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THE PANTOMIME SEASON is here again. 'Oh - no - it - isn't!''Oooh! - Yes - it - IS!!!' Even the common sights of the street seem to take on a touch of Arabian Nights magic. A scrapyard sign by the Victorian Ninety-Nine Arches railway viaduct in Wakefield hints at 'new lamps for old' and the forty thieves. The 'treasure' is stacked in an Aladdin's cave underneath the arches.
I've painted the scenery for our local pantomime for thirty years now, so it has become a part of the festive season for me. I'm proud to say that the singer Jane McDonald, one of two local Snow Whites for whom I have painted scenery, has now got her own primetime television show. Must have been those stalactites in the dwarfs' cave, and the stag-headed oaks in the wild wood, that I had painted that set her off on the road to stardom. Pantomime probably has its origins in the Christmastide antics of the medieval Lord of Misrule. The Feast of Misrule was probably derived from the Roman festival of Saturnalia.
A flock of Black-headed Gulls flies down the valley in the murky light of half past three in the afternoon. By the time I walk along the towpath, around four o'clock, the Blackbirds and Robins are no more than silhouettes in the Hawthorn bushes. At least from today the days will start getting longer again.
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A road mender in Ossett stands by a bucket of fiery pitch, holding a shovel, the shaft of which smoulders alarmingly, performing tricks that would get him a round of applause on stage.
The car of Pickles the clown stands under wraps outside 'Ossett Clown Hall', his home. The late Ted Pickles was a local miner who realised a childhood dream to become a clown. I remember my astonishment at seeing Mr Pickles driving home from a performance, still in full make-up; a big red nose and a large gaudy wig. I believe his son has now stepped into his shoes (which are no doubt brightly coloured and very large).
In Sainsbury's supermarket car park a Mistle Thrush feeds on a small tree which has fruits which resemble large rose hips. We see a Pied Wagtail flitting and waddling about in the city centre.