Ullswater...

Licenced today, for the best price of the month, so far: the Glenridding Sailing Club, Ullswater...

The numbers game...

Thousands of words have been written about the nurses - and other 'key-workers' - in the NHS, and how they should be rewarded. The juxtaposition of these two headlines, on the Guardian website, says it all...

Calmac ferry...

Out and about this morning, to do some shopping and see what the good people of Goole are up to. Thanks to the mixed messages emerging from Downing Street, what I saw was a curious mixture of caution and reckless abandon. People were shagging in the streets… but still wearing masks.

Licenced today: passengers on a CalMac ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway...

Hot sand...

When Tokyo made their pitch to hold the 2020 Olympics, athletes were assured that “mild” weather in July and August would provide them with the ideal sporting environment. Instead they will be competing in probably the hottest Olympics on record, with high temperatures and brutal humidity making every moment spent outdoors into a test of endurance. Beach volleyball players have already found the sand too hot for their feet during practice. Add Covid into the mix, and this is one sporting event that should not be happening.

Licenced today: change is happening... in Hull... 

Driffield...

An intriguing quote from Krishnamurti arrived in my in-tray this morning. “When you see a mountain, the splendour of it, the great, magnificent dignity of a mountain – when you look at it, you don’t exist. That very greatness drives away the pettiness. But like a child with a toy, they are so absorbed by it they are no longer mischievous or rushing about, restless. They are absorbed by it. In the same way, the mountain has absorbed me. I don’t exist; it is too great. But when the mountain is not there, I am back to myself”.

Another pic from yesterday: waterside living in Driffield...

Langton...

Woke up in Driffield this morning. Not too sure how that happened. By one o’clock it was too hot to be taking pix. Got back home to watch the cricket, and have a cold shower. 

Today in Langton, near Malton...

Cartmel...

There’s less than a week to go until the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics, an event which 80% of Japanese people don’t want. With 11,000 athletes and another seven or eight times that number of coaches, support staff and media workers converging on Japan, it is increasingly obvious that staging this potential super-spreader event is a bad idea. The IOC president, Thomas Bach, has claimed, with the optimism of the damned, that “the risk for the other residents of the Olympic village and the risk for the Japanese people is zero”. Yet, even before a flame has been lit, a starting gun fired or a medal presented, the first positive Covid-19 test has been recorded by a foreign visitor in the Olympic village. 

Licenced yesterday: the sticky toffee pudding shop in South Lakeland...