Bonjourno!

Im back from a week of relaxation on the shores of Lake Maggiore, above. As may be expected from a week in such a picturesque location, i managed to take a fair few pictures, which made the task of selecting one for here very hard.

The picture shows 2 of the 3 Borromean Islands in lake Maggiore, and the resort I was stayin at Baveno, to the far left. The nearest is beautiful isle, containing an impressive palace and gardens built in the 15th century, and then the "fishermans island", or Isola Superiore, population of around 200. Also note one of the boats of the state run "navigazione di maggiore", which ply the lake continously during the day with an interestingly varied range of vessels.

Ive now made a whole gallery of my favourite shots from this holiday on fotopic (click). Enjoy

Welcome home...

Im back in Preston (for another 6 hours - im off on holiday for a week), and upon my return noticed the "development" of Sharoe Green Hospital was continuing apace. The above picture shows it on the 10th April, with plenty of smashed windows that can be seen on this closer shot. The demolition has been on the cards for nearly 2 years now, it shut the first week of September 2004 when i was still working at RPH, and it used to accomodate maternity, obbs and gynae, old people and some other stuff. It should be pointed out that my self and the Master of Salt none the less were born in this very building in the Thatcher years, as im sure were some of my Preston friends. All services were moved to a new building on the RPH site, Preston going from 3 hospitals (4 including the Asylum) to 1 in under 20 years. Anyway, suffice to say the site is now rubble awaiting houses. Ill take a picture of it when im back from holiday, but if you cant wait, Graham took some pictures of it being pulled down when i was at uni, and this random bloke went on some "UrBeX" here - reccomended.

Sundown in Knaresborough

We have been having an excellent spell of weather over the last week or so, and last saturday evening i made it to a rather calm and picturesque Knaresborough. Home town of Steve, its most famous for Mother Shipton , the "Yorkshire witch", born here in a cave during a storm in 1488. Visitors to the cave can see the "petrifying well" which turns objects left in the water into stone due to high calcium deposits. It is also home to Englands oldest chemist, opened in 1720. The picture shows rowing boats laid up for the night on the River Nidd, responisble for forming a deep gorge through the area.

Crossing the border

On Firday i shot up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed before work, on what turned out to be a beautiful day. Using the 100-300 mm lense i snapped a Scotland bound GNER express crossing the Royal Border bridge. I will come back to the bridge on a latter date, but also of interest is the train visible. These were the last of BR designed coaches, Mk4's , built for the East coast main line electrification. Constructed in Birmingham by Metro-Cammel* from 1989-1991, they were built for 140Mph running, with future-proofing tilt profiles, and are still one of the most comfortable trains in the country. They are also highly regarded for their strength and crashworthiness, due to excellent (British) engineering. This was demonstrated by the number of casulaties at both the Selby and Hatfield rail crashes, considering the trains were travelling at around 120mph - imagine a road accident at half that speed without seat belts.

*The more observent of the uni people may notice that the Metro-Cammel works also made the Tyne and Wear metro trains (look on the floor when you board). The company was bought by Alsthom in the 1990s, who now are seriously in debt (cue French government handouts). The factory shut last year (after making the new virgin tilting trains), and with the Preston factory now running a skeleton staff is another nail in the coffin for British manufactuing (if any more were needed).

Steep Hill

Tuesdays adventures took me to Lincoln, where the above picture of the aptly named "Steep Hill" street was taken. Just visible on the left skyline is the impressive cathedral that sits on top of the hill - its quite a pull from the station. Lincoln grew from a Roman town, a fort being built when they arrived in 48AD, and now has a population of 86,000.