Phew!

Well that was a busy few days. A few more to come too.

As I mentioned a while back, I flew to the UK to visit some customers.

Raven and Fog Woman – YVR departure lounge

LHR T2 art – Zivko Edge 540 stunt plane

Hotel view – gasometers

I headed North to help my mum celebrate her birthday (“The North remembers”) with a trip to the Lake District.

Theakston’s Bitter – The Ship Inn

It’s all backwards

Boat rentals: Bowness on Windermere

Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ sledge. Antarctic expedition 1996

Vintage MG detail

Ruined boathouse – Fell Foot, Windermere

Limestone lintel – Fell Foot

Ruined boathouse – Fell Foot

Speeding past Ingleborough on the way to Ingleton

Then I spent a few happy hours walking the haunts of my childhood.

This is not a play area. Allegedly.

Skipton Road. Victorian houses… with satellite dishes

No longer an off-license but someone’s home

Jeff – still cutting hair 40 years on and proud to be a Yorkshireman. Doubly.

This used to be a butcher’s; now a baker’s; perhaps next a candlestick maker?

L’Arche. Meeting the need wherever it’s found

Tag ’em and bag ’em – death co-op style

Haute cuisine – Yorkshire style

Silsden bridge

Leeds-Liverpool canal with Ilkley Moor in the background

Next I flew to Cologne/Köln for a trade show.

The back of the bar in the Gaffel brewery

Kölsch from the Gaffel brewery

Hotel Dorint – literally over the road from the Messe

Art. Or poor taste?

German graffiti

Police vans at the Dom. There was a nearby protest about refugee immigration

Beautiful reflected sunset on the Köln Dom

Sunset over the opera house

Then back to the UK for a quick curry then back home to Vancouver.

Ashari curry house – Sipson.

Bugger the jet lag – Saturday was my birthday and we took a trip to a local formal gardens at Darts Hill. It’s rarely open to the public, and I took my 100mm macro for a jaunt in the spring showers.

Flag iris – furled

Raindrops on peony petal

Edelweiss (no singing, thank-you…)

Delicate painted petals

Sunday saw a bit of gardening and a visit to the cinema with my son to watch the Mad Max relaunch (basically a 2hr car chase through the desert. Think “Dakar rally meets Wacky Races”).

Because the trade show spanned a statutory holiday in BC to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday I took Monday as a holiday in lieu. A day trip to Victoria on the Island seemed appropriate and my two youngest and I spent an interesting day in the provincial capital.

Today saw me back at work just to do a bit of paperwork, and tomorrow I’m off again. This time to Connecticut. A US state I’ve never before seen. I gather it’s quite a sight in autumn. As for spring, I’ll let you know…