Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: the Fondamenta Pesaro, Venice.
Today's Flickr photo with the most hits: Amsterdam. Oude Turfmarkt, from Rokin.
Canal Life
Ian McMillan
The canal tells you stories The canal sings you songs They hang in that space Between memory and water
Once saw a narrowboat raised up, Like it was cutting through the air, Between two grass walls and the road below Like it was sliding through history, And a tiny vole swam across the water So a tiny vole swam through history.
The canal tells you stories The canal sings you songs
Once saw a man floating belly up in a canal Like he was in the bath. He shouted ‘This is the life’ as I passed by on a narrowboat; The sky was reflected in the surface And we tied up in the places the map never showed us, The man floating by, making ripples on the surface.
They hang in that space Between memory and water
Once got waved at by a jogger as I stood gongoozling On the towpath; her running gave rhythm To the early afternoon, dog-strollers and kids Who’d rather be here than sitting in school. To gongoozle is to stand and watch narrowboats pass And a canal is a lesson, a water-based school.
The canal tells you stories The canal sings you songs
Once these canals were information highways If coal and iron can be information, And I think they can be. And there are bridges, Pub gardens, the laughter of children As they walk by the water; and the canals Turn us all into curious children.
They hang in that space Between memory and water
Once is never enough for a canal, I reckon; You need to go back and see it again, And sail it again, and smell it again, and Touch it again; canals run through our veins Like they stroll through this country Like blood through our veins.
The canal tells you stories The canal sings you songs They hang in that space Between memory and water
Today's Flickr photo with the most hits; the Fondamenta Pesaro, Venice.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits: the bottom lock of the flight at Caen Hill Locks, Devizes.
Today's Flickr photo with the most hits - one taken on the towpath of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, in Stoneyholme, Burnley.
It was one of my Covid walks - April, 2020.
I've formed the intention to walk the whole length of the canal this summer, when things are a bit freer.
Today's Flickr photo with the most hits - this shot of Goetz's Diner in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan. Or Ontario, Canada, depending on where you are in town.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits is this (abstracted shot) taken on the most recent Covid-19 walk - from Gargrave towards Skipton, on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits - this serene view of exit from Songo Lock, Crooked River in Sebago Lake State Park, Maine.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits - this shot of an old mill on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, in Burnley, close to Finsley Gate. It was taken on a Covid-19 walk on May 25th.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits - the Yorkshire St Bridge, Leeds-Liverpool Canal, Burnley.
I love a little narrowboat
Pam Ayres - a comedic poet with a light and familiar touch
I love a little narrowboat, I love the old canal, Imagining the tales these ancient waterways could tell, I love to work the lock, those oaken gates so firm and strong, With know-alls up above to tell you what you're doing wrong. I love to see the native creatures busy at the bank, The otter and the water vole, the terrapin and mink, And peering in the water, into shallows green and still, To see somebody's goldfish from the kitchen window-sill. I love to moor along the bank and hear the gentle rain, To cook a meal and watch the world beyond the window-pane, Little bobbing moorhen chicks, the mallard and the coot, Exhausted lovers hoping that their effort's bearing fruit. I love the ancient bridges, every keystone, every corbel, The singing of the little birds, the chirrup and the warble, To feed a lonely swan, so perfect, white as alabaster, Who struck me with his wing; observe my collar-bone in plaster. I love to meet the other folk who use the waterways, The walkers and the fishermen on sunny languid days, We drift beside the towpath and we breathe the summer's breath, Till roaring motor-bikers come and frighten us to death. I love the inland waterways and if it's in my power, I'll just keep on a-sailing at about three miles an hour, And when I see that final tunnel, into it I'll glide, I'll raise my yachting cap and see you on the other side.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits is a shot taken only a couple of days ago, on one of my Covid-19 walks along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. It shows the view looking east from the bridge at St Peter’s Church, East Marton. You can see the shadow cast by my upraised arms on the water.
Above the Stink of the Green
Anna Thomas
Looped to the concrete bank With the rag doll hair Ritualistically yawning Flopped and smoking on the bow of his Betty-Anne An avocado hippopotamus Ripples slightly, below them
He thud-pats the bow of his Betty-Anne As they sit and puff greened smoke together Rocking, they reminisce over how They got mooring hitched last summer
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits - reflections in the canal at Aigues Mortes, France.
Today’s Flickr photo with the most hits: a canal in downtown Amsterdam.
Today’s photo with the most hits - a pleasure boat on the Canal St Martin, Paris