Memorial Stones

a pile of red bricks

under a horse chestnut tree

memorial stones

At the site of the Califat Mine on the eighth of October 1863 a coming in of water filled the mine workings killing three miners:

Harry Clements 16

Jeremiah Rose 40

Thomas Bird 50

Paul Conneally

Califat Colliery

Swannington, UK

May 2017

Cod Cheeks and Loin

Loughbohemia is almost as far from the sea as you can get in Britain but every Thursday and Saturday the sea comes to town with the market and its fresh fish and seafood stalls.

her shopping bag drips

all the way home

cod cheeks and loin

Paul Conneally

Loughbohemia

May 2017

True Love Story

True Love Story

The modern day pawn shop is doing well in Theresa May's Britain.

At the start of each day the shop assistant in Loughbohemia's 'Cash Converters' carefully puts out the display of pawned engagement and wedding rings for those considering taking the plunge themselves to peruse, buy and sell back when times get rough.

hush little baby

a mockingbird sings

here comes the bride

Paul Conneally

Loughborough

May 2017

Fresh Bananas

Fresh Bananas

I have no religious belief. These two men do. They arrive on the edge of Loughbohemia Market sometime between 7.30am and 8, set up their leaflet stand and grab a takeaway coffee to help keep out the cold.

They are Jehovah's Witnesses and they would like to save my soul, yours too.

They don't shout out to people passing by like the fruit and veg sellers do. Quiet in their smart suits their leaflet stand does the talking: 'The Four Horsemen How Their Ride Affects You'

I know they mean well. I welcome them and all people with convictions within the law to our streets. Free speech is worth fighting for especially for those we don't agree with. Street preachers religious, political, social or economical add to the frisson of our streets.

twice round the market

a bag of fresh bananas

on an empty bench

Paul Conneally

May 2017

Morning Rush

Morning Rush

From around 7am market traders arrive in their white vans and transits to start setting up for the Thursday market in Loughbohemia's town centre market place.

There's not quite room for all the vehicles at the same time and so thee are moments of calm amongst all the activity as stall holders wait for their workmates to get in with the produce, be it women's fashion, men's socks, fruit and veg or kettles.

morning rush

an on the move coffee

and a bunch of tulips

Paul Conneally

Loughbohemia

May 11 2017

Salt and Pepper

Searching for a pub we find ourselves in the North West Leicestershire village of Belton. One pub is now a set of upmarket apartments and the other doesn't seem to be open.

Russ parks up in the village hall car park and we decide to explore the impressive 14th century St. John the Baptist Church. There's a sign outside proclaiming 'John's Cafe - every Wednesday from 12.30'. It's one o'clock and we go in.

We meet a long trestle table with some older villagers sat at it. A woman smiles and says "If you'd been here three quarters of an hour ago you could have had lunch!"

They offer us tea but we decline and have a look around the church.

A man tells us the pub opens when it feels like it during the day and at night it opens but is more like a posh restaurant than a pub. The woman says we should come on Friday morning when the church "does bacon sandwiches".

spring sunlight

through a stained glass window

salt and pepper

Paul Conneally

May 10th 2017

TULIPS AND PANSIES

TULIPS AND PANSIES

Queens Park in Loughborough is an ideal place to walk when you're recovering from a heart attack. It's flat and each time you do a circuit you find new things in the old to look at and wonder, to instigate new stories, true and made up.

A man being taken for a stroll by his three Jack Russell dogs nods a greeting and is pulled on by. We pass again by the aviary and nod again.

A group of Italian adults are playing in the children's activity area. They missed the sign that insists that adults unaccompanied by children are not allowed in the playground.

teenagers share
a spliff in the park bandstand
tulips and pansies

Paul Conneally

April 2017

Pink Onesie Convo

Pink Onesie Convo - Paul Conneally, New Parks, Leicester 2016

Today I spotted three different people wearing onesies and a woman in a dressing gown around the Aikman Avenue shops in New Parks. It's an interesting cultural shift in what's acceptable or not to leave the house in - maybe it's better - a more relaxed approach to indoor outdoor home not home distinctions. Each to their own - live and let live! Mind you I don't think it's a style I'll be sporting in public anytime soon - the world's not ready for that yet!

sweeping leaves
too many starlings
to count up

Little Onion

Marta Oliviera-Child - Head Chef at the Bom Bom Patisserie

Marta Oliviera-Child is the head chef and co-owner of the Bom Bom Patisserie in Loughborough, Leicestershire, right in the heart of England.

Bom Bom Patisserie has been operating a few years but only opened the café part of the business in May 2016. It has proved to be a tasty, stylish and instant hit.

Marta comes from Brazil where her mother runs a restaurant. She came to Loughborough in 2006, like so many young people do, to study at Loughborough University. She always had a dream to open a patisserie and luckily for the people of Loughborough she has and what a patisserie it is!

after the pastry
the cream
on the end of her nose

Little Onion

Find out more about Marta and the Bom Bom Patisserie by visiting its website and hey, even better, the patisserie itself!

Photograph and text: Paul Conneally

OXFORD CIRCUS STATION

OXFORD CIRCUS STATION

The hustle and bustle of London's Oxford Street just before the rush hour. When it's excitingly busy without hemming your body and mind in too much.

The Evening Standard newspaper, I was going to say vendor but they are handed out for free now, sat half on half off the tube station entrance. Shall I pick one up here or outside the mainline station? I'll wait till later.

a blast of warm air
from the underground station
Marilyn Monroe

Little Onion
September
2016

Photograph: Paul Conneally 2016

Imperfection Is Beauty

Imperfection Is Beauty

For me it started with Claire's Accessories startled to see a young girl sat in the shop window getting her ears pierced. Now every high street seems to have at least one beauty salon that seats its customers in the full gaze of the public as they undergo one treatment or another.

I can't understand why someone would want to receive such treatments in the form of what my mother would call a 'pippy show'. It feels performative, and it is. There is no notion of it being intended as public art but it could easily be mistaken as such. 

Does this set up lead to more sales? Well the salons must think so or they wouldn't do it. 

I want to stop and stand and stare right in and were it actually a 'performance' I would but find I can only glance furtively as I pass on by towards the market place.

here comes the weekend

a slice of cucumber

on each eye

Little Onion

Loughborough

September 2016

Photograph: Paul Conneally

M.I.A. ft. Zayn - Freedun (audio) from new album AIM

M.I.A. is back with the release of her new album AIM on September 9 2016. In the meantime drops an audio taster of what's to come with 'Freedun' a collaboration with Zayn while she's out in the Himalayas shooting what's sure to be another killer video for the track.

The release comes as Nicki Minaj bigs M.I.A up in her new off company released track The Pinkprint Freestyle. 

Looks a though the end of 2016 is going to be a busy time for M.I.A as she takes centre stage from September through to the New Year.

overnight stay

the sound of gunfire

in the park

Little Onion

Sept. 2016
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Butterfly Beats: Tayla drops debut single and video 'Call Me Danger'

Fresh Outta Brum, Birmingham's Tayla punches through the current raft of female soundalike songstress's with her debut solo track Call Me Danger. It's a 90's style electronic funk burner with a killer chorus.

Call Me Danger is co-written and produced by London based producer and songwriter Mr. Watt and if doesn't get your body moving then it's probably time to see the doctor. Think Nu Shooz with a modern urban twist and you're somewhere near the territory that Call Me Danger occupies.

Call Me Danger comes with a cool video that compliments the confidence of the track. I'd love to see a version shot wholly in Birmingham, the heart of the Midlands where Tayla herself hails from, a fine example of the growing breadth and talent emerging across the arts from Brum, the heart of England.

a butterfly beats
in time with the city
tall buildings and food

Little Onion
September 2016

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Wish You Were Here

The public beaches in Cannes are truly egalitarian.

Everyone is welcome no matter their age, gender, race, sexuality, or body shape.

People have been coming to La Plage for generations and save for a few changes in fashion and technology the scene today is probably very similar to that of fifty years ago.

sand between her toes
she writes for the tenth time
'wish you were here'

Little Onion

UPDATE: The decision of the Mayor of Cannes to institute and enforce a 'BURKINI BAN' on the beaches of Cannes makes the idea of them being egalitarian redundant. Terrible decision!

Photograph: Paul Conneally, Cannes Plage, August 2016

Five Hundred Yards

An elderly couple sits down in the shade for a while.

They take the weight off their feet and watch the world go by.

His leg gently rests against her knee.

Years ago they walked La Croisette a small hand each between them.

A little girl lifted and swung every ten steps along the way.

Just ten minutes sat here and off again.

five hundred yards
of bonjours
an espresso
at Bar 72
and then home

Little Onion

Photograph: Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2016

Kiosk LE 8 La Croisette - Cannes - France

The promenader on La Croisette in Cannes is prone to get hot, thirsty and sometimes even hungry as one walks, jogs, skates or cycles up and down this most famous of seafronts.

It's a good job then that there is a series of food and drink kiosks along its length and beyond right around to the public beaches of Cannes La Bocca. Each kiosk is numbered which is useful for meeting up with others or as an aide memoire to where you parked your car.

Kiosk Le 8 is situated near the merry-go-round at the Palais des Festivals end of La Croisette.

It's hard to resist something cold and sweet on a hot French Riviera summer's day:

the ice-cream seller
points out the way to me
with an ice-cream

Little Onion

Photograph and text: Paul Conneally 2016

Early Morning Bathers - Cannes 2016

Between around 7.30 and 10 in the morning is primetime for bathers, many of them middle to old age, on the public beaches of Cannes. It's fairly quiet at this time and the sun is warm without being burning hot. They come without ceremony and if getting changed do so under a handheld towel. Grandfathers and Grandmothers sometimes with their grandchildren but most often alone wading out into the warm shallows and beyond. And then it's up on to La Croisette for a coffee before a visit to the bakery for the first baguette buy of the day.

morning shadows
a swim first he thinks
then home for a shave

Little Onion


Photographs: Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2016

Summer Haze

After a long journey to the Port of Dover due to traffic chaos caused by 'increased security measures' put in place by the French border forces we are waved through without showing our passports and straight on to a waiting ferry.

summer haze
a gull crossing the channel
on a ship's mast

Little Onion

Photo: 'Onboard the Pride of Burgandy Cross Channel Ferry' Paul Conneally 2016

#haiku #boat #ferry reading #photography #sea #sailing #poetry #mindfulness

Around The Rhubarb

I miss them the rag-and-bone men of my childhood. Taking things out to them to be rewarded not with money but perhaps a balloon. In my head a green balloon although I know it wasn't always so. The smell of the horse and the wonderment when it chose to peacefully urinate outside the house. My grandmother's house. The steam.

dragonflies
I dig in some fresh manure
around the rhubarb

Little Onion

from the haibun archives of Little Onion (Paul Conneally) - you can read a little about how writer Ray Rasmussen used this haibun as a model and how modelling from other works can help in the writing of new works here : HAIBUN TODAY


Little Onion seen eating rhubarb at Loughborough University. You can watch and hear him talking about rhubarb and politics here: DON'T VOTE TORY EAT RHUBARB 

One Hundred Men

We take my mum and dad, both in their eighties, to Liverpool for a couple of days. My mum has wanted to see Anthony Gormley's 'Another Place' for a long time. A cold, windy and wild day at Crosby beach. Together we watch the tide go out, slowly revealing one hundred metal statues, casts of Gormley himself, naked, looking out to sea.

blowing its horn
the ferry heads west 
mating gulls

Little Onion



Photograph: Paul Conneally, Crosby, April 2016
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