Bench

On my walk this morning I found this forlorn bench. It was just on a path on a patch of grass. I didn’t take a photo of its view, because it overlooks a car park and then some old buildings.

I did notice a Magpie (hello Mr magpie, how’s your wife is a saying to dispel sorrow caused by a single Magpie) and a little pied wagtail nearer the fence. I wish the street furniture was a different colour. The bench, bin and fence look somber in black, although that matches the birds. Maybe a nice shade of blue or red? Who knows….

Spelling.

Rooves or Roofs?

Apparently both of them are acceptable. One is more modern than the other but I guess it’s what is most comfortable for you.

This is the view from the side window now that the leaves are going. Reminding me that despite having lots of trees in the garden we still do live in a city of old buildings, built of bricks, with a small amount of new buildings going up. Those will have flat rooves (there I’ve made my choice!)

Building in the city centre.

Hanley town is the city centre of Stoke on Trent. We were there this evening. When we walked back to the car I noticed this building so took a couple of snaps since it reminded me of the Spode site in Stoke.

What bothers me is that such an amazing frontage has been allowed to remain like this. There is a new hotel and a big apartment block being built directly opposite the old building. And yet old buildings like this are left to rot. If it had money spent on it perhaps it could be rescued. Then instead of eventually being knocked down, or falling down, it could be restored.

On the same note an old Manor house at Betley in Staffordshire burnt down today. A lot of effort had gone into repairing and restoring it, now its mostly destroyed by fire. The world is a sadder place for its loss and people who had flats there have lost their homes.

The Glasgow school of art had burnt down a while ago and the restoration started, then another worse fire happened. Great art was lost.

The point I guess is that instead of always building new things we should save some of our history before it has gone, and protect what remains.