Spring has certainly sprung here in the Calder valley. This week we’ve had a run of sunny days which has only been broken by a few desultory showers today. That’s rather problematic as we’re having a very dry year so far which is leaving the ground dry and reservoirs low. I suspect we may be in for a summertime hosepipe ban and fires up on the moors.
Back at Bigland Towers life’s plodded on. I’m still in the midst of a deep spring-clean whilst also trying to get some work done. That’s not easy when much of my office is packed away! On the positive side, I have managed to get a few more old slides scanned and added to my Zenfolio website. You can find which galleries they’re in by following this link.
Hopefully, I’ll have all my re-arranging done by next week. I need to as the pair of us are off to base ourselves in Surrey for several days. That’ll allow me to look at some rail projects in that neck of the woods. In the meantime there’s plenty to be getting on with here.
Right, today’s picture. Hmm, what to choose? Well, I’ve not exactly been active with the camera this week, far from it – the slide scanner’s seen more action. Tonight, after work I popped up to my local pub to enjoy some good beer, join in the Friday quiz with friends – and sample the free pork pie…
Cheers!
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At last I feel human again. The aches have receded and life’s getting back to normal after a long frustrating week. Having got up early and spent the morning in the office in order to catch up with work and continue with the spring cleaning I actually escaped from the house for the first time. Dawn had to nip out to refuel the car and pick up the shopping, so I went with her, on the condition that (as I’m still testing positive) I didn’t go into any shops. Fine by me…
So, after calling in for petrol we headed on up to Norland Moor, a place where we used to go for regular walks but which just hasn’t been the same since the Moorcock Inn closed down, leaving the area without a welcoming watering hole to visit afterwards. Getting out for a walk in the fresh air high above the Ryburn and Calder valleys was lovely, despite the breeze and hazy cloud. Just to be out lifted my spirits. We didn’t venture too far as I didn’t want to push things, but I got more exercise than I had done all week.
Afterwards we drove down into Sowerby Bridge in order to pick up some shopping. As I was banned from venturing inside I retreated to the car-park fence to get a couple of pictures. You see, Tescos is built on the site of the old Sowerby Bridge railway good yard and the car park back onto the railway. Last year Network Rail cut back all the trees and shrubs that had obscured the view and opened up new picture possibilities of trains leaving the 657 yard long Sowerby Bridge tunnel. Like this;
195008 and 195017 arrive at Sowerby Bridge with 1E62, the 1227 Chester to Leeds. The old stone building to the right is the only structure that remains of Sowerby Bridge engine shed (closed in 1964).
Returning home the rest of the day was spent delving through various cupboards and crannies, rooting out more bits of junk as well as editing a few more pictures. I suspect the weekend won’t be much different – especially as the rain’s due to arrive. Still, a press invite’s arrived in my inbox today for an event early next month. It’ll be good to be back in the saddle…
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Slightly late but better than never! Tuesday was another day spent at home. sorting out pictures. getting ready for heading up to Newcastle for a couple of days and having a spring-clean of the office to see what junk I could dispose of or what stuff was surplus to requirements so can go on eBay. The weather has changed once more, whilst we’ve not had the snow that was predicted temperatures have dropped so the central heating’s been seeing quite a bit of use.
My work has been enlivened by the world of politics as I watch the ‘Reform party’ (or rather PLC) continue to tear itself apart with infighting. I’m really hoping there’s a split and Rupert Lowe is dumb enough to believe his Twitter followers who’re trying to convince him to start his own political party. He’s a virtual unknown in the wider political world, with no brand recognition compared to Farage. The idea that he’d do anything more than split the far-right vote is hilarious.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Trump and Musk are continuing to wreck the US both reputationally and economically.
What a time to be alive!
As for today’s picture, I’ve chosen this from a small West Yorkshire town I visited on Saturday. It was made famous by a long-running BBC tv series. Can you name it?
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/
Another week beckons. It’s not quite been the start I’d planned but nevertheless it’s been reasonably productive. All the pictures I took on Sunday have been edited, captioned and are now on my Zenfolio website. Follow this link to find out which galleries they’ve been added to.
A frustrating part of the day was that the weather was far better than had been predicted, with several hours of clear skies and sunshine. The snow and rain that was predicted last week has disappeared off the charts, not that it really matters as I’ve too many things to sort out before heading off to the Community Rail awards on Wednesday. Hopefully I can have another productive day tomorrow, ensuring the decks are cleared as the awards will be a busy few days.
As usual when I’m working from home I’ve been keeping an eye on the political news, which has provided some moments of schadenfreude. The Reform party continue to disintegrate as the war of words between their main characters escalates and becomes more bitter. This saga is going to run and run! There’s only going to be one winner (Farage) but that could prove to be a costly win. It’s clear that Farage isn’t openly racist enough for some Reform supporters, who’re rallying behind Rupert Lowe as he talks their language. The potential for a party split looms large…
Meanwhile, across the Pond, Elon Musk is having a bit of a ‘mare. Twitter (or X as he insists we call it) has had several outages today which he’s blaming on attacks by hackers. Of course, the fact he’s sacked many staff and is running the platform on a shoe-string won’t have helped! To add to his woes, Tesla’s share price is losing ground fast. Oh, and he’s managed to alienate both Poland and US senator Mark Kelly with widely publicised insults. The irony of an unelected South-African calling Kelly, an American war-veteran and ex-astronaut a ‘traitor’ has not been lost on people – even on Americans, who normally struggle with irony!
I can’t help wondering what mess Trump and Musk are going to create next…
Right, it’s time for me to go. I’ll leave you with a picture to brighten the evening up with. Here’s a view of the Victoria tower atop Castle Hill just outside Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, that I took last Saturday.
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Today’s been another day working from home – which has been rather frustrating as the weather’s been superb. Wall to wall sunshine and rising temperatures that would have been ideal for getting out with the camera. Problem is – I’ve too much to do. Much of today’s been spent editing the pictures I captured yesterday and dealing with emails. One of which has changed our weekend plans completely. An old friend has invited the pair of us to be his company’s guest at the Confederation of Passenger Transport Awards in Manchester on Saturday. How could we refuse? Not only will it be great to catch up with Richard, it’ll also be an opportunity to meet up with other friends and colleagues before our own Community Rail Awards in Newcastle next week – which is completely sold out – and the biggest one we’ve ever had. As I’d planned to be working this weekend you can see why being stuck at home today’s worked out. The word serendipity springs to mind.
Of course, whilst I’ve been busy picture editing I’ve had another screen open which has kept me up to date with the latest madness coming out of the White House. If – 30 years ago – you’d pitched this as a script to a film company, they’d have tossed you out the door as it was too far-fetched. Now, every day delivers idiocy that makes you realise America has fallen to Putin. I’d love to know what ‘Kompromat’ the Russian Dictator has on Trump, but it must be weapons-grade. It’s fascinating (and horrifying) to see some US politicians asking what else could Trump do if he wasn’t a Russian asset? (very little: Ed). What’s been good to see is the way America’s neighbours either side of the border have called Trumps bluff over tariff’s, resulting in a reverse-ferret. But the damage is done. The farce gets worse, as now it’s reported that Trump is reining in (unelected) Elon Musk, telling him that he has no power to sack government employees. This is turning into the mother of all shit-shows!
Meanwhile, Europe has seen which way the wind’s blowing and uniting – and re-arming. Billions of Euros are being committed to Europe and Ukraine’s defense. It’s ironic really. Trump isn’t making America ‘great’ again, he’s actually sidelining it as untrustworthy and not someone to buy weapons from. The double irony? Putin’s done exactly the same. Much as I hate the idea of £bns spent on weapons, I can see the logic from a European perspective. The political world really could be changing on its axis and I’m not entirely sure the dictators in the Kremlin and White House understand what they’ve done.
OK, enough of politics. The shit-show is going to be around for some time yet. In the meantime, here’s another picture from today’s editing marathon.
This is the Bradley viaduct in …Bradley, just to the East of Deighton and on the edge of Huddersfield. It’s an impressive, 15 arch structure that bridges the River Colne and the Huddersfield wide canal. It had a very short life as a railway. It was constructed by the Midland Railway in 1910 as part of a line from Mirfield they intended to build to Bradford to compete with the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway. The line never made it further than Newton in Huddersfield, which became a goods depot. The extension was killed when the L&Y gave the Midland running powers over their route. It was made redundant in 1937. By then the Midland and L&Y had been amalgamated into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) which built a new connection from the former L&Y route at Red Doles Jn nearer Huddersfield, rendering this section of line redundant after just 27 years. Today it’s part of a cycleway and footpath.
I’ll be working at home again tomorrow, so expect Wednesday’s blog to be expanded now I’ve all the pictures edited.
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Another short blog from me tonight as I’ve been out all day and only got home late. The pair of us were up early as we had a dentist’s appointment at 08:30 over in Huddersfield – one of our regular 6 month check-ups and visit to the hygienist for a wash and brush up. I’m not someone who’s afraid of dentists and rather enjoy coming away afterwards feeling the new definition in my teeth after having the hygienist gave ’em the once over – not that there was much to remove.
As we were in that neck of the woods and the weather was ideal for photography I decided to have a day out exploring Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) territory. I’ll explain more at greater length tomorrow, but for now here’s a couple of pictures.
A TRU engineers train passes Bradley Junction with the single line spur towards Brighouse heading off to the left. This section will be four-tracked with the new fast lines being laid on the old trackbed to the right. A TPE service takes the Huddersfield route at Heaton Lodge Junction. The line to Brighouse is in the background. The new 100mph fast lines will be laid to the right of the train. The new bridge pier is for the road down to the waterworks between the two railways which will replace the one I’m standing on..
I’ll be back working from home tomorrow, so expect more pictures and a vastly expanded blog then.
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’s been another busy one here at Bigland Towers. Nearly all of it has been spent wading through hundreds more pictures to edit and caption. I’d foolishly thought I’d broken the back of things yesterday. Then I opened up another couple of picture files. Oops! I’m now far more confident that I’m where I want to be as there’s just a handful left from my Asia travels. I’m not going to post loads of links again, I’m merely going to do what I did yesterday and post one to my ‘recent’ page. I doen;t take long to work out which galleries the new pictures have gone in to.
Whilst sat at home I’ve been keeping one eye on the news (and social media), watchin the American political binfire burn. Vice-President JD Vance has done a fabulous job alienating most of Europe – and especially the UK and France with his comments about the military. He’s tried to deny it of course, but that’s just added fuel to the fire as no-one likes being taken for a fool (well, unless you’re a Reform voter: Ed).
The furore has become more interesting as it’s revealing fault-lines between various right-wing commentators, media outlets and political parties. Some, like the Daily Mail and Sun have been outraged at Vance’s words. Suddenly, the world has turned upside down and I find myself agreeing with the likes of Julia Hartley-Brewer and Dan Hodges (don’t worry, I’ve had a bath since). Even Andrew Neil is taking sense. Then temporary Tory leader Kemi Badenoch completely misreads the mood and defends Vance , who’s a ‘friend’ of hers, apparently! An amazing take when even Nigel Farage (who was better at seeing which way the wind was blowing) didn’t support him.
These are interesting times for Reform. They’re becoming split between those who slavishly support Trum p and those who can see the danger of being exposed for what they really are – Russian assets and little more than ‘surrender monkeys’ who’re riding on the back of Putin and Trump’s coat-tails. Reform MP (and millionaire) Rupert Lowe being a classic example with this tweet, which has already aged like milk.
I’ve no doubt the row will continue, stocked by the trolls and bots on social media under the command of Putin (who must be laughing his socks off).
But this row’s about to be overshadowed by the latest Trump disaster. Tariffs. Trump is starting a trade war. The world’s markets have already taken fright at what he’s doing, but – undeterred – he’s proposing to bring in more. The poor saps who voted for him are about to find out *exactly* who it is who pays for tariffs. One American TV channel has just pointed out that (overnight) a Dodge pickup has increased in price from $80,000 to $100,000 – and it’s American consumers who’ll be picking up that tab. Now American farmers are about to find out where much of their supplies come from (Canada). Of course, it’s not just the US who suffers. But I’ll tell you who doesn’t – Trumps millionaire friends who’ll be playing the stock market as they knew in advance what was coming. This is likely to be insider trading on a gargantuan scale. As the old saying goes – follow the money….
We are living in very dangerous times. The one ray of sunshine is that this is forcing Europe to unite and get its act together. There’s some very welcome signs on that front. In the meantime, batten down the hatches, the world’s in for a rocky ride…
I’ll be taking a break from the computer tomorrow as I have a dentists appointment. Weather permitting, I may venture further afield as a result.
On a brighter and more peaceful note. Here’s today’s picture – a Balinese Hibiscus flower.
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/
There’s not much of a blog from me today as nearly the whole day’s been spent glued to a computer screen as I try and complete a photo editing marathon. I’ve broken the back of it now, having edited and filed 80% of the pictures I’ve taken so far this year, which cover five countries (if you include the UK). I did get diverted into an archive search too, which took up some time, but I’m pleased with what I’ve got done as one more day should leave me free to get on with other projects.
There’s far too many galleries that have been updated to add individual links on my Zenfolio website, but if you click on this link it’ll take you to the ‘recent’ section, which shows you (by date) all the galleries that have had pictures added to them.
The weather’s not been up to much here in the Pennines so it’s hardly been an ideal day to be going out with the camera. It’s made looking at pictures of sultry climates and the streetlife they enable rather frustrating! Still, there’s no doubt that spring’s is in the air here in the UK. The days are noticeably longer compared to when I left for Asia and our garden is on the cusp of breaking into life – which is a bit of a bugger as I’ve not had chance to move things around beforehand. Ah well, there’s still time…
Whilst I’ve been editing and captioning a lot of pictures there’s one thing I’ve struggled with. Ships? Easy. Planes? No problem. Trains? Simple. But, our feathered friends? I haven’t got a clue! So, today’s picture is of one of the critters I’m struggling to identify. Can anyone help? I saw this beautiful creature feeding off the plants around our swimming pool in Bali.
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’s been a quiet one here at Bigland towers. After all my travels and adventures it’s time to kick back a little and catch up with myself. My sleep patterns have just about returned to normal now, helped by not being on the ‘go’ all the time. Instead, I’ve been concentrating on catching up with some household chores, enjoying the opportunity to cook once more – and continue editing pictures from my travels.
You can find the latest additions to my Zenfolio picture website here;
I’ve still got hundreds of pictures to edit. They’ll gradually get filed over the next few days as I’m not expecting to be travelling anywhere much over the next week as I’ve too much to do at home. It’s a shame as the weather’s beginning to pick up here in West Yorkshire. We’ve had some stunning sunsets with fabulous colours these past couple of days. I was fortunate to capture this one from the bedroom window this evening.
The setting sun over Sowerby has produced some amazing colours these past few days.
I’m expecting tomorrow to be a little more active today, but productive when it comes to producing pictures. Plus, there’s a political blog brewing. Yesterday’s disgraceful ambush at the White House is certainly causing waves of outrage. Plus President Zelenskyy arrived in the UK today – a country that backs him to the hilt – despite what the hard-left and far-right would like you to think.
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/
I can’t quite believe we’re at the end February and on the cusp of March. Admittedly February is a bit od a woossy month as it doesn’t hang around for long – and it’s not a leap year – but even so. Today my times mostly been taken up by editing hundreds of pictures to get them onto my Zenfolio website. You can find the latest batch from Norway here. I’ve still a lot of stuff from the Siemens press event to sort out, then there’s all the stuff from Asia. I’m going to be busy or some time.
That said, I did take a break this afternoon in order to indulge in another passion. Cooking. I’ve not made anything for ages due to being away. This afternoon I made up for that by preparing a chicken bhuna.
The food was cooked early so that I could nip up to my local pub (the Big 6) in order to meet up with friends and do the Friday quiz. That was a very pleasant interlude until someone mentioned the televised car-crash in the White House. I had to have a look – and it was horrific. President Zelensky of Ukraine was ambushed and humiliated by Trump and his arrogant arsehole of a Vice-President (JD Vance) in front of the cameras, which carried the news around the world. Imagine, Trump – the ‘leader’ of the free world – who dodged the Vietnam war draft by getting a Doctor to sign him off with ‘bone spurs’ trying to lecture Zelensky, a man who refused to leave Kyiv when the Russians were at the gates of the city?
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin must be laughing his socks off. It’s the most shameful thing I’ve ever seen – but I can’t say I’m surprised by either Trump or Vance. What it does show is that the USA has been captured by apologists for dictators and can’t be relied on as a bastion of democracy or the free world. Europe (and the isolated UK – thanks to Brexit) needs to get its shit together. Oh, and we need to see the UKs Russia apologists (yes, you Farage and Reform) for what they really are.
I’m going to have to go right now as otherwise I’ll be spitting venom. The world’s entered a very uncertain phase. So, I’ll leave you with something less contentious. Food and beer…
It’s Friday, so as well as some excellent real ales there’s free pork pie available on the bar at the Big 6
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/
