It's the last morning of January.
Cold and dark.
The traffic is bad.
Shuttered shops punctuate the street.
A gaggle of children crowd the counter at the bakery, waiting for Ian to hand over gingerbread men.
Steph and Mike stack boxes of brightly coloured fruit on the pavement outside Harris’s.
The sound of jazz and the smell of bacon compete when Richard opens the door to Cafe Lento.
The weather may slow the tempo, the town dances on.
A refrigerated lorry with a cow painted on its side stops on the road outside. Danny sets off at 5am from Holmfirth distributing little pots of thick delicious yoghurt in a wide loop around West Yorkshire.
Later, David arrives. He must be around 70 by now. He has delivered eggs to our shop for over 30 years. He is the only professional wrestler turned chicken farmer I know.
A cyclist pulls up, fluorescence and flashing lights. She shackles her bike to our rack and comes in to buy porridge and a chocolate bar.
“Indoors weather“ she says as she leaves.
I turn to the window and nod in agreement.
Stuart McClelland
Natural Food Store
Photo by Liam Tansley
