It's hard to believe that a full decade has passed by since I returned to England following a second six month teaching stint in Bangkok, Thailand. It was June 2013 and one of the first things I did was to take a long walk in The Peak District with my friend Tony.
As I recall - and the pictures prove it - it was a lovely summery day. Above is one of the pictures I snapped at The Magpie Mine near the village of Sheldon. It is a long-abandoned lead mine but the manager's house is in good repair as you can see.
Typical limestone scenery above The River Wye with ancient drystone walls dividing the sheep pastures while below - not far from the village of Monyash - farmers are bringing in their newly cut hay for winter fodder.
In the middle of the month, Shirley and I packed our suitcases and headed off to the islands of Malta and Gozo in The Mediterranean Sea. We had never been there before. I took a hundred photos or more and here's a random selection of the images I brought home:-
Above I spotted that shadowy illusion while below a man sits fishing on the edge of the old salt pans. At high tide the rock pools would be filled with salt water and after the tide had receded and hot sunshine had done its job, bags of sea salt would be raked up.
Below - I took this picture on the island of Gozo and it's still my favourite image from that holiday. It must be very hard to grow vegetables on sun-baked Gozo but the men in the foreground are doing their best. On the horizon is Ta' Ġurdan Lighthouse where later that week I came across a local man shooting passing birds. Many Maltese and Gozan men call this hideous activity "sport".
Yes it was a decade ago and I was only 59 years old and there was no war in Ukraine and we had never heard of COVID and if you had told ordinary Americans that one day Donald Trump would be their president, they would have split their sides laughing.
And now we're splitting our sides hoping.
ReplyDeleteIt seems incredible that a criminal draft dodger and sex pest could even for one moment be considered a candidate for president.
DeleteMany things can happen during ten years. With the Donald Trump issue happening, I hate to look forward to some other lunatic arising.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be the fashion to elect lunatics these days.
DeleteGorgeous photos, yet again. I'm loving the architecture in them.
ReplyDeleteAre you in fact an architect Bob? I have no idea what you do for a living.
DeleteSo much has happened in a decade and, sadly, not a lot of it has been good. I wonder what the next 10 years will bring. I wonder if thee and me will still be around to comment on it.
ReplyDeleteIn ten more years I will be 79... if I make it! How old will you be SM?
Deletepushing 77
DeleteIt's amazing how much things change, and don't change. I like the photo of the salt and the dried out rock pools. Who would have thought that trump would try again to run for president? It's deja vu. One can only hope that he ends up in jail.
ReplyDeleteJail is too good for Trump.
DeleteIsn't it fortunate that we don't know what will happen in the future. I would never have predicted any of that. Lovely photos!
ReplyDeleteWe may be living in the shadow of something terrible... less likely it will be something wonderful.
DeleteA lot happens in ten years but we mostly only see it in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteYour favourite photo is really good, it's my favourite out today's offering :)
By the way the Catholic church in that picture is quite new though it looks old.
DeleteIf only we could relive that decade and trump NOT get elected.
ReplyDeleteYour photos are beautiful. I like the salt gathering method.
Didn't Cher sing, "If I could turn back time"?
DeleteIt's still hard to believe that Trump happened (please let him remain past tense).
ReplyDeleteEssentially he encouraged an assault on the US Capitol and is still the Republican front runner. A decade ago that would have been quite unbelievable.
DeleteAs the song says, "What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours" - let alone a decade.
ReplyDeleteMalta has long been on my list of places I would like to see, but I am not so sure anymore. It is too hot and dry to be really walk-friendly, and we get plenty of hot and dry where I live.
I think it depends what time of year you go. May or late September maybe. I did a few walks in Malta and Gozo.
DeleteDid you become fed up with the tropical heat? It must have been nice to take a walk in the cool sunny hills at home. But then glutton for punishment, you holiday in another hot place. I've not done it but it must be great fun to kill live birds in flight. Wow, look at it fall to the ground like a stone.
ReplyDeleteAnd there was me thinking that you were a nice guy Andrew! Killing birds just for the fun of it is CRUEL and STUPID.
DeleteA lot can happen in ten years. I love the photo of the salt pans
ReplyDeleteI think they are historical - not used nowadays.
DeleteI remember Malta being full of old lorries (trucks), all very brightly coloured.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't need to put "trucks" in brackets as I know full well what a lorry is! I have seen a lorra lorra lorries.
DeleteNot forgetting the Brexit lies from the Tories.
ReplyDeleteBrexit... the gift that keeps on giving... nothing, nothing at all. It's Johnson's legacy. Vile human.
DeleteI hope ten years from now we look back at wonders of the decade, and at He Who Must Not Be Named, rotting in prison.
ReplyDeletePrison is too good for Trump but it will do.
DeleteDid the Gozan guys at least eat the birds they shot? I know on some of those Mediterranean islands, songbirds are a delicacy. (Much to the chagrin of the RSPB.)
ReplyDeleteHonestly, guns are one of the worst inventions humans ever came up with. And that's saying something.
They do not eat them. They just kill them for the "fun" of it. The British TV naturalist Chris Packham was arrested in Malta for challenging their gun laws and trying to disrupt shooting.
DeleteSo your family came with you for the 6 months in Thailand? What an adventure for all of you! Or were the kids old enough to just be on their own while you and Shirley went? I can't keep track of everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnd if you had said that a journalist twice sacked for lying would become PM of the UK then no one would have believed that either.
ReplyDelete