stand by

The tulips are suffering arrested development. It amazes me how late they are; this time last April, they were at their peak, if not slightly past it. This year we are still waiting for action, although the small, pretty, species tulips have been nodding at me for a week now.

So here are some standby flowers as we stand by for tulip season. Seen at the solid, elegant and light-filled Hull Paragon Station ('the last of Britain's great barrel-vaulted glass-and-iron railway stations'), now 'Paragon Interchange'. It has a beautiful Edwardian tiled ticket hall with a wood-panelled ticket office in great condition (now unused) and a statue of Philip Larkin, the 'Hermit of Hull', on what looks like a surfboard.