Sofia - St. Nedelya

Hiding among the trees is the St. Nedelya Bulgarian Orthodox church.

A well known landmark in the city.

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Oranges

This morning I went for a stroll around my garden to find "someone" had thrown oranges over the fence.

About 10 oranges and one or two apples - scattered all over the lawn !!

It's strange what some people will do for pleasure.

A pure waste of food .....

As they say in Lancashire "There's nowt so queer as folk"

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Rochdale - Hollingworth Lake

Last weekend saw us taking a walk around Hollingworth Lake - not bad weather - sunny and dry with just a few dark clouds in the distance.

Looks like this weekend may produce some snow in Lancashire - all because of high pressure over Greenland I understand.

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Sofia - St. Petka

More photos from our trip to Bulgaria.

The medieval Bulgarian Orthodox Church of St. Petka of the Saddlers - dedicated to the 11th century saint of that name. Hidden rather well among the surrounding buildings.

I'm still having problems loading photos - quite a long winded job at the moment.

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Well I was ..

I was going to load some photographs taken during a weekend walk around Hollingworth Lake in Rochdale but problems have arisen.

Recently I updated my Apple Mac from Tiger to Snow Leopard and now can not find the link from my Blog to the photographs.

This is what happens when you start upgrading ... I'll now have to seek advice.

Perhaps more photos later in the week ???

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The Highlands of Scotland

I watched an interesting programme on BBC 2 TV the other night entitled the Making of Scotland's Landscape.

The theory put forward was that the barren majestic mountains and glens of the Highlands that we have today are not entirely natural, mankind having made some considerable changes within the last two hundred years.

During that time the crofters and farmers have been removed, sheep and deer introduced and every living creature that was a threat to the grouse has been blasted away with a shotgun.

This has resulted in an ecological disaster and left many areas with poor soil fertility and very few natural inhabitants.

Quite a thought provoking programme.

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Winter job

It's that time of the year for tidying up the garden and getting rid of these things...

I've taken advice from BBC2 and Gardeners World and have packed them into black bin liners and added a few worms from the compost heap.

This time next year we should have some very fertile leaf compost - well we'll just see.. sometimes these ideas do not come to fruition.

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A ghost ..

I sit here in the study at my Mac and all I can hear is heavy breathing.

Now I do have a cold but I'm not sure that it's me making the noise.

Perhaps air in the pipes or perhaps a ghost.

Will the council charge extra rates for a ghost ??

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Students on the riot ...

I see we have students rioting in London and trashing Millbank Tower, HQ of the Conservative Party, in their determination to show what they think of the government's plan to increase tuition fees.

In my Victor mode I have very little sympathy I'm afraid, having had to go out to work at 16 and bring some money into the home. No discussion about further education - if you wanted that you went to night school.

The young seem to want everything immediately and are now blaming us oldies for causing the problems.

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Why do ???

Why do people discard nails screws and tacks on the roadway ??

Pure laziness I guess - can not be bothered to clean up after themselves ..

After extracting a small screw from a tyre I must now wait and see if air is lost - if so another expensive trip to the garage !!

I'm starting to sound like Victor Meldrew ...

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Back home ..

Back home after three weeks in the sun of Spain and certainly feeling the cold .

The weather on our return is certainly cold and damp.

The only jobs in the garden and allotment seem to be tidying up - sweeping leaves from the ground and bagging them with the hope that in 12 months time we'll have some quality compost for the vegetable patch.

Roses to trim and tidy - how have they managed to grow 6 ft tall ??

Of course more photographs to take and publish - but I'm running out of ideas of where to photograph ... !!!

Well I just have to see what appears in the lens.

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Sofia

One tree complete with blossom - looking very pretty.

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Shuttle

This flower display is shown off in a huge replica shuttle.

Shuttles were used in the Lancashire cotton mills - and this is a reminder of that industrial past.

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