though marred by the weather, was a lot of fun. The pic is from the last day, when the crowd was so sparse that I was able to exchange a few pleasantries with every single person in the stands. All results were possible until the rain came; in the end it was the weather that won…

The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum...

Licenced today: Chevin Park, a new housing development in Menston, near Leeds. The gloomy and forbidding complex, originally known as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, was opened in 1888. I remember it as High Royds Psychiatric Hospital, one of the many institutions where Jimmy Savile is known to have sexually abused both patients and staff (a hospital porter said he was asked by Savile if there was a room he could use if “he pulled one of the nurses”). After the hospital was closed, in 2003, it was transformed into upmarket retirement homes…