9/8/26

Is it me or have I been constantly moving around the M62  for the last 30 years? 

Leeds, Manchester, Hebden Bridge, Leeds, Manchester, Hebden Bridge, Leeds, Manchester, Leeds, Hebden Bridge, Leeds, Chesire, Leeds and finally Chesire. 

There has only been one time I have settled down for any length of time and that was In Hebden...for about ten years.  It was there I think I finally started growing up. In my late thirties. Before that, I think I was just chasing my tale and getting by on bravado and bullshit. Probably still are. I tried to be a good man and a good father.  Yet I couldn’t do it.  Sooner or later it was all going to come crashing down…and it did.  I ended up knocking on a door with a bin bag full of clothes and a dream that I was going to make something of myself. In what, I had no idea.

This is all my fault of course.  I was always told I was good with words and that propelled my ego and my slight working class side.  To become a bit of a monster with a chip on its shoulder the size of a good king Edward. 

Hebden Bridge is where I think I started to change.  The Allotment, the people I met (inevitably artists and crafty people) and the sense that I wanted to be more than just melancholy. For such a long time I drifted in and out of depression.  Yes there were outward reasons.  Though I think I got to enjoy it in the end.  Misery keeps company.

Liz.  I met here about ten years ago.  It hasn’t all been plain sailing.  The last year I went back to Leeds because my Mother was dying.  The memory I had of her was in the last week when she seemed less angry and more warm.  Anyway, Im back in Chesire now with Liz and Im trying to recover, working hard and thinking about all my plans.

Printing a logo using a carved block print

Going over all my gardening books and work from last years course.  I still have to retake  an exam next year.

Going through all my cookbooks and coming up with my own Robbie Goodfellow Cookbook.

Travelling to different kitchen Gardens and learning from them.

Turning my Cube mountain Bike into a ebike

Writing and illustrating a book of stories for Maddy

Creating an RPG of folklore for Louis

Keeping on top of my garden

building a business from the ground up.  With a bbq trailer in then shape of a Shepards hut.

learning the violin from the beginning

trying to get fit

Add to all this work and all the joy it brings…

Thats Life for now.