The almost poetically sad expression 'disused railway'—10,000 miles is a lot of disused—once conjured up visions of neglect and abandonment. Heritage railways and the repurposing of some former stretches of 'permanent way' (a poor choice of words) have halted a small but significant part the decline. Before the 'Canal Walks' series (May 2011), which we featured recently , there were six episodes of a 'Railway Walks' series (Oct-Nov 2008), both presented by Julia Bradbury. Neither series is available for online streaming via the BBC iPlayer, but check the linked pages for DVD availability via Amazon and the BBC Shop. We chanced upon a picture of Bradbury on the footplate of a heritage locomotive on the Ffestiniog railway—the fireman's side of a Double Fairlie for any trainspotters: the American English translation of 'railfan', 'rail buff' or 'train buff' fails to conjure up the anoraks and woolly bobble hats of the true pe...
It has come to my attention that my enemies are putting it about that I can only take a halfway decent picture if it is a sunset and that anybody can take pictures of clouds. So, I arose early in the morning to take these pictures. It does at least demonstrate that my enemies are only half correct in their attempts to defame me. However, that is not what is turning me grey. I saw these first pictures displayed on a different computing platform to the one I use—I would fain call it an alternative—and the color balance was badly adrift. There are many factors in this equation, not least the quality of the viewing software and hardware. Porbably the most important factor is the user settings: do you know how to set the color rendering of your monitor? When did you last do that basic task? The software used to assemble these blog posts does not even render these three images—which should not be a variable if you knew the conditions and the production workflow—although I suppose assembly...
Earlier in the week, a dull, cold day followed the inclement weekend weather. There was some light rain and a cool breeze, so all the desert weenies hereabouts donned Ugg boots, cable-knit sweaters, and layered fleeces. The blue sky and puffy white clouds returned over the hill around the middle of the day. The previous day was so cold that I had to roll down my shirt sleeves, although shorts & sandals are still comfortable for walkers. Today was short-sleeve weather as I strode purposefully out to take the air. There was no mistaking the changing season, and as a lover of the Autumn found myself singing snatches from 'My Favorite Things', the song Julie Andrews sang in 'The Sound of Music' just prior to the Anschluss Österreichs, when the Germans invaded the country where the movie was set. As an anthem to sentimentality, I have always found the lists in the Rogers & Hammerstein song to be less effete than the lists in the Lindsay & Smith song 'All...
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