"Ed, you're always shoving your life in my face all the time and it's boring. Instead of telling me about your life, tell us about places that are relevant to your life, that inspire you mkay."
Alright.
There is a reason that I love Birstall, my home village. There is an obvious attachment because I have lived here all my life. I have been inspired to write a few stories based on areas around Birstall.
The surrounding area is interesting too. My mum told me that in the nearby village of Wanlip in a church yard are buried the bones of a black slave worker. You only ever think of black slavery happening in America... but then you are reminded that it happened in Britain also.
There are many parts of Birstall and this blog is made to show places that I go to. I took my brothers camera with me and went around Birstall. I'm going to show you Birstall as I see it and spots that I enjoy walking to. Hope you like it.
This is the pathway that leads to the public park...not the Watermead Country Park that you will see later but the park with the swings, slides and so forth. Nobody ever uses this path. I walked down it today when it had rained slightly and there was the most beautiful smell of wet wood and flowers that I had ever smelt.
As you leave the pathway and have strolled through the park you enter the place that my family calls Old Birstall. This part is with older houses, not like the modern houses that we build nowadays but stuff that is not dissimilar to this cottage. The picture that is below will show you what is on the roof of this cottage.
The fox up there is only a statue but the pigeon is real. It looks like the pigeon is having a ride.
I like to think that this part has inspired my writing in some way. The picture at the top is the opening gateway of St James Church. As you enter through this opening and look to your left you see this statue of an angel. There is something very gothic, solemn and... dare I say it... aesthetically pleasing (WOO to long words) about it. My mum has named her something but I can't remember what the name was. I think that she looks like an Evelyn to me.
As I went down this pathway as a child it would always freak me out. In my mind I was thinking,
"Oh my god, each side of me there are buried dead bodies...I hope their aren't any ghosts."
Now I don't feel at all bothered. It sparks your imagination...especially Evelyn. By the way I don't do this whole I love graveyards thing very often...just saying. I have been inspired to write stories from the atmosphere that this place gives off. I passed through the church yard and entered the country park.
I saw this as I entered Watermead Country Park. In my eyes this sign means that if disabled people enter the park then they are shot by a radar... but that is only my humble interpretation.
I took this picture because I wanted a bird in this blog. When I uploaded the picture I saw that there were little chicks... you just went awwwww didn't you. Yup.
You step into a new world that can only be entered in through nature and can only be parodied by art.
Birstall has been very good to me. Since I was born I have lived in two of it's houses. I have done work experience at the local primary school in the village. I still get my weekly fix of sweets from the local newsagents two minutes away from my house and I still walk through Birstall all the time and find out things that I had never known about it before.
The place that I have lived all my life has had a great influence on me. Birstall has a soul and a long history. Wherever you are in the country or even the world you can find beauty...and I mean everywhere, you merely have to look hard and if you see no beauty then you need to change your perception.
To sum this post in three words...
I... like... Birstall.
Over and Out.
ED
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