Early morning sunshine from Toy Town

“I need to laugh, and when the sun is out. I’ve got something I can laugh about”

Say hello to Fred and Mary! Beautiful Ironbridge in some warm and unexpected early morning sunshine, Saturday 14th September 2024 (Author’s Collection)

A short but hopefully sweet edition to my travelogues and a return once more to a toy town and my personal spiritual home of Ironbridge on the banks of the River Severn in central England. Awakening early for reasons already lost to the mists of time the sun was already shining and without a single thought other than wanting to spend an hour in the sunshine on the riverbank I selected a Beatles album for the short trip and four of five songs later, I was “home” once more.

As an accredited site of World Heritage status, Saturday 14th September 2024 was deemed a “World Heritage Festival Day” with the high street closed to traffic and where normally a procession of cars troop slowly through the town today market stalls were being set up as I arrived but sadly, where previous years it was a lively affair turning toy town into a sea of humanity wherever you looked, this was a far more stripped back affair and far quieter than the festival weekends I was lucky enough to enjoy whilst living here in the middle of the previous decade.

So I fed some hungry ducks and swans (as usual!) and played tourist guide to a lovely couple on holiday from Yorkshire who first wanted directions to the iron bridge (“you can’t miss it…just follow your nose and keep the river on your right”) before saying what a beautiful early morning it was and what a perfect spot to spend an hour in the sun. I probably responded with something ridiculous such as I’ve fed ducks and swans on this very spot for over two decades or that they’ve chosen a fantastic weekend for their holiday in toy town, but I certainly remember ending our brief conversation by saying Ironbridge is quite simply a tiny piece of peaceful heaven here on earth.

And it is.

---

Please say hello to my two favourite swans in toy town: Fred and Mary (Author’s Collection)

Early morning walkers assemble by the War Memorial with the “Grand Old Lady” gleaming in the 9am sunshine (Author’s Collection)

A bridge with a beautiful early morning view over the River Severn (Author’s Collection)

“Good Day, Sunshine” (Author’s Collection)

My friends Fred and Mary, photogenic as ever! (Author’s Collection)

Close up view of the oldest iron bridge in the world (Author’s Collection)

9.40am in Toy Town (Author’s Collection)

I’ve no idea if this is Fred or Mary but who really cares! He or She is showing off for the camera as always! (Author’s Collection)

A loaf of bread later and, they’re off! (Author’s Collection)

Be still my beating heart. 10.16am and another 90 minutes in a tiny piece of earthly paradise has flown by. Thanks for the memories Toy Town (Author’s Collection)

---

Thanks for reading. Ironbridge features heavily in almost all of my writing and none more so than in my trilogy of rambling musings. Here’s the first volume of three and whisper it, volume four coming soon in the new year.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7BKWNS (Author’s Collection)

"At the end of a Storm" - link to Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7BKWNS (Author’s Collection)

Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.

---