Rambling Rose Red

  Something, a stirring in my consciousness maybe, prompted me to open up this blog, which I had completely forgotten about, at about 3:40am two nights' ago. One of those nights where sleep just disappears, and I give in and get up. I was surprised to find that I had published a few posts, and that they were quite pleasant to read.  My aim back then had been to have a space, a place to collect thoughts, reviews, memories and photos. I'm a little sad that I didn't keep it up for long, but there's no reason for not having another go. Life finds me now in a rather different place.Three years ago, I had recently begun a new career after what seemed like a lifetime (29 and two third years to be precise) of high school teaching. I was enjoying the change of pace, until that, too, became busy.  Anyway, two months ago, I took early retirement. I'm now in the process of trying to find a new way of living, a new normal if you will.  If this blog can help record and make sense...

 Early September, and the year is in balance. August, dull and wet as it was, has been chased out, and the sun has finally come out. We had a trip to Brimham Rocks today. As I left high school teaching last year, it's good for me to mark what would previously have been a time of stress, and end to days of freedom, with just the opposite. It's a strange landscape, up there where the soft Yorkshire Dales meet the bluntness of the moorland. It's other-worldy, and those ancient and precarious rock formations add to the eeriness.  I can only imagine how wonderfully atmospheric it is on a misty morning, a wintry afternoon, at sunset. First, we had a walk through the woods. It was a hot, sticky day, so it was good to get out of the sunshine.    Then we explored the rock formations on top of the hill. They have a feel of the Wild West about them. It was good to see them when there weren't too many other visitors. This one is a huge rock balancing rather improbably on a very ...