That’s barely a ripple compared to some of the pics he’s posted of previous crossings… 
Living the dream mate.
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On final leg of s’afty’s dog walk, and I just witnessed the tragi-comic sight of a randy ‘cabbage white’ butterfly vigorously pursuing a falling petal of cherry blossom as the wind buffeted it along, until it came to rest on the surface of the river, whereupon our hero lingered for a moment before he shot off to find a less reckless mate…
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Making a pole lathe. Mick Abbot turned up for a visit, the Godfather of the green woodworking Renaissance, lovely guy.
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Fucking about with more radios.
Seem to have been lucky so far in that all my visits have been lovely sunny days. This site is owned by Trinity House who look after the lighthouses.
The cottages in the last photo are rented out as holiday lets by them
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I used to get an invite each year to the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights’ annual dinner. Every other year it was held at Trinity House in Newcastle which was quite a nice building from the outside but the interior was spectacular.
The banqueting hall was quite something
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They weren’t short of a bob or two in ye olde days (and still do quite well)
They’re a registered charity now but there always seemed to be plenty of funds available for their various ventures.
Presumably partly funded by what they charged for hosting lavish functions. The Shipwrights’ dinner was certainly a no expense spared event.
Very small part is the charity and has nothing to do with the lighthouses, they are still funded by a levy the MCA assign to all commercial vessels to pay for the lighthouse/buoys etc upkeep.
Yes I know, I’m referring to the buildings in Newcastle that come under the Trinity House name/charity
Arriving in Rye.
I would have thanked @ZiggyMarley for the accommodation tip, but it looks like he’s properly pulled the pin.
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Yesterday was a 7 mile walk from Ashford-in-the-water (which is indeed not much above normal river water level)
We wandered up through Shacklow woods then uphill to the south, stopping for lunch at Magpie mine (scene of some bitter rivalry in the mining days https://pdmhs.co.uk/magpie-mine-peak-district-history/
There were a lot of violas in flower on the spoil tips there - not sure whether wild or sown there
Above Ashford the rapeseed was beginning to flower. To the left of that long narrow fields (?medieval?) lead up toward the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, set on a promontory above a bend in the river.
Then back down to the village, looking very neat from above.
Tea and cakes at a friend’s house there to finish!
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Today was my now annual bike outing on my Dad’s anniversary. Decided to do a different route but what I didn’t take into account was the 18 mph headwind on most of the route so it ended up being a very difficult ride.
All in it was 105 mile and just shy of 5,000 ft of vertical ascent so the feckin’ recovery beers chilling in the fridge better do their job tonight 
This is the biggest and hardest part of the route. I cycled down to get the ferry across to Dunoon but that was the easy bit and a different file but not worth uploading that one.
Sunrise on the way down to Gourock .
Waiting for the ferry to Dunoon and my first inkling that the wind was going to be a problem
The Firth Of Clyde
Maybe I should take up horse whispering as two minutes later…
Loch Fyne
So near and yet so far - looking down to the Colintraive ferry
Waiting for the ferry to refuel - it was blowing a hoolie.
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Lovely thing to do Al 
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Normally I would agree Mike but need a few beers to dull the pain first 
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These ones will be well earned 
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Ordered some German ones in as a treat - the first one is going down a treat
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Lovely journey in all thoughts
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