Stone Circle

A patch of luminous light slices through the coulds. The light expands, slowly at first then bursts into golden sunshine illuminating the busy rush-hour intersection by the Punched Clock pub. I pass a grey inflatable boat called Zodiac and a Suzuki boat engine by the back entrance to the Leeds Boat House. Robins chirp in the hedges, red berries on the hawthorn glisten in the sunlight behind red, white and black signage stating ‘no parking, private land’.

Over the bridge I pass the empty hull of a boat which has been transformed into a planter. The boat is permanently adrift by the side of a sign for Thwaite Mills museum. Walking on the trail towards the city centre, I pass a stone circle, a plaque tells me it was created by Tony Douglass and is used by a local pagan group. I hear the melodic sound of the theme tune from the 1980s show A-Team drift across from the office building to the left bank of the river. I recognise the sound, as the call of Wilson’s Pies delivering savoury pastries to hungry workers. I hear the whoosh of a heron’s outspread wings as it heads south down river.   I wish I had the grace of a heron in flight.