{"id":2289,"date":"2022-11-05T08:05:59","date_gmt":"2022-11-05T08:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ginko.org.uk\/?p=2289"},"modified":"2022-11-05T08:44:39","modified_gmt":"2022-11-05T08:44:39","slug":"ashby-the-politics-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginko.org.uk\/index.php\/2022\/11\/05\/ashby-the-politics-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashby: The Politics of Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
A burning branch opposite the old railway station Ashby-de-la Zouch \u00a9<\/em>Shona Wall, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

bright branches fire
the twisted trunks of wisdom
its the time to turn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Shona took some great images as we walked around Ashby-de-la Zouch on the last day of October 2022, and this one is a favourite of mine, so I wrote a haiku inspired by the image. Shona is a keen follower of politics, and so I have I have embedded some connections to politics in the haiku, although you do not have to identify with them if you choose not to. Opposite this red leafed branch, which is by the drive to the cricket ground, is the railway station. <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Now, just three freight trains go through the station per day, but it was not always like that.<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Ashby-de-la Zouch Railway Station \u00a9<\/em>Shona Wall, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Th<\/strong>e Ashby-de-la Zouch Railway Station (photo above) opened in 1849, and was closed in 1964. <\/h5>\n\n\n\n
The station is a Grade 2 listed building with a design that is Neoclassical with side pavillions and Doric columns. The design keeps it keeping with the nearby Royal Hotel that was built in 1826. Shona’s photograph captures me (Stewart) walking up to have a closer look at the tramlines which can also be seen in the image on the left. The tramway ran in three counties from Burton-upon-Trent in Staffordshire to Swadlincote in the south of Derbyshire and continued to Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire. I found a postcard of a tram outside the hotel on a website called ‘Tramway Information’. The postcard was published by George Brown of Ashby-de-la-Zouch and this copy was posted from Ashby on 16th July 1906 (click here to go to the website)<\/a> <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
Today, the hotel is closed up waiting to be redeveloped.<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

W<\/strong>hen I take a photograph that really interests me I often write a little haiku. I write them in three lines of 5\/7\/5 syllables. T<\/strong>hey do not have to rhyme, they do not have to describe the photograph, they are simply what the image led me to write. I<\/strong> only allow myself 60 seconds to write it. It is about being in the moment of seeing the photograph, just as my photographs are made in the moment of seeing<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n\n