Lockdown: Day 48 - 10/05/20

Blessed is the four day week that leads into a three day weekend, and I may have expressed my frustration at getting my May Day break bumped back by four days, but when the alternative is feeling like you are baling from a working week a day early, I'm not going to fuss, and it's not been all that long since our last ones at Easter, which goes that bit of distance to making our work through lockdown that shred more tolerable, and we've landed on a couple of really nice days to use for a stretch and a relax too, so all's feeling pretty decent as the best weather month of the year settles in. Not that I'll be using my VE Day bank holiday for draping my house in flags and banners, or doing anything neo-patriotic as I find all that business rather distasteful, if you wish to commemorate those who served and died in conflict, we have Armistice Day for that, and if you're the sort who still feels the need to mark the anniversary of a conflict that 'we won' 75 years ago, which increasingly few have an active memory of, then I'm going to suggest there's something seriously off in your mindset. I'll be indulging the part of myself that's definitely the one that's My Father's Son, having recently discover the Live Rail Record website so that I might accurately synchronize my walking route with the passing trains on the run into and out of Leeds, and also adapting my route to give myself more photographing opportunities, by not walking the figure eight path and instead keeping to the railside path all the way from Valley Mill to beyond the White Rose Centre and the Elliot Hudson college to land by the cattle creep, or footpath passage, below the lines to join lost fields below the Millshaw business park. It's actually a shorter route than the regular circuit, but feels longer, allowing the full cycle of trains to be spotted over an hour plus in the vicinity of Morley, and the barren stretch can be burned off as I travel at the hurry-up over the rises at Broad Oaks and Daisy Hill, so that all the opportunities to snare the TPE Nova 1 & 3 units (Novae units?) with my camera can be made as they run a proper inter-city express service between Yorkshire and Lancashire for the first time in decades, and we'll turn that 2.5 mile trip around twice on the sunny mornings of Friday and Saturday. Otherwise, it's been frustrating to not see much of the bluebell season over the last few weekends, as our walk route wants for dank woodlands with shady ground, and most of the blooms hide in the railway cutting to be only really visible from the passing trains, but as if to compensate, the path is now gripped by a riot of May Blossom as the Hawthorn bushes do their bit to brighten up the passage of Spring, our third distinct wave of flowering since Lockdown began.

Lockdown: Day 41 - 03/05/20

Frustratingly, it's not May Day weekend yet, as those who would govern us have decided to move the International Day for Solidarity among Workers to the end of the coming week, so that it might coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day, for which the neo-patriotic public events have had to be rather unfortunately cancelled, due to current world events, meaning that our short week of work arrives before the long weekend that we always look forward to at the start of my favourite month. Not that I'm going to fuss too much, as this has been a pretty chilled out week thanks to being granted a complete change of scenery for my working week, as I'm sent off to do some support work at Seacroft Hospital, which might be ridiculously remote from Morley and a much longer commute at the starts and ends of my days, but riding the rails to Cross Gates station is probably better for social distancing than riding the infrequent buses along the York Road, and the 20 minutes of walking through the estates gives me some good time to exercise and mentally decompress, while the only local people out and about are the dog walkers, meaning that I'm inconveniencing nobody. Travelling the extra miles by train is also good for giving a bit of an expansion to my rather confined lockdown world, allowing us fresh sights to see as we go, and taking a great interest to see what rolling stock is laid up at Neville Hill depot and yard, concluding that the answer id not all that much as even the EMR HSTs that are stabled there appear to be turning over with some regularity, confirming that it's only been the Pacer stock that has been removed thanks to the reduced timetable, as none of that has been spotted since the reduced timetable came into force. I honestly could get used to riding trains on my own, and always sitting with 2 metres of space around me at all times, and with no other passenger in my sightlines, and it's not like Cross Gates station crawls with activity at either end of the day, with no more than 8 other passengers counted daily as I admire its big red wall, and use the brick facade for photography, not even feeling any frustration as the end of April refuses to be warm and even dumps a bunch of rain on us. When a bus does have to be ridden, on Friday evening because we need to do another turn around at Tesco and jam £30 worth of goods into a single bag, it allows us to take a look at Leeds city centre in full lockdown effect, taking a path via, Eastgate, Vicar Lane, Kirkgate and Commercial Street, showing it up as just as devoid as life in a way not seen since Bank Holidays used to shut everything down, which I recall last happening in the mid 1990s, and looking at the many stores along the way you'll see that most of them are empty, with their stock having all been dispensed into storage, illustrating just what a task it has been, and will be, to suspend and then later restart the retail industry.

Lockdown: Day 34 - 26/04/20

I'm not gonna lie, this past week has easily been the toughest of the Corona Virus Lockdown so far, as the stresses and strains of the weeks of shifted routines and changed priorities have finally started to take their toll on me, bending but not breaking as I said last time around, but it's all proving much harder to take when situational stress lands on me with the only option being to absorb it, and then having to carry on without having the option of release that used to come with my weekly walks out, to clear the mind and stretch the limbs. It's really hard to explain just how much I'm now missing the routine of walking, as we press on into Spring, having had a sequence of lovely weekends that ought to have had me out on the trail and finding paths over the hills, moors and valleys between the Colne and the Calder, but actually had me limited to putting down only 14 miles across the whole of April, and thus it's hard to not spend time dwelling on where I'd like to be in my 2019 walking season, when I'm again being limited to a hour and a sub 3 mile trek as for my weekend's entertainment. Not that I'm not grateful to have the fields in the space between Morley, Churwell and the White Rose centre to pace around, mind you, because, as a passing dog-walker comments while out on circuit this morning, this area has been on Leeds City Council's residential development slate for a while, and all the greenery around Broad Oaks farm could be lost to suburbanisation in future years, matching the encroachment onto the hillside of the Low Moor farm site, above the railway off to the south. The lack of opportunity to expand my horizon also frustrates, with my experience field being limited to sole to trips between Morley and Leeds, and just over this last few weekends, I've missed the opportunities to visit my good friends in Calderdale for Easter drinks, and to stay with My Sister and her family for a long weekend, while intent to visit Mum has shifted from May to July to a hopeful aim at September, with my pre-booked annual leave looking it will be spent solely on time out from work and not for anything as outlandish as an actual holiday. So my novel travel experience for the Spring has been reduced to photography from the train windows as I do my morning and evening commutes, as there are so few other passengers on board to look at you weird, which gives me a rare opportunity to capture  a rarely seen perspective on the railway heritage that still endures at the lineside, mostly unacknowledged, from the 'flying' Farnley Junction, the long-closed Farnley & Wortley station, and the lost yards of the L&NWR on the run into the city.

Lockdown: Day 27 - 19/04/20

There's be no extra walking when Easter Monday comes around, as temperatures take a turn for the chilly, and then as the time comes around to return to work, we start to settle into that phase of Spring where we enjoy mornings that are cold enough to have you needing to wear three layers of clothing before we shift right around to evenings where its too warm to really require more than one, but the brightness keeps the spirits up as we plough into the fourth week of Lockdown. The floweriness and renewed colour of the season will also give a much needed lift as we push on, with the blooms of blossom and dandelions coming out in full effect, with the still air giving the feeling of a higher than usual pollen count, as if the lack of traffic pollution is making it feel that bit more pungent (though I'm assured by those who know about such things that my projection runs completely counter to reality) inducing a rare need for antihistamines, to combat the hay-feverishness. The brightness of the mornings and evening also invites the need to carry a camera to engage in some photography around the semi-deserted city, as it's still got a novelty that needs to be captured, though you need to remind yourself along the way that having Key Worker status is in no way a license to wander the commercial streets of the city centre at will, and it's not as if everyone else is staying home, aside from the NHS workers. The real business going on at present about the place is, of course, roadworks, with almost all the main arteries through the town being fenced off or dug up in some capacity as part of the major reworking program that was in place before the lockdown started, and I can only assume that the workmen are thrilled to get an opportunity to get on with their work without getting in the way of the commuter traffic, making it look like the projected completion date of Spring 2021 could easliy be beaten. My only real need to stary far from work whilst I'm out is to do some food shopping as I make best use of my out of the house time, and this is done by venturing to the Tesco Metro on the Bond Street - Upper Basinghall Street corner, as it's the best appointed supermarket on my path, and it's set up well for social distancing, despite most of it's passing constituency of shop workers being elsewhere at present, and thus it's super quiet and well enough stocked for my irregular needs, only really lacking in fresh bread and a wide vegetable selection, so that will be my future port of calls while I do my best to avoid the suburban melee at Morley Morrisons.

Lockdown: Day 20 - 12/04/20

Organizing my annual leave to give me a run of three four-day weeks for my return to work turns out to have been an excellent idea, as it has allowed me to not get too deep into the routine of work before being able to take some time out again, which is just fine as the lone Easter weekend lands between the second and third of these, as bright weather lands on both the Saturday and Sunday, allowing me to get out for a stretch on the mornings of both. It's a grand feeling to get out with the Spring season filling the environment, with blossoms blooming on the trees, especially on the run by Station Road rec, and the air being thick with the sound of birdsong, feeling so much louder with the background hum of traffic being almost completely absent, and getting a reverse trip out on the Morley Circuit route allows me a fresh perspective on the fields to the east of town, while also landing me above the station when a trio of Freightliner 66s run light into Morley tunnel, my first such spot in all the years that I've lived out here. Elsewhere, keeping in regular contact with Mum has kept us engaged while she endures the enforced isolation of lockdown while being in a notional high-risk group, as we have gotten into a routine of speaking on the phone three times per week, to talk around the business of self-isolation and the big picture of the pandemic, and also to turn over just about any other topic of conversation that we can find as it drops into our heads. Indeed, I think she's adapting to the situation rather well, by keeping her shopping needs limited, finding plenty of exercise opportunities with the business of gardening and yard work, and taking up a seated gym routine that already seems to be working out for her, and she's even mastered the arts of modern communication, with a significant number of members of her church's congregation having formed a group on Zoom, the video app of the hour. A remarkable enough achievement when you consider just how many of them are over 80, and probably more technologically engaged than I am at present, and this has allowed them to continue the fellowship that lockdown has denied them over the last few weeks, with the 40 minute free sessions having provided enough time for around 20 of them to have a social coffee and conflab at a safe remove, and to have services in the run into Easter, which is cheering news for all involved, as these church folks are people that i have known for much of my life and I'm glad that enforced isolation hasn't kept them too far removed from each other.

Lockdown: Day 13 - 05/04/20

The first week of Lockdown ended pretty much as it started, with myself not in work and getting out of the house only to take in an hour's trip around my exercise circuit to the east of Morley, enduring much lower temperatures and gloomier skies than we'd seen over the previous excursions out, once again sharing the paths only with dog-walkers and the few others who cannot abide being confined to their residences while being kept out of work or compelled to be at home with their kids. Working from home or enforced self isolation aren't for me though, as I've got a job at the hospital to return to, rising with the lark on Tuesday morning to see just how thoroughly the world has changed in the week that I've been at home, choosing to travel to Leeds by train as it's still the quickest option for getting down the hill, heading down to the station and noting that the long string of cars that usually stretches up much of the length of Station Road has not come out, and that the businesses at the bottom of the lane that had still been open during the preceding week have all shut up shop now. Landing at Morley station is an even more surreal experience, as the local train services have been reduced further from the level put on during the first week of Lockdown, and only six people are out to catch the 0729 service, a huge reduction in numbers from usual, like down from the 70+ who would usually turn out, and it's even quieter than a Christmas Eve might be, with the train actually forming the Manchester - Hull service, and stopping all stations rather than running as a express, and even then running at maybe 10% seated capacity as so few people need to be travelling into the city. So there's no real need to be anxious about keeping your mandated 2m distance from your fellow travelers, as there are so few people out to begin with (and it's worth noting that TPE were running 6 carriage trains on the local services in the initial week of the restricted timetable, but there's only a need put on a 3 car unit this time around), and social distancing when passing through Leeds station is just as easy as I've never seen the place so empty, with there being almost as many station personnel as travelers in the place, along with a small phalanx of police officers checking up on whether we really need to be in the city at such a time of day. I do, as I work at the hospital and the terrain of Leeds between the station and the LGI seems devoid of all life, aside from the guys out tending the extensive roadworks, with most of the establishments and offices around Infirmary Street, East Parade and Park Square having shut up for the duration, with the traffic levels reduced to a minimum, not quite looking like a ghost town but still eerily quite for 8am on a weekday.

Lockdown: Day 6 - 29/03/20

So it came to pass that on Tuesday 24th March, the nation officially went into Lockdown because of the Corona Virus outbreak, shutting down the retail sector and effectively sending a huge swathe of the population into enforced self-isolation, largely due to too many people not seeming to appreciate the urgency of the situation, and only taking matters seriously when actually told to do so, I'd guess because too many people think rules do not apply to themselves, only to the sort of people whom they'd believe need social control. That leaves those in the so-called Key Worker sectors to remain in business, those operating the food supply, the distribution and power operators, and naturally the NHS, to massively reduce the amount of social contact in the population in a hope of restricting and arresting the infection rate of COVID-19 as it grows into the largest global health emergency in over a century. Not that any of that has made an immediate difference to myself, as the subsequent week to the announcement has had me Not in Work and already doing my bit for self-isolation and social distancing by staying at home to pay attention to my non-walking related interests and needs, but exercise has to be considered a pressing necessity, just to prevent my brain going numb and my limbs going lazy, and thus a stretching route had to be found locally, keeping as far away from other people as possible while providing enough of a challenge to make it worthwhile for proper exercise. It's thus mildly amazing that an adequate route into the countryside was assembled on my very first effort, picking a path of almost 3 miles in to the east of Morley, starting out at the railway station, and setting off along Valley Road, above the tunnel portal and below the cliffs where the colliery once stood, to pass the site of the borough gasworks and around the Valley Mill site, to land by the footbridge that wasn't in situ in 2013, to take us over the railway and onto the alleged country lane that leads up the hill to the turn to Broad Oaks farm. The farm driveway leads to the fine view over the city of Leeds and then down through the fields to the old footbridge over the railway, which we cross again to meet the woodland trail behind the White Rose Centre, which shifts us southbound onto the right of way that traces the cutting and embankment of the line as it leads us back to the 'new' footbridge, which we cross again to turn the path into a figure-eight route. We then split from the tarmacked path to follow the rough path west up onto Daisy Hill, where suburbia has grown at Morley's eastern fringe around the old mill site and equestrian farm, keeping a suitable distance from the bungalows and semis before we reach the terraces on New Bank Street and slip down the path by the side of the Station Road recreation ground before sealing the loop by returning to the station as the descending road passes Dartmouth Mill.