A little rusty

One thing we don't get in England is tumbleweed but perhaps a ball or two wistfully drifting across this scene might be appropriate here and maybe a plangent steel guitar blues riff to go with.

The rumour mill is saying a second lockdown is just what the country needs as the first one worked so splendidly well. I, of course, will ignore it like the first; I have no time for conneries as the French have it. The world and his wife can go play at medieval doctors and nurses; frankly I don't care, it's true I do not care. You can all go to hell and take your handcart with you.

Next Year's Weeds

So that's one more year seen through without too many disasters, still standing (or rather sitting) at the end of it all can't be too bad to paraphrase old Nietzsche (again). So take deep breath and let's go through another turn round the sun and see what a year will bring ... 

City Daily Photo asks for our "photo of the year" again. I chose these bountiful thistle seeds from the year's wanderings in my time. They may be a gardener's nightmare but then I'm not a gardener.

Happy New Year to almost everyone ...

A is for Crow

Simply add water

The river Hull in these parts is basically an extension of the North Sea and as such is subject to the same tidal ups and downs. Which means if you don't much like being stuck on the the muddy banks then wait a while and a soothing, reflective brown influx will gently lift you up. 

Weekend Reflections are here.

Butter and Eggs

This is common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) growing by the side of a busy road. It's by no  means a rare plant and is a favourite of bees who need to be fairly strong to get at the nectar hidden in the snapdragon like flower. The plant has many names relating to the colour , butter and eggs as I've indicated but also bread and butter, butter haycocks and yellow rod. Other names seem to be local folk making stuff up to please themselves so here's a small sample of alternative names: brideweed , rabbit flower, bunny mouth (?) and calf's snout (??). My favourite though, among the many names, has to be dead men's bones which might possibly relate to the practice of using the plant medicinally, who knows?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Four years ago Humberside Police were given the worst possible efficiency rating and were condemned as inadequate. Public confidence in the force was the lowest in the country. Last year it was reported that the same force had failed to record thousands of crimes every year. (Let's just forget about this, shall we, nothing to see here, move along now ...) The new PM has promised 20,000 new officers for the country so no doubt there'll be even more sitting at the nearby Costa coffee hut on Clough Road just opposite the inordinately expensive new headquarters, looking menacing at anyone who gives them more than a casual glance.

Pink Kisses

Which came first the flower or the colour? These are pinks (Dianthus) and have been called pinks since day one or, at least, since the Dutch brought them over; now it seems the colour came from the flower that is to say things were "pink-coloured" eventually this became simply pink... so what word did we use for pink before we had pink? It seems we used 'incarnation' and 'incarnate' (flesh-coloured; you can see a need for a slightly less gruesome word and without religious and other connotations). So from incarnation you might think it is but a very short step to carnation which as you know is also a dianthus or pink but this etymology is said to be confused, or so I read (the whole damn thing is confusing and I wish I hadn't started out on this nonsense), and could come from coronation, the edges of the flowers looking like a crown.  
Still and more, the word pink became a term for excellence ... so these could be said to be the very pink of pink pinks ... and then, of course there's pinkos for those of a not quite red, slightly left of centre  persuasion (persuasion itself is becoming dated notion), pink elephants can, of course, be on parade and pinkie (again from the Dutch) ... and then there's the verb, to pink, meaning to pierce which is totally unrelated and which could give us pinked pinks ... and  I think I'll have a little lie down with a large pink gin.

Anyhow these are Dianthus Pink Kisses and you could buy a pretty pink potful for £3 from a big shop on Clough Road should you wish.

Today's monthly theme, as you might have guessed, is pink.

Life's no fun without ...

... City Daily Photo's theme days. This month's is 'Sensual' ...

The Bingo Hall

The advertising on this building attempts to convince that it is so much more than bingo but that's advertising for you; a manifest denial of the truth. This place, on Clough Road, looks like and is the same size as a large warehouse and has a large car park to cope with demand. It replaced the much smaller hall on Beverley Road. I can think of at least two other similarly large bingo clubs in Hull so there must be plenty of people wanting to get their "eyes down for a full house". In the UK 45 million visits a year were made to bingo clubs which was more than went to professional football in England so it's no small business but personally I cannot see the attraction of housey-housey.

A 1962 Red Morris

As I know very little (and care even less) about cars I looked up about the Morris Minor in our old friend Wikipedia. According to this impeccable resource the Morris Minor is "considered a classic example of automotive design, as well as typifying "Englishness". Well hmmm. I don't get this Englishness thing; it is a pretty meaningless word especially relating to a motorised box on wheels but let's not start the week off with quibbling. This particular car is a little bit younger than me, was once orange and is now standing in a place that renovates clapped-out old bangers. Speaking of clapped-out old bangers I could do with a bit of renovation as well.

Deep and dangerous

Here's the good old Barmston Drain passing under Clough Road. That yellow thing in the water is a sign from the nearby fitness centre that you can see in the background. It had clearly not read the warning below.

Weekend reflections are here.

To see the cherry hung with snow

I don't know if A E Housman ever came to the City of Culture but if he did I'm sure he'd have appreciated these loveliest of trees even if they are on Clough Road which is as far from a woodland ride as you can get.

Margot, who is quite possibly Mr Housman's number one fan, took this.

Perhaps Wendy Cope is a bigger fan.

I think I am in love with A.E. Housman,
Which puts me in a worse-than-usual-fix.
No woman ever stood a chance with Housman,
And he’s been dead since 1936.

Wendy Cope

Monday meanderings

Clough Road, Hull

An idea being put out by a group calling itself Generation Rent suggests that Parliament be brought to Hull and that the Houses of Parliament be converted into affordable accommodation. No seriously, I checked the date and it's still March not April 1st. Well I suppose it's a thought and I'm sure the 650 or so MPs and 800+ Lords (a legislative body surpassed in size only by China's National People's Congress) with attendant lackeys and lickspittles would easily fit into and be made welcome by this City of Culture. And the sight of Brenda in full regalia in her state coach traipsing down Clough Road with a cavalry guard to open Parliament would be bound to draw the crowds. It's reckoned 5000 jobs would be created in Hull (no mention of how many lost in London but why wake up the dreamer?) and save £120 million over a five year parliament (or smell the coffee!). So yeah, bring it on ....

Barmy Drain

When applying for planning permission to build anything new  nowadays you have to supply a flood risk assessment, a surveyor, at no small cost, looks at the plot and decides how likely it is to flood and what if anything should be taken into account when drawing up plans. Good job then that such niceties did not prevail in the middle ages else nothing would be standing in these parts. The whole Hull river valley until the middle ages used to be one big marshy malarial infested lake stretching up as far as Driffield with occasional interventions from the Humber to add to the gaiety of nations. But bit by bit and without any help from the Environment Agency river banks were raised and drains put in. The late 18^th and early 19^th century saw really large investment in drying out the land and bringing it into cultivation. And so here's the Barmston (Barmy) Drain as seen from Clough Road doing what it has been doing since the passage of the Beverley and Barmston Drainage Act of 1798 taking the wet stuff from East Yorkshire's marshy carrs and putting it into the river Hull in a neat controllable fashion. Despite the rubbish piling up on the banks these drains provide a rich habitat for wildlife though it has to be said I only saw two wrens and a depressed looking duck while I was here.

I've posted about this waterway before here.
If you are into the history of drainage (and be honest who isn't?) here's an old pamphlet about draining the Hull Valley.
The weekend in black and white lurks here.
And weekend reflections are hiding here.

Catalpa bignonioides

I came across this tree a fortnight ago and it was covered in these pretty flowers that I've never seen the likes of before. Now I know my record on tree identification is exactly tiptop, the infamous jacaranda that turned out to be a foxglove tree sticks in my mind. Nevertheless I'm pretty confident that this is a Catalpa tree because its other name is Indian Bean tree and today it's covered in hundreds of what look just like French runner beans. It's also sometimes called the cigar tree because you can smoke these pods for some mild effects, so I'm told. It comes originally from South-eastern USA. Quite how this specimen got to be hiding in plain sight on Clough Road I can't imagine.

More local wildlife

With zebras and elephants yesterday and hippos today this place is turning in a virtual Serengeti ... I stumbled across this monster while on safari down Clough Road. It's meant to sell a well known brand of mattresses, believe it or not. Think hippo, think bed ... nah.

From espaliers to Brendan Behan in one easy step

No big building these days comes without at least some landscaping, few roses here, a flower bed there, an act of propitiation for the dreadful architecture that usually lurks behind. Well Humberside Police HQ on Clough Road is no exception and this expensive lump comes with a row of espaliers. I don't know if they're apple trees and plod is setting up an orchard but they are an interesting development.

If you think that, because of the date, this is a joke then you might be right or you could check out the City Daily Photos theme day where they're fixated on triangles for some reason. I must admit that when I heard that triangles were to be the theme my mind instantly thought of this. Sláinte!

Survival of the fittest

It was in March last year that I found it odd that there were two keep-fit establishments practically within spitting distance of each other. The locked gates and concrete road blocks are proof, if it were needed, that was only room for one after all.

Keep Fit

I don't know what it is about keep fit gyms; you don't see any for what seems like half a life time then two spring up practically together. Must be something in the air of Clough Road. Am I being a bit naive to suggest that instead of driving to these places they took a walk instead they'd be just as fit and £9.99/month richer?

Old Gasometer

If you go through the gates shown in yesterday's post and follow the road round a short way you come across this old gas tank. I've shown it before [ 1 ] but I think it's worth another shot. This is still an active gas supply depot and there's a disconcerting loud hissing noise, as of escaping gas, coming from the pipes on the left but I suppose they know what they're doing.

Taken by Margot K Juby