Heading Home

Well, as predicted, the weather today is even worse than yesterday - but we’ve got off lightly compared with those living further south. 

Our budget hotel next to Liverpool’s big wheel has provided a large room with a great view and a substantial breakfast, but the long walk to the carpark is bleak, wet and windswept. I could have photographed the big wheel or the view across the waterfront, but I’m still foolishly optimistic about returning to the Festival of Light tonight. 

We’re travelling over to Salford Quays for a matinee performance by Ballet Black. It’s another excellent experience, though I prefer the first piece ‘Then and Now’ to the second based on the life of Nina Simone - the one I thought I’d love. ‘Then and Now’ combines dance - beautifully done, music - glorious solo violin, and the poetry of Adrienne Rich. To my shame, I’m not familiar with her work, but her words are both beautiful and powerful and I know immediately that I want to read more.  Dance performed to poetry is interesting; I find the multi-layered senses fascinating, as both the rhythm and meaning is reflected in movement, but G finds the overlay of words just too much. Music and dance he can cope with, but words too…….. 

We head back to Liverpool, foolishly thinking the rain might just ease . Not only does it continue to lash down, but the traffic is dreadful and our journey slow and tedious. Of course, we have to acknowledge that it’s time to abandon all hope of a return to the light installations, and having eschewed other blip opportunities throughout the day, I’m left with an abstract shot on our journey through the Kingsway Tunnel - not quite the lights I’d planned! 

My only link today is to Adrienne Rich’s  poem  ‘What Kind of Times are These?’ 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51092/what-kind-of-times-are-these