Happy Birthday to Me

I was born on the 15th of October umpty tum.   The year is a secret but there was a war on.   This birthday is precious as I nearly didn't live to see it.   It is now six months since my big fall and I feel really well along the supposedly 12 month recovery period.

Six months is quite a while yet the remnants of the Get Well flowers from the Restoration Man producer Melissa Mayne are still giving pleasure:

Here they are in the lounge with the Restoration Man black book and a water tower postcard in the foreground.

Bless them, daughter Lorna and grandsons James and Ben came all the way from Gerrards Cross to visit us this weekend.   Not the best picture in the world but here they are tucking in to my pre-birthday dinner:

Later we all enjoyed a super coffee icing birthday cake 75% covered in candles.   Damn, that may have given the game away.

Monday, and now it really is my birthday.   The sun is shining too.   Loads and loads of social media messages.   Pressies too.   What can you get for a 75 year old hoarder who has already been given everything?   The challenge was well met:

 a bunch of coins including a 1943 half penny.   You would have thought they might have used the copper for Spitfires in 1943 wouldn't you?

an i phone charger and lead.   You cannot have too many of these especially when you have grandchildren.

a bumper box of 4 x 500 piece jigsaws of scenes from the forties.

and an exercise cycle.   This is the very latest type with presumably magnetic resistance to the pedals, it really does simulate the real thing.   It has electronic read outs showing your pulse, mileage, calories expended and probably the FTSE 100 Index if you know what buttons to press.   I spent much of the morning assembling it.   Any born-again child knows that the best gifts are the ones you can actually play with.

An Eventful Day

The Settle-Carlisle line has been effectively closed for much of the day becuse of a disabled freight train on the down (northbound) line at Low House, not far from Carlisle.   The signalman at Culgaith had seen sparks flying from a wheel on the nothbound freight train so asked his colleague at Low House to stop it.  A locked wheel had caused a big flat to be created.    So big in fact that the only remedy was to jack up the wheel and put a skid underneath it - then proceed at 5mph to a repair facility.   That took most of the day.   Who knows how much damage was done to the track.

Anyway, things are now back to what passes for normal as this lovely picture of a leaf busting train at Ribblehead at sunset testifies:

Our planning problem remains but has been massively reduced by supportive messages from FoSCL chairman Douglas Hodgins. British Water Tower Appreciation Society archivist Ferrers Young and Prof. Barry Barton - the ultimate expert on UK water towers and water supplies.   Also now Bryan Gray - both in his capacity as a private individual and as chairman of the S&C Railway Trust.

Another Milestone - and a Potential Millstone

Today I attended yet another clinic at Airedale Hospital, another example of the care and attention that flows from our much maligned NHS.

The further milestone is that I mowed the top lawn all by myself.   Despite the elctric lawnmower which does the real work I was knackered afterwards but on balance I enjoyed it.   The smell of a new mown lawn is one of life's blessings.   This isn't our lawn but it paints the picture:

The millstone is a devastating conservation and heritage report on our planning application, a year in the development, which advises refusal of several grounds including size (too big) and too domestic in appearance.

All towers have an inherent disadvantage - tallness.   This means that if they are to be occupied they need at or near ground level additions.   We (us and architect Stuart Green) have busted our guts to achieve a good design which respects what is already there.   Let us see.

Another Milestone

This morning I gave a 2 hour presentation to Skipton/ Craven U3A's railway group - a fearsome group of knowledgeable people.   I had three times had to cancel doing this talk and am relieved to have got it done at last.   They were gentle with me and appeared interested to hear how steam locomotives were watered.   A very enjoyable morning followed by a splendid lunch at the fabulous  Tempest Arms.

click to enlarge

I am still coming to terms with the reality that a standard British forkful is slightly bigger than the size of my slightly modified mouth especially when eating in public.

Russia Just Loves Water Towers

This Blog has been on the go since May 2010.   Below is the latest statement of where our audiences have come from over the years.   I have had fun with this before, mentioning tasty keywords such as GCHQ, Kremlin and Pentagon.

Here's a new set - Salisbury, holidays, old clocks, spire, Holland, Novichok, Trump, Brexit, water tower.

Pageviews by Countries  Entry Pageviews United Kingdom 112362 United States 82496 Russia 17117 Germany 11083 France 10694 Australia 10343 Ukraine 3363 China 1520 Canada 1172 New Zealand 1019

Couldn't Resist This

One of the advantages of having an iPhone in your pocket all of the time is that you have a first rate camera with you too.   This afternoon I was up on the roof, as you do, and this beautiful and contrasty land and sky picture presented itself:

Click.

Another Fine Morning

The area round Settle never ceases to yield stunning views, season by season:

This is the dip in the road from Settle to Malham below which is Scaleber Force: