From Oulton to the sea

 
If you climb up and over the Great Orme at Llandudno in Wales, you come eventually to the lonely St Tudno's Cemetery Chapel, the last building along the coastline, which looks out over the Irish Sea. It's a great spot to be buried, an opinion the lady (and her husband) who chose the grave-place photographed here obviously must have shared.

The sea must have indeed meant something extra to her, as the carving wrapped around the top of the stone is of two dolphins riding the waves.

Although this is a photo of a place in Wales, it figures in this Staffordshire blog, because the inhabitant of this grave originally came from Oulton, a village in the middle of this county.

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Head's up... then down.

 
One rather bizarre community activity in England is the 'scarecrow festival'.  Residents are asked to build and then display decorated scarecrows (usually in their front gardens, there for all to enjoy).  Such festivals are most often found in semi-rural districts, but not always, so you can see them in quite urban areas too... Like I say, odd.

In this instance, I believe the residents were asked to stick to a theme, that of 'The Tudors' (why, is anyone's guess).  This particular resident clearly decided a typical Tudor was a beheaded one, and, at that, they would not be far wrong. 
This lady (in the photo above) keeps company not just with her head but with the bloody sword that hacked it off.

I couldn't sleep for a week...

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Sun in April...!

 

It has been strangely warm for April. 
Is it climate change? 
Yes, one ascribes (wrongly) every odd weather-happening to climate change, but, then, odd things are happening.

PS  I was standing on a railway crossing to take this photo.  Not trespassing.

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Nello

One of the most profiled living people in the Potteries is Neil Baldwin ('Nello') - yet most have never heard of him.

His was an unpredicted life.  Best described as 'neuro-diverse' he has no particular skill, except the marvellous one of making people like him, and somehow that has been enough.  Many, many people have liked him enough to want to have him around - from circus owners to students at Keele (the local university) to the manager at Stoke City Football Club. 
And then, somehow, this local unassuming figure got 'found' by writers and TV dramatists... and this month there is to be a play perfomed all about him and his life. It's on at the local professional theatre, the New Vic.  The phenomenon is all quite astonishing, not the least to Neil himself.

In Longton Market (see pic above), they've even named one of the aisles after him.  Amazing.

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Citizen of Staffordshire

  

I don't know why particularly it should amuse me but I could only smile that the symbol for maternity at the North Staffordshire Hospital is a Stafford/Staffordshire Knot.  (The knot is the ancient symbol of the county itself).   By contrast, the other departments have rather arbitrary symbols.
It's as though each incoming baby is automatically granted Citizen of Staffordshire status simply by being born here - which, maybe, I suppose, actually is the case...!

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Not romantic ruin

 

A photo for gloomy January.  The abandoned Victorian factories of the Potteries are perfect examples of 'ruin porn', which we've covered already once or twice.  In the Middleport district, abandonment is more evident than usual.
These old buildings have a great resonance of the area's deeply industrial past (for which there is a strange, but understandable, local nostalgic pride) - but what does one do with them?

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Calm before the Xmas storm

 
This month Lichfield Cathedral will go all-out with the Christmas spirit: light-shows, displays, mass carol concerts, even fairs on the green.
So, slightly before all the madness, let's enjoy a pre-Christmas moment of quiet.

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Overgrown truck

All returns to Nature, they say.
This truck has.

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Churchyard but no church

 

Here's an odd thing: a churchyard without a church. This particular patch of 'God's Acre' in Longton is now, essentially, a kind of 'sacred park' for dog-walkers and strollers.
The story is that old St Paul's was pulled down in 1940, despite being quite a handsome building and less than 100 years old (one suspects that mining subsidence may have been the problem, as it is for a lot of Longton).
The churchyard stayed though.
Ironically, the modern Longton Cemetery is only a few yards away.

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Dried up

You might associate lakes that dry up with more tropical countries, but Britain has been having its share over the last few years; it's been around 30 degrees today locally.
Of course, we only get 'heat-waves', ie a stretch of four or five days at a time before we get back to the usual grey skies, but the hot days are getting hotter.