Early this afternoon, I sat in Frances and Stewart's house to watch my team on Sky Sports TV. Though we probably did not merit the victory down on the south coast, my beloved Hull City beat Portsmouth by one goal to nil. Frances, Stewart and the girls are away for two nights with old friends and all their relatively new children - down in Northamptonshire.
After the game, I took my camera upstairs to get a few shots from Phoebe's bedroom. It enjoys great views to the east. The top picture shows The Royal Hallamshire Hospital that was opened by Prince Charles - now King Charles III - in 1978, soon after I came to live in Sheffield. More importantly Shirley was working there when I met her - in The Accident and Emergency Department. The hospital has figured in our lives in other ways too as you can well imagine.
Directly across from Phoebe's window you look out on a cliffside below Psalter Lane. You can see a cross and a light green roof. That is St William's Catholic Church. The rising terraced houses right of there are on Ecclesall Road - one of the main southern thoroughfares out of the city. The cliffside has not always been thus. It was the result of historic stone quarrying.
Turn the camera to the left and you are looking towards the bowl of Sheffield city centre. The tall building in the centre is St Paul's Tower. It is an apartment block that was opened in 2010. The houses in the foreground are in the suburb of Greystones reaching down to Hunter's Bar.
That view over the city centre is forever changing - in different light and weather conditions and in different seasons. Phoebe loved looking out on the night of November 5th last year when fireworks burst in the sky in memory of Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot which was foiled in 1605. As you might imagine that plot was all tied up with religious differences and the future governance of England and Wales.
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The word "view" is an odd word when you come to think about it. It can describe what we see when we look out in physical reality as evidenced above. But it can also be used in a more abstract sense - to describe attitudes and thoughts about particular matters.
Our son Ian has plenty of views about nutrition, healthy eating and veganism but he is not evangelical about it Last week he appeared on the Jeremy Vine Show on Channel 5 promoting his new book: "BOSH! More Plants". I blogged about it here. Yesterday, he and his work partner Henry featured in "The Yorkshire Post" newspaper - even appearing on the front of the Friday edition. See below...
Some of those views are very busy with the house roofs and chimneys.
ReplyDeleteSix hundred thousand people live here.
DeleteThose views are amazing, all the tightly packed houses backed by a quarry. Views for miles.
ReplyDeleteSheffield is officially the hilliest city in Great Britain and hills give you views as well as muscular calves!
DeleteO.K. and I can never get enough of views, be it from purpose-built viewing towers in the Black Forest or mountain hikes in the Alps, or even just climbing the hill behind his village or the castle hill in Asperg near Ludwigsburg. Phoebe has great views from her bedroom, and I can imagine she enjoys them, too, not only when there‘s fireworks.
ReplyDeleteThe Bosh! boys on the Yorkshire Post‘s front page is good news!
It's great that your fiancee loves walking and finding special places as much as you do - including viewpoints.
DeleteThe views are most interesting. I guess the 'haves' live atop the cliff. The hospital certainly got a prime spot.
ReplyDeleteSon must have made his millions by now, and good on him. No doubt he has put an awful lot of work into his career.
The house rooftops have a uniformity that you never see in Australia. Unfortunately this extends to ground level which makes English streets of homes less interesting to walk. Maybe people don't walk streets for exercise and pleasure like Australians do, around here at least.
I often walk our streets. There is interest and indeed history everywhere. However, I would not walk the streets of Australia in case I got attacked by a rogue kangaroo. I have heard that those ****ers can kick the bejesus out of innocent passers-by.
DeleteIn all those houses people are living their lives, there is plenty to brood upon. A town is like a hive, always busy and yet there is no hostility only the daily life. I just might become a vegan one day that scrambled egg tofu wasn't bad. ;)
ReplyDeleteI like the term "flexitarian" - meaning that some days I can be vegan or vegetarian while on other days I am a pescatarian or even carnivore which I will be later today when I devour a lamb shank - but not the bone.
DeleteWhat a lucky girl to have such views from her window!
ReplyDeleteHaving a view gives you a better perspective but you must remember to look at it.
DeleteIt must be fascinating for Phoebe to be able to see so much going on from her bedroom window. All I can see from mine is the sky through the rooflights.
ReplyDeleteNot even any passing seagulls?
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