electric hut with dead flowers

hut07
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

On Sunday, I walked to this substation from Lancaster (a distance of about 2.5 miles) to break in my new walking boots (and get this shot).

This very Wednesday morning I walked to work from home in the the city to 'work' in the University (about 3 miles) for the first time. Why this waliking madness? I intend to walk from Bailrigg to Bleasdale over part of Bowland Forest and I am 'in training' (another first). The Bailrigg to Bleasdale walk is about 10 miles long, about 2 milies of it over rough moorland. If don't train for this I will, most likely, have to be carried home because my ankles cease up on multi-mile walks over rough ground - very embarrassing.

Nice flowers.

The idea for the walk came from an expedition to the squares on the moor in the blog entry below. Over the other side of that hill pictured is the Bleasdale valley and village.

hill3

hill3
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

There is a pattern of squares on this Bowland fellside. It is caused by burning the heather in a pattern of alternate years. Burning heather keeps the moor healthy and as I noticed a grouse shooting hide it is probably good for the grouse (except they get shot in the end).,

whathazard

whathazard
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

Grisoft free anti-virus package AVG recently offered a free registry checker to download. In the spirit of let's find how bad this is - I downloaded it. I then allowed it to scan my system. It reported reported 200 or so errors and...

- asked me to pay for a download to clean the errors.
- it also offered to clean 18 of them for free.

In the spirit of adventure I let it clean 18 errors. I tried to get 18 more free cleans (you never know) but no go.

Well a few major things that occur to me:

1. I loaded AVG on the machine to STOP this sort of thing and so did millions of others.
2. Is it a sophisticated scam from someone else?
3. has the competition from Microsoft' free AV program caused Grisoft to go for a cash grab?

rustyblue2

rustyblue2
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

Why flattened cans. Flattened cans comment on our consumer society, our indisciplined throwaway society, the power of logos, the strength of aluminium and the weakness of steel. And flattened cans have unintentional almost 'organic' shapes, plus a range of rough textures overlaying the original bright colours. The best flattened cans are created by cars running over them repeatedly in the street. In short then are spontaneous art objects of the consumer age.

rose

rose
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

This bloom is past its best and not shot in the best light, but I like it.

beach12

beach12
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

A lone surfer on a blue sea. Like the Rothko in the St Ives Tate Museum (behind me as a take this shot), this image is divided into muted bands with fuzzy edges.

beach31

beach31
Originally uploaded by DaveBleasdale.

This is one of my favourites, the action in the cafe, people sitting on beach in the mist and the vivid light blending into the misty backdrop.