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Paul Bigland

~ Blogging on transport, travel & whatever takes my fancy.

Paul Bigland

Monthly Archives: May 2023

2nd May picture of the day…

02 Tuesday May 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Calder Valley, Flora and Fauna, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Uncategorized, West Yorkshire

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Calder Valley, Flora and Fauna, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

There’s only a short blog from me today for two reasons. One is that’s it’s not been the most eventful of days and the other is that with everything that’s going on in the country politically and economically I’m in danger of letting my spleen vent – and if that happened I’d be here for several hours! So, I’ll sum it up in three words and then move on.

What. A. Shitshow.

My only hope is that the local elections this week might provide some insight into the direction the country may be taking. Hopefully it will be a positive one, but I see an awful lot of ingrained deference and forelock tugging around which makes me wonder if a significant percentage of the electorate rather enjoy misery and being kept in their place. Either way, I’ll be in Turkey from Friday so somewhat removed from politics, pomp and circumstance.

On a brighter note, the in-laws popped round for coffee this morning which gave me chance to show-off the work I’d been doing outside as Norah is also a keen gardener and appreciated my efforts. Dawn had to shoot out to a work appointment so it was my turn to rustle up the brandy coffees! The three of us had a pleasant time joking and chatting before it was time for them to head back to the Colne valley and me to get back to work. One task that kept me busy was adding more old railway slides for sale via my eBay account which you can find here.

My only other achievement today was getting over 16,000 steps (7.5mls) in whilst not getting rained on! This led to today’s picture which was taken in our local woods. They’re looking stunning right now as the Bluebells are taking over.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

1st May picture of the day…

01 Monday May 2023

Posted by Paul Bigland in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire

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Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire

Happy May day everyone! I can’t quite believe a third of the year’s already passed and in little more than 7 weeks the nights will start drawing in again. Still, it’s been a good day here at Bigland Towers even though we’ve not been anywhere. The pair of us have kept occupied at home which is no problem as we’re going away later in the week so pottering around at home’s been fun. Besides, bank holiday’s normally mean anywhere you’d want to go is clogged with people (and/or expensive) so staying at home removes that stress. Thankfully, the storm and heavy rain we had last night had cleared by this morning, leaving me free to continue with the garden and outhouse clean-up. My time on the ‘chain gang’ came to an end as I finished breaking up the old sink that’s been cluttering up the back for the past year. Now all I have to do is dispose of the bags of rubble…

Another thing that needed disposing of was more of the bloody Sycamore seedlings! They’re incredibly invasive this year and trying to get rid of ’em’s like playing ‘whack a mole’. No sooner do you think you’ve pulled up all the little buggers when the next batch poke their heads up just as soon as your back’s turned! Despite them, the gardens are starting to come together (front and back) all my recent purchases are planted, whilst there’s a stream of seedlings and cuttings ready for the coming months. Thanks to the fact the sun blessed us for a few hours this afternoon I managed to get another job done and cleared some of the derelict patch of land above the cottages which is infested with Russian vine (it’s not called ‘mile a minute’ for nothing) along with trimming back some Sycamore stumps which have started spouting shoots again. I may not have moved far, but I certainly got my steps in today!

Feeling virtuous I sat on our top terrace with a beer and watched the sun retreat over the valley, which brings me to today’s picture. This was the view I had over Sowerby Bridge earlier as the sun broke free of late arriving clouds. I never tire of this view as it’s always changing due to the permutations of weather and lighting…

Sowerby Bridge seen earlier this evening in low spring light with the road up to Sowerby prominent in the picture.

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, 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 me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Or – you can now buy me a coffee! https://ko-fi.com/paulbigland68312

Thank you!

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