“Seriously? Did he sleep in here?” I asked

“He did, although he didn’t die here; when he became ill, he requested that his bed be moved to the library by the window so he could look over to Cardigan Bay”

This was my first introduction to Tŷ Newydd, the National Writing Centre of Wales, in the village of Llanystumdwy near Cricieth. I was staying there for a memoir writing course (which was terrific, more on that in a later post).

Above - Tŷv Newyyd

Above - the library

Apart from the shock of sleeping in a former Prime Minister’s bedroom, I was also staggered at my own ignorance of the man himself. So, on one of the free afternoons, I took myself off to the Lloyd George Museum, a short walk away.

I learned a lot. There’s an excellent 30-minute film with plenty of footage of the man in action. It outlines his extraordinary life, from growing up in a tiny cottage to getting the keys to No 10. His childhood cottage is open to visitors.

Check out the standing desks in the parlour where he studied with his brother.

Lloyd George introduced social reforms: free school lunches, the Old Age Pension, the National Insurance Act, free medical treatment, and much more. He was worried about the decline of agriculture and rural communities. He established a Land Enquiry committee, which then recommended creating a Ministry of Land and Forests.

Inevitably, there was a backlash against some of his reforms.

As someone who has paid National Insurance, I am eligible for a pension, and I receive free health care. I am a beneficiary of this man’s vision.

So why did I not know more about him? The only UK history I recall ever being taught at school was mainly about the Industrial Revolution, the invention of the Spinning Jenny, and THAT was it.

Alongside the museum, there is his grave, in a quiet spot overlooking the river. I visited it and thanked him.

Yet we still hear the common refrain, “I heard it can be difficult, there aren’t enough chargers, and when you do find them, they don’t work ”.

Above - Charging in the Black Forest in SW Germany.

Only a couple of cases when the machines haven’t functioned

At a rough guess, out of the sixty or so times we have stopped to charge, there have only been a couple of times when the machines haven’t functioned. Or they were working but wouldn’t accept our bank or car charging card. In both cases, there were alternatives close by.

Our routing usually starts in Newcastle. Here, *we take the car on the overnight ferry to Amsterdam, having charged up near the port before we embark, so we can set off with at least 80% energy as we hit the road in the Netherlands.

From there, we either drive through Germany to Switzerland or go via Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Germany to our final destination. Alternatively, we head to the south of England and take the Eurotunnel, or the ferry to France.

Above - Charging in an empty car park of a French supermarket

In 2023, when we started EV driving, there were already plenty of chargers en route, but today, in 2026, there are a plethora of them, most of them positioned near petrol stations, coffee chains, or retail parks.

Some are hidden away in interesting places. In the Ruhr Valley in Germany, we came across a brand new charging point next to an old mine shaft in a former mining village. It was a real contrast between the future and the past. The mine’s workshop hosted a space for people to come and mend stuff. It also had a shepherd’s hut with a loo that we could use. “We’re an area that the German government forgot”, said the man looking after it. “This charging point puts us on the map again”. The whole experience made a change from a Starbucks loo.

Above - Loo in a shepherd’s hut at a German charging point

On our last trip, the charging point was next to a chocolate-making factory, with a shop and café. Pistachio-stuffed chocolate was bought for the trip.

Above - A chocolate fix and a charge

On one trip, we took in the delights of the uber-stylish Vitra Design museum in southern Germany, whilst using one of their chargers outside.

Top up and stock up

An Ikea trip near Riddes in Switzerland (complete with 20 charging points) allowed us to top up and stock up on napkins and meatballs.

Above - Plenty of chargers outside Ikea

Hotels and villages with chargers are a bonus. In the Black Forest, we stopped at a hotel in a small village with only 17 houses and a charger in the centre.

We prefer to plan the journey via phone charging apps. You do need to spend time downloading several of these before you depart, but once done, it’s easy to work out the routing and see the real-time availability of chargers. We use the in-car satnav occasionally to locate alternative charging locations if things change on the way.

Debit cards work at the chargers

B Corp-certified Fastned has got a lot of the motorways covered with their bright yellow and black roofs for ultra-rapid charging; Ionity is equally efficient. We use these a lot. In France, TotalEnergies has good coverage. Debit cards work, though some chargers require a login via their dedicated app. This can usually be bypassed by using the Chargemap payment card (equivalent to Zapmap in the UK), which works across multiple charging companies.

One mishap on our travels

There has been one mishap on our travels - though not with our car, and it was our fault entirely.

We had flown to Switzerland and hired a small EV from a local tourist office to scoot around some mountain villages. It was a very hot day, and we had underestimated the power required to get back to base. This was 1300 metres up a mountain, around 20 hairpin bends. Range anxiety kicked in, as about one kilometre from the top, we knew we couldn’t make it, as there was only a few per cent left. So we had to freewheel all the way back down the mountain, letting the braking recharge the battery. We could only chug as far as a slow charger, so it meant an unplanned, late lunch in a restaurant before we had enough juice to attempt the climb again. Not much of a hardship.

Above - Lunch at a brasserie while charging

Our advantage in all of this is that we are both retired. We don’t have deadlines to keep, apart from catching a ferry or the Eurotunnel at both ends of the trip. Setting aside the mountain incident, problems have been few. Obviously, if you have kids or even adults in the car who would get bored with waiting around, then it could be more problematic.

New versions on the way with 500 miles of autonomy

Stopping every couple of hours to charge on long journeys will probably become a thing of the past anyway. The salesman at our local car garage has already been in touch to see if we are interested in the new version of our car, one that will have an autonomy of 500 miles and charge almost 3 times faster. I expect one day we will be able to go from the Lake District to the Alps with just one 15-20 minute stop for charging.

But it’s unlikely that will happen. We will still need a stretch of the legs, a cup of tea and a wee. And it’s nice to chat. We have found there’s a bit of camaraderie amongst EV drivers. As we are all lined up parallel to each other, it’s easy to have a conversation. We’ve had many a chat with different nationalities over a charging cable. Not everyone wants to engage; some just plug in and then huddle down in the driver’s seat for a power nap.

So far, it’s working for us. Some folk were much braver about EV driving right from the start. Back in 2012, when I lived in Switzerland, I interviewed Christian Frutiger about his daily commute. He travelled in a tiny Citroen C Zero from his home to his office, which was 65 kilometres away. He could make it there on one charge, but had to plug in again to get home. He truly was a pioneer.

Some Facts (June 2026)

Our car is a BMW iX1. It has a driving range of 200-240 miles, depending on the outside temperature and driving speed. In practice, we are driving 120-140 miles or so between charges (i.e., between 20-80% battery energy). It has a maximum charging speed (power) of 125 kW, though this gradually reduces once the battery is over 80% charge, the speed is 30-40 kW. This protects the battery life. A 60% charge at a fast charger generally takes about 30 minutes.

The price of fast charging on motorways in France, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland is lower than in the UK, varying between 39p and 69p/kWh

It’s around 7p/kWh to charge at home.

*I say, “we”, but it’s my husband who has been the driver on all of these trips; my contribution is to navigate and spot the signs to the EV points. The entrances and exits used to be quite tricky to find. But like charging, it’s all getting much easier.

I purchased the book after hearing her talk at the Hexham Book Festival last Sunday. It was fascinating. She spoke about the world of cybercrime and how ransomware attacks are on the rise, often with far-reaching consequences. In one fell swoop, companies and public services suffer, affecting everyone in the supply chains. We heard many examples of hacking, from the cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover, which disrupted their global operations, to an attack on an entire country, Costa Rica. This paralysed their government’s systems and its health services. Closer to home, there was also the 2025 attack on Marks and Spencer and in 2023, on the British Library.

There was a discussion about the total cost to businesses in the UK, and the trust paradox in dealing with a hacker. Would you even engage in conversation? The British Library did not engage. What stuck with me in this talk, is that a lot of hackers gain access to company systems simply through human error. Attackers exploit trust. Everyone is vulnerable. Shortland urges us all to be careful, to back up all our data and be cautious online.

In the conclusion of her book, she says, “it would be very reassuring to know that a well-developed emergency plan exists for the potential of an economy-wide or a region-wide “standstill” predicted by cybersecurity experts”.

Note, she says “predicted”. Not “if”, but “when”.

There is a site called “Ransomware Live” that tracks ransomware groups and their victims. There’s even a section that shows the conversations and negotiations that have taken place. It’s very sobering.

Two tacos too many

Ten years ago, human error (mine) led me to take a tumble on the pavement. I had just been to the supermarket and was carrying a shopping bag full of tortillas, tacos, cheese, tomato sauce, and two beers, ready to make a Mexican meal that night. I was rushing to the car, I tripped over the pavement, the bag fell first, the beers broke, and as I put my left hand out to stop my fall, it landed on the broken glass.

The result was a massive cut to the ulnar nerve in my left hand, an emergency call, a trip in an ambulance and a six-hour operation to repair the hand. The first hospital said my hand was so damaged they couldn’t deal with it, so I was then sent to a second specialised hospital.

I won’t relive the trauma and stress of the time, but ten years on and a lot of post-accident rehabilitation, I do have a working hand, but I can still feel the consequences of that short fall. It has never been quite the same since. I shouldn’t have rushed. I should have been more careful.

The ransomware story is sobering. The irony of the hand accident is that I hadn’t even drunk any of the beers and was completely sober. I was living in Switzerland at the time, and fortunately, my health insurance covered the cost of the operation, though there was a minimum payment that I had to pay for the ambulance - around 750 CHF (£700). Considerably less than a big ransom demand, but it certainly makes you appreciate the free NHS.

Both stories illustrate the need for constant vigilance, both online and on the pavement.

The village of Evolène, at around 1300 metres in the Valais, is very pretty. I first came across it over 20 years ago. We were looking for a family campsite and found a lovely one right in the centre of the village. Since then, we have returned many times, not to camp; those days are over, but sometimes to walk through the village streets or hike in the surrounding hills. We often have a fondue at Le Vieux Mazot, a small restaurant where the owner wears the traditional costume of the village.

In 2012, Evolène was voted as the most beautiful village in French-speaking Switzerland. It has also preserved much of its heritage in its buildings, its dialect, and the residents maintain many seasonal traditions.

Photo above - a child dressed in a traditional costume at the summer festival

One of the winter traditions is when “Les Empaillés” (the “Straw Men”) appear in the village during carnival season. After mass, on the Sunday before Lent, they walk up and down the village along with the “Peluches” (other villagers dressed in animal skins), and they chase away the winter with their brooms. I say walk, but quite a lot of the time, the Straw Men just waddle due to the sheer weight of their costumes. They have been sewn into sacks that are full of straw, which can weigh up to 30 kg.

It’s fun to watch, though some of the animal masks were perhaps a tad scary for the young children there that day. You will see in the video below that one of the peluches went for me, as he pulled my hat off while I was filming. At a previous event, a few years ago, a straw man gently “hit’ me with his broom. It’s all good fun. And all part of the rituals and identity of the village and its community.

Photo above - stuffing a straw man (2017)

Walking through the village 2026

All photos above, copyright C. Nelson-Pollard

After many days of cloudy and grey weather, the sun finally made an appearance yesterday. Just on the day we needed to be in the car. We couldn’t really grumble with views like this. This was all on the motorway. Here’s a short clip of the trip.

Swiss radio (Rhone FM) accompanied the journey on the outbound trip, and World Service news on the return.

It’s Carnival time across Switzerland. The town of Sion in the Valais celebrates it in style, with events that take place over four days. There is a big parade on Saturday which is a family affair. Parents, grandparents and children dress up in costume to take part in all the fun. Guggenmusik bands both local, and from afar, embrace the annual theme: there’s music and dancing and confetti. Lots of it. Confetti is fired into the air by giant cannons, people in the street throw it at any passers by, kids gather it up from the ground to throw it again and it’s all heaps of fun.

Poking fun at politicians

The parade is also a great opportunity to send out satirical political messages. No surprises that Trump featured this year. You can see him in this video, he’s sat in a bath surrounded by money. This float was run by a group that at first glance looked like they were wearing the stars and stripes of the American flag, but look closely and it’s actually a mosh up of the Swiss flag. Their slogan was ‘Make Zölle Great Again”. Zölle means customs duties/tariffs in German…. a protest at Trump’s high tariffs which for Switzerland hit 39%. Elon Musk also makes an appearance.

With Switzerland home to both UEFA and FIFA, football also comes in for criticism, with a satirical swipe at Infantino and Trump. Ten years ago, I went to Carnival in Basel. Back then it was swipes at Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini. Plus ça change.

Photo above - Carnival Basel 2016

Above - moi - Carnival Basel 2016

Below - moi and Trish - Sion Carnival 2026

Aside from the political commentary, it’s a joyous, if a noisy day.

It’s not the kind of Carnival you get in Brazil with scantily clad dancers in bikinis and feathered headdresses; it’s a tad colder in Sion.

As to that confetti, it gets EVERYWHERE, despite wearing many layers. Once home I found some inside my bra. It must have been when I was dancing to keep warm.

Photo essay below (apart from the bra)…

Below - in the local department store at Carnival time

But it was the January 2012 Bise that made the headlines across the world. It was very strong that year. Even though it was very cold outside and icy underfoot, we still ventured out to see the spectacular ice formations that had been created by the wind as it whipped up the water of Lake Geneva.

Some poor folk that had parked their cars near the lake overnight, woke up to find them totally frozen over.

I’ve been reminded of this event as I’m still in a “clearing out photos” mode. I have a few pictures that I took from that time, but to really get a flavour of what it was like, take a look a this video, it was made as a promotional video for a book about the ice storm. I feel cold just looking at it.

The first, on New Year’s Day. The local drumming band Drum Nation had carried their drums up the hill to play that very morning. It was a tad chilly, but a flask of hot tea helped. Dogs barked, people danced, and those who had celebrated perhaps a little too much the night before, stood far away from the big drums… It was fun; everybody wished each other a Happy New Year. A great way to begin 2026.

And then, the news started to filter in of the terrible tragedy over in Crans-Montana. This truly awful fire where so many young people lost their lives and so many families lost their children. Unimaginable. My phone was buzzing with messages as I checked in with friends over in Switzerland. The radio was permanently on as the news unfolded. The heartbreak and hell of it all. And more sad, personal stories coming through every day.

The second visit to Scout Scar was today, a crisp, clear day. It turned out that there was a fell race going on, both seniors and juniors were running across the glorious countryside. It was wonderful to see both generations together. I stopped to watch, a respite from the sadness. And then in the distance, a race organiser was ringing a cowbell to encourage the runners on their way. The sound, so reminiscent of Switzerland, was a reminder of the country I love so much and where those poor teenagers have died.

My deepest sympathy to all those affected by this terrible tragedy.

This year many friends have announced they are no longer sending Christmas cards. The cost of posting them, particularly from the UK to Europe, is simply too prohibitive. It’s now £3.40 to post an international card or letter. It all adds up.

For the moment, however, I am holding out and still sending cards to friends and family. I like sending them and even better, receiving them, particularly if they come with an interesting, newsy letter attached.

Photo above - each year the curtains come down and the cards go up at the kitchen window.

However, for the other eleven months of the year, I am very lax at writing letters, but a recent visit to a small Swiss village has inspired me to do better in 2026.

The really pretty village of Mase high up in the Valais is host to the Lettres de Soie festival, a festival solely dedicated to correspondence. I haven’t managed to get to it yet (it’s biennial and I’ve missed it each time it has been on), nevertheless there’s lots of inspiration to put to pen to paper as you wander round the village streets, even when the festival isn’t on.

There are extracts from letters painted on to fence posts, and on the walls of the wooden houses, there are photos of postcards, murals of stamps all round the village and more. There are cosy reading and writing places and there’s even a special postbox with a box next to it containing a sheet of writing paper and an envelope so you can write to the festival. Which I will do. If it’s the only letter I write next year.

I’ll keep you posted….

This post is a bit of an apology, as the previous post should have had a great little video with it. That of Father Christmas whizzing through the air in a sleigh, high over Lake Geneva. Unfortunately, all you got to see was a photo of a bit of wire suspended over a blob of water. I have no idea what happened, but the video didn’t show up. It’s annoying, but tant pis.

So, here goes with a second post with 24 hours. A bit like waiting for a bus, you wait for one and then two come along at once.

So this is a short photo essay of two different bus stops in two mountain villages here in the Valais.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

One has cushions and a bench with book boxes underneath so passengers can help themself to reading material. It also has poetry and prose on the side of the bus stop itself. There’s also a notice board near by to check out out local events.

The other bus stop has fabulous views and lots of recycling bins nearby. So you can chuck your bottles, cardboard and rubbish bags out before you take the 388 into town. There’s often a big, long brush inside this stop so you can sweep away the snow in time of inclement weather.

The other good thing? The buses run ON TIME.

I’ve always liked the town of Montreux. Situated right near the end of Lac Léman/Lake Geneva it has stunning views over the water and to the Grammont mountain range beyond. The beautiful CGN paddle steamers stop here and cruise up and down the lake. Throw in some lovely elegant Belle Époque hotels and houses and you can see why the town has lured many a famous name to its shores.

Freddie Mercury had a second home here and his statue, on the main promenade, attracts many fans, all keen to recreate his pose, one hand in the air and microphone in the other.

Photo above - Festive Freddie. This isn’t a great photo there were lots of people posing in front of it so it wasn’t easy to take a good shot. There’s lots of tat around the statue which spoils it somewhat. But maybe Freddie would have loved it, who knows?

Montreux is home to the Montreux Jazz Festival (bit of a misnomer now) as there are all genres of music at the July festival. I have been to quite a few concerts at “MJF” which I’ll cover in a future post.

However in December, the town is also famous for its Marché de Noël, a Christmas market that stretches right along the lakefront. It’s popular and can get very busy, though in midweek it’s calmer.

I managed to grab an hour or so at the market this year, just enough time to buy a few presents and to see Santa, who was suspended on a wire over the water. He flew by shouting out the internationally recognised “Ho, Ho Ho!” to the crowd below.

There were a plethora of food stalls including one called “Carlito Castagna”, where two guys in gaucho hats sell chestnuts roasted “the traditional way”. With music pumping loud and the smoke of the roasting machines you couldn’t miss them.

There were the usual other candle, jewellery, sweets, gifts and chocolate stalls along with several bars, a pop up oyster restaurant, fondue chalet and more. Whether the Yodellers Club Bar let in non yodellers I didn’t have time to find out, but I managed to glug down a glass of mulled wine in the indoor market before rushing for the train.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like……

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man (or woman) in possession of a North Face/Rab/Montane outdoor jacket and beanie hat, was probably in Kendal last weekend.

I am not sure how many of these individuals were also in possession of a good fortune, but there were certainly hundreds of fit and eligible singletons pounding the pavements of the Auld Grey Town. Austen would have had a field day.

Photo above - Tents for sale outside the Brewery Centre.

They had all thronged to Kendal for a three day, action packed festival of films, talks, workshops around mountain and outdoorsy related stuff. Either they were grabbing a beer in “Basecamp”, taking part in a conversation in the “Yurt” or listening to Chris Bonington reflect on the legacy of being one of the first British climbers on the summit of Everest. There were hundreds of films and events on offer. How about the “Below Zero” set of films which “Embrace the chill with tales of high-stakes adventure in the harshest conditions”, or “The Bouldering Session”? “Get ready for raw power and pure rock obsession”. You get the picture.

There a whole lingo involved in this mountaineering stuff, apparently “shredding the gnar” is skiing difficult terrain. Who knew? Adventures were often “rad”.

There is a real buzz about the town when the festival is on and it’s very good for local trade, so I applaud it. The organisers did an excellent job.

Photo above: The local Oxfam shop selling hiking boots.

Ironically, the only way you will get me up a mountain is if there is a cable car to take me right to the summit. Gummer’s How, a nice local Lake District viewpoint (with a tiny bit of a scramble at the end) is probably my limit.

Thankfully, the festival is more than mountains; there’s a book festival in parallel so plenty for us non-climbers.

BBC Radio 4 also came to town with Stuart Maconie presenting Loose Ends.

Guests included, Ben Fogle, Sarah Hall and Terry Deary who admitted that he was a “townie” at heart.

Photo above: Loose Ends with Stuart Maconie, Ben Fogle, Sarah Hall and Terry Deary. Nice music from local musician Holly Brooke and Americana band Smith and Liddle.

There was a truly joyful moment during a talk with Kate Humble (wildlife presenter) which was presented by Radio 4’s Geoff Bird. Kate was there to chat about the six pieces of music that connect her to nature. The conversation was so fascinating that time ran out and we only heard four tracks, but it didn’t matter, and Humble got the audience dancing which a lovely way to end the event.

Photo above:Kate Humble dancing with Radio 4’s Geoff Bird.

Photo above: Ben Fogle in shorts (in Kendal in November…) interviewing Miriam Lancewood on living a nomadic lifestyle. A fascinating conversation.

But for me, the best session was a talk with Hilary Bradt, who co-founded Bradt travel guides. She looked back and talked about her 50 years of travel. Moderated by Kate Rawles (herself a bit of an adventurer, she cycled the length of South America on a bamboo bike). Now in her 80’s Hilary is still travelling and was truly inspirational, she spoke with clarity, humour and kindness. An amazing woman. Totally rad.

Next year’s festival will be in November 2026, get your beanie hat ready

The Bains des Pâquis is a public bathing area on the waterside on Lake Geneva. The Jet D’eau towers over it, and it is surrounded by 5 star hotels, Swiss banks, and luxury goods companies, but the “baths” are for everyone. People go here to swim and sunbathe. There is also an informal “buvette”, a self service café at the heart of it all with simple tasty meals that is open all year. Fondue is popular in winter, I love their tomato salads in the summer. There’s a sauna, a steam room, and a ladies only bathing area.

This area has been around since 1872. In the late 1980’s, the area was under threat of demolition by the council and in danger of gentrification. There followed a massive public campaign to save the baths. Thankfully it was successful.

It remains a haven for locals, there is a small entrance fee to enter the area and to use the facilities and I find the place magical.

I am not sure when the dawn concerts first started at the Bains. All genres of live music are played. On many occasion I have watched the sun come up over the Alps whilst listening to flamenco, classical music, tango, capoeira and more.

At these dawn concerts you can buy a small breakfast of hot choc or coffee and a “tartine” (a slice of toasted bread with jam or chocolate spread), while you listen to the music, or if you are inclined, you just take a swim in the lake. You can see someone diving in to the water on this video.

I was too chicken to brave the water at that time of the morning, but admired those that did. There were many that cycled there, swam, and then emerged and got dressed into a smart suit before heading into the city.

Can you imagine, starting the day, before work, doing this?

All the photos are mine.

When we lived in Nyon, things could be very hectic with the normal pressures of a family and working life. I was a freelancer and wrote for two different magazines, plus a weekly column for a local Swiss newspaper, I also presented a weekly radio programme, and provided regular content for my own website. Life seemed to be a round of constant deadlines.

So it was good to start the day off with a walk down to the castle, and onto the lakeside to see the sun come up with the Alps and Mont Blanc in the background. Perfect for finding a bit of peace before all the busyness began.

*I am delighted the website continues, under a new editorship. There’s a great team behind it now, helping more people to get to know and love the town.

This video doesn’t start from Nyon, I started filming just as the train went past Château Chillon, almost at the end of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). The reason I am posting this, is that I have just been warned that I am running out of storage as apparently I have 3,344 videos on my phone. I had better start deleting a few of them. I’ll look for the video from the first part of the journey, and l’ll bung a few of the more interesting ones on here. Let me know if you like this kind of stuff.

I replied and legged it over to their house, thinking, wouldn’t it be great, just for once, not to have to think of what to dish up for dinner that night and the next few nights. I had seen adverts for these kind of services and was intrigued.

I carried the box home. It was fun to open it up, discover the surprises inside and have a clear, printed menu to work from (no endless scrolling for inspiration). After dinner one, I discovered that I liked fennel after years of thinking I didn’t. After dinner two I realised that the portion sizes they provided were just fine. They looked small but I suspect I’ve been overloading my plate for years. Dinner three was a disaster, as the chicken had been left in the fridge too long, and it went off. Duh.

Dinner number four has yet to be tried.

My conclusion is that the recipes were great, there was probably too much plastic packaging, but not having to think about what to cook was the best bit.

Over two years ago, I was treated to a magazine subscription to Free Range magazines. You choose the kind of “stream” you are interested in, and every two months you receive an independent title, one that you will never find in the high street.

I can’t remember whether I chose the “Creative Spark” or the “Total Free Range” stream, but some really interesting publications have popped through my letter box. The last one was Bother, a magazine that’s published in Hebden Bridge. Coincidentally, that’s a town I have got to know quite well in the past six months. I wasn’t sure if I would be that interested in some of their features, but like the fennel in the recipe, I have discovered I did, such as an article on running a pub, and a photo essay from a contributor in Los Angeles.

Some other publications I’ve received over the last 48 months include Gutter - New Scottish and International writing”, and then there’s Kol which “spotlights trends and innovations through a multi-ethnic lens”. There’s a great piece in Vol 16 by Alejandro Cegarra (2024 World Press Photo Long Term Project award winner) on shattering stereo types about Mexican migrants. I really, really liked a publication called Friends On the Shelf containing original true short stories from 25 different authors.

Most magazines from Free Range have been interesting, there’s only one that I couldn’t really get into at all. It’s been a random experience.

I now have my eye on this….

A good friend texted me on Monday night alerting me to a documentary that was being broadcast on BBC 4

Are you watching the programme on Martin Parr? It’s on TV right now

I stopped everything and started watching. I love documentaries and I particularly love Martin Parr’s work, so this was my dream kind of programme.

Martin Parr is a British photojournalist and has spent his lifetime capturing the idiosyncrasies of British life and modern life across the world.

The documentary was interesting, particularly the part when Parr lived and worked in Hebden Bridge. A friend’s husband features in one of Parr’s photos from when he lived in the town, and as I am spending more time there myself these days, there was an added frisson to watching it all.

I also really like Parr’s black and white photos of rural life that focus on the congregations of Baptist and Methodist chapel in the 1970’s.

I grew up in a similar kind of background. There were many chapels in our village when I was young. My mother and grandmother both went to a Methodist Church, I got married in one. But sadly they are all disappearing. The chapel in our village was converted into flats many years ago, the chapel I got married in is now self catering accommodation for families with additional needs, and one of the two Methodist chapels near me in Kendal has just been sold.

After my last post about sorting through photos, which to keep and which to delete, I’ve been looking at some of them and see that there are a lot that are in the street/observational/ commentary category.

To be completely clear, there is no way I would ever dare compare my photos to those of the great man Parr, but I do like to capture moments on my travels and it seems a shame not to make more use of them. So here are a few from Kilnsey Show from two years ago. I have plenty more, but it seems there is a limit to how many I can add to a Substack post without clogging up all your emails.

Kilnsey Show holds a special place for me, not only because it is in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, but my father’s family have been involved with it in some shape or other over the years.

Here are some photos from the show itself and of the sheepdog trials.

They still haven’t found them sheepdogs guilty yet…

I take lots of photos. Too many. But I love the medium of photography, whether it’s an instantaneous or a carefully framed shot, if it captures a moment or an interesting image, I’m hooked.

But there is no doubt that my phone and laptop are full of many photos and videos that aren’t worth keeping. Mediocre pictures that don’t make the grade and only mean something to me and no one else.

And yet.

Even a not very good image from past travels, a photo from a place I have visited, or road travelled, makes me smile. Add in all the thousands of photos and films of friends and family, and it makes it very hard to choose which images to delete and which to keep. I want to preserve all those memories.

Of course there are Apps and programmes that can help. These can identify duplicate photos very quickly, they can highlight images that aren’t in focus and are too blurry. But when it comes to sorting through them after this initial step, it’s only me that has the memory bank to do so.

A member of my family suggested that I just type in one date only, (not the year) in the search button in my photo library and it would then bring up all photos from that date from over the years. “If you do this every day”, she said, “you will be able to clear thousands of photos”.

So I tried it and it works, sort of.

Only sort of, because seeing where I was one, five, even 10 years ago leads to too much reminiscing and not enough reorganising.

Today it’s the last day of August 2025 so I am now looking back at that same day over the years.

In 2014, there are several, not brilliant photos taken from a plane. I was obviously flying out of Geneva as you can see the Jet D’eau in the distance, but I am not sure where was I landing, London maybe?

In 2015 there are many photos of the famous Cow and Calf rocks in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, and lots of photos of the “Coutances Way” sign. This may seems weird, but there was method in my madness. Ilkley is twinned with Coutances in Normandy in France. I wanted to use an image of the sign in a little film that I was making about polyglots for Visions du Réel, a Swiss documentary film festival.

And also on the same day and year, there is a photo of a pretty house in Runswick Bay, a coastal village in North Yorkshire. There was obviously a bit of driving done that day.

On the 31st August 2017, I just have a short video of a dripping, overflowing dishwasher, I guess I filmed it to show a plumber. You don’t need to see it.

On August 31st 2018 - nothing.

On August 31st 2019, there’s a video of a paddle board race near Nyon on Lake Geneva, Now this is fun. Check out the competitors paddling up to get a glass of wine

The photo below from the 31st August 2020, shows a Montreux Jazz Festival poster being hung up on the wall in our house in Kendal. We had just moved to Cumbria. Moving during Covid times wasn’t the easiest move to make. But the poster reminds me of many great concerts.

And there’s also a photo of a well worn, well used recipe for Carrot and Orange soup.

On 31st August 2021 there’s a photo of mushrooms growing by the road near us in Kendal. They are there again this year.

Now that I have started this exercise I can see there are hundreds, nay, thousands of pictures that might be of interest for future Substack posts. I was never a press photographer as such, but was once part of an official press pack and along with writing, I took a fair few photos at rock festivals and events.

I can already see that there are some interesting photos coming up which were taken a few years in New Mexico, on the 1st September.

They all come with memories.

I think I’ll keep the lot.

The seaside town of Whitby on the east coast of Yorkshire was a regular childhood holiday haunt. I have happy memories of getting up very early, in whichever guest house we were staying in that year, and going down to the harbour with my dad to see the fishing boats come in. He would buy two mugs of hot steaming tea, (from probably the only take-away stand in town at that time) and we warmed our fingers around the mugs as we watched the fishermen unload their haul of fish. Whitby was magical. I thought everyone would want to go there.

So, I couldn’t understand why my grandmother never came along on these trips. She always went to Grange-over-Sands on the north side of Morecambe Bay. When I asked her why, she replied,

“It’s quieter, dear”

Six decades on I realise she was right. Grange is a peaceful place to be. Whitby, although still lovely, is now very popular with thousands of tourists thronging its narrowed cobbled streets every day of the year.

Grange can be busyish at the weekends, but unlike Whitby, there is no smell of chip fat in the air, there are no gaming machines, noisy amusement arcades, or take-aways on the front. There are no goth weekends where visitors pose and drape themselves around the graveyard of the town’s magnificent Abbey.

This coastal Edwardian town has a gentle genteelness to it. Its traffic free prom is bordered by flowerbeds that teams of gardening volunteers keep looking gorgeous. When the sun is out, there’s almost a hint of the Mediterranean about the place.

I’m now just a 30-minute bus ride from Grange, so it’s a treat to head off there and walk on the prom for a really good passeggiata. Followed by a stop at Brew, a café in a portacabin with a view over the water. There are maps and guide books for customers to read, binoculars to look out at the birds on the marsh, and they also make a fine hot choc and toasted teacake. This ruins all the health benefits of those steps clocked up walking the prom but, who cares?

The benches with their commemorative brass plaques tell their own stories. The chap who was a “True Gentleman”, another who had two wives. The red metal squirrels at the base of each bench. The lovely old railway station. They are all part of the town’s charm.

“Grange?” A certain member of my family always says to me. “Why do you like Grange? Didn’t you know, it’s nicknamed Grange-over-Grass now,” (true, shifting tidal currents have moved the sea further away and there is now a lot of marsh and mudflats), “there aren’t any decent waves, and it can be dangerous to walk on the sands” (true) “and it’s full of old people”.

“I like it”, I reply, “because it's quiet”.

I’m turning into my gran.

Barns were featured in my last post, and here they are again. But this time, they’re not here in any linguistic sense. Here I am talking about the tiny raccards, greniers and granges écuries found in the Val d’Hérens in the Valais, in Switzerland.

These buildings had different uses in the past, from storing cattle, and grain to Sunday clothes or valuables. Some of these buildings were shared with neighbours, and have more than one door in them.

A few of these buildings are now in disrepair. There are a couple that I walk by very gingerly, as it looks like they are going to fall over. But I guess not. They have been around for hundreds of years so they are probably still sturdy.

Today, more and more are being converted into small houses. It’s amazing what some of the architects have managed to achieve with such a small space. The original structure has been kept, but the buildings have been modernised inside and then extended downwards.

This little property is a good example. From the front, the building looks like a place to store grain but take a look at the back in the following photo. Spot that big Apple computer in the tiny window? That’s working from home in style….

Take a look at this tiny house below with its swing outside.

I am glad that these old properties are being preserved and used. These photos were taken in winter. They are a delight to see at any time of year, but in summer, with geraniums galore spilling out of their window boxes, they are absolutely gorgeous. More posts on the Val d’Herens later, including one on Evolène, probably one of my favourite villages of all. It was once voted one of the most beautiful villages in French-speaking Switzerland. Link here