Bridge 11... the story continues

Remember way back when the world wasn't going to pieces?  As a railway photographer with a connection to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, I (Ben) was asked to help out by taking some pictures to record a small part of the works to replace Bridge 11 at Ingrow, a spot I'd taken many photographs at over the years.

Like this...

...and this.

They got as far as removing the old bridge (a process I photographed)…  Then Lockdown happened.

And this was the last railway photograph I took just as things went into Lockdown, the railway removing the crane and gear for safekeeping.

OK so the world isn't fundamentally different or better now, but at least work has restarted on the bridge.  From a selfish point of view, that means I can take photographs of trains again on my favourite railway line, and from a slightly less selfish point of view, it means that the railway will be able to reopen in some form and stand a fighting chance of surviving this bloody mess.

I knew work was going to be restarting soon enough, but the arrival of the works train caught me slightly by surprise, though I did manage a few shots in the afternoon.  I was a bit out of practise and not only managed to miss a couple of easy shots, I then realised it had been so long since I used the SLR that there wasn't enough room on the memory card.

The weather wasn't terribly good, and the same again for the Saturday.

Sunday dawned far brighter; "Vulcan" at the northern end of the worksite, with the BLS crane in the background.

I went for a walk in the woods with The Childs but had to divert a different way back, due to some of the lovely local residents on their scrambler bikes spooking the kids by riding high-speed down the footpaths, so we missed the arrival of the 20 and 08 to the worksite.

They left the worksite later in the afternoon, towing the crane away, and I managed some rather better shots later in the day.

So back to taking railway photographs again, something I'd really been missing :)

Spiders.

Not much else to say really.  Just in the right place at the right time as a ton of Crusader Spiders left their nest and spread out to take over the garden.

Sorry, probably should have done a trigger warning for people who find them freaky.  Sorry.

Covered in Bees

Another belated blog post, but more calming shots of wildlife.  We've done well this year for bees in the back garden, so Amy and Elder Child have been out playing with their phone cameras...

And if that wasn't Springwatch enough for you, there'll be another post along soon with spiders too...

Lockdown Walks in the Woods

We're still waiting for some publication deadlines to clear so we can show some work on here, so in the meantime here's some shots taken during the daily permitted Boris-ercise walks we were doing.

Damems Lane in Keighley, nominally a public road... if you have an off-roader or possibly tractor.  Surprising how busy it was; hoping that a long-term benefit of this lockdown is that more people discover the bit of countryside around here and make the most of the place... should help having normal people and families, rather than people who don't clean up after their dogs, or risking some property company tarmacking over the whole lot.

And before we get to the pretty pictures of flowers and things, a brief look at the downside of it all... Damems Lane used to be a mecca for flytippers, but it had improved in recent years.  Until the tips shut down, and suddenly some bastards have been dumping stuff in the river.  The second walk we did a van tried to stop, but there were about 30 of us along the lane, so he sped off.  We've seen police patrols a few times since, which makes a change.  Still a bit of tipping going on though, and evidence of drunken barbeques here and there.

Right, bad stuff out the way, let's have some pretty pictures, starting with the wild garlic on the old Great Northern Railway embankment.

It stayed looking really nice for a few weeks, and the smell was strong.  Keeps away the vampires too probably.

Further on the path, towards the railway station.

We'd love this level of moss on our walls.

We started varying our usual walks to take in the old trackbed of the Great Northern Railway itself.

It used to be a bit nasty and overgrown up here, but it appears some of the local residents are going to a lot of trouble with maintaining the path, even leaving up bin liners for people to put their rubbish in.  Shame the phantom dog-mess dropper of Keighley is still letting their monstrous hound leave steaming piles of muck on the paths, but apart from that it's lovely up here now.

So that's that; there's a limit to what you can photograph on the same walk three times a week (particularly when you're trying to stop three kids paddling in a river), but it's been nice getting a few landscape shots here and there, something we haven't bothered with much in recent years.  Probably some more wildlife shots coming up in the next post, in the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy :)

More Calming Pictures of Flowers

Unable to go out in the Lockdown (apart from the permitted hour-long, later slightly longer Boris-ercise walks), Amy decided to combine her twin interests of photography and gardening in the nice spring sunshine.

Most of the shots were taken using mobile phones (the SLR has hardly seen any use at all since the lockdown; the phones are handier and cope better with close-up shots).  Not much else to say this post; in times of stress, just enjoy the calming flowers and plants...

Next time, either a selection of landscape shots from the Boris-ercise walks, or maybe some wildlife pics.