The Road Home!

Blue Sky, approaching our village from the Moors.

Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land,
wanting to fly in the SKY!
Carl Sandburg

Living where we do, we are often referred to as "Woolly Backs" ie living in or around a rural setting. I dont think this term is restricted to the North Yorkshire region, I am sure there will be other counties with similar terms.

I never get tired of this road home. It clearly shows how close we are to the sea as well as the moors. It is home.

I was born and raised in this area, but in 1978 I moved to Nottingham to start my teaching career. I was to spend 8 years there, returning home whenever I could.
I missed the sea more than anything else, of being just a few minutes away from the changing sea and the sandy beaches.
As a child, mum often took me down to the beach where I would sit for hours making sandcastles as I briefly described here
Looking back, one of the main reasons I guess for going to the beach was it was inexpensive.
We were content to sit on a blanket, mum read a book and me to play with the bucket and spade I took everywhere. We would choose the local, secluded beaches, not the glittery likes of Scarborough or the busy Whitby.

We didn't need to spend money and let's face it we didn't have a great deal.

Moving to Nottingham, in the midlands meant the sea was not so easy to visit. It involved a couple of hours car journey. As I was not a local, I did not know the quiet places to visit, so to visit the tourist attractions was not my idea of the seaside.

When I returned home for holidays and the odd weekend break I would always go to the beach, or to the quiet spots on the moors and enjoy the peace and quiet. The sense of contentment and peace would run through my soul, so refreshing and heart-warming. I would take the sensation back to the business of Nottingham, knowing I would "top up" on my next visit home.

Teaching in an inner-city primary school, many of the children from under-privelaged backgrounds had never visited the seaside and I would regularly organise a visit. I had my mini-bus license and would drive the school mini-bus to Whitby, and over the weekend share the beaches and moors with the children. We would leave for Nottingham on the Sunday afternoon, after having Sunday dinner with mum and dad. I can still picture dad carrying plates out to the hungry children sitting at various tables round the house.

The children loved meeting mum and dad and talked for many months about the visit.
Always being fond of poetry in the classroom I was constantly looking for poetry which would inspire the children. One of my favourites, by ee cummings summed up a small part of the feelings of visiting a beach

maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

The very last line of the poem has remained with me, in fact I designed a whole range of seascape cards around the very theme.

In 1986 Dad died quite suddenly and I returned home to look after mum.

We would often go for drives over the moors as mum and dad had done and I know mum gained comfort from such visits, although nothing was ever spoken.

Mum died in 1994.

I miss her, but the solitude of the sea and the moors bring me a sense of contentment and peace.
I often look to the sky and spend time thinking of the good times we had together and of the good times to come.

Earlier this week David asked a good question over on his blog...

The question being "Who was the most important person in your childhood?"
I have been thinking about this all week.

Ofcourse it was Mum, and not only was she important, she taught me, through her own life WHAT is important in life......!

Family and home....look after them both!

To see more skywatch pictures visit Tom!
Happy May!