Having spent the past three days travelling I’ve had a day at home that’s left me bog-eyed because of the number of pictures I’ve had to edit and get onto my Zenfolio website. There’s now close to 200 new images which you can find if you follow this link to the recent section of the website where 16 different galleries have gained pictures.

To be honest, I couldn’t have asked for a better time to be stuck at home. The fantastic weather we’ve enjoyed for the past few days had morphed into more traditional weather. It’s been cold and cloudy with mist blocking off views of the valley since early morning. I didn’t leave the house until Dawn got back from work and we nipped out to our local for a bit of exercise and a beer. Now I’m back at home and editing a last few pictures in order to clear the decks for a busy day tomorrow which (hopefully) will involve blogging at greater length. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one picture from yesterday which shows how our railways are changing. These Hitachi built Class 800 ‘Azuma’ trains for LNER are just some of the 7000 plus rail vehicles that have been ordered or delivered since 2014.

G’night!

Having had a cathartic moment earlier to vent my spleen over the Brexit shambles I’m back at work. It’s been an interesting and productive day so far – even if the weather’s been bleedin’ awful! We’ve had heavy rain and strong winds here in the Calder valley so I’ve been happy to be working from the office at home, occasionally venturing into the bedroom to gaze out of the window and look across the valley. Well, when I can see past the raindrops that is!

An email out of the blue requesting pictures for a magazine has also led to a forthcoming assignment in the Midlands, whilst a series of Tweets from last night has meant that next week I’ll be visiting a railway depot that I haven’t been near since the 1970s: Leeds Holbeck, which promises to be really interesting. No doubt I’ll be blogging about that another time. Another positive is that my email inbox has had a severe weeding. It’s no longer morbidly obese but it still needs to cut down on the junk!

Oh, there’s also been some more pictures added to the New Zealand gallery on my Zenfolio picture website. There’s now over 500 images from that neck of the woods on file. You can find them all here. I’ve still more to add when time permits but as I took several thousand that may be a while as I have other work to prioritise.

Now the rain has eased and the weather has become less hostile I’m going to venture out to stretch my legs, give my eyes a rest from the screen and pick up some shopping, hopefully without getting blown away!

The view from the bedroom window. Sowerby Bridge recovering from its earlier drenching…

This evening’s relaxation has been to indulge in a spot of cooking. It’s not something I had the time or the facilities for when we were in New Zealand, so having the freedom of a familiar kitchen was lovely. Tonight’s dish was Chana Masala – an old favourite from my time(s) in India.

I cooked it whilst listening to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album ‘Full Moon Fever’. Every time I play it I’m transported back to the rooftop of a Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal  in 1992 which is where and when I first heard it – and I’ve loved it ever since. I was travelling around the world for a year solo and had a fabulous time. In fact, here’s a picture taken way back then at Holi, the Indian festival of colours, when everyone goes mad, throwing dyes at all and sundry. I really must get all the pictures from that trip scanned one day! For those who can’t work it out, I’m the one on the right!

If there’s one thing (in fact there’s many) that I miss about New Zealand it’s the weather – especially today when the Calder Valley has spent all morning hidden by fog! The far side only emerged from the murk over lunchtime, prompting me to tear myself away from the computer and work to head down into Sowerby Bridge in order to pick up some shopping.

Despite the fog clearing it remains one of those dour and damp Pennine afternoons where the day seems fleeting as you know darkness is only a few hours away. As a harbinger, many vehicles have their headlights on already due to the skies turning black now rain’s usurped the fog.

It’s such a contrast to Auckland, which was on the cusp of a heatwave when we left. I wouldn’t mind a bit of that now!

As I walked through town I noticed that yet another barbers has opened, which made me think. For a town with a population of 11,700 the place isn’t exactly short of places to get your hair cut. In fact, barbers take up a high percentage of the shops here and are second only to restaurants and fast food joints. I decided to photograph all the ones on the main drag. Here’s the result.

I can’t help wondering if they’re not cutting each other’s throats as well as blokes hair…