Simon Dew

Intention Matters: The Magic of Middle-earth Credit: Aronja-Art Today I want to talk about how magic works in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and associated legendarium, as well as how systems of morality and values function …

Intention Matters: The Magic of Middle-earth

A wooden signpost stands at the corner of a field. Farm buildings in the distance, hills behind them.

A road sign saying Derbyshire. The trail continues to the left through a gap in a stone wall.

Nestled in the hills, a grey stone circular structure stands in the middle of a reservoir.

Into Derbyshire, and starting to get properly hilly now. Passed the gauging basin at Bottoms Reservoir in Longdendale. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A narrow arched tunnel through a steep, stone-faced bank.

A square tunnel underneath a stone railway embankment.

A wide rectangular tunnel under a railway bridge. This one still has signs warning not to trespass on the railway, although the track is long gone.

The trail continues under an arched stone bridge.

Old railway architecture in Hyde. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A big weir (or small waterfall) on rapidly flowing river, visible between trees.

A gravel trail curving away between the trees.

Another bigger waterfall visible through the trees. The banks of the river are lined with stone walls.

Another view of the same weir or waterfall in a rapidly flowing river. The curve of the fall is very regular, looking like it was built rather than natural.

Wiers and waterfalls on the Tame. I’ve now gone beyond the part of the trail I knew from my commute. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

An open field. On the other side, a few industrial buildings and residential tower blocks. Beyond them, the hills. They look a lot closer than they did last time we saw them.

A red brick Jacobean building stands half in ruins. Several tiles are missing from the roof.

A closer view of the archway through to the courtyard of the building. Cottage buildings are visible within. The archway is fenced off, with signs warning people to keep out and not to smoke.

The outer wall of Hyde Hall. Iron buttresses have been added to prop the wall up.

Feels like I’m getting closer to the hills now. The ruins of Hyde Hall stand forlorn, surrounded by modern housing. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

An overgrown patch of derelict land behind the Portwood Tesco. Behind it, an old mill chimney.

More derelict land behind the Portwood Tesco. The former street pattern is just about discernible, as are the street lights. Half of the view is now taken up by a giant Porsche showroom.

Framed by trees, the view over a wide green valley from a former railway embankment.

A hummus and green olive bagel. Mmmmm!

The lost streets of Portwood. Lunch in Reddish Vale. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

An art installation overlooking the confluence of the Goyt and the Tame, bearing the quoted poem

The Goyt. A river running under an old stone bridge and over a weir.

The Tame. A river flowing under the M60. There’s an abandoned Flymo lawnmower on its bank.

The young Mersey, flowing alongside the M60 motorway.

“Water is life and heaven’s gift. Here rivers Goyt and Tame become Mersey, flowing clear from Stockport to the sea” #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A sign saying Cyclist Dismount

What looks like a forest glade. Overlooking the remains of an abandoned railway station in the heart of Stockport.

Cyclopean architecture overlooking a river gorge. The remains of a railway bridge abutment.

Graffiti on the side of the M60: oh the beauty of it all

Stockport. In my head I always sing “Cyclist Dismount” to the tune of Shepherds Arise. The remains of Tiviot Dale station. I unironically do think Stockport is beautiful. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

The trail runs under a road bridge, bright with sunshine at the far end

The remains of a Victorian railway bridge on the far side of a narrow river. The banks are lush with vegetation under bright sunshine

A blue glass pyramid-shaped building on the other side of the street. A sign on the side says Royal Nawab

Feels a bit weird to be blogging this bit of the #TransPennineTrail as this was my commute to work for nearly 10 years. Railway ruins on the Mersey; horses at Vale Road Farm. The only thing that’s changed is that the pyramid is finally occupied again. 🚲

The trail running alongside the river, which is barely visible behind the greenery on its banks. There are trees on either side, framing a double rainbow, bright against a grey sky.

The trail running alongside the river. In the middle distance is a barrier with a sign saying that the path is closed. Beyond that are rows of sandbags, plugging a huge gap where the bank of the river has been swept away.

Rainbows as the weather lifted. Finished today’s stage in Didsbury. Only 32 km, much shorter than last time, deliberately so. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

The banks of the Mersey are still a mess in Didsbury, where they were breached in the floods last winter. Repairs ongoing near Simon’s Bridge.

A cobbled path descending between green hedges.

Les pavés ! L’enfer du Nord-Ouest ! Not sure if I’m going in the right direction here. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

(Turned out I was. And shortly after I took this photo the weather turned horrible. Just like the Paris-Roubaix lol)

Golden field of wild flowers framed by trees.

A suspension bridge over a motorway.

A gravel lane through fields, lined by picket fences. In the distance a delivery rider on an e-bike with a food delivery bag on his back.

Kickety Brook, then over the M60. Tried to draft this delivery rider for a while, but he dropped me somewhere in Stretford. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A trail overshadowed by trees in dappled sunshine

An iron bridge over the Mersey, painted green

A trail alongside a narrow river. Green banks and trees on either side.

The stank of Carrington Moss, and then over a bridge and we meet Mother Mersey again. Looking very different from the last time we saw her. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A country lane with a street sign: Station Road. The trail continues alongside a white painted cottage.

At extreme zoom across the fields, the skyscrapers of Manchester City centre.

Dunham Massey to Broadheath. In the far distance, across the green Cheshire plain, I catch my first glimpse of the Pennines, a blue line on the horizon. Before them, the towers of Manchester. #TransPennineTrail 🚲

My cockpit. Pointing east along a rail trail, trees, dappled sunshine.

Looking back along the trail at Lymm. An old red brick house next to the trail, behind a white picket fence.

A gravel trail to the right; looking across a low hedge to a green field on the left.

Looks like an abandoned industrial building or shed next to the trail in Lymm.

Thelwall and Lymm, along old railway lines. I don’t think I’m actually going to see the Thelwall Viaduct after all #TransPennineTrail 🚲

A blue signpost for the Trans Pennine Trail. To the left it points West, to the right it points East

The Manchester Ship Canal with lush greenery on either bank. The sky is blue with little fluffy clouds

A swing bridge carrying road traffic. A beautiful mathematical curve made of girders. It’s looking a bit rusty.

My trusty forest green Revolution Cross next to a park bench. On the bench, a flask of coffee and a box of cheese and caponata wraps.

Stopping for lunch in Wilderspool. Manchester ship canal, Chester Road swing bridge (I think) #transpenninetrail 🚲

Two bikes standing together in the bicycle storage area of a crowded East Midlands train

On the train to Warrington for stage two. It’s been a while. #transpenninetrail 🚲

There was a fiddle player at the session tonight who had been taught by Miranda Rutter and knew some of her tunes 🎵

Makes me happy, because I’ve been gently trying to get a couple of those tunes into the tradition here. Great to meet someone who already knows them

We’re Already in the Aftermath

"what our overlords want to do is … destroy every vestige of the past and replace it, largely through digital technology. They want to control meaning itself; they want to regulate our ability to find meaning in our life and to know our own past"

New season of The Change on 25 March! Featuring Boss Morris with music from Sam Sweeney, Rob Harbron and Miranda Rutter 📺

Boss Morris | Instagram

Free Folk Sessions @ The Smithfield Market Tavern - Manchester Folk

"Join us at The Smithfield Market Tavern from Thursday 20th – Saturday 22nd March for free folk sessions."

Two model swifts suspended from a curved glass ceiling. One has a red heart on its breast

Three more model swifts suspended from a glass ceiling. They’re all about a metre in wingspan

More model swifts in the same location. They are all made of tissue layered with PVA glue over a willow frame.

Three more model swifts in the same location. All the models are painted dark with a feather pattern.

Birds seem to be having a cultural moment. Model swifts at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield, to raise awareness of the Sheffield Swift Network. Made at a workshop led by Patrick Amber and my old friend Jo Veal.

A Scream of Swifts

A sticker on a hand dryer in a tiled pub toilet. It says: ‘We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Ursula Le Guin’

To the Monday evening session, where I saw this message from Ursula Le Guin

"Effective immediately, STC will permanently close its doors and cease all activities"

Society for Technical Communication

CS Lewis might have had some ideas about what we’re really speaking to.

"(I didn’t really leave theology behind when I left my childhood religion and I believe we are trying extremely hard to consort with demons in some of these cases.)"

https://mas.to/users/kissane/statuses/113824858315783110

Should be good!

"Ian A Anderson is raising funds for ALIEN WATER on Kickstarter!

Six Decades Paddling In Unpopular Music: a book by Ian A Anderson"

Kickstarter » ALIEN WATER by Ian A Anderson

Embarrassing how long it took me to remember the password for my work laptop this morning, after two weeks off

Other musical highlights of 2024: playing a gig with daughter №1 (a low-key ambition for a while), and of course, forming this hugely rewarding and enjoyable musical partnership with Rakoczy. It’s been fantastic. 🎶

Rakocy:Dew

Shout out also to the Molly House session in Manchester. I only managed to get there once. But again, a great mix of talent, and incredibly welcoming to beginners. (Sadly though not very accessible; in an upstairs room with steep stairs.)

“Get out more and see people” and “play more music” — I’ve managed to do both of these at two wonderful sessions in Manchester, the Odd Tunes session in the Salutation and the New Cross session. Both host to some very talented musicians, and welcoming alike to beginners and old farts like me. 🎶