A family home, some decades ago now, was situated beneath
Combe Gibbet, a high landmark surmounted by the said item
from the days when bodies hung as warnings to the criminally
inclined. It was visible for miles and clearly intended to be so.

Comment is about William Winters 1791 (blog)

Original item by JD Russell

A famous sequence of stories from a vivid imagination.
My personal caveat regarding that great journey that saw
the ring disposed of: Why it wasn't entrusted to those
great birds that came to the rescue at times. Surely, they could have done the job without all that risk and hardship?
Sorry, just call me a kill-joy! 😉

Comment is about The Lord of the Rings. Part 1:- The Fellowship of the Ring (blog)

Original item by Stuart Vanner

Telboy - your comment is well taken. Ironically, it was while riding my last bike - a Condor - that I suffered a sudden front tyre
"blow-out" that sent me crashing sideways on to unforgiving
tarmac, resulting in ongoing lumbar spinal stenosis. But I still
have an indoor bike as a reminder of more active days out on
the streets as I approach my 80th birthday.

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Great recall Ray. My late brother had a Phillips bike which
he rode from his army camp near Newbury to visit family at
free weekends. Amazing to recall how many British bike and accessory manufacturers there were back then. Here's a
recall of my bike and its British origins, some added during ownership..
Frame: Reynolds 531; Bars and Brakes: GB; Chain: Reynolds;
Double Chainwheel: Williams; Gears: Cyclo-Benelux; Hubs:
Racelite; HP wheel rims/tubes/tyres: Dunlop; Saddle: Brooks; Pump: Bluemel; Pedals: Raleigh. And the Raleigh catalogue
proudly proclaimed that the machine was famously endorsed by Reg Harris, no less...remember?! I was a great fan of the magazine "Sporting Cyclist" - published by cycling visionary J.B. Wadley, bringing Continental road racing and its
participants to UK enthusiasts with some great B/W photos
of the "greats" of those days, like Coppi and Bobet, as well
as the brave Brits like Brian Robinson trying their luck across
the Channel. Pioneers who began the journey to the current
UK success in the big foreign races today....a very long way indeed from what was very much a "Cinderella" sport in the UK back then.

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

❤

Comment is about Afyca (poet profile)

Original item by Afyca

Crumbs! (fish bait in my own youth) - talk about "Live and learn".

Comment is about THE ART OF MAKING A CRUST (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Beautiful

Comment is about An ode to Mother Nature - The Great Giver of Life! (blog)

Original item by Grace

Hahaha! To paraphrase Lance Armstrong JC

'it's not about the fish'

Comment is about THE ART OF MAKING A CRUST (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

They took all the fish in the Swale, Graham and put them in Pickering Trout Pond.

Comment is about THE ART OF MAKING A CRUST (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi Telboy. Yes, you make a good case - they are cycle centric there and i'm sure cycling is safer on the whole with more respect shown. Of course here the impetus seems to be for more egocentric tendencies as if speed is always important for bikes.
Ray

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

thank you MC, I visited this gibbet earlier this year and wanted to know the story, then I thought I could do the story justice in a poem, hopefully succeeded.

Comment is about William Winters 1791 (blog)

Original item by JD Russell

Alternatively you could book a day on the Swale around Richmond/Easby Abbey for a few quid and hardly see a soul all day (kerching)! My favourite spot for a dabble with the fly!

Comment is about THE ART OF MAKING A CRUST (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I nearly didn't catch this train, John. Glad I jumped on board in time. It's really beautiful.

Comment is about This Train... (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

It's a pity more people don't cycle today, we'd be a lot fitter and healthier. I visit Netherlands every year, you hardly see anyone with a stick or in an electric buggy, but you do see people well into their 70s and 80s on bikes.

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you Stephen, Tom & Mark.

"Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away." Carl Sandburg, 'The Atlantic', 1927

Comment is about Whining poetry (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

This scenario seems unreal as we look out of windows lashed by cold rain at the moment Jennifer. You have summed up the complete package here. Coolth I like!

Ray

Comment is about FIERY (blog)

Original item by Jennifer Malden

Thanks Stephen, how could I disagree? Let's put on our camouflage outifts and go back over the top to the past!

Hi Mark: same hymn sheet of course! I think the Super Lenton came in blue, mine was green, but I would have been green with envy at yours, I think it came with the gear - mine had the one sprocket and a fixed wheel, but I pestered my dad to have the wheel "dished" to accept a derailleur. I got a benelux too.. No double chainrings in those days . I fitted a spoke mileometer, nice tick. I got one again on ebay, still getting about.....

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Very powerful, angry, and crafted, too. Excellent title, bitter last line.

Comment is about The Body Politic (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Hard to imagine our countryside without those railway lines.
And harder still to accept that they were so strongly resisted
in a long-ago landscape. Nostalgia is defined by generations.

Comment is about This Train... (blog)

Original item by John Botterill

The art of poetry is manifold, dependng on its purpose. Long may it be so. But it's agreed that you can have too much of a
bad thing! To be boring is unforgiveable.

Comment is about Whining poetry (blog)

Original item by John E Marks

The last line carries its share of truth. The law and justice do not
always make for a just result.

Comment is about Haiku Law (blog)

Original item by Rick Varden

Ray - I was "with you" in more ways than one - also owning a
Raleigh (I think mine was a Super Lenton model...long before I
progressed to Holdsworth and Condor in later years).
How easily the memories of those uncrowded roads come back
to me from my Wiltshire/Somerset border youth....not least the
long "pull" up Bowden Hill to home above the historic village
of Lacock. I believe it's a venue for hill-climbs now. It was
a point of personal honour not to dismount as I pushed my Cyclo-Benelux (British made!) derailleur to its big-cog limit. In
fact, looking back, the whole bike was British made: frame, chain, gear, wheels, tyres, brakes, saddle, and even the pump!
Those were the days, my friend!!

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Certanly not the current crop in government - far removed from
the previous concept of conservatism and needing a sharp
reminder of where their origins lie.

Comment is about Stop the Stunts! (blog)

A macabre tale well caught in rhyme, of justice catching up with
merciless murderers - the like of whom are still around today despite our pretensions to a more civilised society.

Comment is about William Winters 1791 (blog)

Original item by JD Russell

A fine poem, David. My brother and I shared a tricycle, I seem to remember, even when I had my leg in plaster. Your words conjure up shared memories.

Comment is about The Age of Gold (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

I think you've summed it up, Jennifer. Southern Europe suddenly has less appeal when this sort of weather comes.

Comment is about FIERY (blog)

Original item by Jennifer Malden

Yep, given how serious the situation is, we need all the stunts we can get (not Tory ones, of course).!

Comment is about Stop the Stunts! (blog)

The present is overstated in many respects. Takes us back to a more rewarding, and less crowded, time.

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

A bogey in 1950s Oldham, soap box cart elsewhere. A red-hot poker was used as a drill for the bolt that made it steer.

'A cane to make you mend your ways', speaks to the worldview of those male teachers who, fresh from service in the armed forces saw discipline as more important than learning. Beat it in to them, their mantra.

Grand poem, David.

Comment is about The Age of Gold (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

Thank you Holden,
Well put and straight to the point.

"...the emperor / Marches fully-clothed..."

Such a lot of them about these days.😉

Comment is about Malevolent. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you Clare.
There but for the grace of God go I.

Comment is about T A I N T E D. (blog)

Original item by Clare

Thanks for your thoughts, Ray. After the Bantam I moved up to a Honda CJ250 which eventually came second in a clash with a Mazda car. In those days you were limited to 250cc’s until you passed your test which I never did. These days it’s much more complicated trying to understand what you can ride.
And thanks for the Likes, Jennifer, Holden and Stephen.

Comment is about BSA BANTAM (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks Jennifer and Holden for reading and liking.

Mark, I can feel you were with me on this trip. Perhaps as I did you might remember grass cutters with long slow sickles trimming the banks, no high viz of course. On that particular trip I had my trusty Raleigh Lenton (cost £17 from Halfords) which I had fitted with a 3 speed Sturmey Archer. Gulp.

Many thanks Tony. I retain this early event on the A303 as a special moment at 16.

Uilleam, i've driven up to Southport quite a few times, a long way for a one night gig and back! That long level road gives the long view over lowlands I recall. Ah the Sturmey Archer, you had to stop pedalling to change gear.

Thanks folks. Ray

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Brings back memories John. I had a 125 with a rubber horn. The girl petrol pump attendants used to squeeze it for a laugh. It took petroil I recall. I took it apart and put the float needle in upside down - hahha. I sold it to a draughtsman who painted it blue and christened it Til Eulenspiegel. Moved on to a velocette then a Triumph speed twin the police used them. I'll get my coat. Thanks for the memory!

Ray

Comment is about BSA BANTAM (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you so much, Jennifer, your kind words are a source of encouragement! 😊

Comment is about Malevolent. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Glad you like the poem, Stephen. The building still exists, much modernised of course. The tripe gutter lane is still recognisable. Tony

Comment is about THE LITTLE STREET* (blog)

Original item by Tony Hill

Thank you, Tony. A lovely poem about everything. Everything that matters, anyway.

Comment is about THE LITTLE STREET* (blog)

Original item by Tony Hill

So sorry for your loss, Stephen. My condolences. You found the poetry that you needed, as we all will, I'm sure.

Comment is about A loss of life & words (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

I'm sure that's not true, John. If you can find 'Mon Oncle', I think it is his best by some way.

Yes, Pete, that's a great film. I think it's true that since the passing of the New Wave, French films have been somewhat underrated.
I would choose Alain Resnais' 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' as the finest ever made.

And thanks to Tony, Holden, Rudyard and Kevin for liking this.

Comment is about Le Grand Jacques (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

A difficult subject - expectations and ultimate disappointment in family. Most of us probably experience this to some extent but
the adjustment/and/or recovery from the effects can be painful to
obtain.

Comment is about You Gave Me Everything, and Nothing At All (blog)

Original item by kimberly

Helene, RJ, HM, SG and JC - your "likes" are much appreciated.

Comment is about LADS AND LASSES (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

A nice return to those long-ago childhood days for me. But I
dreaded the milk we were expected to drink at my school. It
wasn't until I was a teenager and found its ice-cold version more
to my taste that I took to drinking it regularly - mainly as an "aid" to the physical exertions that were demanded of me then. Even
now i have a distaste for the luke-warm version in a glass!

Comment is about The Age of Gold (blog)

Original item by David Cooke

In today's world there is a certain logic that can be understood in
these lines. Being alone can be the solution in a number of
situations and beliefs that are imposed upon us nowadays.

Comment is about QUIET!! (blog)

Original item by Edbreathe

Fantastic, and wonderful use of words. .... the resident rot gift-wrapped in leaves of gold. Really good writing.

Comment is about Malevolent. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thank you everyone for the lovely, kind comments. And, yes, M.C. that's all we can do, remember them with a smile, and we had lots of smiles! Thanks again x

Comment is about A loss of life & words (blog)

Original item by Stephen W Atkinson

Oh my!
This is my thought every day I turn on the TV set. Keep it up K. Lynn🤜🏽🤛🏽

Comment is about Bad Thoughts (blog)

Original item by K. Lynn

In the 50's I begged my dad to let me have his old "sit up and beg" bike. It had 3 sturmey archer gears, (which I believe are still in production) and I persuaded him to fit it with drop bars which for me were super cool. I used to go for 20 or 30 miles no problem with my mate.
Ah the summer hedges on the Southport road.

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Really like this one, Ray, and especially the first verse - ‘bristling witness to my effort’. Great image. Tony

Comment is about GOING OVER THE TOP (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you so much for the encouraging comment, John, it means a lot! 😎

Comment is about Avoidance. (blog)

Original item by Holden Moncrieff

Thankyou, Uilleam and MC. My abiding memory is being bitterly cold and wet. The tingling in my fingers ends would last until dinner time.

Comment is about BSA BANTAM (blog)

Original item by John Coopey