Spring has certainly sprung here in the Calder valley. This week we’ve had a run of sunny days which has only been broken by a few desultory showers today. That’s rather problematic as we’re having a very dry year so far which is leaving the ground dry and reservoirs low. I suspect we may be in for a summertime hosepipe ban and fires up on the moors.
Back at Bigland Towers life’s plodded on. I’m still in the midst of a deep spring-clean whilst also trying to get some work done. That’s not easy when much of my office is packed away! On the positive side, I have managed to get a few more old slides scanned and added to my Zenfolio website. You can find which galleries they’re in by following this link.
Hopefully, I’ll have all my re-arranging done by next week. I need to as the pair of us are off to base ourselves in Surrey for several days. That’ll allow me to look at some rail projects in that neck of the woods. In the meantime there’s plenty to be getting on with here.
Right, today’s picture. Hmm, what to choose? Well, I’ve not exactly been active with the camera this week, far from it – the slide scanner’s seen more action. Tonight, after work I popped up to my local pub to enjoy some good beer, join in the Friday quiz with friends – and sample the free pork pie…
Cheers!
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Can we please stop living in ‘interesting times’ as I’m struggling to keep up with the deluge of batshittery that’s coming out of the USA nowadays. The latest revelations about a ‘signal’ chat group and the top ranks of the Trump administration is positively surreal – as it watching those members (including the head of the CIA) blatantly lie in front of Congressional Committees. OK, I’m old enough to remember when such stuff was the grounds of resignations and dismissals, but this is 2025 we’re talking about, where senior politicians lying through their teeth is seen as absolutely normal. And it’s not just any little old lie either. These people have neither shame nor honour. A fact that seems to be sinking in as many Americans who’ve served their country in the military know – and are articulating, loudly. Will it change anything? It’s difficult to tell as it’s obvious Trump and his administration have no shame. The only question is how much damage they can do to the USA before they’re ejected – one way or another.
No wonder Europe is girding its loins for a future where the USA is anything but a reliable ally. And it’s not just Europe. Conversations I’ve had with friends in SE-Asia suggest that part of the world is thinking along the same lines too – they’re just keeping their heads down.
Today – apart from observing the political shit-show – I’ve been busy at Bigland Towers. Operation ‘Spring Clean’ has suffered from what the military call ‘mission creep’ – so I’m knee-deep in boxes, books and all sorts of stuff that been packed away for ages. It’s an exercise which has provoked a lot of memories as I go through stuff that’s been boxed away for years – going right back to my teenage years. Most of the old books that have been in limbo for 15 year have found temporary homes at a local charity shop. But I couldn’t resist holding on to a couple – just for old times sake and the opportunity to re-read them again after so long.
One of them is today’s picture. Checking the inside cover I realise I’ve had this Michael Moorcock book since 1974, so – over half a century. I owned most of his books (and one of his albums) but now it’s time to let go and let someone else enjoy them. I’ll keep this one for now to enjoy somewhere on my travels before releasing it. Hopefully, whoever finds it may enjoy it as much as I did, even if they don’t understand the times it was written in. In some ways, they’re no more bizarre than the ones we’re living trough now.
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Apologies for the last couple of days absence, but life has moved into a new phase now I’ve finally shaken off Covid. Yesterday morning I used the last of our latest batch of test kits and found (much to my relief) that I was clear – which meant that I could go shopping and interact with a clear conscience. I know most people don’t bother nowadays, but I know how vulnerable some folks still are, so the last thing I wanted to do was spread what’s still a nasty bug.
My first day of freedom coincided with lovely sunny weather – although the wind-chill made you appreciate we’re only just into spring. Even so, it was lovely to get out and about. Even supermarket shopping seemed a treat! What was an even bigger treat was being able to pop into my local pub for a pint and a natter with some of the regulars, early doors.
Today (Tuesday) has been much of the same apart from the fact I’ve been back and forth between home and a local charity shop. My office ‘spring cleaning’ has turned into something much bigger. I’m now having a complete clear-out of stuff from the cottage, especially stuff that’s sat in boxes ever since I moved here from London in January 2010. I’m ditching boxes and boxes of old sci-fi books, many of which I’ve had since I was a teenager. I’d always hoped that, one day when I’d retired, I’d have chance to re-read some of them. But it’s not to be. I have other plans now. Instead, the local Hospice will benefit from their sale. The clear-out is throwing up other memories too, some of the stuff (if I have time) will end up on eBay but right now I’m knee-deep in boxes and crates.
Right, time to go. I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from an album I’m hoping to finish scanning in the next couple of days.
A view of a coconut palm during a glorious sunset, taken as I walked back down the 44 harpin bends in the road down the volcanic crater of Lake Maninjau in Sumatra in August 1998.
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As it’s Saturday I’m finally catching up with myself – hence two different days blogging…
I’m back to being stuck at home after a dose of fresh air and exercise yesterday. Whilst Dawn enjoyed a well-earned lie-in I sneaked out of bed and into the office to work through one of my old slide albums in order to get it ready for scanning. It’s one that got put to the back of the queue because it was a bit of a mess. It contains old slides returned from my Lonely Planet days, plus odd bits that had no homes as well as a selection from the very end of my slide-taking days in 2004 just before I went digital. I’d never got around to editing and collating them, so they’re a bit of a voyage of discovery as I try to identify when they were taken. Slides were a bugger in that respect as there’s no in-built EXIF data the way there is with digital. I have to rely on paper records to try and identify when they were taken. With some of them I haven’t got a clue. 22 years is a long time to think back. However, today I did scan a mixed batch which had been labelled. Next up will be a selection from Greece in 2003/04 which will take a little more sleuthing. Whatever, I’m happy to have chance to restart this project which has been stalled for quite some time. To my amazement, although my Nikon Coolscan’s been dormant for the best part of a year it fired up straight away and performed impeccably. Here’s one of the results.
This shot was taken in Sudder St, Calcutta way back in March 1998. Lynn and I were having breakfast just across the road at ‘Curd Corner’ when I spotted this guy having a bath on the street after having washed his clothes which are hanging up on the line behind him. The juxtaposition with the election posters behind set the scene.
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At last I feel human again. The aches have receded and life’s getting back to normal after a long frustrating week. Having got up early and spent the morning in the office in order to catch up with work and continue with the spring cleaning I actually escaped from the house for the first time. Dawn had to nip out to refuel the car and pick up the shopping, so I went with her, on the condition that (as I’m still testing positive) I didn’t go into any shops. Fine by me…
So, after calling in for petrol we headed on up to Norland Moor, a place where we used to go for regular walks but which just hasn’t been the same since the Moorcock Inn closed down, leaving the area without a welcoming watering hole to visit afterwards. Getting out for a walk in the fresh air high above the Ryburn and Calder valleys was lovely, despite the breeze and hazy cloud. Just to be out lifted my spirits. We didn’t venture too far as I didn’t want to push things, but I got more exercise than I had done all week.
Afterwards we drove down into Sowerby Bridge in order to pick up some shopping. As I was banned from venturing inside I retreated to the car-park fence to get a couple of pictures. You see, Tescos is built on the site of the old Sowerby Bridge railway good yard and the car park back onto the railway. Last year Network Rail cut back all the trees and shrubs that had obscured the view and opened up new picture possibilities of trains leaving the 657 yard long Sowerby Bridge tunnel. Like this;
195008 and 195017 arrive at Sowerby Bridge with 1E62, the 1227 Chester to Leeds. The old stone building to the right is the only structure that remains of Sowerby Bridge engine shed (closed in 1964).
Returning home the rest of the day was spent delving through various cupboards and crannies, rooting out more bits of junk as well as editing a few more pictures. I suspect the weekend won’t be much different – especially as the rain’s due to arrive. Still, a press invite’s arrived in my inbox today for an event early next month. It’ll be good to be back in the saddle…
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My first day where some sort of normality returned. As the Covid aches had receded and having had a good nights sleep I decided it was time to leave my sick-bed, dress and move back into the office. That didn’t mean pushing myself, far from it. I took the day steady. Part of the morning was spent catching up on the latest madness investing the world’s politics over a coffee (with the state of things, you should have added a Brandy to that! Ed) and a light breakfast before commuting across the landing to my workspace in the back bedroom. The very act of being up and about again helped to restore my spirits – as did the view from a different window, where I could watch a cross-section of our local bird population guzzle the oats I’d left out for them yesterday.
One of the jobs I was keen to start on was a spot of spring-cleaning by going through the cupboards and shelves in the office to see what was no longer needed. Stuff that could either be junked or saved to go on eBay if it had collectability. Lots of old paperwork ended up being binned and I have a stack of old diaries which joined the queue to be digitised. I kept a diary throughout my travels across Asia to Australia in 1991-92 and I’ve always meant to rewrite them into blogs showing what backpacking overland was like 34 years ago. I’ve even older ones from India in 1985-86 which would also tell a tale or two, but the ones I want to digitise now are more personal ones from the late 1980s which take up a lot of space in cupboards.
Having taken another Covid test I’m still showing up stongly positive so I’m shunning contact with others until I’m no longer infectious. I know the vast majority of people simply don’t bother anymore, but when a lot of your friends are either elderly or vulnerable, it seems the only decent thing to do. Besides, I’ve plenty of things to keep me occupied at home and Dawn’s not showing any signs of having caught the ‘rona’ off me. Dee’s been a star whilst I’ve been laid low and I’m keen to be able to take the pressure off her in return.
Spring clean over I hope to add a number of different items to eBay over the weekend, when the weather’s due to deteriorate. I’m also eyeing up restarting scanning old slides, a project which has stalled recently. I still have several albums here in the office which I’d really like to get done and dusted whilst I’m confined to barracks. So, whilst I might not be going anywhere physically I can travel around the world in old pictures, letters and through the memories they bring back!
For now I’ll leave you with a sample of one of those slides in the queue. I’ve loads of odds and sods from different times and places that were either misfiled or were part of the slide collection returned by ‘Lonely Planet’ many year ago. So, here’s one – not for rail enthusiasts, but petrol-heads!
Washing down an old Austin A35 (1952) which was still in daily use in Kandy, Sri Lanka back on the 2nd January 2003. In those days, vintage British cars weren’t an uncommon sight. The weather (no need to salt the roads) meant vehicles lasted for years. There were still some to be seen during my last visit in 2017, but I never encountered one of these again. Look how dinky it is compared to modern monster SUVs. No wonder roads are congested and towns and cities choked with traffic.
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Bliss! When I woke up this morning the Covid aches had receded. All I was left with was the remnants and the usual aches you get used to as part of everyday life at my age! I feel like I’m over the worst now, even my energy levels seemed to have increased. This gave me the confidence to drag my arse out of bed (with Nurse’s permission of course), get dressed and potter around the house. I even made it outside – but only as far as the back garden in order to feed the bird and top up their water supply! Today’s been another lovely sunny day which has also helped to lift my spirits. I’d have been tempted to have sat outside on the front bench in the sun but with temperatures still in single figures that might have been tempting fate! Still, the change of scenery was much appreciated – as was the ability to move into the office and get a few more things done ready for when I can venture further afield. Oh, and thank you to all those people who’ve wished me well!
There’s not going to be much of a blog from me today as I want to crack on with other things. I’ve a much longer blog I want to write which will be about my recent Norwegian trip, but first I need to do some more research. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture. Now that spring is very much in the air I’m looking forward to sights like this;
Hawthorn blossom in St James’ Park in London on the 30th March 2001. This picture was used in a Lonely Planet guide that year although I can’t remember whether it was the London or England guide now. The long-gone days when you could make money from pictures in travel guides…
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Four days in and Covid is still giving me grief. Whilst I don’t feel quite as crap as I did and managed to get a half-decent nights sleep the aches are still with me. Mind you, lying in bed all day doesn’t feel like it’s helping, but Nurse Dawn is insistent that’s where I should stay and I’m not going to argue with her as she’s probably right. I remember that I pushed myself too soon the first time I had Covid, which led to me tiring very quickly, so I’m not going to make that mistake again (even If I was allowed to). It is frustrating as we’ve had wall to wall sunshine today, although temperatures haven’t exactly matched. It’s still chilly up here in the Pennines although we’re promised warmer weather soon.
I’ve kept myself occupied dealing with paperwork and other admin tasks in order to feel like I’m achieving something. The rest of the time has been spent watching Netflix or watching the world going mad on social media. I can’t help thinking that if – say – 20 years ago you’d pitched what’s going on in the White House as a film script it would’ve been dismissed out of hand as too far-fetched and unrealistic. Now, nothing that Tangoed fool in Washington does surprises me. He’s clearly the best President that rubles can buy.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to rise from my sickbed tomorrow (if Nurses’ permission is granted) and start to potter around the house again. Just getting back in the office will be a welcome change of scenery. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is one of a bunch of archive pictures from 2018 I’ve rooted out to add to my Zenfolio website when time permits. It shows an aspect of the railways which is little changed in over 175 years.
The Signaller at Rainford Junction on the Kirby-Wigan line collects the single-line token from the Driver of a Wigan bound train. Kept in leather bags on the end of a metal loop these tokens are the authority to proceed for a train to travel over the single-track line from Rainford to Kirby. This form of train control is known as Absolute Block, only allowing one train onto a section of track at a time. There are fewer and fewer locations where you can see this happen due to signalboxes being abolished with token equipment being relocated to anonymous metal cabinets on station platforms which are opened by the train Driver, who uses a telephone to contact the nearest signalbox (which may be many miles away) in order to get the token released. Here’s an example. This is at Battersby in North Yorkshire.
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I’d forgotten just how shit having Covid is. I had a lousy nights sleep as the aches meant I just couldn’t get comfortable and settle. Trying to toss and turn whilst groaning silently in order not to disturb Dawn was an effort in itself. By the time it came to wake up I was knackered so ended up having a lie in, having guzzled Lemsip and swallowed Ibuprofen in order to feel vaguely normal. This has meant today’s been another one where I’ve confined myself to bed.
I have managed to get some things done, mostly research for future projects. Apart from that it’s been another frustrating day. I’m hoping the aches will ease tomorrow as I’m fed up of being bedridden. I want to be able to potter around the house but I remember from the first time I contracted Covid that it’s unwise to push oneself too quickly.
Sadly, being bedridden with access to the internet has meant I’ve spent far too much time paying attention to the implosion of democracy in the USA. Trump has been in office for less that two months but he and his fellow kleptocrats are making huge strides in turning the ‘land of the free’ into a dictatorship. God knows what that country will look like in six months time.
Today’s picture is to take my mind off all that crap. Much as I enjoy exploring cities sometime later this year I’ll need beach time and the opportunity to listen to the timeless sound of the sea breaking on a beach, as it has done for millions of years, well before our distant amphibian ancestors crawled out of the primordial oceans to start fucking the planet up. The question is – where? Maybe somewhere palm-fringed with golden sands like this?
One of the beaches at Tangalle on the South-Eastern coast of Sri Lanka, seen on the 30th December 2003. I left only footprints and took only pictures…
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By the end of last night I wasn’t feeling at my best. I was under the impression that I was coming down with a cold as I was aching and sneezing, the usual symptoms. This morning after a restless night’s sleep I felt like shit so stayed in bed as I also had the shivers. Dawn, fearing it was more than just a cold picked up a Covid test whilst she was out shopping. Within a minute of me completing the test two very strong lines showed up on the indicator, meaning I’ve contracted Covid for the 3rd time, which is going to screw my plans for the next few days. With the incubation period being between 1-14 days (with an average of 3-5) I could have contracted the ‘rona’ at either of the two events I’ve attended recently – or even somewhere else. Who knows? All I can do now is rest and hope it passes quickly. Still, now I have time to catch up on some reading. And maybe blogging too…
For now I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is of a type of establishment I won’t be visiting for a while until I’m no longer infectious (and feeling better). Here’s the Norfolk Arms pub in Marple Bridge, Greater Manchester.
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/
Paul Bigland 