I promised myself a day working from home today and that’s what I’ve managed to have, which was just as well as we had yet more torrential rain this morning. Yet again roads turned into rivers and the amount of blockages caused by broken off branches from the recent gales made it look like an army of beavers had taken up occupancy in the Calder valley. Like every other local authority Calderdale has suffered from Government cuts to its budgets which means that many drains haven’t been cleaned for years, leading to blocked grids which have added to the problem as water has nowhere to go – except downhill…

The afternoon was a lot drier and brighter, giving the sodden fields a respite and breathing space for the land to begin to drain. It was a lovely time to tear myself away from my computer and go for a long circular walk which took in Sowerby Bridge then home on a route sandwiched between the canal and the Calder. River levels are dropping too, much to many people’s relief as the flood sirens had already sounded in nearby Todmorden over the weekend. Hopefully we’re now past the worst.

Back home I’ve had a busy day catching up on paperwork, organising future commissions (which when they come off will be an interesting challenge) plus prepping and researching my next series of magazine articles. So, all in all – not a bad day. Of course, all this means that scanning old slides has had to take a backseat, which is unfortunate but unavoidable as there are only so many hours in the day. I’m determined to get the last ones scanned this year and I have a folder full of scans waiting to be edited, but paying jobs take priority. Oh, there’s blogs to be written too – but these may also have to take a bit of a backseat other than short daily updates. Still, I’ll see what I can pack in to longer days.

I’ll end today with a picture of the day from the batch of slide scans which are still in the holding folder until I can find time to edit them and get them on my Zenfolio website. This one’s another from the batch of Images of India taken in 1995/96. Our little band took a trip to Old Goa, which was the religious centre of the Portuguese enclave of Goa. Whilst the British left in 1947, the Portuguese had to be forcibly removed from the colonies of Goa, Daman and Diu. The newly independent India launched “Operation Vijay” in December 1961 and took back the territory held by the Portuguese for 450 years. Needless to say, a lot of influence was left behind – including old cathedrals and churches like this – the church of St Cajeta.

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!