Category: Poetry

January Road Trip (XXIII)

Blackbirds warn of you

Alarmed at your rare ascent

Ominous pink sky

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n.b. This excursion to the very limits of the Roman Empire, (marked by the nearby Antonine Wall), has been lived in monochrome due to almost 100% cloud cover. I miss the sunshine of England’s south coast, but am enjoying the journey, the places I am visiting and the company.

This brief visit of the Sun this morning has been simply to advise that more cloud, possibly carrying snow, is lining up to join us.

CLP 27/01/2020

January Road Trip (XXII)

Wemyss Bay terminus

For rail, but not yet for us

Rothesay ferry waits

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n.b. Cared for by the Friends of Wemyss Bay Station, (operated by the local private railway company), this architectural delight, in tune with the main concourse at Glasgow Central, was built to funnel train passengers down to the waterside for the ferries to holiday isles in the west of Scotland. Not so popular destinations now, but the railway station is ready and waiting to serve if called on again.

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If you get yourself to Wemyss Bay make sure to leave time to nip into The Station Bar. However, the ferry schedule, or sea conditions may give you no option but to hole up for a wee while in the cosy bar, (or adjoining Station Café, or even the second-hand bookshop – when open).

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CLP 26/01/2020

January Road Trip (XIX)

‘Vital Spark’ alongside at Inverary

Not many years past

Since traders relied on boats

Jim called them rockhoppers

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n.b. Jimmy Smith, my shipmate during my time working on cross-Channel ferries in 1980, spent some years as a cook on a boat, not unlike the ‘Vital Spark’, travelling from harbour to harbour around the north of Britain.

The cargo changed depending on what needed moving between quays; roads then were more difficult to negotiate, the sea was the main highway.

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CLP 25/01/2020