Boyd's photo diary. |
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Fri 31 Dec 2010
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While
walking to White Coppice I took this picture of the thawing
Leeds and Liverpool canal. I'm always amazed at the optimism
of fishermen who will break holes in the ice to follow their
sport. |
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Sun 26 Dec 2010
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Called in at Winfields, Haslingden Britannia Mill site and made
a pleasant discovery. They had an excellent motorbike museum. |
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originally owned by Steve McQueen |
the bike Carl Fogarty rode to win the
1989 Isle of Man TT |
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Sat 25 Dec 2010
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a very pleasant Christmas dinner at my brother's I walked home
along a dark and deserted Leeds and Liverpool canal towpath |
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the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Wheelton, looking up to Rye
Bank |
looking cross the snow covered fields to Wheelton |
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Fri 24 Dec 2010
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afternoon drove to Tockholes car park and walked up to Darwen
Tower to see the effects of the top section being blown off in
November. It was sunny and lots of snow still on the ground. Up
the tower all the steps were in place but the top Perspex and
wood canopy was missing. It didn’t seem to be a problem and
enables a better panoramic view. Two other visitors commented
that they thought the tower was better without the Perspex
cover; I agree. |
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just below the top of the staircase |
looking down the spiral staircase |
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Thu 23 Dec 2010
| Mid afternoon had
a walk above White Coppice to the site of the ruin of Coppice
Stile Farm. |
Coppice Stile Farm c1890s |
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the same site today; snowy, windswept and very cold. |
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Mon 20 Dec 2010
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I was camped on
the fells to the east of Dale Head, Cumbria when I saw the full
moon rising above Clough Head to the NE. It is also the longest
night of the year and the sky remained clear meaning the snow
covered fells were illuminated all night. |
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Sun 19 Dec 2010
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The White
Coppice icicles can always be relied on to give a spectacular
display when it’s cold but they aren’t very accessible to get a
good view. To get round this I set the camera up on a tripod in
the river bed. With a special bracket mounted on the tripod it
is possible to rotate the camera at precise intervals to take an
accurate mosaic of images. They are then processes afterwards in
the computer to align them into one image. This picture is a
180deg wide view built up of 13 separate images. |
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Sat 18 Dec 2010
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the bottom of School brow this morning |
more snow on the Christmas tree on Waterhouse Green |
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The snow
continued through the night and was even deeper this morning |
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This afternoon it
was clear and cold so I went for a walk from White Coppice
towards Brinscall. The two images below are wide views made by
merging several images together. |
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White Coppice cricket field in the snow |
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the Pine woods above Brinscall |
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Fri 17 Dec 2010
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This evening it
started to snow quite heavily. Approaching midnight I drove to
Chorley Railway Station to pick son Steve up and only just got
through. |
The Christmas tree on Waterhouse Green with the Roebuck in the
background |
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Tue 14 Dec 2010
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Drove to
Grasmere with bike in the car then rode to Ghyllside Cycles in
Ambleside to invest in set of Ortlieb rear panniers. They are
reputed to be the best on the market. Also bought some butterfly
bars as I'm planning to convert my touring bike. Then cycled
back to the car via Elterwater. I had the new panniers on the
bike and the boxes as well. I looked like I was delivering
pizzas! |
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Bike and new panniers while eating my butties in Elterwater |
Ghyllside Cycles, Ambleside |
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Driving home via St John's in the Vale I saw the Howgills free
of snow.
Last week everything in this picture was white with snow. |
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Sun 12 Dec 2010
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I decided to
use the nice weather to walk from Abbey Village and through
Withnell and Withnell Fold to deliver some Christmas Cards. I
took these snaps on the way. |
Descending from Pike Lowe
towards Oakmere Avenue/ |
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the old railway
line that ran between Chorley and Cherry Tree |
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Sat 11 Dec 2010
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The Carphone
Warehouse mobile phone shop had a very good deal on offer, a
Samsung Tocco Lite touch screen mobile phone for £44.95. I
called in yesterday to buy one but I was told the price had just
gone up that morning to £47.95. I asked how long the memo
messages could be but the shop assistant didn’t know. My idea
was to use the qwerty touch screen as a keyboard to keep a
mobile diary when I’m away from home. I went ahead with the
purchase but when I got home and tried to install the PC Suite
software from the disc it wouldn’t read on either of my PCs so I
downloaded it from the Samsung website. The Bluetooth connection
worked OK but once the text messages have been transferred to
the PC they can’t be converted from the Samsung’s .nef file
format to plain text. |
Samsung Tocco Lite S5230 |
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was the first major problem. The qwerty keyboard worked fine but
the longest memo I could type was about 100 characters, so no
use for a diary. There was no ‘&’ character available anywhere.
For anyone not wanting what I was after its unbelievable value.
But for me it’s no better than the Nokia I already have so I
reluctantly returned it this morning for a refund. |
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Wed 08 Dec 2010
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| After walking over the summit
of Blencathra, near Keswick, Cumbria, I took this wide view
looking south while on the descent. It was a very cold and clear
day. |
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Mon 06 Dec 2010
| On my way back
from Chorley I saw this nice winter view of Astley Hall with
frost covered trees. |
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Sun 05 Dec 2010
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The was an interesting mix of clear and misty weather this
afternoon. I went for a walk from White Coppice to Wheelton
Plantation, setting off in clear and cold sunshine and
finishing in mist. |
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View of Healey Nab
from above White Coppice |
Another view towards the Nab but with the mist rolling in |
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Walking through the pine-woods back to White Coppice |
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Sat 04 Dec 2010
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Evening
caught the bus to Chorley and walked home along the canal bank.
The temperature was just below freezing and the slushy snow was
very slippery. Took some photos of a barge on the canal then
through the Mormon Temple grounds to take some more pictures. |
barge at Botany |
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 the
canal at Botany |
the Mormon Temple |
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Thu 02 Dec 2010
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This evening I was at Astley Hall,
Chorley to see another excellent historical presentation by
Lizzie Jones. This evening we were taken back to the time of
Oliver Cromwell and the English Civil War inthe 1640s and 50s.
The theme was Mry Elizabeth Cromwell the 'Relucatant Majesty'. |
Lizzie as Elizabeth Cromwell
on the staircase of Astley Hall |
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Lizzie as Elizabeth Cromwell |
Elizabeth Cromwell |
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