Matlock Railway Station

 

In current times and small communities, it is so very easy to lose perspective and stay on track!

"Mind the gap"

"Nowt messed about wi'"

 

" The 25th highest tower in the world and one foot higher than the Eiffel Tower and it's in 'God's own Country ' Yorkshire. From its top you can see the 'sophistication' rising like a cultural heat haze over Leeds. When I were a lad we would come oop here and stuff our faces with Hovis and 'cow heel'. Ah those were the days when; you could enjoy indigestion, call anyone from south of Sheffield French and regard women as unrecognisable outside the kitchen or when vertical " 

Thirty percent of the population admires nice views!🫣🤣 I also know how to spell 'sarcasm'. I should have been a politician and then I could have been sponsored in my immoderate behaviour and language.😱

Sunrise and sunset

 

I am feeling more cheerful this morning and decided to give the doom scrolling 'poetry' at least one day off.

"You cannot teach an old doggerel new tricks" East Anglian traditional homily.

It rained last night but the sun rose in the sky this morning and everything is a little greener and fresher for it all. 

I guess the sun didn't rise but instead the Earth rotated about its axis and through the wonder of relativity and Einstein's 'Frames of Reference', it appears to rise in the East and set in the West.

I can also spell 'pedantic'🤣

Influencer and Influenza

 

Like the faux science of global 'economics',
 some of my images have an air of reality but are just 'made up'.

Whilst having a shower this morning, I realised that 'influencer' and ''influenza' were similar words. As an occasional writer of doggerel, I thought to myself  they have 'assonance', a word, which I particularly like along with 'apposite'. 

An influencer gets into your mind and corrupts it, a virus gets into biological cells and corrupts them. Both vectors of infection are random in their transmission and opportunistic. Although not immediately obvious, the outcome is for the benefit of the transmitter and not the recipient - always!." Be prepared is my motto" -The Last Boy Scout.

Influencer and Influenza

Society is disrupted 

When words are corrupted 

And it happens blatantly all the time.

Communities are disrupted 

When politicians are corrupted 

And it happens everyday in plain sight.

The environment is disrupted 

When science is corrupted 

And it happens in the pursuit of gross profit.

Information is disrupted

When the media is corrupted

And it happens when both are owned by an elite. 

Our hearts are disrupted 

When our minds are corrupted

And it happens when emotion overwhelms intelligence. 

Peace is disrupted

When 'the flag' is corrupted

And it happens because their power is valued above our lives.

Spirituality is disrupted

When religion is corrupted

And it happens because of sects, sex and supremacy.

Our lives are disrupted.

When our health is corrupted

And it happens silently off balance sheet.

This all 'jogs along', whilst us plebs work and pay taxes to underwrite their exponential and insatiable greed. Extraordinary  master!

George Roberts. August 2026

Wind turbines a blot on the landscape?

 

It's  a  great pity

The oil lobby gets so shitty

About wind turbines 

And green energy

 

The Press and old people both join in

"Consign wind turbines to the bin"

Myopically denying global scorching 

Using Nelson's blind eye

They bullshit, whilst they fry

"It's not happening or temporary or both"

No one gets the hump

About a windmill or windpump

"Like rain they are traditional and British" 

Not wishing to be blunt

You cannot convince a fool

Who chooses to ignore

Science and his or her senses.

George Roberts August 2026

I'm partial to a solar eclipse it is a beautiful thing to witness

 

We enjoyed viewing the partial solar eclipse from Southwold marshes. The above image is a composite of the actual  eclipse captured with a Seestar S30 'smart-scope' and a photo taken with a Google Pixel8a phone the preceding night at dusk. This is of course a 'cheat' to those 'purists' out there but I believe it gives a 'feel for' the wonder of the moment. I am after all an artist rather than scientist!

The following image is the real thing captured on the day as the Moon moved from more or less maximum towards minimum coverage of the solar disk. If you look carefully at the right hand image you can see a sunspot group.

Ichthyosaur? Try E45 cream or Savlon.

Pretty sure

This is is the jaw

Of an ichthyosaur

I think I see teeth 

That gave ammonites grief

When looking for tea

In a warm blue sea

An apex predator 

Amongst marine Jurassic traffic.

George Roberts August 2026