Jim Webster's Blog, page 45

Belatedly, for National Poetry Day

Originally posted on Tallis Steelyard:
The bottles sprawl unheeded The discarded valiant dead Their sacrifice accepted Sobriety has fled The truth it surfaced briefly But shrugged and went to bed. Will you walk again beside me? Will you tread the path I tread? The wine it made me wordy The truth when poured was red…

Through a glass, grimly

Originally posted on Tallis Steelyard:
It’s funny to look back on the heady days of your youth and the various pranks that one got up to back then. We were reminiscing over a glass of wine, as you do, when Julatine Sypent mentioned the incident of the tower of the three maidens. You can see…

A Furness Ghost Story

It’s all the fault of Sagger, but then this is Sagger’s story. I may have embroidered it slightly, but only in so far as I’ve taken the embroidery that was already worked into the story, and tried to put it into its proper context. Sagger was and hopefully still is, just Sagger. Nice guy, lively …

Setting out your stall

Some people think it takes a special sort of person to make a success of buying or selling. It is true, some people have the knack. It’s like the lad who came round, he was selling plots in the local cemetery. So we got rid of him by telling him that we’d already got one. …

Beware, low flying owls

This morning I was out looking sheep. The morning was very still, overcast, not particularly cold, not particularly warm. There was a hint of rag about the dew on the grass and Sal, who was running about exploring everything in her efficient Border Collie way was having a good morning. I saw the barn owl …

Walking the walk

You know when you suddenly discover you’d promised to do something and life intervened and nothing’s happened. Well some time ago they were looking for somebody to produce a map of a walk around the boundary of Aldingham, the next parish to us and because I know pretty well all the paths and suchlike, I …

Cultured, like what I am

Two ladies of my acquaintance were discussing how to eat sushi. One wondered whether her method of eating sushi was cultured. Her method consists of picking it up with her fingers and putting it in her mouth. Apparently the correct method is picking your sushi up with chopsticks; then dropping it on the floor, picking …

Waiting for the past to catch up

Some time ago I had an idea for a blog post. It was one of those which came at the point I was sitting down staring at the screen wondering what on earth to write. Suddenly I knew what it was I could write and it was a case of frantically writing it down before …

The trifling peccadilloes of the travelling artist.

Originally posted on Tallis Steelyard:
Of course painters are artists. Yes, I admit that they often lack many of the finer graces and are prone to put on airs. The worst for this are those who have just sold something and gold runs through their fingers like quicksilver. Still they are artists, of a sort,…

Building communities.

That’s what the meeting was about, although that wasn’t the title, that’s what it did and that was what drove people to attend. And I drove up from the south, through St John’s in the Vale on a gorgeous September morning; the sort that you never get many of. The photo shows winter, still beautiful, …