Exploring Wharram Percy - Yorkshire's village of the living dead

Blog post: Wharram Percy is a tranquil abandoned village in the beautiful Yorkshire Wolds. But it has a grisly past ...

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Exploring Brownsea Island - home of the Scouting movement

Brownsea Island is fascinating to explore. So much history and so much nature and wildlife. It was where the first Scout camp took place back in 1907 and is where the Scouting movement originated. Have you been?

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Swanage - a cute little town I really want to explore properly

Swanage is so lovely I really have to go back to explore it properly. I've put together a to-do list for next time I visit.

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Exploring Studland Bay from Sandbanks to Old Harry Rocks

Is there anywhere nicer than Dorset's Studland Bay on a sunny day? The four mile beach stretches from the Sandbanks ferry to Old Harry Rocks and has beaches, rock formations, nature and folklore. I spent a day exploring this lovely bit of coast.

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Exploring the World's Biggest Tank Museum

The Tank Museum in Dorset is the biggest of its kind and has the world's largest collection of tanks. Even if you're not a tank buff it still makes for a really interesting day out.

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Visiting Mary Shelley's Grave

Mary Shelley's grave is in a lovely churchyard in Bournemouth. Well worth a visit if you're ever there.

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An Afternoon at the Russell-Cotes Museum

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The Hardy Tree in Old St Pancras Burial Ground

New post on the blog. Have you heard of the Hardy Tree? You can see it in a rather lovely old graveyard near St Pancras in London.

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Van Gogh Alive - the exhibition where I sat in Van Gogh's bedroom

New post on the blog: The Van Gogh Alive exhibition was mind-blowingly good. If you haven't already seen it you really should. If you have, do you agree with me? Share your thoughts!

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A Wintry Look at the RHS Garden Bridgewater

New post on the blog: Is it worth visiting RHS Garden Bridgewater in winter? I went along to find out.

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L S Lowry, Jock McFadyen and ... er ... Tim Peake

I spent a Saturday reaching for the moon ... in Salford Quays. New post on the blog - LS Lowry, Jock McFadyen and Tim Peake.

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The Best Books I Read in 2021

4 posts in 4 days! I'm back at work tomorrow so the frequency of my posts will drop again. It's felt so good to have the time to do these posts! This one is a review of my favourite reads in 2021. Let me know what you think of my choices.

I used to read a couple of books a week, which meant that over a year I would read around 100 books. It was easy. If I had to commute to work it would be on public transport giving me a couple of hours of reading time each day. My free time was spent reading. When I was travelling long-term I’d have days at a time where I’d be sitting on a bus, plane or train or hanging around waiting to get on a…

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A Day out to Liverpool to Visit the Sickert Exhibition

3 days and 3 blog posts. I am rocking this year (if only it could last). This one's a review of the Sickert Exhibition at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool. Have you been to Liverpool? Any tips?

After so long with not really being able to see friends, it was lovely to have a friend come to stay with me at the beginning of December. We spent the Saturday in Manchester visiting the Christmas Markets and developing a habit of drinking coffee in posh hotels. On the Sunday we headed over to Liverpool to visit the Sickert Exhibition at the Walker Gallery. (more…)

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My 2021 Challenges and Wins

2021 didn't quite turn out to be the year we'd all hoped for but despite the challenges there were still plenty of wins. In this post I review my 2021 challenges and wins. What were your 2021 challenges and wins?

‘Happy New Year’ they said. ‘Thank goodness 2020 is over‘ they went on. ‘2021 can only get better‘ they proclaimed. Well, we all know how that went! It wasn’t all bad though. Despite some real challenges there were wins as well. Most of the wins wouldn’t have been classed as wins in any ‘normal’ year, but one of the pluses to living through a second year of a global pandemic is that you start…

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Manchester Christmas Markets and the Covid Effect

After more than a year and a half I finally wrote a new blog post! I must be getting my mojo back :-) Check out what I thought of this year's Xmas markets and what I want to be my new habit in 2022.

I’ve written about the Manchester Christmas Markets before and I’ve always claimed they are the best Christmas Markets in the country. Ok, I’ve not been to them all, but I’ve been to enough to call it. I didn’t get to go last year, because Covid, so was extra excited about them this year, especially as I was going to be taking a friend who had never been to them before. Of course, I was a little…

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Sunset From the Top of the Empire State Building

Watching 'Sunset From the Top of the Empire State Building' should be at the top of you must do list for New York.

When I visited New York in October I wanted to dig down a bit and find out what the city is really like, not just follow the thousands of other tourists around checking boxes off a ‘must do in New York’ list. I think I did that pretty well and you can read more about it here. However, that didn’t mean I didn’t want to do any of the big touristy stuff – it’s popular for a reason right? – and…

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The Corona Diaries #7

New post: The Corona Diaries week 7. What unexpected differences have you noticed about life in the time of Coronavirus? Here's 7 of mine.

This week I’ve been thinking about the things that are different. Not the big things that are obvious like not being able to go out to work and having to queue at the supermarket, but the little things.

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