I won’t even mention what the weather was like when I opened the bedroom blinds at 06:30 as you know the drill by now!

Thursday’s our ‘fun’ day as we escape the confines of the Calder Valley to do some essentials like check on the CRA office in Huddersfield and shop for Dawn’s parents.

But first we had a few chores and a bit of work to do at home in preparation, which meant we didn’t leave the house until 09:30. Driving over to Huddersfield took no time at all although the roads seemed busier than the past few times we’d done the trip. First stop was Sainsburys where the queue was moderate to fair. Everyone know the drill now. The only difference I noticed was that a lot more people are wearing masks compared to a fortnight ago. Both of us went in, me to shop for us two and Dawn for her parents. Most people were doing their best to social-distance but I did notice one thing – masks give people a false sense of security and some wearers get too complacent and too damn close!

What’s left on the shelves is still a bit of a lottery. Whilst the great bog-roll shortage had ended there’s still empty shelves, especially of tinned goods. I’m not sure if this is down to hoarding or problems along the supply chain. Some of the fruit and veg wasn’t top quality either but I think that’s down to whom the different supermarkets buy from. For examlle, the cauliflowers in Sainsbury’s are inferior to the ones in our local Tescos which are double the size and the same price.

Shopping done we headed over to the railway station so Dee could check on CRA’s water tower offices, sort out some paperwork and arrange for an electrician to get access to carry out a few repairs. Whilst she did I took advantage of the weather and a newly cleared vantage point to get a few rail pictures and keep my hand in!

Every train that passed contained a mere handful of people and the station itself was eerily quiet. The town centre was busier but not by much! Subtract the itinerant drunks and vagrants and there were few people with a purpose other than transit. Why would there be when bugger-all’s open!

By midday we’d done everything we needed to do apart from dropping off John and Norah’s shopping and having a (socially-distanced) chat over the garden gate before driving home cross-country via quiet roads that must be great fun for the cyclists who use bikes for their exercise. What could be more ideal  – sunshine and empty roads!

Having returned to lockdown and deposited the shopping Dawn prepared a lovely tuna salad lunch which we sat and ate together in the garden whilst watching the world go by, soaking up some sun before we both returned to work for a few more hours. Whilst I was in the garden I noticed this water droplet on a Lupin leaf, which seemed like a good excuse to dig the camera out and play around with the micro lens.

 Seeing as there’s little opportunity for railway shots at the moment and I’m missing the creativity of using my camera I just might start playing around in the garden more. The time of year’s ideal as life is springing eternal all over the place. I’m seeing some unusual butterflies too, so hopefully, once I’ve got the work done that I need to do right now I can spend some time experimenting. 

Another day that merges into the ones before…

The weather remains lovely. We had another glorious start to the day that is kind of frustrating as we’d normally be looking at heading out for a long walk locally or thinking of a trip out somewhere. Dawn’s missing the seaside, but there’s little chance of us seeing the coast for quite some time! That said, I really can’t complain about where we’re in lockdown. We have fantastic views across the Calder Valley from our home. A South facing garden that’s a bit of a sun-trap, we’re surrounded by woodland and we’re within walking distance of some really beautiful places.

The pair of us pottered round for most of the day. I caught up with some blogging and scanning yet more old slides before the pair of us got stuck into some domestic chores. The cottage we live in isn’t exactly large which is a double-edged sword. It gets cluttered quickly, but it’s also easy to clean! Both of us are trying to de-clutter at the moment. If the covid pandemic has taught us anything it’s what’s important and what isn’t. I’m trying to be less sentimental and more pragmatic about what I keep and what goes. I’ve stuff sat in boxes that I’ve not opened in the 10 years since I moved from London, which is a pretty good indicator that I probably don’t need it. OK, there’s other stuff of historical value as well as sentimental, but that’s where I’m trying to exercise judgements. Plus, am I really going to re-read books that I’ve had since I was 19, much as I loved them then? The difficult decision is deciding what to give to charity shops (when they reopen) or what might actually be worth a few bob if I sold it.

After indulging in chores we did get some time to just kick back and enjoy sitting in the garden, soaking up the sun and watching the world go by (at a safe distance, of course). Eventually we managed to get out for our daily stroll and completed our well-trodden circuit through the local woods, up to the promenade and around Savile Park and back. A lot of people were doing the same and the overwhelming majority who were doing so were respecting social-distancing. The only ones who weren’t were a group of 6 young Asian lads on the promenade who’d turned up in a mates car. They were soon visited by the police and the local community liaison team who know the area’s a hotspot for such behaviour. They were split up and moved on. Their braggadocio cut no ice with anyone. The sad thing is that these young people come from a group who studies are showing are disproportionately at risk from Covid-19. Statistics are highlighting that a third of patients in critical care are from BAME communities. It’s mad and you wonder how the message is going to be got across to some people.

Having exercised we headed back for another evening in lockdown, although it was actually a social evening. The ‘6 from the 6’ had arranged to try out staying in touch via Zoom. It was all a bit farcical at first as we tried to get used to a system only Dawn had used before, but we got there in the end and for 90 minutes Dawn and I, Aubrey and Fran, Kath and Tony chatted away about everything and nothing. It’s nowhere near as much fun as meeting up in the pub, but it’s a damned sight safer right now! Zoom worked a lot better than trying to do the quiz on Snapchat, so now we’ve test-driven the platform we’ll use it for next Friday’s quiz. Ain’t technology wonderful?

Oh, those old slides I’ve been scanning. Right now they fall into three gallery categories. There’s all the British Rail locomotives and general railway views – which you can find in this gallery but there’s also two others I’ve not really mentioned before. I’ve always been interested in railway signalling and signalboxes, so I created a separate gallery for them and a lot of the old pictures I’ve scanned recently are of boxes that are long-gone. Here’s a link. Also, I used to enjoy hunting out and photographing some of the old vehicles that ended their days in the departmental fleet. Back in the late 80s early 90s there were still quite a few knocking around. You can find pictures of them here. There’s lots more to come over the next few weeks…