2018 ...and Happy Christmas !

Well Hello. It's been a year since I posted on here and what a busy year it's been. I"m still trying to keep this page active although there have been some difficulties in doing it. On a side note, the e-mail address I originally signed up with on here is no longer valid due to other problem issues so I'm using recovery addresses. It's difficult to know which system I'm on for comments and old images. I'll get around to commenting in the next week or so and it'll be interesting to see who's still blogging. I've essentially had a year out on Instagram.

The most relaxing part of the year was a week away to  a cottage on the shores of Loch Long in Scotland during September.

One of the things I mentioned in the last blog post was the distractions of real life and the inability to purchase a new computer to replace the old one. The white one on the right lasted a bit longer than the staff at the apple shop thought it would. Although it was purchased in early 2010 and had several upgrades including a non standard device with holding 650GB, one of the staff commented at a maintenance session that it was "vintage" !!!  As you can see it is not working with the current operating system and is now two systems behind, consequently it is very slow and crashed my 2016 images file which I had to unfortunately reload unedited. It was recommended because of it's age and obsolete battery that I didn't upgrade it as they couldn't guarantee it would work in the way I wished it to. It now has to work only with the mains lead and the battery level in more recent weeks reads consistently 0%.
Last year I sought advice on which one I should purchase to replace it but only got around to doing that in August this year. Back ups had to be transferred manually as my external drive had too much content on it. Thankfully I stored photos and important files on another external drive in a way I could find them from folders. After transferring my documents, folders and 82GB of iTunes, I had an e-mail to say that there was a re-call on all laptops of that model built between June 2017 and June 2018.  Some had a problem linking the hardware and software and it turned out at the subsequent service in November that mine was one of them. I was asked to back up all the data on it prior to this visit and when I got home I had to start again as it was like a brand new laptop with everything wiped from it.
I decided a few years ago to give a Flickr a try as the website delivered good quality images and 1 TB away free for storage. It seems according to a recent e-mail, they've changed their mind and want all those people like me to subscribe. Not sure what to do about that yet as Ive converted 75% of my blog images onto Flickr which would mean them dropping off the old blog posts. Is nothing ever simple with computers ?? !! Not sure where to go with this yet.

After the installation of the new kitchen in November last year, the other end of the kitchen diner was extended in the early part of this year. this is the completed unpainted version showing the length from the ceiling join. I have just finished the room today in time for the family coming for Christmas.

For some time I have been involved with an organisation loosely linked to as group of churches called Mighty Oaks giving out free quality hot drinks to those worse for wear or otherwise late on a Friday night (A kind of street pastors role but more about the coffee and if anyone wants to chat about anything at all). It is a commitment that can be time consuming, cold but very rewarding.  We have been borrowing a trailer cart from Morpeth for two years who do their work on a Saturday night. Unfortunately the cart that had to be towed was not as young and reliable as it used to be so we spent a lot of time sourcing a vehicle for our own purposes.

Our discussions with the local coffee van conversion (Coffee Latino) firm took my wife and myself to a 2nd hand garage near Saltaire to test drive a van at the end of April.

The DFSK pick-up seemed suitable and potentially affordable but there were lots of administration issues to sort out such as fund raising, Van Insurance, Public liability insurance, where the van was going to be stored and the current ongoing Charity status application. This last point seems to be taking forever after the first application submitted wasn't good enough and they wanted a safeguarding policy, DBS checks etc etc.

In the meantime we carry on in a part of Gateshead where we make all kinds of quality coffee, hot chocolate, tea and have supplies on board of bottled water, flip flops for post party goers, dog biscuits and umbrellas.
My wife sorts out the rota out and we seem to do 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 Friday nights.

In addition to the holiday mentioned in the first image, we took a much needed short notice week away to the village of Ashford Bowdler on the outskirts of Ludlow in July, it was an opportunity to explore Shropshire, North Herefordshire and the Welsh Border. This was all new territory for me. The collage of images above is Ashford Bowdler and the pictures were taken on my daily morning dog walks.

We visited relatives in Kent during May and saw new places such as Ramsgate.

 We always try to fit in a short break or two to Keswick or the Lake District. This was the view from near the hotel looking north over Derwentwater.

Molly usually comes with us and as you can see is now becoming a well travelled dog ... Speaking of trains ... apologies for four 2018 images here but just in case I use Flickr for the class 37 fans ....

I did four extensive class 37 diesel rail tours this year, Crewe to Carlisle, Crewe to Bognor, a Routes and Branches tour of Central Scotland and a Shrewsbury to Penzance trip. The four locations depicted are Hellifield, Guildford, Helensburgh Central and Plymouth.

We had new births this year out in the back field behind the garden fence and also a new arrival in the family that has enjoyably taken a bit of time up.

This year I decided to print some Christmas cards using one of last years photos. Optimal Print did a great job and printed 60 of these, that leaves me to say Happy Christmas to you all and I'll see if I can do better next year ....

Hill House (CR Mackintosh), Helensburgh

I had a week off work back in May this year that I had no idea what to do with it. I did think about going to Venice for a few days to repeat some poorly developed 35mm film photographs back in 2007, but due to a very short notice change of circumstances, I decided against it as it was not affordable at three months notice. As a reserve, Instead of a walking holiday or something to North Wales again, I made up my mind to do a memorable solo trip to Scotland. The weather I left behind at home was grim although it did me no favours on the outward travelling day as is depicted here. I stopped for lunch and a car break at Moffat but it was more of a lesson trying to dodge the rain rather than a photographic architectural one. A teashop in the main street was filled with hungry customers experiencing slow service, so I had to opt for the delights of fighting my way through the hordes of tartans and coach tour visitors in the Woollen mill to reach their coffee shop to prevent delaying my journey.

It was an afterthought as I was passing Helensburgh on the road north, I decided to call in and catch up with The Hill House of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Although Helensburgh was once a village that became popular as a result of a ferry service across The Firth of Clyde, it grew in modern times as a commuter town for the wealthy businessmen of Glasgow. It's most famous son was the inventor of the television, John Logie Baird.

As a teenager I recall stopping at Helensburgh next to the River Clyde on the journey to a westerly holiday location. My parents didn't seem to know about this house as it was in the upper part of town.

My fascination with the Glasgow School of Art mentioned in my initial Glasgow post followed by the post of the Mackintosh house in Bellahouston Park continued with this property.

In itself, Helensburgh is not considered a routine destination these days so unless one makes a specific day trip from somewhere local, it's not an obvious choice for distant travelling people like myself. It was unfortunate that I arrived about 4:30 in the afternoon so there wasn't enough time to take the tour that some visitors seem to think is a little overpriced... so just a few sneaky garden pictures.

Hill house was built for a mainly childrens and educational publisher called Walter Blackie between 1902 & 1904. Charles Rennie Mackintosh spent some time in the Blackies former house getting the feel for how they lived in order to create a better design.

Like The Glasgow school of Art, Mackintosh used opposites to enhance his work as the heavy but minimalist exterior is contrasted with the warm, exotically designed interior.

The elements once again reflect the architectural mix of Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts with the nod towards Scottish Baronial with his unusual Japanese influence that was common to the wealthy architectural travellers of the day. Mrs Macintosh assisted him with some of the internal fabrics. The house was eventually given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1982 with the Landmark trust acquiring the top floor for self catering holiday rental purposes.

My destination for the week was calling as the weather was only bearable for so long ...

Imposing Garden Gate

Looking down the hill towards The River Clyde ... if you can see it  !!

Oban - North East Railtours

I have been on the North East Railtours mailing list for a long time. It is run by a man based in Whitley Bay who uses coaching stock & catering volunteers from the Bo'ness and Kinniel Railway (Scottish Railway Preservation Society) beside the River Forth. NER run 4 - 5 trips a year to with a variety of either scenic rail journeys or interesting destinations. This particular trip was the bi-annual trip to the West Highland town of Oban.

The 11 coach train was pulled by a pair of the now rare class 37 diesels and the journey began at 6.45am on mayday bank holiday monday. The train picked up at most stops filling to capacity by Berwick.

The above picture shows the train crossing the Royal Border Bridge just south of Berwick station.

After passing through Edinburgh and the outskirts of Glasgow, the West Highland line commences near Helensburgh on the banks of the River Clyde.

Mountainous scenery can be found for most of the route with Ben Arthur or The Cobbler as it is better known being one of the more famous shapes on the horizon overlooking Loch Long...

The railway leaves Loch Long at Arrochar & follows the course of Loch Lomond & the continual glen to Crianlarich. At this point, the line splits and we took the westerly route to Oban via Tyndrum, Dalmally, Loch Awe and Connel bridge arriving in good time...

At Oban, the weather stayed fine and dry where there about 3 hours free to explore. The colosseum on the hilltop is called McCaigs folly and is now a park. The seagulls are.....

.....always keen to be around for any scrap of food that they can beg, borrow or steal. This one i thought looked particularly mean although i think i did alright with capturing the textures right ...if not the bird....shame he didn't get any of my chips !

Oban looks out to the island of Kerrara and Mull beyond where there is an abundance of passenger ferry activity.

Peaceful moment in the harbour as there was no work for this boat today. All too soon, it was time to return to the train for evening meal & the long journey back home which was thankfully uneventful.

... arriving back at Newcastle at 00:10. A good day out and the weather held out too.

The following entries have nothing to do with me and credit goes to the rail enthusiasts via Youtube, who filmed both off and on the train and it may or may not be of interest depending on who is checking out this post at such a late stage. Rail enthusiasts would have probably caught this clip first anyway but I just put it in to complete this post and the day out.

 The first Youtube clip records part of the day from a line side film maker, it is not the most scenic of films as his interest is probably in the rarity of the railway event that once spoke of the days when these locomotives plied their trade on routine passenger services up until 1989. The film is taken at various points between the River Clyde and Arrochar beside Loch Lomond. Incidentally, I have worked out that you can see my left arm in an open window of a door on 40 seconds at the front of the cream carriage as I was looking for photographic opportunities. During the second half of the film on the return run we were having dinner at this point.




Secondly an on board rail enthusiast recorded selected scenic and diesel film clips from the train window. His interest is probably more in the class 37 diesels but the more dramatic aspects of the film are shown in the second half of the film as the scenery and railway line become more spectacular. Interestingly enough, I noticed that between the times of 7:14 - 7:23 at Arrochar and Tarbet, you can see the film maker recording part of the film clip shown above ! )



The last entry is part 2 by the same enthusiast and demonstrates the continuation of the journey from Crianlarich. The railway junction and the line to Fort William and Mallaig is shown at  00:50 seconds, Oban station at roughly midpoint (thumbnail image) and he got off and filmed the train leaving Edinburgh Waverley at the end...