"This Used To Be My Playground"

This is Yeadon the town I grew up in and left for the golden streets of London when I was 21.

Yeadon Tarn

or the "Dam" was my playground

just short of one mile in

circumference,it was where the school sports and cross country running took place, my first cigarette was smoked here, in fact most of my firsts took place in this hallowed setting.

now the Dam is known as "Tarnfield Park" no rowing boats can be seen now no motorboat no swimming,the Leeds and Bradford Airport runway now reaches to and beyond the Dam,but its still a place of beauty fond memories and lots of ghosts,
now I walk in circles round this playground keeping fit and trying to keep my post Camino body trim and the ghosts are walking with me,Gillian,Cathleen, Mick Kaye Martin Girt,Dave Walker Slim and Pete and so many more.

I am here caretaking the empty family home that no one is rushing to buy and visiting my mother in her care home and it all seems very strange,don't know if I'm climbing back into the womb or experiencing a rebirth. Behind our house is the banks and the footpath over the Chevin to Otley,I used to so love this walk home from my place of work in Otley (saving on the bus fare to buy cigarettes)

up the 1001 steps past the frying pan rock and onward passed Bluebell wood.

during my nostalgic wanderings the other night I had a Camino moment when meeting a young women training for a climb up "Mount Kenya" by walking up the "1001 steps" from Otley, she reminded me how much I miss the start of an adventure,

so now I plan to walk the Camino up from Sevilla to Santiago early next year---Game on