And 3 years later.... a new start

-

 

Something, a stirring in my consciousness maybe, prompted me to open up this blog, which I had completely forgotten about, at about 3:40am two nights' ago. One of those nights where sleep just disappears, and I give in and get up. I was surprised to find that I had published a few posts, and that they were quite pleasant to read. 

My aim back then had been to have a space, a place to collect thoughts, reviews, memories and photos. I'm a little sad that I didn't keep it up for long, but there's no reason for not having another go.


Life finds me now in a rather different place.Three years ago, I had recently begun a new career after what seemed like a lifetime (29 and two third years to be precise) of high school teaching. I was enjoying the change of pace, until that, too, became busy. 

Anyway, two months ago, I took early retirement. I'm now in the process of trying to find a new way of living, a new normal if you will. 

If this blog can help record and make sense of this transition time, then it will have done its duty. Maybe it will be more than that, I don't know. 


Catching up three year's worth of life isn't really possible in a short blog post, so here are some of the highlights:

  • becoming grandparents (and about to have our second grandson)
  • visiting Lisbon
  • visiting Copenhagen
  • lots of camping trips in the UK - Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Northumberland, Scotland
  • lots of walks over hills and dales
  • trips to London to visit our daughter and family
  • so many gigs! Mainly small ones. Highlights being Hamish Hawk, WH Lung, Hope & Social, Leisure Society, the Burning Hell. Favourite venues the Brudenell in Leeds, Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.
  • continuing to find and support independent bookshops

So these are a few snapshots - not very good quality - from recent camping trips in the Lake District and  trips to Edinburgh and London. Mainly phone snaps. 

A few local hikes too.



I sometimes forget how beautiful West Yorkshire can be. The deep lush valleys, the shades of green, the mellow stone. The wild moors.

So, if this blog prompts me to look more carefully, reflect, pause, appreciate.....that's no bad thing.


Comments

Post a Comment

I’d love to hear your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

Balancing act

-
Image
 Early September, and the year is in balance. August, dull and wet as it was, has been chased out, and the sun has finally come out. We had a trip to Brimham Rocks today. As I left high school teaching last year, it's good for me to mark what would previously have been a time of stress, and end to days of freedom, with just the opposite. It's a strange landscape, up there where the soft Yorkshire Dales meet the bluntness of the moorland. It's other-worldy, and those ancient and precarious rock formations add to the eeriness.  I can only imagine how wonderfully atmospheric it is on a misty morning, a wintry afternoon, at sunset. First, we had a walk through the woods. It was a hot, sticky day, so it was good to get out of the sunshine.    Then we explored the rock formations on top of the hill. They have a feel of the Wild West about them. It was good to see them when there weren't too many other visitors. This one is a huge rock balancing rather improbably on a very ...
Read more

Settle down for a train journey

-
Image
 We were lucky enough to receive some unused train tickets last week unexpectedly, for the famous Settle to Carlisle railway. Settle is a large village in North Yorkshire, deep in the dales, and Carlisle is a small university city on the border with Scotland, in the northern Lake District. We arrived very early at Settle, and had a little time to explore and get a bacon sandwich. The journey was as spectacular as you would expect, cutting through the wilder top end of the Yorkshire Dales. You pass the Yorkshire Three Peaks - Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-ghent. Going north, the three peaks were still asleep in their early morning mist. Carlisle has a beautiful cathedral. Behind the cathedral, there's a warren of cobbled streets to wander in, full of cafes, independent shops and galleries. Signs of past grandeur, Carlisle has some stunning and imposing front doors. It has some impressive street art too. And interesting alleyways that are hard to resist! The train whisked us back...
Read more

Lakes, cakes and ale

-
Image
  For the second year in a row, I got to spend my birthday at the Yan. It's a farm that's been turned into a restaurant with rooms, a couple of little glamping pods and cottages too. It's on the remoter side of Grasmere, heading up to the big mountains.  Despite various named storms visiting the UK at this time, our few days in the Lakes were mostly fine, during daylight hours at least. The leaves were in their full glory. We walked around Rydal Water and Grasmere. We saw the sun break out over Catbells, at Derwentwater. Tarn Hows The local Herdies (Herdwick sheep) are very friendly and inquisitive. Cakes were eaten, ale was drunk, there was the traditional visit to the Grasmere gingerbread shop and Zefferilli's old cinema on Hallowe'en, to watch A Haunting in Venice. Perfection. .
Read more