Profile

This is the profile of the Brian Robinson ride, we crossed the Pennine watershed five [yes, five] times. I have just about recovered.

London

I had a good day in London last week, with an interesting bit of work likely to materialise in the autumn. It was great to walk around my old haunts again - it is a great city. This pub is at Blackfriars and is like a mini-version of the flat-iron building in New York.

NRM

Rowan and I went to our favorite place before she returned to school - The National Railway Museum. The playground there has always been popular with Rowan, as these three shots show. Can you put them in age order by any chance?

Blossom

It's been a great spring for blossom. This shot is of Little Hob Moor.

Brian Robinson Ride

When I was ill last weekend I decided that I would probably not be able to ride today's Brian Robinson sportive  https://www.sportident.co.uk/entries/event.php?event_id=193. Dave was going to do it anyway so I decided to give it a go. Brian is a local man who was the first Briton to win a stage of the Tour de France. Now 78 and still cycling Brian flagged us all off at 9 this morning.

What a ride. 77 miles, 3000metres of climbing [that's up Snowdon 3 times], great weather, good people, good organisation - fantastic. It took me 6hr 20minutes which qualified for a bronze certificate [much better than I thought I would do]. Dave did a good time too, so we were both chuffed. 

The photo is of Rowan on the climbing frame last week

The Three Birches

It has been a beautiful week weather-wise. On Monday, Rowan's last day before going back to school, we lazed in the garden [for about 20 minutes]. This is the view looking up from beneath the Three Birches which were planted when the house was built 40 years ago.

It has started being a busy time for taking portraits - a flurry of requests after the exhibition. Today I had two clients booked in.

The Cycle Tavern

The sort of pub I like to see; this was in Fife. 

I had a mystery virus last weekend which really flattened me. Better now, I am taking it easy. Today I rode over to Knaresborough to get the legs turning again which felt good. I saw a Red Kite which is pretty much guaranteed now every time I go that way; still exciting though.

It was book group this week and we discussed "Under the Eye of the Clock" by Christopher Nolan - not a great read for me but others like it.  http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/eye-of-clock.html 

I loose I pod

I have always loved different tracks of music, rarely whole albums  [What's Going On and Caravanserai apart]. This used to lead to cassettes made with loving care given to and received from friends. Treasured tracks spliced with friendship. So the mp3 player has been a good thing. Suddenly I could stick all my tracks in a little box and mix and plays as wished. Which is fine. Until you loose the little box. 

I looked everywhere for it. At least 6 times. I started hallucinating where I had left it, imagining it everywhere. Finally I decided I must have left it outside and someone [paperboy?] must have taken it. Bad thoughts. It did not feel good. 

Day 6 of the loss Danielle goes to put her cycle helmet on and gets an ipod on her head for her pains. There all along, in full view in the garage. Amazing it had turned up. Ludicrous I had not seen it.

All of this means I can now sit outside the Tate Modern in between productive meetings in the sun listening to Bobby Womack.

The photo is of sunny Arbroath - the end of our journey. Those are our bikes but not our bodies.

Spuds

Up in Fife the potatoes were being sown in the rich red soil. The soil is so loamy that they can pile the tubers in metre high heeps. It gives the fields a geometric feel.

Henna

Danielle & Rowan had a great time in Egypt. They also lost their camera, so photos will be a little while in coming [other people on the trip are sending them]. They had their hands hennaed and the markings are still going strong ten days on - I like it.

NHS Staff Counselling

We spotted this in Galashiels. I am sure the NHS there calls its staff "our greatest resource", and offering a counselling service is a step above most organisations. But somehow having this as the main entrance to the Counselling Service does not perhaps send the right message to staff.

Scott's Ship

In Dundee harbour rests Scott's ship, which looked good against the sun. Dundee seems to be a city that has benefitted from all the usual "millenium city centre funding" a lot more than other places.

Forth Rail Bridge

Cycling across the Forth Road Bridge gives you this great view of the fantastic rail bridge. It is one of those things which is even bigger and more awesome up close than imagined.

Cycle Trip - Day 4

The final day took us, in glorious sunshine with obligatory tail wind, from Dundee to Arbroath along the coast. In Arbroath we had some "smokies" [smoked haddock] in the sunshine then got the train back. A great trip.

The photo is of the three of us, silhouetted in Dundee.

I'm desperate Dan

The Dandy comic was produced in Dundee, so they have a statue of Desperate Dan in the city centre. Dundee has lost Jute, Marmalade and Timex Watches, but gained Grand Theft Auto. 

Cycle Trip Day 3

Day 3 took us out of Edinburgh on another good Sustrans route, then over the Forth Road Bridge [separate cycle track] across Fife with another brilliant tail-wind, over the Tay bridge on a bizarre cycle lane right in the middle of the road and finally to Dundee and a great B&B in a great city.

The photo is of a tunnel underneath Arthur's seat in Edinburgh; it used to be part of a railway and is now a cycle track.

Cycle Trip - Day 2

As we woke in Galashiels Ted looked through the curtains and announced, in a voice so lugubrious that it would make the second-coming sound a bit of an inconvenience, that "It's raining - hard". Amazingly, after breakfast, it was dry and in fact we had no rain for the entire four days ride. The road today was perfect, starting off along the Tweed then crossing the mountains on a deserted moorland road with curlew, oyster catchers, dippers and buzzards for company. A stonking tailwind blew us down to Dalkeith where we followed the Sustrans track right into the heart of Edinburgh and our hotel.

And this perfect rainbow too.

Easter cycle ride - Day 1

This is how we crossed the River Tweed, on a cycle track suspension bridge. It is a beautiful river flowing through some lush countryside. We met up with another cyclist who was headed for Edinburgh and rode with him for a while, but apart from that we pretty much had it to ourselves.

Easter cycle ride - Day 1

Ted, Dave & I get the early train to Berwick to begin the next stage of our cycle ride that started 3 years ago in Derbyshire at the start of the Penine Cycle Way. Day one takes us to Galashiels by way of the glorious Tweed valley. The good news is that the rain keeps away and the sun shines brightly. The bad news is that there is a 26mph headwind the whole way. Good to be on the road though. Have an Indian meal and a couple of pints to celebrate

Facts

My favourite fact is that Edinburgh is further west than Liverpool

Nesting News

The Blue Tits are nesting in the nesting box on the Birch tree - this is the third year they have done so. The Great Tits are in the box by the pond. The Wrens have not come back to the Swallow box by the kitchen door but I am still hopeful. Chaffinchs are around a lot (which is unusual) so I hope they might nest too.

Costas

This is when we met Costas and his son-in-law on a path near their village; they had been cutting wood. A bit of chat and we were being invited back to the house to stay.

YOS

I am busy delivering photos that people bought at Open Studios weekend. Taking the photos to peoples houses is a good part of the process, makes the purchase seem special [which it is].

We had a piece in the paper about Huw Bayley [our MP] visiting us - all helps [him as well as us]

Changing Times

With Danielle away I am having to buy bread from the bakers [she is the lead baker in the house]. So, I was in town and heard someone order, in the broadest of Yorkshire accents, "A chicken tikka baguette please". Yorkshire has come along way...

The photo is of a house in Karpenisi in the Greek mountains.

Egypt

Danielle, Royce and Rowan are in Egypt on holiday. I had a text from Rowan "we have been to the Egyptian Museum and are on our way to the Pyramids". Sounds like the tour is doing what it said on the tin.

Gwen and David invited me around for a meal which was kind. Had a good chat and good food.

Still in Greece this was taken at Easter 1984, I think the goat might have had an important part in the celebrations...

Event

Had a big work day yesterday. An event on Intermediate Care [to stop people having to go into hospital] that I had put together took place. It went well, which was a relief. Of the 54 managers in the session 85% were women, which is not untypical in the health and social care world nowadays.

After the village of Agrapha in the Pindus mountains in Greece we were told to "follow the path up the valley". We came to this improvised footbridge - no time for a health and safety risk assessment.

More from the walk

So here are a few more photos from the Walk.On the forest track we met a woodcutter, Costas and his son in law. These two kids were Costas' grandchildren. We stayed in the family house high in the Pindos Mountains in central Greece, where they looked on pretty amazed by the whole thing. There was no road to the village, if you wanted to get there you had to walk.

Strange to think that they will now be in their 30s.

25 Years Ago Today

On this day in 1984 Marie and I set off on The Walk from Greece to Spain. Derwood met us at Heathrow to see us off and the adventure began. The photo is of gypsy children in Amfisa who we met in the first few days of the walk. 

Philly

Royce, Danielle's dad, arrived today. Rowan and I met him at the station after he had a good flight over from Philadelphia. Speaking of which, this photo of Philly went down well at the show. One woman asked me why I had chosen 13th street "No reason, why do you ask?" "Because I live on 13th Street, I am just over here for a visit" Some co-incidence.