The most predictable thing ever

.

Like rats in a sack

toxic bromance unravels

we see who you are

.

by Scooj

Graze

Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, June 2025
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, June 2025

.

England’s lush pastures

pocked with solitary trees

grazed and flat-bottomed

.

by Scooj

Common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cythigerum), Nostell Gardens, West Yorkshire, June 2025
Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cythigerum), Nostell Gardens, West Yorkshire, June 2025

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My poor failing eyes

so slow to settle on the

slender blue beauty

.

by Scooj

Ramada nights

Ramada hotel car park, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, June 2025
Ramada hotel car park, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, June 2025

.

Hotel car park sounds

distant hum of motorway

car music booming

.

by Scooj

Leeds

.

My ancestral home

a place where spelling my name

isn’t a problem

.

by Scooj

  • My surname is from West Yorkshire, and it is such a refreshing pleasure not to have to spell it out when checking in to hotels, or confirming restaurant bookings etc. It is not a common name in the south.

Raiders

.

Damn their pigeon eyes

carrot tops decimated

strawberries goners

.

by Scooj

What to write

.

A fork in the road

write a nature haiku or

political rant

.

by Scooj

Arsenal 1 – Barcelona 0

.

Ladies’ silverware

new champions of Europe

come on you gunners

.

by Scooj

Into the swing of it

.

Another party

the gift that keeps on giving

Ma’s 91st year

.

by Scooj

  • I ask ya… how many parties does an old lady need?

Lemmings that pivot

.

Winds of change blowing

charter for sycophancy

to be seen to do

.

by Scooj

  • I have been around the block a few times in my job as a public servant and civil servant, and observed the ‘change lust’ that occupies Ministers, their Special Advisers and organisational seniors. It is a sight to see, where ‘yes men and women’ unquestioningly make change, because ‘change is the new norm’, and who would dare challenge or suggest alternatives.
  • All Governments and Government Departments do it. It causes disruption, but the surge in activity looks like something is being done, and ‘that’s what the voters want to see’. What the voters don’t see are the inefficiencies of change, the costs of change, and that top-down change rarely results in the outcomes hoped for, but hey ‘at least we were doing something’.
  • I’m an old cynic. It is my job to question and to call out what I think is wrong. I am no pragmatist or ‘human resource counter’, I am a brilliant employee who has to go through and try to survive another huge change, but survive I will. And all the others who are caught up in this flurry of excitement will move on and take their disruption with them.