ABOUT ME

I live in a camper van with a West Highland Terrier for company.
My passion is creating images but it is a work in progress.
I am always willing to share what knowledge I have and can be contacted through the comments on this post or e-mail ADRIAN
ALL IMAGES WILL ENLARGE WITH A LEFT CLICK

Sunday 9 February 2014

GOODBYE STOCKTON. (09/02/14)

It has been a really good weekend. A birthday celebrated with good food and two glasses of wine. It’s a good job it wasn’t my birthday or it could easily have been two bottles or boxes.

Tomorrow we head back north. I have a few jobs to do. I need to get dog food a new lead for them and a couple of interior bulbs from the caravan shop. I shall then head for Kinross and have an evening with my sister. Tuesday I’ll brave the horror of a road that is the A9. It is a bloody dangerous bit of highway. It could be worse than usual as I suspect it may be school half term so I will not only have super reps in their Audis and BMWs but drivers who are distracted by a car load of children. I just hope that all the snow gates are open._V0G8026_7_8_tonemapped

_V0G7990_1_2_tonemapped  Goodbye Stockton-on-Tees. I’ll be back sometime after Easter. In the meantime I’ll work out how to get at the bridges over the river. I suspect it may be a rent-a-car job, it will also involve a good deal of plodding along. The river Wear is also a good one but i think the Tees is as good. It just doesn’t finish in such fine style.

I bet there are hundreds of the little devils. It may be worth buying a wreck for a month or two. It would be good to have a book of bridges dating from medieval times to the present. I would pop in little pictures of interesting things like a monster pumping station, and some incredible waterfalls. I’d also fill it with my blathering. I ought to stop wandering for pleasure and give something back. I could do with an assistant for such a project. This blog is pure vanity the book will be commercial with a TV spinoff or not at all. I’ll shoot medium format film and given the chance medium format digital. Otherwise it will be Canon horrible format cropped or Bronica at 12 frames on 120 film which to be honest isn’t much better.

Michaela, you like water, you have contacts, you enjoy smelly animals. I’ve given you plenty of plugs, just return the favour. I’m a smelly animal and the dogs are worse. It would make good television, giddy beauty and sulky ugly with two stinky beasts. Better than being crap at jumping into a swimming pool. I did enjoy your attire though. Look on the bright side you were clean when you got out…..Perfect in fact but I’m no expert on clean. I would guess at a 4.9 for cleanliness. Just looking at the splash and where it went. You were robbed.

Have a great week whatever you are up to.

40 comments:

  1. "Goodbye Stockton-on-Tees" sounds like a county and western song...
    So it's goodbye Stockton-on-Tees
    I'm gonna do just as I please
    Got a lady waiting by the old A9
    I can make her love me with a bottle of wine
    And ain't life a darned breeze
    Singing, Goodbye Stockton (pause) -on-Tees

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    1. YP, I can hear it set to music. It's a damn sight better than most Country and Western. I have been editing the post so given an hour you could have written more.
      You should have written about her being dead when I made it to Aviemore.

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  2. In the spring must be great this place!

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    1. Laura it is great now. It is different in spring, in summer and in autumn. It is always a good place for me but I much prefer wild country and endless oceans.

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    2. I'm really courious of the nest place ...!!

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    3. Laura, back to Aviemore and the snow and lakes.

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  3. But you Adrian comes back the ime is fast

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    1. Bas, I have friends here but if I stop too long they start trying to rule me.

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  4. Have a safe journey Adrian.
    I'm heading up to Wales on Tuesday.

    Good luck with the book. Sounds like a good idea.

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    1. Keith, have a great time.
      I am not putting mega effort in for nothing but am talking to folk. If you fancy being the Dipper and Goosander man then I'll let you know.
      TV sounds better. It pays more. We could be the next Hairy Riverers. Trevor could come along to add a bit of class to the job.

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    2. Sounds like a good idea to me.

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    3. Perhaps I should concentrate on the Wear.

      "Last of the summer Winos"

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    4. Or how about 'The Bell's Wringers'.

      I see a possible sponsorship deal there.

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    5. Can I see a bit of 'mission creep' here? (I've seen that phrase used by important/ grown up people). It seems to me that the writing of a book is slowly being overshadowed by more of a alcohol theme!...[;o)

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    6. Trevor, it's always a problem is mission creep.

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  5. Oh, I'll miss the bridges, but you'll have another things to ponder.

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    1. Bob, I am heading north for snow. Michaela, I suspect could be very annoying but not as annoying as I am.
      A man has to have a dream or at the very least live in a dream world.

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  6. Adrian, I like that second photo today. Hmm TV show now instead of a book. YP has written your theme song. You have your title Three Hairy Blokes in a Boat. I reckon set up a You Tube channel and let it go viral. People will love the commentary. Once it goes viral, the TV will pick it up. Free publicity.

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    1. Carol, it needs doing properly both Keith and I are not shy in front of cameras or microphones. There is a serious side to it. Yes Michaela Strachan is my current heart throb but she is a bit dizzy. She will be streets cheaper than Uma Thurman though.
      I have been known to make mistakes with ladies perhaps I'll accept the cheaper option. She's still as fit as a butchers dog and I know she pretends to like animals. She like all her species she only has to pretend for a minute or two. I'm considerate, I know how busy ladies are.
      It's two hairy drunks. Trevor is most times sober.

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  7. The book will be a breeze, it's the TV show I'd like to see. Will it be good enough to be aired here on the 'far side' or would that be a bridge too far? I'm with Carol in Cairns, get it on U Tube, with your following we'll have it viral in no time, then it's plain sailing - with Michaela Strachan or not. (Don't know her, of course, but Mr Google does and she seems just the girl for your assistant role.)

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    1. Pauline, if this weather doesn't moderate it will be a gale.
      It would take me a year to load half an hour to YouTube. I am also almost incompetent when it comes to shooting video.
      She is very easy on the eye. Beauty and the Beast and that's before Keith is introduced to the scenario. It would have to go out after the watershed as we'd frighten young children.

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  8. Your blog might be vanity, but if all is vanity, at least yours has some real beauty to it. The local meteorologists are whipping everyone 'round here into a frenzy over an upcoming blizzard. We are battening hatches as we speak.

    Be careful on those roads, Adrian! We may have nothing to see outside our window but fields of endless white in a day or two, so it will be nice to have your pictures to break up the monotony. That is, assuming that the electricity does not fail. As it usually does, thanks to our crumbling infrastructure. *grumble*

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    1. Nathaniel, you be careful and keep warm. They are forecasting snow here for tomorrow. I have winter tyres on so should be okay. I'll top up the genset and diesel tanks before I go and can then survive a week or more.

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    2. We made it through fine here, although we were snowed in for a few days, and where I was, internet access was spotty at best. Thanks for the concern, and I apologize for my sudden hiatus! But - not to get too political - in Alabama, we are survivors, because the government demands that we be. Still, we had heat and light for the duration, so the situation could have been - and has been in the past - much, much worse. I understand that Britain is being assaulted as severely as we are in the States, though - so please do be careful yourself!

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    3. Good to hear you survived. I enjoy weather. I like the constantly changing ambience it creates. If I'm not enjoying it then it gives me something to moan about.

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  9. There are some great things to be seen on the Upper Wear - or at least there war the last time I was there!!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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    1. Stewart, upper Weardale is beautiful. It is a year or so since I visited. I'll have another look at it. I only intended to live in the van for a couple of years but am now addicted to the wandering life.

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  10. Your pictures are always very good, some spectacular but so is your blathering. It would be a good book. It would be great TV show if you did the voice over.

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    1. David, it is a dream, I'm not a team player by nature. Nor am I a perfectionist. I suspect the endless hanging around would have me tearing out what little hair I have.

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  11. If you do get around to the book you'll have to have pop-up pictures of the bridges....I'd buy it.

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    1. Douglas, I was thinking of a well researched tome for posterity not a book for grown up children. As you are the first to offer money where your mouth is I'll do you a special Pop Up Book. The majority of my readers want it free on YouTube. They don't appreciate art as you do.

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  12. The HDR looks better and better. I will have to look deeper into Photomatix.

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    1. Maria, it has come of age. Photomatix don't charge much for the 5 series software. It is not easy to use though. I have got used to it. The saved Tiff either 8bit or 16bit can be reloaded into the CS6 raw converter. I like it and it's less work than the brush tool.
      PShops HDR is a bit clunky and lacking in control for me.

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  13. Nice picture of that bridge!!!

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  14. Outstanding shots, love the balance in the second one.

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    1. Thanks Jay, it's not far for you to drive. I enjoys seeing other peoples views of things.

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