Category Archives: Family

At times like these

17th March 2013

Attempting to post via the clunky wordpress app on the ipad… so if it looks odd that is why…

Good Morning! We drove up to Cumbria last night and disgorged the contents of the car into Dad’s house plus two poodles, who are good travellers but very bad at sleeping first night in unfamiliar places.

Consequently one fell off the bed at 3.45 am with a loud thump. That is the same one who was in and out of vet most of last week, having eaten all the leather straps, tags and bobs on the manbag.

There was restless padding about, snuffling, grumbling, it went on and on, so in the interests of everyone I came down, stood by the backdoor while they hurtled out in the sleet, snorting and huffing, trampling snowdrops and so on. Then they came back in, presumably having scared up any resident shrew or hedgehog picking up the remains of the bird seed. They then expected to be rewarded for this appalling behaviour with food. I thought not. Sleep has eluded me and I am so not amused.

So here I am several hours later, pretending to take revenge by leaving the dog outside for all of five minutes.

She is back indoors now, carrying her squeaky toy around and asking for a game.

Dad has been profiled in local glossy magazine, Cumbria Life, quite surreal to imagine people staring at this while they sit in the dentist’s waiting room.

Roll on Sunday morning – what are you all up to today?

The Cockermouth Poets – an anthology

Cockermouth Poets cover published 2012

Michael (my Dad) will be 84 on Christmas Day and has just got delivery of his latest anthology, The Cockermouth Poets. It’s an eclectic collection of poems from Wordsworth to schoolchildren. Many of the poems appeared on a poetry trail as individual posters put up in shop windows in Cockermouth following the bad floods they had there in 2009. As the rain pours down over the country once more and many people are suffering with floodwaters this year, it is a reminder that life is unpredictable and yet full of joy and creativity. You can hear Michael reading some of his own work on Listen up North. I am particularly fond of his poem about writing to Rita Hayworth.

The Cocker, Cockermouth,

He has popped one of my poems in there as it was included on the original poetry trail. If you visit Cockermouth you will find the poems on the walls of the New Bookshop on Main Street and be able to pick up a copy there and I think in Keswick at the bookshop too. All profits are going to the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue and Save the Children charities.

My attempts at poetry are usually kept separate from this blog but I thought I would give my Dad a little puff of publicity. He works so hard at his books and it has been a long year. He often torments me by asking me to do a little typing and I end up scouring the internet for poems and information about the poets, but it is always a pleasure to help out and argue about words and the provenance of poems with my Dad.

Here is my poem as it appeared on the Trail in the window of the wine bar in the poem. When the floods came Michael was on the other side of the world…

Cockermouth Poets, Poetry Trail

Some places where people are writing about The Cockermouth Poets:-

Martin Wainright’s Guardian Northerner Blog about’ The Cockermouth Poets’. He makes me smile when he writes about how Baron is very good at getting people to do things….

The wonderful Listen Up North mentions the book here and links to us too, most honoured!