York Minster and the surrounding streets after dark.

It’s hard to avoid the countless city ghost tours, apparently it’s one of Europes most haunted cities. Any city with this much history is inevitably going to be on that list I guess. It’s hard not to walk past one of these tours and not shout ‘he’s behind you’ or hum the ghostbusters theme. The actors doing these tours are super talented and I’m sure they are more than use to that kind of terrestrial intervention from muppets like me.

I love the city at this time. It’s almost quiet, peaceful with the heaving daytime crowds having largely ebbed away. You can almost hear yourself think, you can remember, reflect. Recall a world which is now gone, feeling like it’s rapidly receding in my rear view mirror.

Christmas can be the most wonderful of times but it can also be the most painful of times. Isolation rather than solitude. A life that is out of reach.

Time to think.

51 thoughts on “In the dark”

  1. Hauntingly beautiful, post, dear friend. I can’t imagine. I support you and pray for you. I’d love to visit there. Thank you for making me smile; even in the juxtaposition of joy and isolation. The photos are stunning.🙏🏼🙏🏼❣️❣️

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      1. Amen, Gary ~ to all of it. It’s true. And, today I’m wearing a cashmere beret feeling cozy at a coffee shop. I’m feeling grateful and blessed for this one moment~ and friends like you across the globe!❤️🙏🏻♥️

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  4. A lovely post, that talks of life really and the things that are part of it. The best to you and…James. I did love seeing the pics of York. Reminded me that here was nowt like sitting on the Minster steps at 5pm watching the world go by.

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  8. I remember York sixty years ago when we lived just outside it, and again forty years ago when I had a girlfriend there. As you say, mixed emotions, but I’ve had fun getting to 66 even if everything does seem to hurt more these days. Note how I must be getting old as feel the inclination to keep mentioning my age. I hope the New Year will hold some better times for the two of you.

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  13. I’m learning that Christmas can be a lot of things. Busy, distracting, beautiful, peaceful, joyful, sorrowful, lonely…. Yet, as busy a time as it can be for some, Christmas can also strip away screens and make us face what we’d rather not or what we didn’t know before but needed to know now. This year’s Christmas was a bit of the latter for me. I bet it was for Mary and Joseph too.

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  14. York Minster is wonderful. How great to see it the way you did in these pics. I feel as you do, that Christmas is a most nostalgic time. As happy as some people are this time of year, I think an equal number are sad.

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  15. Beautiful photos, Gary. Something poetic in how these buildings endure over time despite the solitude and the isolation. Sending you both lots of strength and hugs!

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  17. Wonderful pictures! When I visited Edinburgh, I went on a ghost tour. It blows my mind to learn about cities that are so old. A friend insisted I go on a pub tour in Dublin, so of course, I obliged. Not as scary, as it was a writer’s themed walk. There’s something about a city after dark when it’s less crowded… more peaceful.

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  19. I hate driving in the dark, I feel emotional, but tasked to get on with it. Cities in the dark do NOT appeal to me at all. Bring the light, bring the bird song, bring the things that make it alive (not into ghosts unless it is “Ghosts” on TV by the talented line up of:
    Katy Wix, Jim Howick, Ben Willbond…

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  23. isolation.. out of reach… I get this. Thankfully my adult son is soon moving in with me temporarily, which will bring noises of family back to me. May this new year enlargen your camp with people and joy!

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