Radio Goddard.

My Son Chris has not been well these past 10 days or so. He is mendiing slowly.

Of course this blogspot flim-flam has taken a backseat during the process (i make the odd perky brief appearance on facebook.,otherwise.... my life is mostly RT at the moment.).

Luckily my last post (Sepia Saturday)was mostly already written-up & all I needed to do was press the "publish" button.
When I will be back here on full-cylinders i dont know.......

(maybe tomorrow..maybe gradually over the coming weeks.....who can say?)

.I love blogging but it has its limits.

Things are quiet tonight at Zimnoch HQ,Hence this post.

singing at the spaw

Smells & Chemistry is my interpretation on this week's Sepia Saturday When i go Harrogate Turkish Baths I will also go & fill up an empty Pop Bottle full of Harrogate Sulphur water I use on it my skin (great for Athlete's Foot & suchlike !) also once when in Italian Mountains,Me & Chris both had Sulphur Baths
I found out this week that a Sulphur Spring exists only 3 miles from home.I must visit & fill-up.

Local children in their Sunday Best “taking the water” in 1911

In medieval times and earlier, winter was a very difficult time for local inhabitants. The long season of cold and darkness, with limited food, caused hardship and ill health. Consequently, people looked forward to the onset of spring with warmer weather and more food. It was the custom in early spring for people to gather at the spa to drink the water and cleanse themselves of their winter ailments, and to give them strength to face the coming year. Whether or not the water had a medicinal effect is debatable, but the waters were a way of celebrating the passage of winter and the beginning of spring – and there are anecdotes from a number of local octogenarians of the curative and restorative properties of the Spaw waters, attributing their long standing to regular draughts of Spa water!In the 19th century this event usually occurred on the first Sunday in May and was called “Spaw Sunday”. It was said that on this day the water at Cragg Spa took on “an especial different taste”. Local children in their Sunday Best “taking the water” in 1911 All you needed was a medicine bottle, filled with the spa water, liquorice was added (to make it more palatable for drinking) then the mixture was thoroughly shaken and – if you didn’t want to look like a cissy! – swigged down in one. The sulphurous water from the spa was deemed to be excellent for making tea, although some recommended a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to take the edge off the “bad eggs smell”. As time passed these gatherings became quite popular, and attracted tourists and early socialists as well as local people. At the beginning of the 20th century the Independent Labour Party saw an opportunity to play an important part in the “spaw” celebrations locally, and the early religious orators gave way to those of a political nature. In 1906, a report on a pilgrimage to the Cragg Spa and then onto Blackstone Edge, noted that numbers at the event were becoming fewer and only 500 people went onto the White House where the Hebden Bridge band was playing.The Second World War ended “Spaw Sunday “celebrations at Cragg Spa.........{source:}
 Below the old stone bridge almost forgotten Water gurgles quietly from subterranean fault
The surface air scented with sulphurous stink.
 Contrasting with earthy woodland and river mix The nose turns towards the Spa lending it’s name to nearby cottage row and farm.
 Celebrated in past times with ‘Spaw Sunday’ Religious and Political gatherings drew crowds in hundreds After the confinement of winter, a time of Cleansing Parents and children dressed for the occasion ‘Taking the Waters’ with a little Spanish to stop the Retch “Get it down, it’ll do you good”
 Black Crow and Gray Heron watch from a distance Speeding Dipper stitches the torn river with a bubbling silver thread Brown Trout pushes against the flow avoiding the throng {Graham Ramsden}

 see:  Fickr :Cragg Vale Spa Set

Blessing the spa with a rosemary bough.
Hold your nose. It's tradition................... "Welcome to the world's shortest pilgrimage" announced James, the vicar, as the procession prepared to set off from the church of St John the Baptist in the Wilderness. This gathering was part of the 'Spaw Sunday' celebrations, ('spaw' being the dialect word for 'spa'.) ...."{The Guardian:Calderdale Religion}

Singing at The Spa.

HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS: John Billingsley: Sunday 5th May 2013

*This is a continuation of Last Wednesday's post*

One of the nicest things about Heptonstall is that ,unlike Haworth & it's Bronte Sisters up the road,it has never become a tourist trap.Not a single "Yea Olde Sylvia Plathie Tearooms" in sight!
 If your around Calderdale this year..& you fancy a nosey & an excuse to stretch yer legs, this is Calderdale Heritage Walks;s schedule......

{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heptonstall}

Click Here to see video&photos+More videos & audio will appear as if by magic soon.....
HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS:John Billingsley:Sunday 5th May 2013

My Thanks to John Billingsley for the day's splendid walk&talk.

Sylvia Plath reads Daddy :

A composition of abstract images and excerpts from the poem 'Daddy'by Sylvia Plath.
A celebration to life, love, reincarnation and evolvement. love conquers all. even death.

+ Cragg Vale Sulphur Spa

*This is a continuation of Last Wednesday's post*

busted tooth and a smile

"I wish I had a Sylvia Plath Busted tooth and a smile And cigarette ashes in her drink The kind that goes out and then sleeps for a week The kind that goes out on her...."

~Ryan Adams:"Sylvia Plath"

Photo of a white dog taken at the north end of Church Street, Heptonstall in 1921.

'Sylvia Plath was a lifelong anti-smoker, though she did begin to smoke in the last six months or so of her life. (Ted Hughes mentions in his letters how much this surprised him). Since Sylvia never really had time to settle in to smoking it is likely she would have smoked mild cigarettes - perhaps Embassy, Strand, or Guards. She would not have been smoking Senior Service or Capstan'.........{source} Or "Black Cat" Presumably.which is a great inconvenient shame as that's the Theme of this week's Sepia Saturday 

[Here are a few photos I took in 2006 of the Heptonstall Grave of American Poet & Novelist Sylvia Plath .]

I shall ignore the facts  about Heptonstall being a smokeless Zone& swiftly move on.................Although Sylvia didn't smoke Black Cats, she did inhale the word "black"......e.g.  

......I have been drugged and raped.

Seven hours knocked out of my right mind Into a black sack

Where I relax, foetus or cat,

Lever of his wet dreams.......

 The Jailer by Sylvia Plath

Heptonstall:25th April 2012:Pace Egg Play.

[click here to read about "The Pace Egg Play"}
HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS
"Explore streets and ginnels around Heptonstall for tales from the shadier sides of its local history with witchcraft, dark deeds and other lamentations ...........!"Meet John Billingsley at 2.15 pm Sunday May 5th 2013: at the main Heptonstall carpark, near the Bowling Club (follow the signs).
I go with Cath to this on Sunday.We know John.He's a good bloke:local librarian : He loves folk music & I often talk with  him at gigs with his Japanese Wife. Below ,I hope to add photos/video of his walk& talk here.........
High above my house in Hebden Bridge is the hilltop village of Heptonstall. Cute steep place.Funny though, remember I bought a cheap derelict place in Italian Mountains?I am {sporadically }"doing-it-up" as they say in D.I.Y. circles.........Anyhow.The more I consider it,the more that Italian Village { Pennadomo} Reminds me of Heptonstall.
The same Quietness:Isolation;Old Large Stone Buildings:Narrow Winding steep cobbled streets.The feeling that the buildings are squeezing & trying to smoother you.Quite why I should be attracted to 2 similar places/so far apart......I do not understand.The topic will be on my mind as i walk around the village on Sunday.....I Take It Everybody does know who Sylvia  was? If  you don't,here's the full dope from
{ wikipedia }

"They put me in bloody Heptonstall. Now don’t get me wrong this is a beautiful village and is one of Yorkshire’s best kept secrets. But this was a village high above the main valleys. Not far above tis true but it meant a second bus ride or a steep walk up the hill for a mile or more. When I say steep, I should really say very steep, even bloody steep. You could go the long way up the road that went up the hill from Hebden Bridge or you could take a short cut up the lines of steps and paths that cut across diagonally from the centre of the town and then met the road halfway up. It was an old ancient path and stone step way, ‘the buttress’, that dated back hundreds of years to a time of cottage weavers and an age when everybody walked up and down that hill, usually carrying great packs on their backs of provisions, cloth or goods to trade.
By gum they must have been fit people. Or were they? Most of them were dead by the time they were 50 or by the time they got to the top of the hill. .......".{Read More>>} Dave Thomas

HEPTONSTALL SHADOWS:John Billingsley:Sunday 5th May 2013

ex-Inmates (&warder) from the Old Turkish Baths in Rochdale meet for a reunion in Manchester

Apologies.No Sepia Post this week.

Instead, some photos from a reunion in Manchester on Friday night.I met up with some of the lads from from the Late Great Rochdale Hamam A good day was had by all.Thanks to Capo Martin for the organisationalism. Hopefully ,such reunions will become a regular thing. Yes!An Important Evening.

R.I.P.Neil Hartleynotices.menmedia.co.uk/25620023

Noise Killer Acoustics Ltd. Address: Unit 7 Parkside Industrial Estate Edge Lane Street Royton, Oldham Manchester OL2 6DS. Contact: Steve Bithell

in your eyes

When I First Read That Alan's Prompt For This Week'sSepia Saturday was "odd photos" I thought "Great! I can do 'odd'! But,on refection its proved  difficult .I have no definitive oddness to share.But let me,instead, whistle bravely  and skate  gently a around the  topic..............

Really, I could have copped-out completely and re-posted This Image from a previous Sepia post(.Taken in 1994 of my Uncle by me on The Family's farm in Eastern Poland .It is both odd & has a chicken in it!)
But no.Let me give you somethings that are new here .

 Now! The above photo IS odd! Taken in 1985 in Cyprus.Me & Cathy had taken my Mum there at Christmas on the first anniversary of my Dad's death.I wandered into a dusty old shop in Nicosia.It was totally full of wax baby doll candles. (whole& separate limbs).Most were 1&2 foot tall.I took this photo & quickly buggered-off out.Never did find out what that was all about.........

Finally.An example of oddness that didn't work out.We came across this burnt out car in Nicosa.I had never seen one before.The caption was supposed to read "These Crazy Foreigners" But ,in Post-Thatcher Britain it became a familiar sight .Expect to see many more burning British cars in the next 12 months.......

Hebden Bridge:A vicious  mob  of angry young anarchistic s protest  while Thatcher' (spit) was funerealised   on Wednesday  in London.

Hebden Bridge's web forum .Read[  Here ] what my local town thought of Thatcher.

@pauljholmes She Moved?Crickey! Were you not scared?#Thatcher
— Tony Zimnoch (@TonyZimnoch) April 16, 2013

The Last Living Rose.

This is a Sepia Saturday post.

Cath's Uncle Alex (with her brother Martin) .Taken in Poulton -le-Fylde in the 1950's.Alex was a miner.........

“@garethfurby: anti thatcher protester bring "coffin" to trafalgar square twitter.com/GarethFurby/st…” #brilliant

— m4rsh (@m4rsh) April 13, 2013

I was all for a lavishly funded public cremation for Thatcher. Right up until she died.

— Frankie Boyle (@frankieboyle) April 11, 2013

'Atmosphere in Britain  has been positively medieval this week..........I don't like what it has brought out in me.The countries of Britain are totally polarized concerning  the death of Maggie Thatcher (with worse to come?).It would be impossible ,even if I wanted too, to post this & sit  on any fences..........I despised the woman. .I am glad she is gone.Shocked by my words? Well so am I ,but,as they say in the Lonely Hearts Pages "It's complicated"......
One of  her many crimes was her war with the Coal Miners:their families:their homes:their futures...{aka "The Miners Dispute"}.the Brits are currently unpicking the scabs & scars she caused .....It appears they are still bleeding.
 I think ,had Thatcher died ,say,5 years ago,The event would probably have gone unnoticed .But Britain & Europe is currently going through this Deep Depression & we fear slipping back to the 1930's. The upset & anger in Britain this week is as much to do with fear for the future as anger at the past. To try and fit in with this week's theme, here is a photo from the 1930's The Jarrow March (or Jarrow Crusade, from the phrase on banners carried by the marchers), was an October 1936 protest march against unemployment and extreme poverty suffered in North East England during the Great Depression. The 207 marchers travelled from the town of Jarrow to the Palace of Westminster in London, a distance of almost 300 miles (480 km), to lobby Parliament. Their MP, Ellen Wilkinson, known as 'Red Ellen', walked with them. When the marchers completed their feat, very little was done for them. The town's shipbuilding industry remained closed, with the marchers given £1 each for the train fare back from London...............Jarrow Crusade

Good.

Liverpool Fans Celebrate Thatcher's Death . {click to see video on you tube}

@stefanhughes5 Lets Hope They Were Not The Undertakers..........
— Tony Zimnoch (@TonyZimnoch) April 11, 2013

Nope. She's not here.
— Princess Diana (@DianaInHeaven) April 8, 2013

Finally, I get to wear my black suit and tap shoes together#Thatcher
— Frankie Boyle (@frankieboyle) April 8, 2013

Plans have begun for Thatcher's state funeral. It'll be the first time ever the 21 gun salute will be fired into the coffin
— Daniel Farrell (@DannyBeBrave) April 9, 2013

I'm not sure that Margaret Thatcher got many women into politics, in the same way that Myra Hydley didn't get a lot of women into hiking
— Frankie Boyle (@frankieboyle) April 8, 2013

Daily Mail reporters skulking round Hebden Bridge looking for anti-thatcher activity. #JustSaying
— susan press (@susanhebden) April 8, 2013

Call out the Instigator : Halifax:4th April

i'm way behind with things here. If I havnt visited you this week.I'm sorry,I will soon.

{.This is a wee temporary post post until I catch up with you all.}

I went into Halifax last night.Met Bryn,Phil,Ken & Shirty Whitehead + his guitar.(Shirty was in the same class at school as Me & Phil)

Halifax was odd tonight.I can't put my finger on it,but at times it felt Tarantinoish.Maybe it's just me?Everybody seemed very twitchy.... a lot of tension in the air.....
This has been a strange week in Blighty.A collective nervous breakdown  happened .
How Odd.
Meanwhile,Shirty Whitehead  played a Robert Johnson song last night....It seemed apropriate......
Is it just me?

Or does England stir?

Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air

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sepia-tinted glasses.

Have you heard of Suspended Coffees?...............

.........also,why not buy a Jack Kerouac coffee mug {here} 

Blizzards /snowdrifts/roads blocked this week for me! Oh to be in England now that Spring is here.......[It's lasted a week now].Your gentle author is turning into ............Jack Nicholson in The Shining......

{READ HERE:? "I Know What The Shining Is Really About"} 

The weekend saw Me&Cathy  having to walk to the shops cos the roads were all blocked.Walking into Hebden Bridge on Saturday afternoon we were chatting to a new neighbour who had just moved in 3 doors-down.She's from California & new to England..We talked about the weather.I told her I hadnt seen such snow since being  in New England with my son Chris.
.That night I had vivid dreams about where we stayed in The States ,on Campus at Mount Holyoke College  I think that's where my mind has been while creating this post.By the way (as my mind seems to have strayed to Hollywood),Mount Holyoke is where they filmed the movie "Dirty Dancing"...from such trivia, legends are born.............

This week's Sepia Saturday theme is around meeting in coffee/milk bars...which i find difficult.I was surprised how few (ie none) local photos I could find of Coffee Bars in Halifax.I mean,Coffee Bars were quite trendy from the 50s  onwards but although there are millions of 'sepia pubs', i could find zilch in the caffeine department.Strange & Disappointing......Sooooo, I compromise.The first photo is fairly recent (2005).It was taken with my camera ,as we sat drinking coffee,by my friend Ayse in a Starbucks in Northampton , Massachusetts.

We were trying to work out what they were talking about..............

Ayse imagined they were in Love.I (being a good Yorkshireman) thought they were debating who should pay the bill........

{"COFFEE BAR" A poem from the audio collection 'The Poetry Of Natale Delle Palme'. The collection was read by Nat and his wife Geri on a beautiful summer day in their backyard. Recorded by Sal on minidisc - 2007}
My  third photo this week  is of a Rock Concert I attended at Krumlin,near Halifax West Yorkshire in 1970.

Note the outdoor-hippy-milkbar! 

Read more about this,my first festival, in this here post

Krumlin,1970.

Ayse & the gentle author in a department store in Northampton,MA.

All Praise  Michael and his mighty Coffee Messiah blog.

Meanwhile,the good Doctor Feelgood Prescribes...........

Madhuri Akin http://madhurijewel.com/blog/groups/