After the summer holidays the village has once again segued back into its workaday routine.
On our walk to the storm drain we wave at 1) the young garagiste in his little black Citroen with the raspy exhaust 2) the farmer in the emerald green metallic Toyota Land Cruiser with the manic Westie that stands at the back window and howls 3) the French teacher (who has found her two missing Labradors after nine days missing - their paws are bloody and bruised but otherwise none the worse for wear ) and 4) three farmers in their little white Renault vans. The school bus also passes. We can just make out the two mournful tikes sitting on the back row. Their disdainful eleven year old sister sits at the front.
While Sophie hunts for badger poo Bob and Angus settle on the storm drain and put the world to rights.
In the little market town the bank has finally closed. Internet banking has put it out of business. The Post Office has moved to a four mornings a week schedule. I'd give it a year before it too closes.
On a side street a fifteenth century house with the original top floor balcony in place.
Yorkshire People Power arrives in London to the sound of On Ilkley Moor Baht' at : https://twitter.com/SebastianEPayne/status/1168878985486503936
14 comments:
Our post offices are almost non existent now, with you having to cue up in bookshops and chemists to post parcels. I am sure all of our banks will close soon too.
I am not sure that I could live in such an old house. It looks like it might crumble at any time. I much prefer the age of your farmhouse. Much more sturdy.
Here's to Yorkshire People Power! And great news about the French teacher's dogs! Too bad about the bank, however. I dropped my son off at college earlier this month - he's ended up in a very small town in Ohio rather than St. Andrews after all (much to my husband's disappointment, as there is no good seafood in Ohio) - and I took him to the local bank branch to set up his account. It was a lovely place, with a beautiful old vault in the middle of the lobby and free coffee on a Saturday morning. Not a bad introduction to life in America.
Well the news about the Labradors, and then the wonderful Yorkshire marching band (my mother would have been proud of them) cheered up my morning, despite my doubts that Angus and Bob were entirely successful in putting the world to rights. Cheers, Gail.
I'd guess Gambier or Oberlin but remember something about science so maybe not ?
The house certainly suffers from a lack of TLC. So many of these old medieval towns are slowly dying from neglect as folks move out to new suburbs.
For Bob an ear chook always puts the world back on an even balalnce - for the rest of us its a bit more complicated.
hari OM
I too am relieved and uplifted by the return of the Labs. As for the schemozzle that warranted the Yorkshirefolks making a spectacle of themselves... my father is glued - seriously, he hasn't moved from that chair - to the news 24/7 for the last three days. I sit on the other side of the building, with windows open and discover that the birds and wind and I are still breathing, regardless. My equivalent of an ear 'chook'. YAM xx
He's at Denison, in Granville, Ohio, a village that was founded in the early 1800s by a group of settlers from Granville, Massachusetts and was designed to look exactly like a New England village, down to having a church on all four corners of the main square. It's a little surprising to come upon it out in the middle of the Ohio cornfields, but it's lovely. You wouldn't necessarily think a kid who grew up in the middle of Tokyo and is afraid of bugs would pick that kind of environment, but all of a sudden he's rhapsodizing about clean air and tasty water. When we were visiting campuses, he was very put off by some of the in-your-face ideology he encountered (he definitely would not like Oberlin), but I'm thinking he'll learn a lot over the next year as a new voter in a swing state. Of course, he might have had a very interesting political education in Scotland as well!
In our village La Poste didn't want the expense of maintaining a post office anymore, so le mairie offered space and La Poste pays the wages of one worker. It is open monday to friday, and we still have deliveries on saturday from the nearest postal centre. Works for everyone.
I seem to remember Labs going missing some time ago. Is this a second adventure for the same two? Wonderful news that they are home.
x
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/459832-the-10-counties-that-will-decide-the-2020-election
I went to high school in Granville, Ohio! Small world. I also took some courses at Denison. It's a good school. Tell your son to stick around for the 4th of July -- they always do it up like only a small town can!
It is so sad to see what was once essential service closing. I heard in parts of rural Australia the post office is open when volunteers are available.
I'm always glad when lost dogs are returned home. Did you happen to see this story about a Lab that went missing in Kansas? It's a fun story - Sorry, I don't know how to make it a link, and will just paste it below.
http://justsomething.co/man-sights-his-missing-dog-running-in-the-field-with-goat-and-dog/?fbclid=IwAR0XZuWLASokLcNTYL9B2vPpV1TalHcp2Tu0xAyPuPJY4p42TEaurjcK16Y
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