"The woods are lovely, dark and deep"

Frosty afternoon at Bolton Abbey
Walking to the Strid or to Barden Bridge on the estate of Bolton Abbey ranks as amongst the best pleasures in life. Even on cold days when icy trails of white decorate the trees and your feet feel numb. A recent walk reminded me of the enigmatic Robert Frost 1923 poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

The darkest evening of the year
Like all the best poetry, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening raises a series of questions in the mind and heart: Are the woods real or metaphorical? Who is “he”? Where is the village? Why doesn’t the voice think “he will not see me stopping here”? Why does the voice of the poem “stop…. Between the woods and frozen lake”? What do the harness bells signify?  Why does the horse think instinctively a mistake has been made? Why is "downy" flake descriptive but the wind mysteriously "easy"? What promises have to be kept? Is sleep the sleep following tiredness or the sleep of death? Is the “darkest evening of the year” literally the winter solstice (21st December) or an imaginary“darkest” evening personal to the narrator?

Hand holding mine to the end of the line

Baby Harriet meets her family (including Annie Oakley aka Wakefield Grandma) and years later Harriet takes her Dad to the German Market in Leeds....

Next year our troubles will be out of sight….
Daughter Harriet had a great idea for a New Year’s Resolution last year to plan a unique outing with each member of the family. This week was my turn: cinema, a curry, a museum – and, most importantly, just BEING with a loved one for some quality time. The day started with a delicious breakfast at New Farnley Cricket Club and a morning cinema trip to the visually audacious The Aeronauts with a compelling central performance by Felicity Jones. Who knew weather forecasting had such dangerous origins? The Royal Armouries in Leeds was our next stop for a Movie Props exhibition where highlights for me included Darth Vader’s mask and the Lancelot armour from John Boorman’s Excalibur.

The Cat's Pyjamas and the Royal Armouries

Germany to India to Missouri
Quaffing mulled wine at the German market in Leeds Millennium Square prepped us for an affable curry at The Cat’s Pyjamas in Headingley and we ended the splendid day with some 1944 nostalgia looking back to the 1904 World Fair in St Louis with the genius of Judy Garland, the sumptuous Irene Sharaff costume designs and the Vincente Minelli marshalling of many talents, cast and crew, for Meet Me In St Louis, a special screening at the Cottage Road Cinema.
Through the years we all will be together
If the fates allow…
Great resolution, Harriet. Thanks for a memorable morning, afternoon and evening.

New Farnley Cricket Club breakfast, The Aeronauts and Meet Me In St Louis

The Last Post

2019 Remembrance

Today is 11.11.19 – and exactly 100 years since the very first Remembrance Sunday in 1919. At the weekend, the great and the good (in particular the surviving veterans – very few now from The Great War, The War To End All Wars) laid wreaths at the Cenotaph in London and remembered “The Glorious Dead.” In addition to the current (imo unworthy) office holder, five former prime ministers attended – Sir John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May – and, overlooking the ceremony from a balcony the one queen who has presided over 15 prime ministers (and grown up under a further six.)

No brainer

For me, I respect the concept of Remembrance. Apart from anything else, I believe the Royal British Legion to be a fantastically effective charity. Its campaigning and support – practical, financial, and emotional – are all essential, especially given the way successive governments have treated and continue to treat veterans and their families. All wars produce great art, and the poetry of the First World War is rightly lauded. In 2009, to commemorate the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, two of the last few combatants surviving, Carol Ann Duffy used an extract from Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est to produce a poignant and cinematic rewinding riff on remembrance – if we could only wind back time and the dead could “lean against a wall.”

Last Post

by Carol Ann Duffy

'In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.'

If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin

that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…

but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood

run upwards from the slime into its wounds;

see lines and lines of British boys rewind

back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home –

mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers

not entering the story now

to die and die and die.

Dulce – No – Decorum – No – Pro patria mori.

You walk away.

You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)

like all your mates do too –

Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert –

and light a cigarette.

There's coffee in the square,

warm French bread

and all those thousands dead

are shaking dried mud from their hair

and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,

a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released

from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.

You lean against a wall,

your several million lives still possible

and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.

You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.

If poetry could truly tell it backwards,

then it would.

East Riddlesden Hall

Chameleon building
Cobwebs and faux giant spiders, as well as a red floodlight or two, added a spooky Halloween atmosphere to the Great Barn at East Riddlesden Hall, not far from where I live. A building has been on the site since the 7th Century so an Anglo-Saxon owner seems to have been forced to give the land over to the Norman de Montalt family and traces of manor buildings from the medieval period can still be detected. The Paslew family are known to have built extensions in 1466 and over the next hundred years the place doubled in size. The Rishworth family sold the Hall to James Murgatroyd in 1638 and a visit today shows all the weird alterations and quirky features resulting from the changing ownership. I understand it’s one of the most popular sites in the National Trust for wedding parties today and has appeared in a number of TV programmes and movies, most memorably for me in the Charlotte Riley/Tom Hardy Wuthering Heights (not to mention the Juliette Binoche/Ralph Fiennes Wuthering Heights and the Kit Harington Gunpowder.)

Andrew Lincoln, Charlotte Riley, Tom Hardy at East Riddlesden Hall for Wuthering Heights

I want to break free

Pumpkins by Family and Friends and Bolton Abbey 2019....

I'm a shooting star, leaping through the sky....
To the pounding, anthemic sound of rock group Queen, this year’s Bolton Abbey Bonfire and Fireworks may have been the best yet. We’ve been attending since the first year in 2015: the James Bond Themed Music set a very high bar; in 2016 the Best of British went a bit wrong (probably because of the result of the 2016 EU referendum….the universe was taunting me…); in 2017 it was Music from the Movies – a match for the first year; 2018 had problems with strong winds and the Musicals accompaniment didn’t always match the display. 2019, however, was a Top Year – the music of Queen, a superb firework display, a much better layout of the stalls and facilities – and a perfect night for pagan customs. It’s a fantastic treat and a great way to herald the approach to Christmas and Winter….
Previous blogs about Bonfire Night have included:

• Chubbing as a nipper – click for my memories of childhood bonfires in Wakefield
• Burn bonfires, clear and bright – click to read about the symbols of burning with pics of the first Bolton Abbey Bonfire Night
• Halloween – click for the traditions of Halloween season
• Catherine and Guy – click for an explanation of the Catherine Wheel firework!
• Gunpowder, Treason and Plot – click for the gruesome realities behind Guy Fawkes