Thanks for those clips, CC - one of those chaps seems to be playing a plastic recorder; the rest wood, which I've never tried...I hear, though, that wooden recorders are harder to maintain, but easier to play...? To FT, I do keep trying to play the 50 or so top-line melodies that make-up my repertoire as well as I can. And I've corrected that out of date "two years" line on my site - it was 2004 when I first turned-up at a folk club (yes, a relatively short-time, to save you saying it), in Newcastle, having moved from Lancashire, where I was born, in 2001...

THE WEEKLY WALKABOUT, E.G.

Poem 118 of 230: WHALLEY ABBEY...WHAT TALES? - AUTUMN 2000

Cistercian monks have clearly been -
    Their Abbey's ruins can still be seen;
And, sounding for centuries before,
    Calder flows have passed - seeking the shore.
Lords of the grounds have, more lately, stayed -
    Their manor houses reused and unscathed.
Through beautiful gardens insects fly -
    The ruins of folk just a pass-by;
And, by viaduct, trains pass above -
    Folk thereby viewing a town I love.
Anglers and C. of E. delegates,
    Hikers and tourists, have crossed the gates...
Opportunistic masons, kings-men,
    Model makers, Turner, and men who pen...
Perhaps the witches came down from the hill,
    And do ghosts haunt - still questing their fill..?

From walkaboutsverse.741.com