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Still suffering with my bad back so all our plans for the past weekend went out the window. The plan was for 4 days camping and walking in the Lake District, but in my current state we call that off and we settle in for a quite few days at home. That plan quickly changed after a chance text that lead to an invite down to our friends for the 4 days, and what a fantastic time we had. Great weather, great company, lovely walking and loads of good food, just what I needed. To top the whole weekend off there happened to be a get together of most of our friend down there on our last night, so we got to catch up with everyone in one great night. Picture today is of an early morning at Ullswater. ---------------- Now playing: Suzanne Vega - Knight Moves via FoxyTunes

Another short post due to my bad back, It was to be a rant about an on line family tree service who offered me a free trial and the charged me £35. But after 2 days of strongly worded emails I have got my money back, so I will leave their reputation unblemished, for now. I did manage to pop around some blogs yesterday, I miss reading them daily but it is great catching up all in one go. The shot today has not been tampered with, other than for exposure. It shows a match head at the moment of lighting, you can see the flame advancing over the head, leaving a black charred waste in its path. ---------------- Now playing: The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed via FoxyTunes

A later than normal post and a shorter one, mostly due to the fact that my back is still playing up so I cannot sit at the pc for too long and it’s driving me mad!!!! Photo today is one of a set done at the Cheddleton Flint mill ; all the other shots will be on the Leek photo blog from tomorrow. It’s the first time I’ve featured a single place for a number of shots, so any feed back would be welcome. I am looking to extend the Leek blog to try to include more about the area and what it has to offer, and this is the first spot I have focused on. ---------------- Now playing: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House via FoxyTunes

Good news I’ve got a week off work, the bad news I had to put my back out to get it! According to the physio I’ve slipped a disk slightly and with a couple of weeks being very careful I should be fine. Unfortunately being careful means not sitting at the computer for longer than 15 mins and not doing any heavy lifting, so all the things I would want to do with a week off (working on photos, doing some blogging and working in the garden) are off the menu. The only thing open to me is walking and the weather has decided to take a turn for the worst. So I’m prowling around the house like a caged Tiger and just doing little bits here and there. There have been 2 bright spots to the day, first I’ve just read a fantastic book, A Dog Year: Rescuing Devon, the Most Troublesome Dog in the World , a truly great book if you are in any way in to dogs and boarder collies in particular. The second high spot was this clip of a contestant on Britain’s got talent, a real case of not judging a book by i...

Good manners (I feel a rant coming on), have you noticed that there seems to be a lack of these now days. Its funny but I only thought about the lack of them after experiencing a real old fashion example. Caz and I were out walking on Sunday when an old chap walked past us, he was dressed casually with a baseball cap on and as he passed Caz he tipped his cap at her. The effect on Caz was wonderful; it put such a smile on her face mostly because it was so unexpected and so old worldly, a real blast from the past. In a time when most people walk through you with out a second glance it was really special to be treated this way, in fact it has made me smile just thinking of it, so much so that I refuse to waste time ranting about the ignoramuses out there, including the spammer who posted 10 comments on one post last night. The next lesson on the photo course is now up, I’m sorry its took so long but time seems to be flying by so fast at the moment, all these holidays off work filling up ...

Not in the best of states today as I was out last night on a leaving do for one of my work mates. Its nearly always sad to see someone leave but in this case I am especially sad as she was such a great sources of entertainment, she sat opposite me for a number of months and even on the dullest days put a smile on my face. What’s worst she is going to Australia, back to where she came from, so the chances are we will not meet again, very sad, but she’s got the blog address and my email so I hope well keep in touch. I’m a big fan of military history and most weeks read at least one book on the subject, my favourite ones being the first hand accounts written by the person who was there. At the moment I’m reading books written by fighter pilots during the battle of Britain and am amazed at the life style they lived during those days. For a start they were mostly very young and with very little training, matched against the well blooded German pilots. They were also very few in number and w...

What a great weekend! It has been one of those weekends when nothing was planned and everything just fell into place without any real effort. To start with the weather was fantastic, more like May than early April and as most of what we needed to do was in the garden it made the jobs much easier. Saturday was spent tiding up the greenhouse and sorting out the seed planting. We also managed to get in a quick walk as well, one of many over the weekend. Sunday again started with an early walk then home in time to watch the GP, Mr Button doing a fantastic job for the second week running (So good to see that its back on the BBC). I then went totally out of character and washed my car, some thing I normally do just before I sell it, but it was just so nice a day and the car looked grubby. I then cooked pancakes for an early lunch before heading back for some more gardening. To end the day we had a quick walk which ended up at my brothers with a very cold can of larger, super! The only down s...

The internet is a great place, lots to see and do, wonderful people to meet and a great place to do your own thing. I read lots of blogs and over the years have had a share in many different moments, from walking with Penguins to fusion belly dancing, from rainy commutes in Paris to Sunday markets in paradise. I never imagined that my pictures would be seen around the world and that my blog would form a small part of people daily routine, yes the internet is great, but it can have its dark side. Now I’m not a great “keeper in touch” type of person, I leave that to Caz, it is not that I don’t care; it is just that I forget to make the effort. Take today, one of my oldest friends has gone into hospital and I really meant to contact him before hand to wish him luck, but just never got round to it. Having said that I do use sites like Facebook to try to touch base with people, even if it’s just to say hello once a year and its on Facebook the dark side of the internet entered my home yeste...