Walsingham...

Licenced today: Catholic kitsch in the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham, Norfolk… 

Lytes Carey Manor...

Licenced today: Lytes Carey Manor, near Somerton in Somerset… 

Marlborough...

Licenced today: a parade of shops along the broad main street of Marlborough in Wiltshire…

The test at Taunton...

Licenced today: a game in progress at Hartley Wintney. As England were tying up the remarkable series against New Zealand, at Headingley, England's women were starting their test matcch against South Africa women, at the county ground in Taunton. We'll be at the ground at 11am, to see the start of day two...

Reproductive rights...

 The Onion responds to the overturning of Roe v Wade...

Langton...

Licenced today: traditional stone cottages in the estate village of Langton, near Malton, North Yorkshire. The old schoolhouse on the left is almost a replica of my own bijou residence in Asselby, but built with limestone rather than brick…

In flight...

Not much of a pic, but it was licenced today: the pond at Elvetham Heath, near Fleet, in Hampshire…

England v New Zealand...

Licenced today: another shot of Headingley cricket ground, centred on the new Carnegie Pavilion. The ground should be filling up as I write, because day one of the third test match is a sell-out. The weather's set fair, and I'm hoping for another exciting game...

Goole docks...

Licenced today: grain silos in Goole docks. The brick building peeking out between the silos is a pub, called the Middle House (to differentiate it from two other pubs on the same street, the Top House and the Bottom House, both long gone). At the far end of the bridge on the right is another pub, the Vermuyden Hotel, named after Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutch engineer, who directed major waterway projects around Goole, the Humber and the fens. Call into either the Middle House or the Vermuyden - both, against all odds, still trading - to find photos of Old Goole on the walls, which show that this area was once a bustling neighbourhood, full of shops, pubs, cobbled streets of terraced houses... and sailors on shore leave, looking for a good time…

Mindfulness...

An article in today’s Guardian recommends the Orkney island of Shapinsay as being “perfect for mindful exploration”. However, mindfulness isn’t just some component of the tourism industry, adding value to the experience of a holiday in a far-off, windswept place. The benefits of mindfulness - and there are many - are available to anyone, in any place, at any time. If we are fully engaged with even the most mundane of tasks - ironing clothes, washing the dishes or writing a book - it makes all the difference.

Licenced today: cottages at dusk in Blanchland, Northumberland… 

Ullapool...

I rather enjoyed this brief homily, which I found online today…

A man is being given a tour of heaven and hell. They begin in hell where he sees hundreds of hungry people in a room full of banquet tables. The banquet tables are filled with delicious food, with amazing aromas, and all the people have spoons. The spoons have long handles, just too long so the people in hell cannot feed themselves – they cannot get the food into their mouths. So they are eternally tortured by their hunger in a room full of delicious food. The man on the tour asks about heaven. The tour guide says that heaven is much more pleasant. The room looks a lot like this one but everyone there is very happy at their banquet. The man asks, “In heaven do they have shorter spoons?” The tour guide says, “No, the spoons are the same and the food is the same. But in heaven, they feed each other”.

Licenced today: the view from the CalMac ferry, heading for Stornoway on the isle of Lewis, looking back to the houses of Ullapool…

Headingley cricket...

Licenced yesterday: Headingley Cricket Ground...

North Cave Wetlands...

On the hottest day of the year - so far - I had a wander round North Cave Wetlands. A guy had driven quite a few miles in the hope of seeing his first avocet, though they had all disappeared (including the chicks). I watched a common tern - such a graceful bird - diving for fish in the lagoon. A pair of great crested grebes were doing a mating dance. A couple of green sandpipers picked their way around the water margins. A hobby hawked for dragonflies. It was such a peaceful scene; even the black headed gulls had nothing to argue about. The last bird I saw was a single avocet; I hope the guy saw it too. I finished off with a pint of blonde, while sitting outside this pub in - where else? - Hotham…

Bee-eaters and stilts...

Bee-eaters are nesting in Norfolk, and black-winged stilts at Potteric Carr in South Yorkshire. “These bee-eaters are certainly the most colourful and exciting birds you can see in the UK right now,” said Mark Thomas of the RSPB. “While an incredible sight, we mustn’t forget that the arrival of these birds to our shores is due to changes to our climate and subsequent pressures on wildlife both here and across the globe”…

Apologising for slavery...

The Church of England used money made from the “abominable” slave trade to help pay the incomes of poor clergy in the 18th century. Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said today that he was “deeply sorry for the links with transatlantic chattel slavery”. Church leaders are becoming quite adept at apologising, as well they should. Unfortunately, nowhere in the Bible is slavery condemned. The creator of the universe evidently saw nothing wrong with buying, selling, owning and chastising slaves.

When slavery is mentioned in the Old Testament, it’s generally to offer advice to masters about the practicalities of slave-ownership. “You may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way” (Leviticus 25:44-46).

Licenced today: a dog’s-eye view of Windermere from Brant Fell. It’s one of the first pix I uploaded to Alamy, and one of the first to make a sale. That editorial sale, back in 2008, was for $554.39. Today, in contrast, I’m ‘benefitting’ to the tune of just $10.04… 

Ethics adviser...

Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser, Lord Geidt, has dramatically resigned after being grilled by MSs earlier this week about whether the prime minister broke the ministerial code over Partygate. The resignation came as quite a surprise to me. I mean, who knew the PM had an ethics adviser?

Licensed today: an Iceland delivery van full of Turkey Twizzlers...

Hungry Horse...

There’s a wise old saying, “never drink in a flat-roofed pub”: advice which I foolishly ignored yesterday. I had a beer at the Vikings, part of the Hungry Horse chain of crap pubs, in the suburbs of Goole. It was the only place open on a Monday which would be showing the cricket, so I watched the only boring session of a very exciting match. My foolishness extended to ordering a plate of nachos, slathered in glutinous sauces, which, in due course, my stomach rejected with the speed and ferocity of a scathing, one-star review on TripAdvisor.

Licenced today: not a Hungry Horse... but the Wild Boar Inn, near Bowness…

Springs Branch...

Narrowboats moored on the Springs Branch of the canal, which continues beneath the ramparts of Skipton Castle...

Leeds & Liverpool Canal...

A hired narrowboat on its return, yesterday, to the canal basin in Skipton...

Western Isles...

Licenced today: the ferry from Ardrossan, approaching the quay at Brodick, Isle of Arran… and passengers on the CalMac ferry between Ullapool and Stornoway…

The Lady of Heaven...

Muslim activists are protesting about a new film - The Lady of Heaven - featuring Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad; it is, they say, “blasphemous”. The Cineworld cinema chain has capitulated to their demands, with barely a whimper, by pulling the film from all its cinemas, even though it has already been accredited - and rated - by the BBFC (the independent British Board of Film Classification). England, Wales and Scotland no longer have blasphemy laws, and Muslims are free to register their displeasure in the usual way: by not going to see the film (it’s not very good, I understand, with the Guardian giving it just two stars). The rest of us, placing greater value on free speech, should be able to make up our own minds whether to venture out to the multiplex or not.

Licenced today: a learner driver enjoying the freedom of the open road near Asselby... 

Blood money...

They say that every man has his price, and we can now be more precise about the sums involved. Golfers who have already made millions of dollars from the PGA tour are having their heads turned, and bank accounts enriched - to the tune of $25m - by the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series, with the inaugural event due to start on Thursday. If anyone wants to know what ‘blood money’ looks like, look no further.

Licenced today: the bee shelter in the churchyard of the parish church, Hartpury, Gloucestershire…

Pay gap...

Sainsbury’s has revealed today that its chief executive, Simon Roberts, received pay worth £3.8m in the latest financial year - that’s 183 times larger than the average wage of workers at the supermarket - even as the company rejected calls for it to pay all workers a living wage. As Boris Johnson awaits the result of the no-confidence ballot, I would happily vote for anyone who could tackle these huge disparities in pay.

Licenced today: a sign welcoming drivers to the town of Whaley Bridge in Derbyshire...

Head of state...

While creeping towards the throne, our monarch-in-waiting said this. “What is wrong with everyone nowadays? Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities? People seem to think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability. This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history.”

Prince Charles has had no need of “natural ability” - or any other qualification - in his assumption of sovereignty (without the accident of birth, of being his mother’s son, the heir to the throne might be selling shoes or manning a desk in some local government office). At the moment of his coronation he will also become head of state, head of the armed forces and head of the Church of England. And a hereditary head of state, as Thomas Paine once wrote, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary physician or a hereditary astronomer.

Instead of waving a union jack, or attending a street party, I've been watching baby avocets at North Cave Wetlands. Pic by Alnus (Creative Commons)...

Congratulations, ma'am...

On the occasion of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, I’m trying to think of something nice to say about her… beyond the obvious observation that she looks very well for a woman who, four years hence, will be sending herself a telegram. Everyone has an opinion these days, about everything, and, thanks to social media, they have an online soapbox for expressing it. So congratulations to our reigning monarch for abiding by the unofficial royal motto - “never complain, never explain” - and for keeping her opinions to herself.

House for sale pic licenced today (presumably not Bleak House)...

Nipple count...

Saw one of my pix in today's Guardian: the BT van, of course, not the breasts...

Strathmore House...

Licenced today: Strathmore House, complete with royal crest, is one of the carbuncle-free buildings in Poundbury, our future king’s vanity project near Dorchester in Dorset…