Generations

January 11, 2015 / Steve Lakey / 10 Comments

Photo and Haiku © Steve Lakey 2015.

At least four generations of my family, including myself, have worked at local collieries. Now, in the UK, coal mines have all but disappeared. This photo was taken at Pleasley Colliery, Derbyshire – one of the pits that my Dad had worked at many years earlier. By the time of this picture, it had been closed for many years, and was left in a derelict state.

The photo and poem were prompted by Word Snap Weekly, 11th January 2015, hosted by Amanda Lakey at UniqueArtChic.com.

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Tudor Fall

December 28, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 3 Comments

Photo and Haiku © Steve Lakey 2014

This photo and poem are prompted by Pixel Prose Challenge, December 28th 2014, hosted by Amanda Lakey at UniqueArtChic.com

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To view other posts in this challenge, click on the link.

Good Bye-ee

September 14, 2014September 16, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 15 Comments

Photo: © Al Forbes 2014

As the train slowly gathered speed from the platform, our friends and families disappeared from view. It was then we finally realised that our journey to the British front line trenches in Belgium had begun. Like many of us, I was carrying a photo of a family member close to my heart. To remind me what this expedition was all about.

The excited babble before we pulled away quickly fell into silence, each one of us lost in our own private thoughts. A small group started singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary”, but it soon fizzled out. This was more a time for reflection. None of us really knew what to expect. Even though we’d all seen photos and some jerky movie footage from the front. We knew that brave lads giving the thumbs up, before going over-the-top, wasn’t the whole story. Not even close.

As we pulled into other stations, more groups joined the train. The noise level rose as we greeted our new comrades. But as the platforms disappeared from view, the mood always dipped. It was as if we were all playing some great game, for the benefit of those we were leaving behind. Some of them would never understand what we were doing. Some said we should stay well out of it, that it wasn’t our war.

But if not for us, then who did those men die for? Many never got the send-off they deserved. I take out the the small photo of my Granddad, taken just weeks before he was killed in Mons, a hundred years ago. Doesn’t he deserve a few days of my time to take a Battlefield Tour in 2014, and place flowers on his grave? I look at the diverse group of people on this train, and I’m proud that they feel the same way I do.

For the first time, I’m using one story to enter two challenges. The first challenge is inspired by a specific photo, while the other has a completely open theme. Feel free to visit both!

1) Sunday Photo Fiction, September 14th 2014, hosted by Al Forbes.

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To view other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog!

2) Pixel Prose Challenge, September 14th 2014, hosted by Amanda Lakey at www.UniqueArt Chic.com.

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To view other entries in this challenge, click this blue frog.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Room

June 7, 2014June 7, 2014 / Steve Lakey / 6 Comments

These photos were taken at what was a Victorian Workhouse, at Southwell, Nottinghamshire, UK.

Workhouses were seen as a last resort for poor people who had fallen on hard times. They were deliberately run on austere lines, and males and females, even from the same family were kept completely separate.

The building has recently been renovated and is open to the public. It certainly has a Dickensian atmosphere to it. Some of the rooms have been furnished, while others have been left bare.

This is my contribution to Weekly Photo Challenge: Room, hosted by the Daily Post . Click on the link for more details.