62: Kestrels and Pigeons

From Pigeon Tower near the top of Rivington Pike yesterday, I watched three kestrels heeling in the wind against a pale blue sky and the browning moors. Below us the reservoirs sparkled, and Bolton's bricks and spires glimmered in the distance, faded in the hazy afternoon light. The birds floated over the lip of the hill and out of sight. It's autumn.Rivington Terraced Gardens is an Edwardian playground that was left to ruin until very recently. Hidden in the depths of the woods, there's a sense of vision here, and an attached sense of loss. The gardens were commissioned by local soap magnate William Lever in the early 1900s, and designed by landscape architect Thomas Mawson. (Mawson, among his other works, designed the Morecambe and Heysham War Memorial, which I have walked past and looked at maybe fourteen million times in my life.)Sadly, Lever died in the mid-20s, and construction fell with him. By the late 40s so much damage had been done to the park that it was deemed unsafe to visit. Now, thanks to fundraising and a grant from the Lottery, reconstruction work is being carried out and the paths and buildings (and in some cases, what's left of them) are safe to wander around. Walking around, an eerie atmosphere, helped by the insulation of acres of ancient woodland, brought with it a sadness that the garden never really became what it set out to be. There was a beautiful strangeness about the place, in its mossy, overgrown secrecy, as though the trees had been interrupted in their work, and that even now we're only briefly snatching back these crooked paths and waterfalls before they reclaim them all over again.Additional note: Pigeon Tower was used as Lady Lever's sewing and music room, which makes me unbelievably jealous.Other Stuff:

• Do you feel like escaping into a tree-based delusion? William Thompson has written about why Flat Earthers believe there are no "real" trees for Quartz and honestly, it's something. (I found this via Logically's Tinfoil Digest)

• Riaz Phillips on the restaurant industry's race problem is an essential read.

• No link, just a reminder that 318 Tories voted against implementing fire safety recommendations made by the Grenfell Inquiry this week. Oh actually, here's a link to find out who your local MP is and what their voting record is like. And what their email address is so you can write to them about it.

• Perry! It's amazing! And Matthew Curtis thinks so too. Please drink more perry.

• I loved this piece on foraging in London parks by Isabelle O'Carroll SO DAMN MUCH, just please read it.

• Is it a farm? Is it a zoo? Why not both?!

• Grape growers in Sonoma County are forcing undocumented workers to harvest in fire evacuation zones.

• Jim Franks reckons you've never eaten REAL wholegrain bread in your damn life, and that's why he bothers to make it, even though it seems like a pain in the ass.

• A delightful history of tankards by Hollie Stephens for Ferment.

• How climate change is affecting winemaking right out in the fields (featuring Jas Swan!)

My Stuff

• I wrote about old fashioned country wines for Ferment and loved every second of it.

• I'm opening a bar, in case you didn't know.

• The blog section of my new bar's website is getting fuller by the week. Here's a post I wrote explaining the name we chose for it, and here's a post about joining an established community and trying to make it even better.

Pigeon Tower by Matt Harrop for Geograph