John Burke's a-Musings

Amongst all the revelry of Christmas, which mainly involves wondering what to say to break the awkward silences, I managed to scan a few mor...

More domestic strife... Last night just before tea time, I was sitting in the living room trying to make sensible conversation with my mothe...

All is not well. Miss Franny left for work this morning before 8:00am. Her last words to me were: " Do you know what you're doin...

In April 1983 we went out over the River Wyre to have a look for a curiosity I had wanted to find for some time. On the Out Rawcliffe roa...

Last night we played at Croxteth Hall in Liverpool for a Silver Wedding and Revewal of Vows party. To all extents and purposes it was a wed...

So we were just having a rare rehearsal to remind ourselves of a few new songs we had stuffed into the repertoire... Not the most polished s...

Just over the river, north of Lancaster is a road to a couple of small villages. Middleton and Overton are reached by a tidal road, that fl...

Once again going back to 1983 and a couple of curiosities from the Fylde countryside. This is the old village pump at Wrea Green. Hard to...

An unexpected treat today. We went down into Blackpool to meet up with David and Jeannie for breakfast at Quilligan's . Sean provided ...

More black and whites from 1983. This time our topic is the Devil's Bridge at Kirby Lonsdale. The 14th century bridge has a legend th...

The Bridgewater canal was a marvel of engineering. Canals made it possible to transport people and goods long distances in an unheard of sh...

The week started with a train up to Glasgow. A few minor hiccups due to signal failures but once on the mainline everything was fine. The ...

Today the counter at my Flickr account topped the 3/4 million views milestone. This is by way of saying thank you to all of my readers her...

Back in March 1983 I'd come across a reference to this curiosity whilst researching for a book I was writing on the King Arthur legend. ...

The other day I got a message from a distant relative attached as a comment to this photograph at Flickr . The photo shows my grandparents, ...

I meant to publish this one last Sunday... It was last Saturday when we went with David and Jeannie down to Birmingham to meet up with Caro...

Hi folks, remember me? I seem to have spent this week on the road. On the road, on the rails and in the air to be precise. I spent the fi...

On Thursday evening we heard the exciting news that we had become grandparents! Grace Margaret Statham weighed in at a mere 4lb 12oz, being ...

Last week saw me in Birmingham for much of the week for the Association of Colleges annual conference. It's an event populated by the m...

I've been struggling to find time to update the blog recently. Work is taking me around the country and I have a book project to work o...