There’s been a dank and dismal start to the week here in the Calder valley, which is hardly surprising as that’s how last week ended so set the tone. Sunday was miserable weather-wise as low clouds and rain obscured the sides of the valley and made walking a very damp experience. Today’s been little better, the only bright spot being the fact the weather’s still mild, for now at least.
I’ve spent the majority of the day at home, ploughing through yet more picture editing and filing. I’ve only a few more left to do now before I’m up to date. All but a handful of the Portuguese pictures have been uploaded to my Zenfolio website. You can find the railway ones here and the travel pictures here.
With the weather looking the same for tomorrow I’m planning to have another day working at home and staying warm and dry – although with the autumn leaves starting to take on some dramatic colours I’m hoping there may be an opportunity for some pictures in the surrounding woodland when I get out for a walk. If not, I’ll be able to catch up on some blogging as I did manage to get out last Friday, even if was only as far as Brighouse!
In the meantime, here’s an illustration of how the Calder valley looked yesterday.
Wet and windy, with Norland moor on the opposite side of the valley hidden by low clouds.
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Tuesday’s the new Monday here at Bigland Towers, at least for this week due to a long weekend. I’ll blog about our final day in Chester and environs tomorrow. I’d hoped to have written it up today but I’ve been up to my eyeballs in picture editing, paperwork, fixing lights in the house and keeping an eye on a poorly wife! Poor Dawn’s coming down with some form of lurgi, so I’m dusting down my nurses uniform…
To add insult to injury, her car is playing up too. We started getting error messages from its computer yesterday, but they cleared and we drove back without an issue. This afternoon they returned – with a vengeance! Everything that could flash red did – and then some. Yet again, they mysteriously disappeared and we were able to complete our mission of picking up a new light-switch to replace the one that had blown the other day. But tomorrow the phone line to Honda is going to be buzzing. Dee’s only spent over £1600 on a new timing belt and other gubbins for her Honda Civic but it’s been a PITH ever since and had to go back for rectification once already after it started burning so much oil you’d have thought someone had elected a new Pope! Ho Hum…
We have another ‘treat’ in store for tomorrow – a trip to the dentist and hygienist, so it won’t just be the car getting some attention. So, as you can see, today’s not quite gone to plan…
I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which is from yesterdays explorations. I’ll leave you guessing where this was taken until tomorrow. Unless you want to post a guess?
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After a hectic and much-travelled week I’ve had a relaxing day here at Bigland Towers. Well, when I say relaxing, static is probably a better word as much of my day’s been spent staring at a computer screen as I continue to edit hundreds of pictures that I’ve taken over these past few weeks. That said, there’s quite a variety, so I’m never going to get bored! One minute I’m looking at the Duoro valley in Portugal, then conference attendees in Nottingham and the next – lots of us dressed in PPE as we wander around a rail training school in Swindon!
Most of the important pictures are now done, which allowed me time to nip up to my local pub to indulge in the Friday quiz with friends – a luxury I’ve not had for a while. Now I’m back at home to spend some quality time with Dawn and enjoy the latest series of ‘Have I Got New For You’ on TV.
The weekend will see us both travelling. A while ago Dawn booked tickets for us to see former UK astronaut Tim Peake giving a lecture in Chester on Sunday afternoon. We’ve decided to make a weekend of it so we’ve booked a hotel in the town for Saturday and Sunday night. Expect a blog or two whilst we’re there…
For now, I’ll leave you with today’s picture, which was taken in Swindon on Wednesday.
800314 arrives at Swindon whilst working 1C18, the 1430 London Paddington to Weston-super-Mare.
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After a welcome night at home, I’ve repacked my bags (which are now full of my PPE) and begun my journey across country to Swindon in Wiltshire to join the rest of the PWI team abd delegates for this year’s electrification challenge at the Network Rail training school at Cocklebury sidings.
My route avoids London, which means I’m taking a truly Cross-Country route to Leeds. From there, I pick up an XC train that goes via Sheffield, Derby, Birmingham and Cheltenham to Bristol Parkway. On arrival, I change for a GWR train for the hop to Swindon. What could possibly go wrong?
I’m about to find out…
Off to Swindon. Me that is, this train’s off to York!
The first leg of my journey was easy. Dawn was a star and dropped me off at Halifax station, which allowed me to bank some time in Leeds as I was able to catch an earlier train than I’d planned. A busy 3-car heading for York carried me to Leeds via Bradford – without any of the problems we encountered yesterday.
The ‘mobile office’ had to stay in my camera bag, meaning this first part of the blog was typed on my phone.
10:40.
I’m relaxing at Leeds and making use of the free station wifi to post this blog.
Checking real time trains it seems my next train is (mercifully) made up of two four-car Voyagers and is (almost) on time on its journey from Scotland.
Leeds platforms 15-16 used to be almost exclusively used by Trans-Pennine Express. I still do a double-take when I see a Northern service using one.
11:11.
All’s well with the world. OK, admittedly I’m really on a cramped 4-car Voyager, but we’re on time, I have a window seat, working plug socket, and WiFi- so I’m counting that as a win – despite the fact I now have a bum-numbing 3 hrs 12 mins on this train.
Ready for the road…
Now it’s time to set up the mobile office to get some work done…
12:15.
I’ve retraced yesterday’s steps as far as Chesterfield. We’re running a couple of minutes late but that’s hardly a problem. My car on this train is blissfully quiet. We’ve had people come and go at Wakefield or Sheffield, but there’s been no major influx. One of the ironies of Cross-Country services is that – despite the length of the diagram (this train’s travelling from Glasgow to Plymouth) most passengers are taking far shorter journeys. I don’t know what the statistics are now, but the average used to be about 50 miles. It’s no wonder the moquette gets so worn, that’s a lot of bums on a single seat in the course of the diagram!
Room to breathe. Unusual on Cross-Country.
12:55.
We’re now past Tamworth and well into the Midlands, heading West. This has been one of the most relaxed cross-country journeys I’ve had in a long time. After leaving Derby we passed the old Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, where the giant cooling towers overshadow the railway. It was the UKs last coal-fired power station and closed last year. Now it’s been slated for demolition. These structures dominated a lot of the skyline around where I now live but are vanishing one by one. Of course, the collieries that once fuelled them have already vanished. The line’s skyline’s changing. A new landmark is the viaducts of HS2’s triangular junction for the lines out of Birmingham, which is really taking shape. In fact, HS2 construction dominates much of this route into (and out of) Birmingham.
13:20.
We’ve left Birmingham to follow a far more relaxed and less contentious form of transport construction – a canal! Well, I say that, but I know Nimbys still existed in the 18th century – but they were landowners and the gentry rather than ordinary people! Despite an influx of passengers in Brum this train’s still got plenty of free seats – thank God for a double set. If this had been a single 4-car Voyager we’d be playing Sardines. I’ve had a walk-through this train. There’s three people in 1st Class, whist Standard class has loadings of around 20%
One of my reasons for a walk-through (other than curiosity) was to grab something to eat. Foolishly, I hadn’t prepared anything before I left so was reliant on on-board catering. Only the trolley service as far as Birmingham was bereft of anything substantive. It was snack-bars or nothing. But, after a crew change – we had butties from Brum!
It may be white bread, but it was still a decent sandwich.
17:00.
I’m in Swindon after a fault-free journey. Sadly, I have to report that the town’s not got any better and is still a sh*thole. That said, I have gone for a walk uphill into the old town in order to get my steps in. The old town’s much nicer. You know a town’s a mess when the only thing that brightens it up is street art. Here’s a few pics from my stroll…
A lovely, relaxed pub with a modern interior.This brightens up your day… I passed a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside BBC Wiltshire. I wonder if they’ll report on it? More street art..Yet more street art..Are you sure? I suspect that with some clients, a verbal announcement may be more useful…
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We’ve spent our day here in West Yorkshire being battered by ‘storm Amy’, the latest weather front to pass through and cause chaos as it brought torrential rain and heavy winds that ripped small branches off the trees opposite the cottage. Not that the conditions affected us that much as we had no plans to do anything other than stay at home – which we did!
Whilst the rain battered on the windows the pair of kept occupied with various work tasks as both of us had stuff to catch up on. I’ve still got a backlog of pictures to edit and caption before next week, whilst Dawn’s keen to get on top of her work before the two of us head off to Nottingham for the Community Rail Network conference.
Eventually, the storm abated long enough for me to get out for a walk and do some shopping in order to cook this evening. I fancied trying a different Indian recipe, so after scouring various cookbooks I plumped for a North Indian dish – chicken in a cashew nut sauce. Our extensive spice collection meant the only things I needed to buy was chicken from Tesco and fresh coriander from our local Asian supermarket. As I feel in the mood I also bought bunches of Methi (Fenugreek leaves) to use in another recipe.
Here’s a few phone pictures of my day.
Walking back from shopping I stopped off on the promenade to watch the weather. I love a good storm and as I was wearing full waterproofs I wasn’t too perturbed watching the latest rain front approach along the Calder valley.Dropping down from the promenade I walked through Scarr woods which were showing the effects of the storm. Even though, it was a lovely, peaceful place to walk. The ingredients for tonight’s meal – bar a bit of plain yoghurt…
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October’s got off to a slow start, mainly because I’ve spent most of the day glued to a computer screen as I continue to clear the backlog of picture editing, along with associated paperwork. My optimism that I’d broken the back of editing all my Portugal pictures turned out to be misplaced. As I integrated all the edited and captioned pictures back into the main database I realised just how many pictures from the Douro valley and elsewhere I’d skipped. They’ve now joined the queue to be dealt with by the end of the week.
I did manage to get out for my daily constitutional by wandering down the valley into Sowerby Bridge in order to pick up some shopping, the first time I’ve visited the town since we’ve got back. Sadly, despite the opening of the refurbished market square the rest of the place seems to remain in decline. The number of vacant shops has increased, another pub appears to have closed (the ‘Sore Bee’. That’s two going now as the ‘Loose Goose’ is to be converted into HMOs, a laundrette and office space) and the canal remains closed to traffic due to low water levels. In fact, the Rochdale canal resembles more of a flowerbed with a water feature than a canal! Here’s a few camera-phone pictures from my excursion.
Oh, to be back in Portugal…
The Rochdale canal looking towards Tuel Lane lock. It’s haighly unusual to see it like this so late in the years, although this section being closed to navigation is becoming more frequent due to lack of rainfall. In contrast to the canal the River Calder has obviously been high in recent weeks – hence this old tree stuck on the weir, which is a recent addition. I wonder how long it’ll remain stuck there? One thing we’ve seen in abundance this year has been fruits and berries. We’ve had a cracking blackberry season and acorns aplenty. This bush in the centre of town is showing the same spirit.
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I’ve rather enjoyed September. Admittedly, spending half of it in Portugal helped! Talking of which, I’ve broken the back of editing pictures from our tour. You can find the majority of them in these two galleries;
Plus, there’s a few others that you’ll find in the ships and shipping gallery.
Picture editing has consumed most of these past few days as I’ve been busy getting stuff out to clients whilst updating my Zenfolio website – and discussing a future project that will utilise some of the library pictures that I’ve been adding to it. Now, the pressure’s off a little so I may be able to have a day out this week, depending on how much I get done tomorrow as I prepare for a busy week next week. I’ll be in Nottingham for the Community Rail Network conference, then heading to Swindon for another job with the PWI when the focus will be on overhead electrification instead of track. I only hope that the weather Gods smile on us again. Whatever, my camera’s certainly going to be kept busy!
In the meantime, here’s today’s picture, which is from Portugal. Regular readers of this blog will know I have many interests, including railways – and architecture. Sometimes they combine, like this;
This is the magnificent concourse of São Bento (Saint Benedict in English) railway station in Porto. Construction started in 1904 and faced many challenges over the years before it was completed. It was designed by Porto architect José Marques da Silva. It’s famous for the murals, which represent moments in the country’s history and depict rural scenes showing the people of various regions. In the late afternoons this area is packed with tourists on guided tours who’re there to admire these glorious murals and learn about the history. There’s not many railway stations around the world that are on tourist maps like this!
You can find many more pictures of São Bento if you click on the link I posted earlier in this blog.
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/
Which has been a bit of a shock to be honest. Neither of us were ready to return to the UK as we were enjoying our time in Portugal far too much. Travelling around the country makes one realise how elements of the UK are becoming far too much like the USA nowadays, rather then the continent we’re far more akin to and share a long history with. Europe.
Fortunately, Donald Trump left as we arrived, so we missed all the performative nonsense about his state visit. Our flight back from Faro to Leeds/Bradford went without any hitches and we breezed through passport control and baggage which allowed us to get home by taxi an hour after landing. Another positive was that the far-right flag-shaggers and roundabout painters efforts hardly registered en-route, apart from a few home-made flags of St George (that patron saint who was actually a Turkish mercenary who never once set foot on these islands) in one patch around Leeds.
Now the reality of being back is sinking in. Especially the weather! Today we’ve had wall to wall rain. It’s never stopped it’s just altered in levels. So, for the first day in a very long time my step count is well below par. Instead, I’ve been busy trying to make a dent in picture editing and preparing for getting back to work next week. Sorting out all the Portuguese pictures will take some time, but you’ll be able to find them in the following galleries. One’s devoted to the rail images, and whilst this one’s the travel shots.
I did manage to venture out a couple of times later in the day. Dawn wanted to cook a curry tonight, which involved driving to our local supermarket to pick up some shopping. Whilst she was busy being the hostess with the mostest I took advantage of a gap in the rain to walk up to our local pub for a swift(ish) pint of bitter – so welcome after two weeks of lager drinking – and a catch-up with friends before walking home again. Only this time the weather was expecting me, as you can see from this video of my sodden walk back down the cobbled hill from the Big 6 to home. When the rain’s heavy, the street doubles as a stream.
Tomorrow’s weather promises better things. Sunshine even! The pair of us plan to get out for a little while – there might even be a reservoir blog because of it! Then it’ll be time to prepare for a busy week which will see me travelling to South Wales for a rather interesting rail event. Watch this space…
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Well, we’ve made it to Leeds/Bradford airport, which is a start, although it wasn’t without hiccups! We’d had a leisurely morning finishing our packing and making sure the cottage was shipshape for the friends who’ll be looking after it whilst we were away – then it was time to go. The taxi got us to Halifax station in plenty of time, but that’s where things went wrong. I’d checked train times earlier in the day when everything seemed tickety-boo. Only, in the intervening time a signalling failure had occurred, causing delays and cancellations in the area. Our train to Bradford was on time but it was sufficiently delayed en-route that we missed our bus connection to the airport. It was no big deal, it simply gave us an extra 30 mins to admire Bradford Interchange bus station!
Well, as bus stations go…
Our luck changed when we boarded the bus as the driver’s ticket machine was kaput, so we got a free ride to the airport! The A3 took us through a variety of places en-route, from the edge of wonderful little Germany, through Manningham (not so wonderful) to Shipley, Guiseley and Yeadon. It was a fascinating journey through many areas we don’t usually frequent before we were dropped right outside the airport terminal.
The airport’s undergoing a major expansion of facilities at the moment, but that didn’t slow us down. Check-in was speedy and security a breeze, despite the numbers of people here. Having the latest kit so there’s no faffing with talking laptops etc out of bags certainly helps.
Now we’re killing time airside in a bar in the new airport extension, which is as busy as the rest of the place. It’s an ‘interesting’ place to people-watch. The vast majority of people here are package or other holiday-makers heading into Europe. It’s a vary different atmosphere to an international hub like Heathrow!
18:10.
Our train wasn’t the only thing that’s late. Our plane is too – by 30 mins so far. Still, it’s going to be good to be in the air and heading for Europe.
Grins all round!
00:23.
I wouldn’t normally update a blog late into the next day. I’ll fill in the rest tomorrow, but suffice it to say our first night here in Faro has been such a breath of fresh air – and just what we needed.
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Today’s been a tying up of loose ends sort of day here at Bigland Towers, as tomorrow the pair of us head off for a much-needed break in Portugal. Dawn’s been busy sorting out stuff for her employer, Community Rail Network, whilst I’ve been busy editing pictures, getting others out to clients and chasing paperwork and potential jobs. To be honest, it’s not been a bad day to be stuck at home as the weather’s still deteriorating and there’s a distinct autumn chill beginning to creep in – which I’ll be happy to leave behind for warmer climes. It’s a much nicer 29 degrees in Faro tomorrow!
We’re in no panic to pack as we don’t fly from Leeds/Bradford until tomorrow evening, which gives us a relaxed morning. I should even have time for some blogging! But right now it’s time to enjoy our last evening here in the UK for a while. I’ll leave you with a picture from our last trip to Portugal, which we may get to reprise. Lisbon’s old trams are a delight to both travel on and watch pass by for entertainment value – especially as many people would ‘tram-surf’, like these three young women…
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/
