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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This weekend is the annual rush-bearing festival here in Sowerby Bridge. So this afternoon I headed down into the valley with the cameras to document the event, which I’ve not been able to attend for the past couple of years. Here’s a small selection of pictures.
The event concludes tomorrow when the rushcart takes a more rural route. You can find all the details form the official website, which is here.
You can find the full selection (in hi-res) in this gallery on my Zenfolio website. Oh, what I should’ve mentioned is I’ve reactivated my old gallery of pictures from the festival that go back to 2010. You can find those by following this link.
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There’s been much of a muchness here at Bigland Towers today. I’ve made progress with the various weeks projects that are keeping me tied to the office with the intention of escaping as soon as the weather permits – which may be tomorrow if I’m lucky and the rain avoids areas I need to visit. At least a number of jobs have been crossed off my list which is always a positive feeling at the end of the day. I’ve also lined up a couple of trips for the beginning of next month which will add a varied start to August. Hang on – August? Yep, the year’s that far advanced, which seems strange as I feel like I’m still waiting for summer to arrive. July’s been such a wet month here in the Pennines I feel that I don’t really have a tan, it’s rust! Hopefully the proverbial ‘Indian summer’ will save us. If not – I’m buggering off abroad just as soon as I can – which may be difficult as the diary’s already full of events.
Still, I can’t complain too much about today. It’s been productive and I’ve hit all my exercise targets. Now I’ll I’ve got to do is hit the financial ones, which isn’t quite as easy, although the decluttering and sticking stuff on eBay’s adding the occasional bonus. The last sale’s ended but a new one has started, so feel free to check out what old railway slides and hardware (or clothing) is up in the final July sale by following this link. Oh, there’s also the opportunity to buy prints of some of the 83,800 rail and travel picture I have on my Zenfolio website should you be so inclined.
OK, enough of the salesmanship. The next picture’s for free. Dawn’s out with friends this evening so I decided that my daily constitutional could be postponed until then. This coincided with the best weather we’ve had all day, so here’s a shot from Wakefield Gate, the cobbled road above our cottage but below the Wainhouse Tower. There’s a great little place to stop and admire the view and this is how that view looked an hour ago.
Happy valley…
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It may be a bank holiday weekend but today’s hardly been a day of rest, although the pace has been far less frenetic than of late as the two of us hardly moved from the house for most of Sunday. Taking it easy made up for the amount of walking we did yesterday as we had an outing to Manchester for a few hours.
For one of Dawn’s birthday presents this year I ventured right out of my comfort zone of buying perfume or scarves. Instead, I bought Dee a dress – not something many men will do for the fear of getting it wrong. Fortunately, I didn’t. Dawn loved the dress but the fitting wasn’t quite right, so our trip to Manchester included a visit to the store I’d bought it from – Japanese fashion company Uniqlo. They’re a great shop. The prices are very competitive but the quality of their stock is far better than certain cheaper brands. The only thing is – sizes do vary as nothing seems identical. This worked to Dee’s advantage as she found an identical dress in the identical size, but one that really fitted her. In fact, I ended up buying her another in the same design but a different colour. We had just enough time to pick up some foodstuff shopping in Chinatown then enjoy a drink in the sun before it was time to head back as I’d booked a table at a restaurant in Sowerby Bridge for 15:00.
The sunshine brought out the crowds in central Manchester.
Bad move.
We found that the train we were due to catch to get back in time was cancelled. No biggie, as there was another one that would get us there 25mins later. The restaurant were fine about it when I rang as it just meant we wouldn’t have our table for longer than and hour as they were fully booked. Our backup train turned out to be an asthmatic two-car class 158 that was rammed. It crawled its way as far as Castleton where it expired. The crew managed to coax it back into life but the service was terminated at Rochdale. Plan C meant we wouldn’t arrive back at Sowerby Bridge until after 16:00 – more than an hour late, so I rang the restaurant again, told them to give our table away but we’d still come in and see if we could get seats at the bar. Two trains later (we had to change at Todmorden) we finally made it into ‘The Engine’ tired and hungry way after 16:00.
Fortunately, seats were available at ‘the Chef’s table’ as they’ve named the bar facing the kitchen. This turned out to be a brilliant place to sit as we got to watch as all the food was cooked and chat to the chefs as they prepared it. It added a fascinating new dimension to the meal. The food was excellent, we ordered 6 different dishes, some of which were old favorites (the fire roasted cauliflower for example) others new. The undoubted star dish was new, slow-roasted Aubergine with pork, crispy chili and roast spiced cashew nuts. It’s superb! We can’t fault the Engine. The food is divine and the staff friendly and efficient. The combination makes for a great experience.
Here’s a few pictures from our meal.
BOQUERONES: Spanish pickled white anchovies on sun blushed tomato flatbread.FIRE ROASTED CAULIFLOWER with Pomegranate, chilli and sesame dressing.SLOW ROASTED AUBERGINE with pork, crispy chilli and crushed spiced cashew nuts.
If you want to see more of the dishes here’s a link to the current menu.
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Happy May day everyone! I can’t quite believe a third of the year’s already passed and in little more than 7 weeks the nights will start drawing in again. Still, it’s been a good day here at Bigland Towers even though we’ve not been anywhere. The pair of us have kept occupied at home which is no problem as we’re going away later in the week so pottering around at home’s been fun. Besides, bank holiday’s normally mean anywhere you’d want to go is clogged with people (and/or expensive) so staying at home removes that stress. Thankfully, the storm and heavy rain we had last night had cleared by this morning, leaving me free to continue with the garden and outhouse clean-up. My time on the ‘chain gang’ came to an end as I finished breaking up the old sink that’s been cluttering up the back for the past year. Now all I have to do is dispose of the bags of rubble…
Another thing that needed disposing of was more of the bloody Sycamore seedlings! They’re incredibly invasive this year and trying to get rid of ’em’s like playing ‘whack a mole’. No sooner do you think you’ve pulled up all the little buggers when the next batch poke their heads up just as soon as your back’s turned! Despite them, the gardens are starting to come together (front and back) all my recent purchases are planted, whilst there’s a stream of seedlings and cuttings ready for the coming months. Thanks to the fact the sun blessed us for a few hours this afternoon I managed to get another job done and cleared some of the derelict patch of land above the cottages which is infested with Russian vine (it’s not called ‘mile a minute’ for nothing) along with trimming back some Sycamore stumps which have started spouting shoots again. I may not have moved far, but I certainly got my steps in today!
Feeling virtuous I sat on our top terrace with a beer and watched the sun retreat over the valley, which brings me to today’s picture. This was the view I had over Sowerby Bridge earlier as the sun broke free of late arriving clouds. I never tire of this view as it’s always changing due to the permutations of weather and lighting…
Sowerby Bridge seen earlier this evening in low spring light with the road up to Sowerby prominent in the picture.
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Another less than vintage day here in the Calder valley as the weather forecast wasn’t far wrong. Whilst last night’s high winds had dropped by this morning the rain returned, making this a rather wet Wednesday. As if that wasn’t enough to lower one’s mood I ended up in a frustrating fight with technology for several hours. I’d planned to update my eBay account to reflect the new postal rates but the site kept crashing which was rather annoying. Undeterred, I started consolidating 2023s pictures from various hard-drives only to find one decided to play-up by refusing to copy over large folders. I ended up needing to leave my machine running and go for a walk whilst it huffed and puffed but at least that way I got some exercise – even if it was in the rain. I suspect I’m going to have to invest in a new portable hard-drive although I rarely need to use them nowadays except for extra storage and as a back-up whilst I’m travelling – although cloud-based services offer enough space to do that now – as long as you have an internet connection, which is where the hard-drives still come in useful.
Come late afternoon I decided ‘bugger this for a lark’ and retreated to the kitchen to knock up this evenings meal. I made a Chana Masala from scratch. Cooking is one of my therapies and today that was needed! There’s plenty left over for portions to be frozen for another day, although we did polish off the last of the chapattis – something else to add to the shopping list. Much as I like preparing Indian meals from scratch I’m quite happy to buy ready-made Chapattis!
As for tomorrow, another day struggling with technology beckons I reckon – and yet more indifferent weather. Still, as always – there’s plenty to do. Now, what picture can I entertain you with today? I’ve not been out with the camera for a few days now because of time limitations and the weather, but I did come across this with the camerphone the other day when I was walking along the canal. Here’s when you only have a narrowboat but want to channel your inner Viking…
Storage is always at a premium on narrowboats but these boxes with solar-panel roofs are a nifty way of solving the problem – and decorative too!
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Today was hardly a shining example of the rock and roll lifestyle, but it’s been an enjoyable one nonetheless. Besides, I’m meant to be too old for that sort of thing nowadays, allegedly!
The pair of us enjoyed a relaxed Saturday morning drinking coffee and catching up with the world via social media. I can’t say that much of the news is wonderful or uplifting, there’s far too much trouble in the world for that, but I try to be optimistic. I’d have liked to have got out for a walk but the weather was determined to thwart my ambitions by constantly hurling showers in our direction, so I decided trying to finish off my picture editing was a better use of my time.
The pair of us did get out in the afternoon but only to do a car trip to various shops and supermarkets around the area to stock up on various staples and goodies in order to prepare a Mothers Day lunch for Dee’s mum tomorrow (Dad eats for free!). At least this trip took us out of the Colne valley as we visited the Bolster Moor farm shop in the nearby Colne valley to pick up some lamb. The drive was really enjoyable as cresting the summit between the two valleys offers some fantastic views which were made more spectacular by the various cloud fronts dumping pockets of rain hither and thither. Yorkshire’s brilliant at moody skies like this.
Now, back at home, Dawn’s been busy in the kitchen prepping food for tomorrow. I have to admit, I’m very lucky to have such a talented and enthusiastic cook for a wife – although I will be mucking in to help tomorrow to spread the load. Whilst Dee’s been busy in the kitchen I’ve been occupied in the office trying to get my final selection of Asia pictures captioned and on my website. I’m almost there. You can find new railway shots here, travel pictures here – and some shipping shots here.
Now it’s time for the two of us to come together for some quality time and relax, so I’ll leave you with today’s picture which gives you an idea of what the weather’s been like up here recently. Here’s looking across the Calder valley down to Sowerby Bridge.
It’s hard to believe February was unusually dry here. It seems the rain was waiting for me to get back!
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Apologies for absence these past several days but I’ve been playing catch-up after returning from Germany. That return’s coincided with Dawn falling ill with Covid. Thankfully she’s now starting to pull through although poor Dee has had it far worse than I did as she’s suffered from banging headaches and a loss of some tastebuds as well as the standard aches and pains. In a reversal of what happened last time I’m the one who’s avoided catching Covid. It really is the most capricious of diseases. The worrying thing is the amount of friends who’ve also contracted it recently. Anyone who thinks Covid’s gone away is living in a fool’s paradise.
Of course, this would co-incide with the the need to get on with my role as Judge for the annual Community Rail Awards as well as other work and a backlog of picture editing. After all, there’s only so much I can do whilst wearing a nurse’s uniform (stop sniggering at the back!).
My enforced sojourn at home has come at a great time as the weather here in the Calder Valley has been stunning. We’ve had a run of gorgeous hot sunny days that have meant working on our outdoor terrace has become de rigeour. Admittedly, the intensity of the sun’s meant I’ve had to head indoors to use the laptop, but then I’ve had a patient to cook for and keep an eye on…
Because of the weather I’ve been getting up early (Asia style) to get a lot of stuff done before the Mercury climbs. After that it’s a case of “mad dogs and Englishmen” as I’ve headed out in the midday sun to get some exercise. Part of me would like to have got out with the camera but to be honest, the intensity of the sun this time of year doesn’t make for the best pictures as the colour of the light is too blue and the light too harsh. Far better to head out in the morning or evening.
Hopefully, now that Dee’s on the mend and I’m catching up with stuff I’ll be able to get out and about again to tick off some projects from my ever lengthening list – but maybe not this week. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which gives you an idea of how conditions have been here in the Calder Valley. We live below this rather magnificent folly, which dominates the valley. Here’s the view from my walk back from Sowerby Bridge…
The Wainhouse Tower.
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It’s been a ‘dolly mixture’ sort of day today due to a combination of factors. As it’s officially the day of rest both of us decided our day wouldn’t be starting at first light and enjoyed the fact we had no commitments until the afternoon – so we relaxed until late morning with coffee and various aspects of the world-wide web to catch up on all manner of things.
The indifferent weather was another good reason for not rushing. Whilst the mercury is certainly teasing the upper end of thermometers clouds were doing their best to make the day unpredictable. My relief was that the cementing of some stone steps I completed yesterday could be uncovered and left to cure as no rain was on its way. The simple pleasures in life, eh?
This afternoon we popped around to help a friend who’s got the mammoth task of clearing out another dearly departed friend’s house. It took us a couple of hours just to examine the stuff they’d hoarded. It’s sad in so many ways. You spend a lot of your life amassing collections of all sorts of stuff and then, when you die, it’s up to others to decide what to do with it. I’m glad that I’ve shaken off the collecting bug and now my life’s about downsizing rather than cluttering. As they say – you can’t take it with you – either when you’re travelling, or to the afterlife…
Afterwards we headed over to other friends as tonight we’re dog-sitting. It’s something we’d never have been able to do whilst we had our revered and ancient moggie (Jet) as he couldn’t tolerate other cats. A dog? There would have been hell to pay! But now we can, and ‘Bernie’, our friends cockapoo is getting used to our home for the night. She’s a lovely dog who seems quite relaxed about being with us for the for awhile. I took her out for a walk earlier which she loved as there’s so many unusual smells around here due to the combination of woodland and wildlife that surround us. I even took her to our local (dog friendly) pub which raised a few eyebrows as people aren’t used to me having a canine in tow. She was an instant hit!
Now we’re back at home, winding down ready for another busy week. So, for today’s picture, allow me to introduce you to ‘Bernie’…
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/
The past 24 hours at Bigland Towers have been dominated by (surprise, surprise) the weather. Fortunately we escaped the worst of Friday’s weather but I made sure of that by staying at home for most of the day, only venturing out in the morning to do some shopping before hunkering down in the office to begin editing the hundreds of pictures that I’d taken over the past few days. It wasn’t until the afternoon that the storm hit us. It’s arrival was announced by massive gusts of wind which stayed with us for most of the afternoon/evening. Luckily, we seemed to dodge the damage that was suffered down in the South-West and elsewhere – although we have lost a few trees. Most fences seemed to escape unscathed. Mainly because all the weak or badly-built ones had already blown away in the preceding storms! There wasn’t much left to flatten…
Today we’ve had a different weather phenomenon – snow. Despite it being Saturday I’ve been beavering away at home trying to get all my new pictures sorted as I’ve a new commission come in at short-notice which has a time imperative, so I’ve needed to clear the decks of pictures ready to go with some of the articles I’ll need to turn around pdq in order to leave time for other work. Oh, the joys of freelance work. Jobs are like the proverbial London bus – they all come along at once!
Thankfully, although the snow’s stuck and left us with a decent dustings across the hills it’s not caused any disruption on the roads or railways. A few hours of the predicted rain will soon see it off which is just as well as we have a lunch to attend tomorrow afternoon over in the next-door Colne Valley.
Tonight we’re having a quiet night at home in the warmth of the cottage. Dawn’s busy cooking industrial quantities of her fantastic Lasagne (as she also supplies her parents and stocks up the freezer at the same time) whilst I’m finishing editing pictures and scribbling this and enjoying the delicious smells wafting out of the kitchen.
So, I’ll leave you with today’s picture which was taken from our bedroom window late this afternoon as the snowstorms took a break and the weather cleared just long enough to be able to see clear across the valley to Sowerby.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, 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 to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances appreciate all the help that we can get to aid us in bouncing back from lockdowns. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
Paul Bigland 