Laptop...

My laptop is starting to misbehave. Performance is sluggish at best. It can even ‘hang’ for half a minute while I’m doing something as simple, and using as little power, as writing. It can take five minutes - rather than, say, ten seconds - to get online, leaving me to stare impotently at that spinning beach-ball. If I want the machine to hold its charge on cold nights, I have to slip it inside my sleeping bag and keep it warm. My theory is that Apple products are programmed to slow down and develop faults after about five years, to encourage punters like me to wander into an Apple store and buy the latest model.

Honister Pass in Cumbria, licensed today...

Otley...

Despite some misgivings that the unseasonably warm weather should be a cause of concern, the good people of Otley are responding positively. The butcher shouted hello as I passed his shop, as did a gardener weeding a flower-bed and a woman on a zebra crossing. I got no cheery salutation from the Jehovah’s Witnesses standing outside the Kingdom Hall with their rack of pamphlets, but then I didn’t expect one, since, according to their beliefs, a non-believer like me is going to hell in a handcart.

Licensed today: Lake Windermere at Waterhead...

Cardinal Pell...

George Pell, the third most important cardinal in the Vatican, with responsibility for the Catholic Church’s finances, has been found guilty of sexually abusing two altar boys. This is a man who condemned sinners,  contraception, homosexuality, divorce, equal marriage and abortion. Dictatorial to the last, he even accused his own church of being “frightened to put forward the hard teachings of Christ”. For years he had denied knowledge of clerical abuse of children on his watch, even admitting, in an interview, that the “sad story” of a paedophile priest “wasn’t of much interest to me”. And now he’s going to prison.

Sign announcing bank closure, licensed today...

Burnley...

Today, apparently, has been the warmest winter's day since records began: twenty degrees Centigrade.

This shot of a Burnley twilight was licensed today...

Swarthmoor...

As I strolled into the Quaker meeting house at Swarthmoor, the man on greeting duties recognised me as “the photographer”. Then Bill Shaw, one-time custodian of Swarthmoor Hall, introduced me as “the camper van man”. “I always want to call you George”, said a woman I’d never met before. “So call me George”, I said. An hour of shared silence always leaves me in a more tranquil mood, accentuated by the spring-like sunshine…

Leighton Moss...

Called in at RSPB Leighton Moss and took a wander round the reed-beds. For some of the birds, spring has already arrived. A pair of great crested grebes were engaged in their elaborate mating display… and it’s only the last week of February! I parked up in Milnthorpe, where the main talking point was the theft of the town’s cash machine by two men driving a stolen JCB, destroying the facade of a shop in the process…

Licensed yesterday: a motorhome on the Isle of Barra...

Early spring...

The spring light is shining into dark corners, and the temperature is rising. The springtime signifiers - crocuses and daffodils - are opening up. I’m reading today that swallows have been sighted - about five weeks too early - along the south coast. 

Landscape pix don't sell very well, but pix like this do...

Seaton Carew...

Had fish & chips from The Almighty Cod in Seaton Carew (next door to a shop called Beach Paws offering ‘self-service dog wash’), before driving south…

A nondescript pic... but it sold...

Ravenglass...

Licensed today: Ravenglass station on the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway line...

Beamish...

I’ve been meaning to visit the Beamish Outdoor Museum for years, and today - by accident, not design - I saw a sign and followed it. Beamish was crowded - I hadn’t realised it was half term - but fun. The contrast between old and new was mildly disorientating. I saw a woman dressed like a suffragette but carrying a walkie-talkie, and overheard a snatch of conversation: “We have a dog muck situation near the entrance”…

Pocklington...

Spent last night in Pocklington, where a flower shop stayed open late to flog Valentine’s Day tat. Avoiding any pub offering overpriced meals for romantic couples, I found a local boozer with a pool table. Two guys were playing, though the game didn’t last long because they were both going for the same-colour balls. I met an old guy (old? he was probably younger than me) who also lives in a motorhome; we swapped tales of the nomadic lifestyle. He was quite impressed when I said I’d been doing it for nearly five years.

Licensed today: motorboat racing in Barrow Docks...

A hint of spring...

On a bright day in Selby I’m getting a hint - the merest hint - of spring. The light is certainly stronger; as I turned the corner into the market square this morning, I had to shade my eyes…

Library...

I’ve found myself another congenial library to work in, in Selby. Well, it was congenial until a couple of workmen arrived; now they’re banging and clattering and drilling holes in the wall…

Barbie...

The hot news of today: Mattel have launched an entomologist Barbie.

Socialising...

After a few days of socialising - Skipton, Leyburn, Hebden Bridge, Bakewell, Coventry and Peterborough - I am rewarding myself with an afternoon watching England v West Indies. Now that the West Indies have a 2-0 lead in a three-match series, England have suddenly rediscovered their form….

Langdales...

Heading south. After the cold spell, a temperature of ten degrees feels almost tropical! Licensed today: Great Langdale,..

Caravan...

Not sure why I took it. Not sure why it sold today...

Alcaster...

Twilight pix are regular sellers. This shot, licensed today, is of Alcaster in Warwickshire...

Montage...

Stock photographers (especially those who are just starting out) often wonder where their pictures end up. They are notified by their agency when pix have been used, and they may get some basic details about the licence (including the fee), but they won’t get told which book, which magazine, which website, which advert, which company report, which tourist brochure they have featured in. And a lot of pix simply go AWOL; in the digital age it gets ever harder to keep track of pix once they go online, especially once they lose the agency watermarks.

This shot of mine has become the inspiration for a digital artist, with a rather distinctive branch of Greggs (in Dalton, Cumbria) being patronised by Theresa May, Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, Piers Morgan, the Queen, Prince Charles and what looks like the members of some boy band. It’s hard to imagine a group portrait in which Piers Morgan wouldn’t be the most loathsome person… though this montage may just be the one. Could that be the artist at bottom left?…

Dying for Jesus...

John Chau, an evangelical Christian, was killed last November by men from the isolated Sentinelese tribe, who still live as hunter-gatherers on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean. According to his blog he had decided to bring Christ to the island he called “Satan’s last stronghold”, despite the fact that the Sentinelese had made it very clear, over the years, that they want to be left alone (and because the tribe would be susceptible to diseases to which they would have no immunity, the Indian government has banned access to the island).

According to the Joshua Project, a Christian missionary website, the Sentinelese “need to know that the Creator God exists, and that He loves them and paid the price for their sins”. The full story of Chau’s attempt to bring Christianity to such an isolated tribe is told today in the Guardian. To cut a long story short, he landed by kayak, offered gifts and quoted from the Bible. “My name is John,” he shouted. “I love you, and Jesus loves you.” When the tribesmen shot arrows at him, he retreated back to the boat he had hired. Most sane people would have taken the hint at that point. Instead he paddled to the island the following day… and never returned.

A friend, and fellow evangelical, said that John Chau had been motivated by love for the Sentinelese, adding that “If you believe in heaven and hell then what he did was the most loving thing anyone could do.” I agree. If you truly believe in heaven and hell, then a lot of stupid things make a kind of sense. There is, however, no pressing need to believe in either of these posthumous destinations, because they are fictional. The Sentinelese may have their own religion - nobody knows - but what they certainly don’t need is to be “saved” from a religious delusion.

The old Saxon church at Kirk Hammerton, near York, licensed over the weekend...

Selby...

In Selby, as the temperature plummets (though still warm and cosy at night). Licensed this shot of the Skirrid Inn, reckoned to be the oldest pub in Wales...