Post 50. The birth & early journey of a blog ... & J_on_tour !

The dawn of J_on_tour.... Newcastle Central Station

I always intended that my blog should be mainly pictorial and a little mysterious but as the journey has progressed, so the text has increased and my character is more prominent. Although 50 posts is not a great achievement, I didn't think that you would be travelling with me after 11 posts, comments from 4 people and 1 follower. I am still here !

I do not intend to depart from the current format but thought that this was an excuse to share more of the place where I live and come from every 50 posts. I'm sure you'll allow me that privilege at these intervals as I feel that I am hiding something away from you !!

This post however, is a one off and I aim to involve my fellow travellers on this occasion that have helped me on my journey both around the UK in pictures and around the world in another form.

Despite being inspired by my parents to travel to local picturesque places, Scotland and The Lake District when I was younger, my travels started when I could afford my first train ticket to Durham. (My interest in trains started as a child in the local park where "class 37 diesels" passed by on coal trains, we all ran to the fence to watch them go by at the bottom of the bank. These freight engines worked summer holiday specials from Scarborough and Blackpool and it was an opportunity to ride behind them.)  I incorporated this with a tour of the historic city with my camera on most occasions. The distance increased to York, Leeds and Edinburgh in the first instance and later to all parts of the UK with accommodation in Wales, Scotland and Devon.

Later, when I could afford my own car,  I was able to re-visit teenage youth group things by learning the basics of hillwalking from a friend and eventually spent a large amount of time in The English Lake District and to a lesser extent North Wales. Although I have always loved and read maps from the back seat of my parents car from the age of 7, this was another opportunity to combine hillwalking with tourism and photography.

My first flight was a prize won in a local department store with the destination being the caribbean island of Aruba. This was the forerunner of travels that took me into another dimension for a while which included South West England and I was a frequent flyer on EasyJet. To give you an indication of the frequency, it is not often that a budget airline in the UK gives a credit voucher away towards another flight. In this period I was able to sample a lot of European destinations and got to know the cabin crew very well !!

Although I had used computers for a while, my interactive internet journey only began when I didn't feel comfortable with a Hotel in Weymouth and so I joined Trip advisor. I had to think up an on - line name for the site and J_on_tour1 was born. Soon after, I was "helped" into the digital photography age by my southwestern friend and later recorded my pictorial travels on social media with humorous captions.

One weekend at work during June, I had a discussion with primrosepatch ( special thanks .... because otherwise I wouldn't be here ) about other internet sites not being a great platform for this who in turn wanted ideas about taking better exposures and photographs. My big concern was that I am not a great photographer in my eyes, I am not a world travelling tourist, I am not a hillwalker in the extreme but I was a hybrid mixture of all three. The following day, with a great deal of help and mentoring, I published my first post. As I said earlier, it was a difficult start and it wasn't until the london post of number 13 that a few followers started to join and I was comfortable being myself in the process. There was a greater interest shown in my hill walking exploits to the English Lake District and Scotland. The variety of the journey continues through winter to places that might be unexpected........

That's enough about me.......

I had been thinking about what to do for a 50th or 100th post when an idea came to me, when out of the blue, 'Wind' thanked me with an award... how shocked was I when I saw where I was put on the list..

Photographis: Best Virtual Friend Award

It made me think that I didn't come on to blogger to blog but I came to interact and make friends. Prior to this I was inspired to reply to every comment.... something I have done since the end of September (usually for the 2nd most recent post, the day after I publish the latest post).

The journey of the first 50 posts has included three people that I have interacted with most and in no particular order are ... Wind @ graphis-artwork who is not just an amazing artist but an outstanding photographer. Adrian @ adriansimages who I think seems to have the most in common with what I try to do and visit the places I know. Having said all that, I think Adrian would prefer himself as more of a photographer and myself as more of a tourist !! I found cranberrymorning by accident on a Yorkshire profile page and soon discovered that there was more variety to "following" than I thought. At first I didn't expect to follow, but after a while, there were a few more things of interest that cropped up.

Two more people in the the top 5 that deserve a mention are Mahon @ redcat-albumart who as you can see from the above photo and his link inspires me with his photographs .......and felisa @ gaspar y familia who writes an inspirational blog that I don't always understand as it can be time consuming and miss something in the translation but respect for her following of my blog and the numerous comments.

I discovered a tourist group through photographer rafael lam by a subscribed post and as a result a travel conversationalist lily riani, award winning lonely planet photographer rizalenio and recent addition to my list.... traveling hawk & travelling on a budget with Debbie

Other people of note in the photographic area are
cimpoaca laurentiu,
sciarada @ anima mundi,
Farm chick @ its a small town life
luzia's art who is also an artist
Berit @ bare builder (beritsfoto)

I would like to thank the small group of walkers that I follow. You are a very patient group of people and even though some of you don't comment on my pages much, I know that you follow me. A special mention to Mike @ northern pies who has a unique sense of humour and as you will see from the link was the donator of my first blog prize.

I have to include variety bloggers from the other side of the Atlantic who I have accidently come across through subscribed posts sweet virginia breeze who I currently follow in RSS, mountain lyon and vickilanemysteries.

It is impossible to mention everyone who I have just started travelling with or those who I am not sure are still with me on the journey but I would just like to promote them as seen on the right hand side of the page .... The other people who have previously commented on my pages that I cannot miss out  are -

synflame, petrus @ rambler, Vania @ be my guest in rio and kae lani who i follow in RSS.

Lastly, as many longer term readers might guess, I look forward to having some fun with george the lad !

This has been a rather unexpected journey meeting and travelling with new friends as I begin my journey. Enough of sentimental talk now  &

May the journey continue...............

This side Edinburgh/ Glasgow, other side York/London.