Guatemala 3

 

Final post from Rowan's Guatemala Trip. Pretty self explanatory.

Guatemala 2

Rowan on a very cold and windy ridge early in the morning. 

 

Guatemala

 Rowan is back from a two week holiday to Guatemala in central America. She travelled on her own independently for the first week, then met up with boyfriend Jamie for the second week. She went paddle boarding, trekked up an active volcano, saw baby turtles released into the sea and plenty more. Sounds a great trip. Glad to have her back.

Deep Dive

I walked across the lovely Wimbledon Common back to the Thames. Saw this puddle, ready for a deep dive.

20 Years On

I accompanied Danielle to a celebration of 20 years of  Friends Provident Foundation, the foundation that she started and has seen grow an develop its influence. It was held on the top floor of the Royal Festival Hall and was a a great event. There is no doubt that her hard work and effective leadership is well appreciated. 

I stayed down to see Mark and Mandy in Wimbledon, and a painting by Uccello that is in the National Gallery. Here is the painting: it was lurking down in the basement in the lower gallery. Fantastic.

Old Lines

 There is a series on TV on Abandoned Railways from the Air. It is not brilliant, but has interesting bits. The one we watched last was about the York to Hull line via the Wolds. It inspired us to go walk a bit of the line at lonely Kiplingcoates Station, where we found this signal box. Considering it is 60 years since the line was shut, it is in pretty good condition.

No Snow

For the last six years or so we have barely had any snow in York. Today there was a smattering which is already well on the way to melting. Danielle took this photo early today.
 

Escrick

A lovely light emerged as we walked at Escrick last week.

 

Guests

We have started doing AirB&B again, with a flurry of bookings up till Christmas. We had a Mexican couple stay who left us this lovely thankyou note. We could not ask for more.

Manchester Collective

I went with friend Paul to see the consistently brilliant Manchester Collective at my favourite venue; the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds. This is the third time I have seen them, always a different line up, always good. This time there were two Indian/Welsh players, two Irish, one South African and one from Côte d'Ivoire.

Photography Group

For over 10 years I have been running a photography group at the Mount School here in York. The head is leaving and I am going to stop doing the group at the end of this term. The talent of the girls is amazing, and this shot is particularly good I think. The theme was perspective. 

Canal Again

It was hard to stop taking photos on the canal walk. These houses at Sowerby Bridge just could not be ignored. 

Canals

I do love walking on the old canals; the industrial past, the beautiful architecture and then strange buildings like this. Not sure whether to title it Needs Some Work, or Seen Better Days.

An Uplifting Day

The Stroll continues. Onto leg 15 today. Walking along the Rochdale Canal from Todmorden to Sowerby Bridge for 10 miles or so, in beautiful autumn sunshine and mild calm weather. All sorts of people out and enjoying it too. Layla the star of the show on the train there and back, milking the adoration.

The stillness and the light made for some beautiful reflections. A bit straightforward a shot for me, but it does capture the day.

Life

 Life has been carrying on. Band practiced a couple of weeks ago, our music book group met to discuss a book about pianos in Paris, and we have a house guest for the weekend, Catherine, from New York City, the daughter of an old school friend of  Daneille's who we last saw 9 years ago as a 10 year old in Tuscany. So plenty going on.

Keldy 3

 

Peace in the dappled sunlight.

Keldy 2

We had some great walking in the forest, straight out of the door of the cabin. Perfect.
 

Keldy 1

After Colorado we had a few days in a forest cabin in Keldy Forest in the North York Moors. A fantastic place, really great accommodation, which as you can see suited all of us. Hot Tub on the deck was for humans only.
 

Colorado 6

Our final day was a drive back to Denver airport where our flight was delayed on account of Donald Trump having one of his hate-filled rallies in the city. 

This is an old gold mine in the Cripple Creek area

Colorado 5

 After the conference we had a couple of days together. We stayed in Cripple Creek, which used to be at the centre of extensive gold mining. Amazingly it still is, with a huge open cast mine in active and profitable use. It was a great little town to stay in. We went to see a production of Spamalot (the Monty Python muscial) which we loved. One of the cast asked me how their accent was, and I could honestly say that it was very good indeed. 

In the day we walked up in the mountains, where the aspen were losing their leaves for fall. It was a beautiful place to be.

Colorado 4

 

It is always good to meet the various people from around the world who come to these events, and I was happy to photography them on the final day. Jo Swinson (ex Lib Dem leader in the UK) was there, got on very well with her.

Colorado 3

I took the cog railway (rack and pinion) to the top of nearby Pikes Peak at 4302 metres high. For the first time in my life I felt a bit altitude wobbly. Previously cycling at over 5,300 metres had been no problem. I fear, it is another POTAP situation. Anyway the train was great with an excellent conductor telling us all about it. In this shot the train is making its way to the summit.

Colorado 2

 

Day 2 and I explored the area a bit more. There were lots of good trails, and just when I was getting peckish I came across a good cafe (or trading post as it was called) to keep me on my way. The weather was beautiful for our whole trip, unseasonally so, snow sometimes falls in October.