Bridge at Ladybower Dam

One Saturday afternoon in August 2017 I went to a friend's café opening and had some scrummy coffee and walnut cake. Afterwards I drove out over the hills toward Sheffield to Ladybower Dam (passing a high-end Mercedes car on a scrap of land with every window smashed in.) I had sandwiches, crisps, chocolate on the passenger seat - and my bike in the back of the car.

I parked at the bottom near the bridges and set off. A track runs around the perimeter of the reservoir and I took a leisurely couple of hours cycling round it. The water level was quite low despite all the summer rain. I was listening Simon & Garkfunkel's Greatest Hits on my mp3 player (not one dud song on there.) I passed many people coming in the opposite direction and, unable to hear them, shouted hello to most of them. I didn’t bother with the ones that take refuge in staring into space or pretend to be adjusting their sleeve.

I passed many other cyclists and two large Pakistani families, the second mostly on bikes. I passed them by and about ten minutes later came to a hill where you accelerate fast. I sped down and nearly fell off as only my front brake works. I was now at the halfway point and stopped to switch from Simon & Garfunkel to a comedy audio book I had been looking forward to.

It’s lucky I turned off the music. Behind me a Pakistani girl of about 13 years hurtled down the hill on a bike and came off spectacularly. She lay on her side on hard gravel still clutching the bike while screaming and crying. Bum. I pulled the bike off her and, not sure how it might look, tried to squeeze her arms and legs to see if anything was obviously broken. She was wearing a helmet with a veil underneath it. The knees and elbows poking out of ripped black tights and dress were shredded and oozing blood. Between cries she said she could not feel her arm or leg when I squeezed them up and down. I tried to straighten them out as she wailed.

Where the heck were her family? Slowly and after a few minutes I tried to get the girl to stand up but she was in equal pain and shock. Thankfully the whole family came round the bushes, some running, some on bikes but all with alarmed facial expressions. They must have been used to accidents as one had a box of plasters. They were very grateful but seemed a little uneasy as I was holding the girl up.

Finally I left and I doubt the girl had broken anything. I'm sure she'd have been howling in a higher volume had something snapped. There's a warden down near the café (about a mile away) so I said I'd asked them to come up in the jeep to bring her down. I needed some invigorating music to power me down to the warden so, once round a corner, I put on Roll With It (live) by Oasis on repeat. I nearly had a couple of accidents myself as a scootered down to warden's hut (but they weren't there.) In the lyrics are “don’t’ let anybody get in your way” and I didn’t as I burned passed walkers and turned corners quite recklessly. It was brill.

I could not find the warden but an old man of an avuncular nature said he was heading up the path. I was tired and felt a little guilty as a headed back down to the car at the bottom of the reservoir. Though I was desperate for a frothy coffee and slab of cake I stopped to look at the bridges at the bottom of the dam. The fading light lent them and the surrounding waters an appealing look and I thought to myself, “I’m going to paint this scene” I took a few photos and before I’d reached the car I was - in my mind anyway - pulling a small canvas out from the attic and giving myself an hour to do the painting.

I’ve got six painting in progress at the moment so on Monday evening I thought to myself “Paint that bridge in one hour - and no more than one hour.” Here it is, poor in quality but done quickly in 1 hour 40 minutes. I barely mixed paint, took it straight from the tube and smeared it across the canvas like butter. It’s not terrific but it was satisfying to start and finish something in one burst.

The scene I will try to paint…

Starting off…

Coming on slowly…

Getting dark but nearly finished…

Here are some photos from the bike ride…