A Warsaw Cemetery on All Saints Eve

Has been many years since I've been to this incredible cemetery in Warsaw around All Saints and All Souls Day, but this year, I've managed to do so:

Thought it would be a good idea to visit the cemetery on All Saints Eve as the place would be gently lit up without the massive crowds expected on All Saints and All Souls Days.

And so things turned out to be:

From all the interesting things I came across, the homemade cross below caught my eye the most:

A simple and yet incredible piece of imagination: 

Also ran into the amazing figurine below:

So glad I managed to visit the cemetery gently lit-up without the football-type crowds.

In the darkness, the cemetery church also looked amazing, of course:

Halestorm at Warsaw Progresja (30-10-2025)

 First time I've seen Halestorm and was massively impressed.

Lizzy Hale is a great frontwoman with a fantastic voice and touch with the crowd.

Really enjoyed the ballad-type songs with their great build up of momentum (Darkness Always Wins; I Gave You Everything; Like a Woman Can etc.).

But my favourite tune of the evening was always going to be I Miss The Misery, of course.

Bury (Lancashire): On the Banks of the River Irwell

After St. Gabriel's, I continued walking on the path alongside the prison-type fence that guards the school playing fields.

This part of town has become overgrown making the River Irwell setting look more picturesque:

For a moment, I almost thought that I was back at Bolton Abbey, where my journey had started a couple of weeks ago.

Such was the peace and solitude that this stretch of the Irwell offered.

Literally, just a 15-20 minute walk from Bury town centre:

Yeah, passing my old school of yesteryear and finding a welcoming stillness at the riverside provided a perfect ending to my trip to England which had taken in Bolton Abbey/North Yorkshire; Cornwall (Newquay and Looe); Shrewsbury (Shropshire), and of course, my hometown, Bury (Lancashire).

Bury (Lancashire): Passing St. Gabriel's Again

When back in my hometown, Bury (Lancashire), I always find myself revisiting St. Gabriel's, which now looks like something of a prison compound (probably due to threats from the horrendous demographic change that has occurred throughout many parts of Britain during the last 20 years or so):

 

Hard to believe that it's now 43 years since I left this school.

Looking back in time and through hindsight, my time at the school (1977-1982) seems rather strange now.

Back in those old days, students bullying other students and teachers caning (and even physically assaulting) students were commonplace events, I guess it was the same in most schools back then, it was a different time with a different ethos.

Of course, with the whole woke phenomenon nowadays, things have veered towards an opposite extreme where the lunatics have come to be in charge of the asylum, so to say.

However, one fond memory that I have from St. Gabriel's is of Mr. Hogan (a kind old-fashioned gentleman, a real teacher) introducing me to Wordsworth, through him teaching Daffodils in a first or second year class.

Have recently completed a book on Wordsworth, about his Anglican faith and flirtation with Catholic theology, which is evident in some of his lesser-known work (e.g. The White Doe of Rylstone and Ecclesiastical Sonnets).

While writing this book, I couldn't help but recall being introduced to Wordsworth by Mr. Hogan (a pleasant memory amongst a sea of more angst-ridden recollections from St. Gabriel's). 

Back in Bury (Lancashire): Passing St. Joseph's Church

After my week in Cornwall and day in Shrewsbury, I spent a couple of days in my hometown of Bury (Lancashire) again:

 Passing Kay Gardens in the town centre:

 

Bury was once a massive paper-making place, of course, but now it's more of a post-industrial wasteland.

Moving away from the town centre, I found myself at Moorgate, a once thriving part of the town, but still, I found an interesting-looking mural next to a new, shuttered bar:

 

Not far away, on Peter Street, I passed St. Joseph's Catholic church which I attended back in the 1970s when there'd been 3-4 Masses each Sunday:

 Now, there is only one Mass every Sunday, really hope the church survives:

 

When I'd attended 6.30pm Mass at St. Joseph's back in the 1970s, it'd been a kind of charismatic guitar and tambourine service in the early post-Vatican II era (the Catholic Church committed spiritual/cultural suicide by sidelining the Old Latin/Tridentine Mass, in my view).

Waving Goodbye to Shrewsbury

After a wonderful breakfast, half omelette/half bubble and squeak, made by my brother-in-law's wife, it was time to take leave after a quick but riveting visit to Shrewsbury.

 

My leave took in seeing part of Shrewsbury Castle, near the train station, as seen above.

The front of Shrewsbury train station was quite impressive too:

 And the inside of the train station was old-worldly-looking, like train stations should be:

 

All in all, Shrewsbury seemed a relatively sane and civilised place, long may it stay that way, of course.

Shrewsbury: Beyond My Expectations

After a mid-morning flight from Newquay to Manchester, which included a nice chat with a chap about Thomas Hardy's main novels (Jude, Tess, The Woodlanders, The Mayor of Casterbridge etc.), I found myself heading on a train to Shrewsbury to visit my brother-in-law and his wife and children.

Not long after arriving in Shrewsbury, my brother-in-law immersed me in the town centre, stopping off at a Charles Darwin place on the way:

Have just read that Darwin was born at the family home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury in 1809.

Already, I was picking up that Shrewsbury was something of a red-stone town, with it reminding me of the Devon coastline, more than anything else.

Getting closer to the town centre, Medieval buildings became increasingly visible: 

 

With some (more than reasonable) recent artwork mixed in:

And some older artwork inside a pub (which only accepted cards) too:

 And the beautiful buildings kept on coming:

 With me needing to have my mobile camera at hand all the time:

 Getting to the heart of a traditional market town:

 The Medieval buildings seemed to be everywhere:

And  in Darwin's hometown, there was no shortage of churches:

With the Greek Orthodox church being possibly the jewel in the crown:

Not often you see an Orthodox church holding central position in an English town centre, it was interesting to see.

Shortly afterwards, I saw the incredible design work of the Creator, close up, on a tree on the banks of the River Severn:

 

Of course, I was blown away by the design work of the Summum Bonum (the Highest Good, God Almighty):

I'd never seen it so clear in natural design, this trip was now verging on the mystical. 

And still, there was more to see: 

 

Including Medieval Abbey remains which retained a working chapel, like at Bolton Abbey which I had visited earlier during my trip:

 

Have just read that Shrewsbury Abbey was originally established as a Benedictine monastery in the late 11th century.

From every angle, the remaining Abbey church looked impressive:

 

Have just read that Shrewsbury Abbey was dissolved as a working monastery by Henry VIII in 1540 during the infamous 1536-1541 Dissolution of the Monasteries period, of course.

 

 

Next to Shrewsbury Abbey, there were more recently built buildings which fitted in with the environment well:

 

And not that far away, we came across a Rock music pub that had wonderful Real Ale: 

 

Set beside an unused but NOT dilapidated church:

 

 

Shrewsbury did seem to be a town of churches, no bad thing, of course, and in this sense, the place reminded me a bit of Taunton in Somerset.
 

A massive well done to my brother-in-law for having taken me on such a wonderful, whistle-stop tour of the town, the place was much more than I had expected.