West Yorkshire

(I've stolen the post title from a friend ;) )

Recently I had cause to travel to Leeds and back from Glasgow. This gave me the opportunity to travel on the Settle to Carlisle railway (in the opposite direction). This is a famous line, a remarkable feat of Victorian engineering and a tourist attraction in its own right. It was threatened with closure 25 years ago and saved by a vigorous public campaign.
The station architecture is relatively unspoilt Victorian rural, and some of the views very lovely indeed.

Unfortunately the 24-span Ribblehead viaduct over which the train passes is not visible from the train as you travel (unlike the spectacular Glenfinnan Viaduct, no doubt to be the subject of another post, sometime).

A couple of brief video clips, to finish.

 

Four more things I saw on the road to/from Iskandarkul

A homemade water wheel with plastic buckets, alternately red and light bue
A blacksmith's gates adorned with wrought iron images of an anvil, hammer and other tools
We had to stop for a car-wash as you get fined for having a dirty car in the centre of town
Donkeys laden with colourful bundles

(I've not finished with my Tajik/Kazakh trip and I have another looming, so I'd better just get these bits out there, in no particular order ...)

What it's all about.

Liverpool schoolchildren who are taking part in an innovative music education project have become the youngest performers at this year's BBC Proms.

Pupils as young as nine from Faith Primary School played alongside members of the Liverpool Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sunday.
The school is one of six in England taking part in the In Harmony scheme.
All pupils and staff learn instruments, in a programme inspired by Venezuela's pioneering Sistema project.

 See more here.

Monarch of the Garden

Landscape Art

Machrie Beach. Isle of Arran. 28 August 2013.

Thames Barrier

This is one of the wonders of the world - I think it's an astonishing piece of engineering. Originally expected to be used only a few times a year at neap and spring tides it now protects the city dozens of times a year.
I thoroughly recommend the Thames River Cruise to the Barrier.

Thames sail barge

As well as seeing the annual Thames Barge Race on our recent trip to London we saw this beautiful sail barge as we sat and ate a "proper hamburger " at Greenwich.