Meet Gerald

Pat is mad keen on garden birds.   We have an elaborate bird feeder, right outside the kitchen window, at eye level.   Even I am fascinated by the comings and goings.   Last weekend it was the RSPB's Great British Birdwatch and in one hour Pat counted 53 individual birds of 17 varieties - and one vole, who lives in the dry stone wall by the feeder and is getting really quite fat on the left-overs.

In recent weeks we have been thrilled by the presence of our very own cock pheasant:

This isn't actually him, but a look-alike.

Ours is called Gerald and he is getting unnervingly tame.   His efforts at flying are noisy and comical.   He is altogether a pleasant pheasant.

Weather and the First Steam Train of the Year

Settle and the area surrounding it - The Yorkshire Dales no less - is a place of contrasts and variety.

Seven days span these first two things.   We are in an Atlantic warm airstream just now and most of the snow has gone but this was on the top of Whernside a week ago :

click to enlarge

And at 1642 yesterday twilight (sound on):

https://www.facebook.com/173627899681843/videos/598279077216721/

Fireman was Settle's Martyn Soames.   Listen for his tribute to his father Derek as they pass Settle churchyard after they come into view round the bend.   They were a couple of minutes late and 'cracking on' as they say round here.   See the crowd stand back on the up platform - me included!

And then the Lord stepped in with this:

Well done station supervisor Lisa Smith.

Meanwhile in the FoSCL workshop at Settle station, more magnificent craftsmanship is in evidence - the S-E-T-T-L-E capital letters for the station running-in boards and an exterior door for the trolley kitchen are almost complete:

Now, that is competition for 10 Downing Street I reckon.

Another Good Pic

Found this on Instagram -

click to enlarge and enjoy

I don't know what sort of phot editing it has had but its seems just right for the subject here.  It is quite recent because it shows our new public waiting shelter bottom left

Radio Silence Explanation

I hope some followers have noticed an absence of recent postings.   I have been back in Airedale hospital for another operation which took place a week ago tomorrow.   It was for a left (for those who need to know about these things) inguinal hernia.   I am now at home but under instructions not to drive, climb stairs or lift anything heavy for a week or six.

The need for the op was only discovered following a scheduled CT scan as part of the monitoring of my health after my big C op in 2015 - which consistently shows 'all clear', mercifully.   The report on the latest CT scan , whilst declaring that no C was detected, mentioned in passing that I had the hernia.   Surgeon Chris Newman:

wrote to me and said he would fix it if it was troubling me.   I replied 'Yes please' and within a month I was under the knife.   So much for all those horror news stories about a NHS at breaking point and elective operations being cancelled.

Once again, the whole experience was most impressive and really quite enjoyable all things considered.  The care and consideration at Airedale Hospital were beyond the slightest criticism.

One is bound to reflect on the state of the NHS - seemingly doomed to constant attack from whoever is not in government and a hungry media.   Seems to me there are inherent factors which put incredible, and almost unaffordable pressures on the 1948 model NHS.   Medical advances, and the resultant ageing and increasing population are two strong ones, among many others.

The sheer scale of the NHS is another thing, well illustrated in this area.   This was the local general hospital - Keighley Victoria:

Pat used to work there as a radiographer.

By contrast, here is its replacement - Airedale General Hospital:

Vast, and getting bigger almost by the day.   Vast, but not impersonal though.   When the anaesthetist paid his pre-op visit he was grinning from ear to ear.   "I've just seen your address" he said.  "Saw that on TV and I'm really envious".   That was nice.

Come Back Russia - We Miss You

Here are last week's viewing figures.   Modest but not much has been happening has it?

What is curious though is that one of our top three viewing countries is totally, absolutely and utterly missing.   Russia.

How about I try a few tasty test words then?

Putin
KGB
Kremlin
Moscow
Tchaikovsky
Kaspersky
Shithole Trump

Pageviews by Countries 

Entry	Pageviews
United Kingdom	175
United States	117
France	69
Australia	31
Ukraine	19
Brazil	7
Spain	7
Turkey	7
China	6
Hungary	6

Super Portrait of the Water Tower

click to enlarge

How about this one?


I have not seen many, if any really successful frontal portraits of the whole tower but this will take some beating.   It is among a huge number of superb photographs on the website of PhotoNorth - do have a look via the link below.

https://www.photonorth.uk

It shows among other things how the sky reflects mirror-like in the tower's windows  - a result of the triple glazing.   That means that people to-ing and fro-ing the station cannot see into the tower but we can see out perfectly - and we are a jolly sight warmer just now!

The photograph is a nice reminder of high summer 2017.   The big sycamore tree to the right of the tower has just been removed, opening up the view behind.   Flowerpot Man is perched near the top of the ladder and the Yorkshire flags look like candles on a cake.

Well done photographer Joan Martin.

Nice Instagrams of Settle Station

Just discovered Instagram so be warned.    Here are some Instagrams of Settle Station out of the hundreds that are on there, chosen for no other reason than that they were fun or appealed to me: