Lost in the Flood with The Boss

“with wolfman fairies dressed in drag for homicide”

Ironbridge Gorge, 18th October 2024 (Author’s Collection)

Star Date: Friday 18th October 2024
Destination: Toy Town
Reason: To say hello to Fred and Mary, the resident Ironbridge swans
“Old Fashioned Sweets” of the Day: Strawberry Bon Bons and Kop Kops
Album of the Day: “Greetings from Asbury Park NJ” by Bruce Springsteen
Song of the Day: “Lost in the Flood”

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Alas, the feeding of my swan friends (named Fred and Mary and for reasons that will take far too long to explain) as well as their equally loud and beautifully chaotic duck friends was out of bounds today, as was much of this World Heritage Site on the banks of the River Severn. Recent biblical rains have washed down from the nearby Welsh hills, raising the river many feet above an October norm and thus necessitating the installation of flood barriers that will be breached, eventually, if not now but certainly when mother nature decrees autumn to be over and another winter of discontent washes over Shakespeare’s Sceptred Isle. From the feeding of swans through to the bleak darkness of a Shakespearean winter. In one paragraph. It’s why I’m a rock star of writing and it’s why you’re here, and I thank you.

So I consoled myself with a shorter than normal walk along the river and for a brief couple of minutes, in the company of a pug dog named “Bear”. I put the world to rights with my friend Jeremy before leaving his beautiful sweet shop with some Strawberry Bon Bons and some aniseed flavoured Kop Kops and thankfully there weren’t any nuns running through Vatican Walls “pregnant, pleading, immaculate conception” and there was nobody wrecked on Main Street “from drinking unholy blood” either. Which is just as well as they’d be as lost in the flood as I am.

Anyone seen Jimmy the Saint?

I tried (largely in vain) to get a better snap of Bear, but he’s a bundle of furious energy and clearly doesn’t want to be an internet superstar. And who could blame him? (Author’s Collection)

“Stephen’s Bench” (bottom left) awaiting my pleasure. A view from on high of the “Grand Old Lady” of Ironbridge and the River Severn easily 10+ feet above where it was just 6 days ago (Author’s Collection)

“Stephen’s Bench” and the best seat in the house (Author’s Collection)

Anyone fancy a pork pie? (Author’s Collection)

A bridge with a beautiful view (Author’s Collection)

See you again soon Toy Town (Author’s Collection)

The oldest iron bridge in the world and the object of my affection for over a quarter of a century (Author’s Collection)

“And I said, “Hey, gunner man, that’s quicksand. That’s quicksand, that ain’t mud. Have you thrown your senses to the war? Or did you lose them in the flood?” (Author’s Collection)

Can I interest you in a Strawberry Bon Bon or perhaps an aniseed flavoured Kop Kop? (Author’s Collection)

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Thanks for reading. Due thanks also to The Boss for my silly appropriation of his lyrics. For more half baked ideas and brain droppings, here’s one I prepared earlier:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZKZP28D (Author’s Collection)

"Tales I Tell Myself" - link to Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZKZP28D (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.

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