Tag Archives: Musings

18th July picture of the day…

18 Tuesday Jul 2023

Posted by in Calder Valley, Musings, Photography, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

It’s been another varied day here at Bigland Towers – well, apart from the weather – which has stayed uniformly awful, leaving the valley sodden and the skies leaden. Not that it impacted on my morning as a lot of it was spent on a Community Rail Network webinar where myself and many of my fellow awards judges were available to discuss next years awards and how people who wanted to compete could maximise the impact of their entries. It was a very good session with lots of people taking part, which is always good to see. Having direct access to the judges and being able to hear from them first hand on what makes a good application is something few organisations do.

Webinar over and with the rain having abated I walked into Halifax to pick up my new glasses. I must admit, I was rather excited, mainly because I’ve deviated from the style I’ve worn for some time. I’m finding the new, rounder glasses really good as my upward field of vision’s improved. I’m looking forward to trying them out with the camera – oh, and playing pool at one of our local sessions. I’d found my old-style glasses restricted my vision on long-shots so I’m curious to see if these new ‘bins’ help. Those of a certain age and interest may remember the 1980s snooker player Dennis Taylor who had glasses made especially so they sat high on this face to allow him to see the far ends of snooker tables. I’ve nothing that extreme (thank God!) but the principle’s the same. Of course, if they do help that’s the end of that excuse for a lousy shot!

My foray into Halifax also allowed me to get my full complement of exercise steps in today, a feat the recent weather’s make very difficult some days – unless one wants to resemble a drowned rat. Hopefully, I may be able to sally forth with the camera tomorrow when the weather improves and begin to tick off some of the locations requested by a client. I have a choice – East or West. At the moment to forecast is suggesting West may be the better option and camera capers always end up with me clocking up the footfall miles.

For now, I’ll leave you with today’s picture. I don’t often post pictures of yours truly, but today’s an exception. Here’s the new look which will be complete just as soon as I’ve had a haircut!

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

17th July picture(s) of the day…

17 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by in Calder Valley, Climate Change, Food and drink, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

And so another week begins here at Bigland Towers. In the interests of sanity I’ve decided to hold off on any political polemic for now as I want to start the week in a positive frame of mind. There’s certainly plenty to look forward to – large and small – although the weather’s done it’s best to put a damper on things to start! Forget heatwaves and record temperatures in other parts of the world. Here in the Pennines we’ve had several days of wet weather, including today when we were treated to some torrential rain this morning. Of course, this tends to encourage the climate changer deniers who’re incapable of getting through their thick heads the difference between climate and weather. And don’t even ask about trends such as average temperatures or rainfall levels- their eyes will glaze over. Anyone with half a brain can sense for themselves that our climate is not what it was. The problem is – too few people seem to want to do anything about it if it means changing their lifestyles.

Sorry, I said I wasn’t going to get into a polemic! The weather’s looking iffy around here for a few more days, which is a shame as I’ve a long list of photographs I need to take. Still, tomorrow I’m picking up my new glasses which I’m rather looking forward to as I’m changing from the style I’ve worn for more years than I care to remember. You’ll see the results tomorrow.

As the weather was hardly a photographers dream I’ve been busy at home sorting out more eBay sales. pictures for clients and swearing at a filing disaster. I was digging through recent archives stored on hard-drives when I discovered that a computer glitch meant that I have 780 recent pictures which all have the same picture number and caption! Oh, how I laughed! Thankfully, the images loaded onto my Zenfolio website are correct. Plus, I file captioned pictures as JPEGs and backup files as RAW on different hard-drives. So, I can combine both file types to see what the correct number should be. Then it’s just a time-consuming pain in the arse to rename all the pictures as they’re not consecutively numbered. That job can wait…

This evening I tore myself away from work to indulge in a spot of cooking therapy. It’s something I really enjoy doing and it takes the pressure off Dawn who’s up to her ears in work at the moment. Tonight we went for an old staple – Chana Masala. It’s a classic North Indian Vegetarian dish that’s easy to make (if you have all the spices) is tasty – and not too time consuming. So, today’s pictures are mostly of food – except for one…

When cooking I like to have all my ingredients prepared in advance…
Nearly there. There’s only the chickpeas and some of their water left to add once the tomatoes have reduced. The smell of the melange of spices is divine.

Apart from cooking – and shopping (we hit out local Indian supermarket earlier to stock up on some goodies) I did manage to enjoy a short therapeutic walk in our local woods when the deluge was over and the sun blessed the evening, lighting up my walk. Here’s Long Wood as it was earlier.

As if my culinary efforts weren’t enough Dawn also decided to indulge in some cooking therapy this evening and produced one of her divine gluten-free Bakewell tarts. There’s a meeting at the Community Rail Network offices in Huddersfield tomorrow to do with the rebuilding of the station, so Dee decided to take in something rather special and personal instead of a few packets of biscuits…

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

5th July picture of the day…

05 Wednesday Jul 2023

Posted by in Musings, Picture of the day, Railways, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

There’s only a short blog from me today as there’s not an awful lot to report as I’ve been chained to Bigland Towers for most of the day, only getting out for a short walk earlier this afternoon. The weather’s still below par for the time of year, with blustery winds and low temperatures – although we have had some dramatic cloud formations to entertain us. Thankfully, they didn’t bring any more rain with then today. Today’s gainful employment has included adding a few more Northern rail pictures to my website, which you can find here, plus uploading another batch of old slides and railway memorabilia for sale on eBay which you can find here.

Today’s picture is of a rare item that I’ve added to eBay. It’s a limited edition Wedgewood plate and first day cover from the opening of the Docklands Light Railway in London on the 31st August 1987. Only 110 of these plate were produced. They were given to staff working on the railway when it opened and each one has the individual details on the back of the plate. If you fancy it, feel free to bid here.

I’ll be busy working from home again tomorrow, but I hope to be able to finish my earlier picture blog and history of the Alstom built Class 180 ‘Coradia’ fleet.

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

3rd July picture of the day…

03 Monday Jul 2023

Posted by in Calder Valley, Climate Change, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Hmm, it’s been a wet start to the week here in the Calder valley and hardly a brilliant start to July – especially after hot weather we had in June. I see that the Met Office have declared June the warmest on record, which is hardly surprising. I was watching the daily forecasts (not from the Met Office) which showed average temperatures being broken day after day. Of course, this news has brought out the mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging climate change deniers out in force on social media. Their best conspiracy theory has been that it’s only the hottest because the Met Office have fiddled previous years figures to make it look that way. Proof (if ever it were needed) that they’re not the sharpest tools in the box – and neither are the people who fall for them.

Still, after the heavy and persistent rain we had this morning I was rather pleased to see the sun this afternoon – even if the high-winds that have battered us for several days took the edge off the temperatures. Both Dee and I have been busy working from home today but we did manage to get out for a rare joint walk, which was lovely. The local woods are bursting with life at the moment. So much so that some of the footpaths are becoming obstacle courses due to all the brambles and nettles. I’ll not complain too much as I may be able to pick a good crop of Blackberries again and Dee’s threatening to have a go at harvesting Bilberries – something that are alien to me. Still, with Dawn being such a fantastic cook – if she wants to rustle up a few Bilberry pies I’m not going to complain. Maybe we can do a trade with my sister Anne for some of her home-grown and made Gooseberry pies…

The weather’s looking pretty crap for the rest of the week but I’ve things to do tomorrow so I’ll be out and about in some form whatever happens. With luck I may be able to get a blog from the day. In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which reflects how the weather and the seasons can change the landscape around here. This is the very first picture I took from our bedroom window when I moved here from London in January 2010.

Looking across to Norland from our home on the 3rd January 2010. We have had snow in June here in the Pennines – but not like this! Ironically, with global warming making weather patterns more unpredictable, we may have more scenes like this – but not in July – unless we’ve completely screwed the planet!

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

29th June picture of the day…

29 Thursday Jun 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways, Turkey, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Here I am, almost in July – wondering where the bloody hell the year’s going! 2023’s certainly had its interesting moments so far, but I feel that I’ve a long list of things I want to do/see/achieve and I’m only scratching the surface in a race against time.

I’d intended to get out and about today but realised I’d more than enough things to do here at Bigland Towers – especially as I had a couple of hours set aside this afternoon to be part of a ‘Zoom’ seminar. Us Community Rail judges have made ourselves available on 2-hour long scheduled Q&A sessions to help people with their entries for the CRN awards. After the last one I’d contemplated holding the surgery whilst I was travelling but that wouldn’t have been fair on those popping in as you just know technology would let you down at the crucial moment.

So, I stayed at home, ignored the good(ish) weather and edited loads of pictures and dealt with paperwork instead. You can find the latest batch of pictures in the following galleries. Railway stations are here, whilst railway infrastructure and engineering is here. Borth galleries relate to my travels yesterday.

This evening I’ve been busy in the kitchen, giving Dawn a break after her culinary endeavors on our Norfolk holiday. Tonight’s effort was batch-cooking Thai green curry with chicken, which should keep us well fed for a few days and the freezer topped up for the future.

Of course, tomorrow’s another day. Will I make it out anywhere? Let’s wait and see. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture. As I was wading through the archives earlier I realised there’s one batch of pictures I still haven’t done anything with. These are the transport pictures from our visit to Turkey nearly two months ago. Eventually, they’ll go in their own gallery on my Zenfolio website, but for now, here’s a taste.

Modern trams in Sultanhamet Square. If only more cities had this greener form of transport.

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

4th June picture of the day…

04 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in Merseyrail, Merseyside, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Railways

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

After my meandering around Merseyside I’m back home in the Calder valley. We’ve had another day of glorious sunshine but I didn’t have chance to enjoy much of it as I’ve been stuck in the office most of the day in order to edit all the pictures I’ve taken and get the Class 777 train test pictures across to RAIL magazine ready for Monday. Whilst I was at it I thought I might as well keep going and get all the other pictures from last week edited, captioned and onto my Zenfolio website.

You can find the Merseyrail images here, plus the Northern trains pictures here. There’s also a look at some stations (which you can find here) and also several new infrastructure images (here). To round things off I’ve now added the pictures from the last two train tests. So, if you want to have a look around the interiors of West Midlands trains new Class 196’s click here, whilst Transport for Wales Class 197 interior shots are here.

Now I’ve got these out of the way I can (hopefully) make the most of next week. I’ve another project to get my teeth into which involves reviews of certain scenic rail lines around the UK so good weather is essential. June’s looking like a busy month so there should be plenty to blog about.

But, right now, I’m going to call it a day. Dawn’s been busy experimenting with our new kitchen toy – a double-drawer air-fryer and the smells that are wafting upstairs from the kitchen are divine. So, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which is of one of the new Stadler Class 777s which are starting to enter service on Merseyside. At the moment they’re only working Northern line services from Liverpool to Kirkby and Ormskirk but they’ll be rolled out west of the Mersey soon. The Eurovision song contest led to one of the units having special vinyl’s applied which have left it looking very colourful indeed. They’ll last for another couple of months, so catch it whilst you can.

777013 calls at Maghull whilst working a service from Ormskirk to Liverpool Central.

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!

22nd May picture of the day…

22 Monday May 2023

Posted by in Flora and Fauna, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Apologies for the lack of blogging these past couple of days but I decided to take the weekend off – something I’ve not done for a long time. Writing a daily blog can be time-consuming and the past few days I’ve been concentrating on other things – such as the glorious weather we had on Saturday and Sunday! The wall-to-wall sunshine we enjoyed made me want to spend as much time outdoors and away from computer screens, so that’s what I did. Instead, I swapped the office for the garden and spent a lot of time on Saturday repotting plants, tidying up the front and back gardens and trimming back some young saplings which are taking over land at the back of Bigland Towers. The place looks a lot better for the work and I feel virtuous as I expended a lot of energy doing it!

The only strange thing is we seem to have inherited some mad birds. A crow took an irrational dislike to a mirror which I’d propped up on the terrace at the back as it enabled me to see what the weather was like coming in across the valley. The crow spent two days smashing the mirror to pieces! The umbrella dish bird-feeder outside my office window became the target of a pigeon which has learned that if it attacks it all the seeds are scattered to the cobbles below so the greedy creature can hoover them up. Looks like I’ll have to come up with a plan B…

Today the weather reverted to type. Temperatures are still above normal (18-19 degrees instead of the average 15 for this time of year) but cloud cover has been with us for the afternoon. Dee and I still managed to get out for a couple of walks through the woods – which are gorgeous, but the Bluebells are past their best. So, today’s picture is what’s replacing them in several people’s gardens (including mine). Azaleas.

There’s not going to me much time for woodland walks for the rest of the week as we’ve both busy schedules. Expect a rolling blog tomorrow as I’ll be out and about on the Aire valley line and up to the Settle and Carlisle railway as part of community rail week. Then later in the week I’ll be in Beeston and Matlock – and no doubt a few other places too. Plus, there’s a birthday girl to treat this week…

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!

12th May picture of the day…

12 Friday May 2023

Posted by in Flora and Fauna, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, West Yorkshire

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Another short blog from me at the end of another day dominated as much by the weather as anything else. Call this May? It’s bleedin’ freezing! Today Dawn and I went out for a light lunch with her parents over at Totties garden centre in ‘Last of the summer wine’ territory just outside Holmfirth. They have a good cafe there where John and Norah are regulars. The only problem is Totties is on the side of a hill and a stiff breeze left the place ‘Baltic’! I was glad we had a nice warm cafe to seek refuge in. It was hardly salad weather so three of us ended up ordering Sausage, chips and mushy peas with onion gravy, which was far more suitable – and warming.

Of course, I couldn’t resist a mooch around after eating so I left the others in the cafe and checked out what was on offer. They have a good range of plants but it was some of the plastic pots that really caught my eye as they had stuff in sizes and at prices I can’t find around home. In the end, I didn’t buy any but I’ve certainly got my eye on a few for the future when I’ve done some more changes to the terraces at the back of the house. I did end up with a couple of plants but they were indoor ones. I spied a plant I’d not owned for years. In fact, it’s so long ago I can’t even remember where and when it was I had it. I suspect it was in my flat in East London, but the memory’s hazy. It’s called Hypoestes. They’re small plants that have attractive pink polka dot leaves, although I also managed to pick up a red-leaved one too – all for £4.50. Back at their house Norah dived into the greenhouse and shared some Gladioli bulbs with me and some ‘Golden Rod’ which we dug out of the front garden. This will add a splash of colour to the back of the house later in the year.

It wasn’t the weather for hanging around in the garden so we quickly bade goodbye and came home to the warm, where Dawn’s stayed ever since (sensible woman!) whilst I potted up my new acqusitions before heading out for a walk to get my remaining steps in. I’ve always said the two valley’s (Calder and Colne) have their own microclimates and today was another example. The temperature at home felt a couple of degrees warmer than over in Huddersfield, but then we do benefit from being on the sheltered side of the valley and South facing, so we catch the sun. I’m hoping we’ll catch more of it tomorrow as the weather’s due to pick up, then I can get more jobs done around the place.

To round of the day I’ve spent some time editing travel pictures from Turkey which you can find in this gallery. There’s many more to add yet, so today’s picture is a sample. Here’s the inside of the magnificent blue Mosque, looking up into the domed roof.

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!

4th May picture of the day…

04 Thursday May 2023

Posted by in Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Politics, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

We’ve had another mixed day here at Bigland Towers. On opening the bedroom blinds this morning it was obvious the glorious sunshine we’d had yesterday was a flash in a pan as the view across the valley was hampered by low cloud and poor visibility. Temperatures weren’t exactly balmy either! As the pair of us had plenty to keep us occupied with at home the weather wasn’t much of a problem – although sunshine and blue skies does help lift the spirits.

The weather certainly didn’t stop us voting in the local elections. Nor did the new need for photo ID. That’s because we’d already voted! For many years now we’ve had postal votes so our returns were in. I can’t help thinking the whole photo ID idea is a scam on the part of the Tories to stop people voting. Recorded cases of voter fraud have always been tiny, so why the sudden need for photographic ID? Plus, if I remember correctly, when there have been minor cases of impersonation it’s been with postal ballots – for which you don’t need ID! I’ll be very interested to see how this scheme pans out and if it backfires on the Tories in the was some observers are suggesting. Some older people (likely Tory voters) don’t have photographic ID and may well struggle to be allowed to vote. There would be a delicious irony if we see shrinkage in the Tory vote because the ‘wrong sort’ of voters have been disenfranchised!

Of course, the results won’t be clear until tomorrow and I’m not going to be staying up to watch as the pair of us have better things to do tomorrow. Dawn’s spent the day toiling like a Stakhanovite in order to clear as much of her work as possible before turning off her computer this evening ready for the next few days.

Me? I’ve been busy too although I did have a side trip to our local GPs in order to have check-up that I’m overdue for. Fair credit to our local surgery down in Sowerby Bridge. I only rang them about an appointment this morning yet they managed to squeeze me in to see a GP by 15:00! That’s an impressive service, but then they’ve always been good.

Now it’s late in the evening and the pair of us are packing, ready to head off to Turkey tomorrow whilst leaving the cottage in good order for our friends who’ll be looking after the place whilst we’re away. No doubt I’ll be doing some blogging over the next few days whilst I’m away, just don’t expect them to be mammoth travel guides to Istanbul as we’re going with the other members of the ‘5 from the 6’ so the intention’s to have fun!

It’s a good time to go, the UK weather forecast’s not looking good for the next few days. Plus, as a republican and not a royalist the next few days of Coronation fever and forelock tugging is something I’m happy to miss – especially when I reflect on the state of the UK economy right now. I’ve nothing against Charles (in fact, I rather like him) but there’s a whiff of ‘bread and circuses’ in the air that hopefully won’t travel as far as Turkey, although I suspect some of our number will be happy to watch the pageantry, pomp and circumstance on ‘catch-up’…

OK, time to go. Today’s picture is from the last time the ‘5 from the 6’ went on a jaunt which was to Berlin this time last year. Here’s the Oberbaum bridge which became an important crossing point between East and West during the ‘Cold War’ years.

I’m looking forward to being let loose in Istanbul with the camera, but I think hoping for blue skies like this may be optimistic…

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!

2nd May picture of the day…

02 Tuesday May 2023

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

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!