Rotary airers - well sort of...

A garden is for 365 days of the year, not just for summer. At least, that has always been my philosophy. It may not look at its best for much of the Winter, especially when the lawn is too soggy to mow, but I try to keep it looking reasonable with some foliage or bark or flowers always at their peak.

A neighbour (who presumably does not read this Blog and if they do then Oops - my apologies) obviously thinks a garden is for summer only. At the end of their garden – visible from my bedroom window – is something that can best be described as resembling one of those old rotary washing lines covered in plastic. If it were something as useful as a washing line I might forgive them but it is actually a plant. One of those less than hardy creatures which struggle throughout our summer and then have to be wrapped and cosseted all winter. Why do people grow these things? And, if they really must, can they not paint pictures of foliage on the plastic covering for old-fashioned folk like me who like plants in the garden?

Irises

 

I love Irises. Over the last few years I have collected a number of varieties.


Today I received the catalogue from my French suppliers (doesn’t that sound posh).
The catalogue itself is so beautiful it is almost as delightful as wandering through an Iris garden itself. The suppliers, Cayeux Irises, now have an English agent – see www.postalplants.co.uk


Provided you obey a few basic rules it is fairly easy to grow Irises and to increase them from year to year. These are some of the ones I’ve had flower in the back garden in the last couple of years...

Ian's Blog

Ian has changed his blog again -
http://www.kahouga.com/blog/
I love the sub-heading, as will anyone who has stood next to Ian and realised they are smaller than they thought!

Yet another pub - and Woodbine Willie

 

OK, so this is not a pub, but it is part of Liverpool’s musical heritage. Once Great George Street Church, it attracted major speakers to its pulpit including the famous Woodbine Willie who Mum heard there in the 1920s. Later on the church was to become a major arts centre for the area- The Blackie - Great Georges Community Cultural Project.


Woodbine Willie, born Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy in 1883, was a charismatic parson who made religion live for many of the soldiers in the First World War. Intensely disliked by the conservative majority in the church he would begin his lectures with comments like "I know what you're thinking - here comes another bloody parson..." Using language and examples to which his listeners could relate he popularised religion in a way that few had done before. (Sound familiar? Didn't Jesus do that with his parables!). Born in Leeds of Irish origins he became an army chaplain at the outbreak of the war and is said to have personally given away nearly 9 million cigarettes during his tours of the trenches. He even won the Military Cross for his (unarmed) action under fire.


In 1929, although he was sick, he went to Liverpool on one of his many preaching engagements and died there on 8th March. As his body was being taken across the Mersey by ferry, somebody stepped forward and laid a packet of Woodbines on his coffin.

Liverpool pubs

 

The Phil – almost as famous as The Philharmonic Hall opposite!
It seems that some of my pub and pub sign photos are in demand. I’ve had a couple of folk contact me asking if they can use them in various ways. Most interesting was a request from Brett Lashua, a researcher with the University of Liverpool, working on a project that is mapping some of the places of significance to Liverpool's popular musical heritage. Working in partnership with National Museums Liverpool and English Heritage, he's creating interactive digital maps for an exhibition on Liverpool's popular music called "The Beat Goes On" -- opening at the World Museum Liverpool on 12 July 2008 (through November 2009).


Here are some more town centre pubs from the 1960s though how many of them had music I’m not sure. Certainly O’Connor’s used to have poetry readings and folk like Roger McGough, Harold Hikins, Adrian Henri and the like could be found in there.


The Vines on Lime Street was known locally as The Big House. Like the Phil the gents toilets in this pub were a magnificent display of ornate architecture and had to be seen to be believed.



The Crown, another Lime Street pub.


I cannot recall the name of this pub in Hackins Hey. Was it the Hackins Hey itself?



One of a few Yates’ Wine Lodges around town. They did not have a good reputation and one was well advised to keep out of them in those days.


The Old Post Office - near Bluecoat Chambers. I have some of the out of town pub photos still to be scanned in but I shall do a posting on them at some stage.