After my last few days travels today’s very much been a lazy Sunday. I’ve travelled nowhere – unless you count a trip up the hill to the local pub! Dawn’s been full on at work so has really kicked back whilst I’ve got stuck into home projects. After the miserable weather I’d experienced in the Chilterns I was relieved to enjoy a sunny Sunday in the Pennines which encouraged me to get out in the garden and deal with some of the unwanted stuff that’s sprung up. We have a row of Sycamore trees on the opposite side of the road to us and this year their offspring have been as invasive as an invading army. I’ve never known a year like it in the 13 years I’ve been here but I’m assuming conditions must have been perfect for them this winter. De-weeding done I spent more time splitting up a yellow Iris I rescued from canal dredging many years ago. I planted some in our front garden but it’s extended its underground tentacles so far I’ve had no option but to sever them and chop it back. They won’t be wasted. I’ve potted some, other bits have gone to grateful neighbours. All I have to do is work out what I’ll plant in the space.
Right, enough from me tonight. There’s plenty to read and see in my past few blogs. Right now – as It’s Sunday – I’m going to have a night off after leaving you with the picture of the day which is something chosen at random from my Zenfolio website. I put in flora into search and came up with this. I spotted these Ceanothus flowers on one of my local walks during the early days of the Covid lockdown. What a weird time that feels now.
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Wow – the penultimate day of the month already – and spring is here. Well, I’m not too sure about that last bit as the temperature here in the Calder Valley has been up and down like a brides nightie! Plus, it’s been wet – very wet. But, the garden’s bursting into life which means the seasons really must’ve changed. Having been abroad for much of winter I get confused!
Today’s been one spent at home sorting out the logistics of the next few days. That wasn’t easy as arrangements kept changing although that was no fault of mine or my fellow explorer, Penny McGregor, whom I’ll be meeting up with in Banbury tomorrow to begin our formal visit to the largest HS2 construction site at West Hyde (where the Chiltern tunnels and the Colne Valley viaduct are built from) before free-styling it for the next couple of days. Unfortunately the weather’s not looking brilliant tomorrow which may cramp my style photographically but I’m sure I’ll manage somehow.
Apart from logistics I kept occupied with paperwork and pictures as I’ve still a backlog of images to sort out from the Community Rail Conference at the beginning of the week. The images are tweaked enough that I should be able to finish them off whilst I’m travelling tomorrow – although expect a rolling blog about the trip at the same time. I’ll be travelling Halifax- Leeds-Birmingham (change stations) – Banbury which could be interesting on a Friday…
Now it’s time to call it a day. I popped out to do some shopping and get some exercise earlier and now Dawn’s being a star and preparing the side of Salmon and assorted salad veg I returned with so we can eat heartily and have an evening together before I go away for the night tomorrow.
So, what’s the picture of the day? Good question! I’ll be visiting various HS2 construction and mitigation sites, so here’s how West Hyde looked 2021 before the 2nd TBM was launched just for comparison.
On the 13th July 2021 ‘Cecilia’ was just beginning her journey boring the 2nd of the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels. She’s now way past the half-way mark. In the background are the factories making the tunnel segments and the sections for the Colne Valley Viaduct. I’ll be here again tomorrow to see this and much more…
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As expected today’s been a less frenetic one than of late. Much of my time’s been spent editing and captioning the haul of pictures I’ve captured over the past couple of days. They’ve been spread over several galleries which means you can find Travel images here, Nottingham trams here, East Midlands Railway pictures here and Cross-Country trains here.
In-between getting boggle-eyed staring at a computer screen I’ve managed to get out and enjoy the mild weather that’s snuck up on the Calder valley and get out for a walk or two around the local woods. Having spent two months in Asia which was mostly on the flat my legs are starting to regain their hill-walking muscle memory. I sometimes forget the fact we live on the side of a valley as the highest thing I climbed in Asia was flights of stairs!
In-between working and walking I have been keeping one eye on the news – depressing as it is. It was sad to hear of the death of Paul O’ Grady as he was such an entertaining character and also one of the good guys whom we can’t afford to lose in what’s increasingly becoming a sea of celebrity mediocrity. Mind you, the word celebrity has become devalued. Now all you have to do to be a ‘celebrity’ is appear on some awful ‘reality’ TV show to gain that appellation. The days of the Hollywood greats this isn’t. But Paul was a genuine character, celebrity and campaigner who put his fame to work for the betterment of many groups of people – and animals.
Despite the fact the news can often be depressing and social media even more so, there comes those moments when it all comes good due to some people’s irrepressible urge to take the pee out of the nuts – especially American gun nuts after the latest in a long line of tragic mass-shootings and slaughter of more innocents at the hands of deranged people with automatic weapons. So tonight’s picture of the day is actually a picture of a tweet on Twitter. It’s a social media platform that’s gone downhill since it was bought by billionaire Elon Musk, a man with less than liberal views who’s not been without controversy over said attitudes, his relationships with the opposite sex or his welcoming back to Twitter of formerly banned right-wingers and hate-mongers. But tonight the British have responded with their usual flair and brought the world’s attention to this person and his views. Welcome, Keith Arsewank!
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We’ve had another quiet(ish) day here at Bigland Towers but that’s mainly because today was chance to relax before a busy week beginning on Monday when the pair of us are off to Nottingham for the Community Rail Network Conference which spans two days.
As the clocks had gone forward, depriving us of an hours sleep we enjoyed a leisurely morning drinking coffee and catching up with friends via social media before brunch, after which we got our acts together to potter around the house doing nothing too ambitious until it was time to get out for a stroll. Today’s weather was dry but cold thanks to the wind-chill. Even the cocoon of cloud over the valley couldn’t keep the heat in. We wandered downhill to the valley floor and Sowerby Bridge in time to pick up some shopping before everywhere closed, then decided to adjourn for a quick drink (and chance to warm up) before heading home. We’d normally have a pitstop at the Hogshead brew house but the place was packed due to them having a band playing. As the pair of us wanted to sit and chat rather than boogie we flagged it and moved on to a pub we rarely visit, the Navigation, which sits above the canal basin. It’s an old pub that had 5 real ales on (I chose the Oakham Citra) but seems as popular for its food as its beer. Many of the other customers were eating and several tables were reserved for later arrivals. The portions look huge and the prices are reasonable. It’s also a dog-friendly pub which makes it ideal for canalside walkers.
The canalside was the route we chose to walk home along as neither have traversed the path since last year. Seeing spring very much in the air added to the pleasure. Now we’re back at home. Dawn’s had the night off as I’ve been on cooking duty. As much as I’ve loved trying all the exotic food I had in SE-Asia, I missed cooking.Like gardening, it’s another of my pleasures/therapies. Tonight we went vegetarian as a rustled up a Chana Masala served with chapattis, the ingredients for which provide the picture of the day…
Preparation is part of the fun of cooking and I love using our selection of bowls which were (mostly) purchased on our travels. The top kne’s from Thailand whilst the blue ones came from Hoi An in Vietnam. The big one full of chickpeas? That’s from somewhere far less exotic. M&S!
Expect a mix of blogs next week as I’ll be traversing a lot of the UK and visiting a variety of locations…
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The pair of us have had a domesticated sort of day here at Bigland Towers. To be honest, with the way the weather’s been, there’s been little point to doing much else. Torrential rain overnight led to a miserable start to the day, but thankfully, that gradually improved. Dawn had a morning appointment elsewhere which left me free to chalk up some household chores – albeit not always successfully. I’ve been trying to change the cartridge in one of our bath taps. The first one was easy but the second one is stuck fast. You can’t apply too much brute force as the fittings made of soft brass so it’s easy to strip the nut. Even a ring spanner, oodles of WD40 and tirade of swear words won’t shift it. I’ve one trick left up my sleeve. After that I’m calling in an air-strike…
Once the rain finally subsided I moved outdoors to tidy up the gardens (front and back) having not been around to look after them since January. I really enjoy gardening. It’s such a therapeutic pastime and the joy of producing life through planting is hard to beat. This year I’ve decided to do some major replanting as many of the shrubs have outgrown their locations or simply spread too far. I rescued some yellow Iris from a canal a few years ago. They’d been dumped in dredged mud, so I brought a few home. They’ve loved our garden and spread like wildfire. The same with a variegated Hosta. I really like Hostas – but so do slugs – which is always a problem. I’ve split the original plant several times but now it needs doing again whilst being confined to a few pots, some which I can give away. Sod paying garden centre prices!
Our herb garden’s being revised too. Previously we had stuff all over the place (front and back). Now I’ve cleared a bed opposite the kitchen window where the panoply of edible plants will be congregated. That said, I sowed some French Parsley in the terrace above the back of the house last year and that’s going great guns already as it obviously likes the location. Sadly, not everything survived the winter so I’ll have to buy a new Rosemary plant. Our previous specimen loved it out at the back. So much so we had to severely chop it back to let the neighbours get past. Eventually it had to be chopped down as it just got too big. The new one I planted in a pot in the front did well initially, but this winter was its nemesis. Sadly, our Variegated Thyme didn’t survive either. Having fresh herbs you can pop out and crop as you need them is wonderful. Plus, if you love cooking as we do – it also saves you loads of money.
Gardening duties done I joined Dee for a trip into Halifax for a spot of shopping. Retail therapy isn’t a thing for either of us, but when needs must. At least Halifax still has a decent range of outlets, including an M&S and a ‘Body Shop’ plus the obligatory supermarkets. Our trip was prolonged because we couldn’t get Dawn’s favourite tipple for love nor money. Being teetotal, Dee’s developed a taste for the alcohol-free Guinness as dark beers were always her favourite (personally, I’m a pale ale fan) and apparently, the AF Guinness tastes just the same as the real stuff, but it’s hard to come by. Only one of our local supermarkets normally stocks it but they’d run out days ago. We ended up diverting to Sowerby Bridge where Tesco’s had finally had a delivery – so now Dee’s well happy!
Now we’re kicking back at home. I’m writing this whilst Dawn’s cooking one of her fantastic Chicken Madras curries. So, it’s time to relax and watch a film together with a drink and some brilliant home-cooked food. That leaves me to find a picture of the day – so I’ve chosen this. The garden’s too messy to post right now and I can’t find the picture I’m thinking of, so this will have to do. It’s a bit more exotic than anything I can grow here in Yorkshire. This is Duranta Erectica, otherwise known as Golden Dewdrops, shot at Gardens by the Bay. Singapore.
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Otherwise known as that was the blog that wasn’t! From a writing perspective today’s been the literary version of ‘no comment’. Nothing has happened that isn’t a reprise of earlier in the week apart from the fact it’s Friday, which meant that at the end of the working day I adjourned to our our local pub, the Big 6 – joining friends and other regulars to indulge in the quiz which Mel reads out from the ‘Pub Paper’.
I must admit, I rather enjoy the Friday brain teaser. There’s two different quizzes, one easy and one hard. But it’s a great way to end the working week, especially when the humour, diversions and anecdotes flow which always generate plenty of laughter. Just what you need on a Friday.
Now I’m back at home, writing what’s going to be a very short blog. Dawn’s busy preparing supper, so it’s time for me to go so that we can enjoy some quality time. All that remains is to post today’s picture, which comes from this evening’s session in the 6. The pub maintains four rotating real ale handpumps. The selection changes every few days depending on how busy (and how thirsty) the clientele are. Most of the beers are local and there’s always one dark beer on the second pump, so here’s today’s selection. Oh, did I mention that there’s also free pork pie on the bar on Fridays?
Choose your poison…
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/
Today wasn’t a bad day to have been working from home as the weather’s been changeable to say the least – and not exactly balmy either. We’ve had shower after shower interspersed with heavy cloud, bright sunshine, rainbows and wind. I didn’t mind too much as I’d plenty to keep me occupied at home including editing all the pictures from the past few days. They’ve been captioned and placed in several different galleries on my Zenfolio website. If you’re a transport nerd I’ve pretty much covered all bases. You can find ships here. Aviation here and even some buses here. On the railway front there’s pictures of Trans-Pennine Express as well as Northern and Merseyrail. If freight services are your bag I’ve also added a few shots of loco-hauled GBRf trains. Right, everyone happy now?
Ah, that leaves me with one problem. What to choose as the picture of the day…
OK, there *is* one picture I’ve not added to anything yet. It’s one I took in New Brighton the other day and it’s of a pub sign that became rather famous due to the subject matter. Folk on Merseyside are well-known for humour and directness when it comes to politics. You can get into some great discussions on the latter on both sides of the Mersey (unless you venture into Tory Cheshire) where the heat of political discussion is almost always leavened with acerbic wit.
This particular establishment (formerly the James Atherton on Victoria Rd) decided to make their feelings known about Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock. Considering yesterday’s events when Johnson made an arrogant, unapologetic and entitled arse of himself in front of the Parliamentary Standards Committee this seems rather appropriate.
Some folk may be wondering why I’m referring to Merseysiders rather than ‘Scousers’. There’s a simple reason for that. ‘Scousers’ is a term that only applies to those born in Liverpool – not elsewhere on Merseyside. So, people from Birkenhead (the ‘wrong’ side of the Mersey) and satellite towns outside the city real Scousers call ‘Woolybacks’! I was born in the L9 district of Liverpool. Therefore, by an accident of birth (and a long story) that makes me a Scouser. ‘alright’!
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Today was one of those days that didn’t really go to plan because of the bane of the outdoor photographer’s life. The weather. It started well enough. I was working from home, wading through all the pictures I took on Merseyside yesterday whilst also dealing with emails and other correspondence. But I could see the weather was ideal for photography. Dawn was going into the Community Rail Network office in Huddersfield for a meeting with Network Rail and TPE so she suggested I might want a lift into town. It sounded like a good idea to me as I could get pictures of some of the Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) work and diverted services for the the archive. I really should have checked the weather forecast first…
All was well until we got to Huddersfield, the weather looked cracking. Then I dug the camera out. Just as soon as I did dark clouds marched in from the West – bugger! Huddersfield station was quiet as only a few services were running (to Sheffield, Bradford Interchange, Marsden, Leeds and Hull) the busiest place was the station forecourt where fleets of coaches were ferrying people across the Pennines to Manchester. My plan was to hang around for half an hour before catching the first available train to Brighouse where I’d intended to get a series of lineside shots of the TPE services diverted via the Calder valley, only the bloody clouds followed me and the weather got gloomier – and wetter. I ended up retreating to the Market Tavern in order to have a pint and make a series of work phone calls to make something of the day whilst hoping the weather would clear again. It teased me a couple of times with brief flashes of sunshine, but then the rain arrived so I gave up and came home via a train to Sowerby Bridge before slogging up the hill to home and my desk. Ho hum!
Still, I did get the picture of the day at least. The friends of Brighouse station have done some fantastic work over recent years, transforming the station with plants and flowers. Now they’ve branched out and added a series of local history boards which tale the tale of the town and some of its inhabitants. One in particular caught my eye. Do you remember the old song about the man who broke the bank of Monte Carlo? Well, he was real – and he was local…
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Not a great start to the week this week. I’ve been pretty optimistic since my return from Asia but today (for a variety of reasons) that optimism evaporated. To be honest with the UK the way it is at the moment optimism is a bit of a slog. One only has to look at the mess the Government is making of the rail industry (and as a consequence – net zero) to see that. Add in the fact that once again bankers have been wankers and done their best to crash the global economy, plus a few issues closer to home and it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimism and ‘what am I doing here?’ It will pass. It always does, but there’s no denying the world’s in a mess right now and the UK feels like a failing country. Not that the Tories seem to care. They seem to have given up any real hope of winning the next election on the basis of any competency. Instead they’re cutting back spending to save money for election bribes whilst planning to fight their next campaign on ‘culture wars’ rather than anything tangible. Let’s face it, they’ve no claim to economic competence (Brexit, anyone?) and corruption has been rampant, so what else is left other than to sow more division with such nebulous crap as the ‘war on woke’ whilst at the same time trying to demonise trans people and their rights. It’s straight out of the American far-right playbook of course – hence the ridiculous huffing and puffing over drag acts being a ‘danger’ to children – as if no-one remembers watching mainstream TV in the 1970s where you had Danny la Rue and Stanley Baxter with their own shows, or the Two Ronnies and Les Dawson, and let’s not even mention pantomime. I have a feeling that the next election is going to be a very nasty and divisive affair with repercussions that will go on long after the result is declared.
I know, I’m a right ray of sunshine today, but this is my blog so my rules – and feelings!
Anyway, I’m hoping for a better day tomorrow. In the meantime, here’s today’s picture which adds a splash of much-needed colour to life. I spotted this plant in the gardens by the bay in Singapore but I’d no idea what it was. I’ve now been able to identify it as . Mussaenda erythrophylla, otherwise known as Ashanti blood.
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Today’s been Mothers day so the focus has been on Dawn and her family as I lost both my parents many years ago, whilst Dee still has hers. This has meant Dawn’s spent much of the day in the kitchen cooking or preparing a range of dishes for us to take to her parents house in nearby Huddersfield for a special Mothers day meal.
To be honest, Dawn was so organised and efficient most of my contribution was relegated to doing the washing up and helping keep the kitchen tidy whilst Dee sorted out a shoulder of lamb that had been prepared in a slow cooker overnight, then got stuck into baking. As I was supernumerary, I retreated into my office to do some more picture editing and be on call when there was more washing up to be done. I have my uses!
Needless to say, the smells that wafted up from the kitchen were gorgeous. Cooking done and clothes changed we drove over to Dawn’s parents in order to prepare the final meal. Apart from a traffic jam at Ainley Top by the M62 where some poor bugger had broken down and caused a tailback the roads were surprisingly quiet. That said, judging by the amount of men I saw buying flowers yesterday I suspect most of West Yorkshire was doing similar things to us!
Both Norah and John were blown away by the meal. Dawn’s an excellent cook and always delivers something special. The lamb was falling off the bone delicious – as was the gravy which was thickened with liquidised veg (pre-cooked garlic, carrots and onions) that had been used in cooking the lamb. This made for a really rich gravy, full of body that was an ideal accompaniment to the meat. As a dessert we had Dee’s (gluten free) apple pie made with cinnamon and Sultanas.
Now the pair of us are back at home, getting ready to start a new week. So, today’s pictures are very much food based as I can’t resist showing off what we had. Back to the diet tomorrow then…!
Gluten free Apple pie, plus a small Rhubarb crumble for ourselves.Slow cooked Lamb henry and all the trimmingsHappy mothers Day!Gluten free apple pie…The luscious apple pie filling…
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 