September 2018 Pt1

Via de la Plata from Ourense to The End
We left Ourense in the not-very-early(ish) morning, the day was forecast to be very hot so we wanted to get a move on.

Ourense is known for it’s knockers

We breakfasted on coffee and a bocadillo each at a roadside cafe, after which we followed footpaths and very quiet country lanes for a good few miles. And even more kilometers.

A tired hórreo

No idea

To Cea….and a most magnificent lunch:

 …at a very odd but very welcoming eatery that not only served excellent food, but also Scalextric sets, and quite a lot of other stuff that you’d not expect to see in a restaurant!

Leaving the restaurant behind was something of a struggle, we more than full which made for even slower walking.

We were now heading to our bed for the night at the Cistercian monastary at Oseira.

The monastary was very large and very old, it dates back to the 12th Century. Sadly it only housed 11 monks – I wonder how long it can continue with such low numbers. In days gone by I expect it would have been home to 100+.

On approach to the monastary

The monastary albergue:

Our digs for the night – it would easily sleep 60+

The dorm had showers and a washing machine. It felt damp and was unheated – it wouldn’t have been much fun in the winter. In busy periods it wouldn’t have been particularly restful, every burp and fart echoed around the cavernous hall.

We attended Vespers in the evening – a quiet affair with maybe 20 – 25 in attendance.

A few more photographs of the monastary:

Rob leaving the monastary and looking for breakfast

There was nowhere near for breakfast next morning, so we were away for around 7am and so began a search for food….and coffee.

Anyway, enough of this drivel, here’s some photos from this next section of our walk into Santiago de Compostela:

For Alan R:

Our bedroom in the albergue that night:

More to follow in Pt2

Another Open Live Writer update

…and this one works at the moment.

The ongoing Google / Blogger / Open Live Writer palaver has put many bloggers off posting of late – and that includes me.

A not-very-well publicised (and not entirely straight-forward installation process) OLW update seems to work – for now.

To update:

R Click on the existing OLW icon, select ‘Properties’

Click ‘Open File Location’ to open an Explore folder/

Rename ‘Update’ or ‘Update.exe’ to ‘OldUpdate’…keeping ‘.exe’ if present.

Go to http://openlivewriter.org/ and download the latest OLW.

To post photographs it is essential to first save them in Google Photos and then cope and paste from there.

That all works for me on Win7 using Firefox.

Once again, many thanks to Dave Burdick who has come up with this solution. 

Addendum:

This worked for a while today.

Photos were posted into my blog and the were successfully published.

A few hours later all the photographs had disappeared……and now they’ve come back again.

Is this Google deciding that they don’t want anyone to post photographs unless they use their ghastly Blogger?

Another test

Using the updated (?) OLW

…and it works!

For now.

Sunset this evening

Taken at 6.45pm this evening, using my slightly creaky Samsung S5 phone.

This post has been edited: my normal 'post by email' failed.

As Conrad pointed out, the only image visible was a small box entitled 'Image' but no image was visible.

The image is (hopefully) visible now because I downloaded the photograph from my phone, directly to my PC, then pasted the image into the posted via Blogger.

Anchor Inn session

A Musical weekend in Staffordshire

Last weekend:

https://youtu.be/fCh-tUHY6gI

https://youtu.be/hvgBXfAIUjg

Posting photos into Blogger using OLW

Clouds over Manchester Airport t’other night:

More clouds:

From Vierdaagse:

Method of posting photos from OLW into Blogger:

Ensure photos to be used are saved in Google Photos.

Create post using OLW as usual.

To paste photos into OLW:

Go to Google Photos

Click and open the photo to be used, then ‘Copy Image’

(It’s important that you actually open the image, don’t just click on it)

Copy & Paste the photo into OLW

Post to blogger when ready.

Job done

With grateful thanks to Dave Burdick in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Odd looking clouds over South Manchester

We had a tornado on Friday, what are we going to get now?

Get Outlook for Android

Test: Black Leg Mining Man Pitmen Poets

Another test with OLW

Video link:
https://www.facebook.com/anupm2/videos/10218655265437319/

Test post with photographs…maybe

This is a test to check out a method of posting photographs using OLW.
I’ve not been blogging recently, simply because of the amount of faffing needed to post with photographs – the apparent result of a spat between Google and the Open Live Writer team.

The situation is further complicated by the uncertainty of successful posting even without photographs, plus the total unhelpfulness (if that’s a real word) of the Google Blogger team – who declare that they’re working to improve the Blogger experience.

Yeah, whatever.

Last weekend’s ex-OMers meet:

Hayfield & New Mills Running, Saturday 23rd March 2019

Well Dear Readers, spring has officially commenced as we assembled at the Lantern Pike at Little Hayfield. 

Spring was definitely some way in the past, however, for the majority of the assemblees, and few of those could even run to a spring in their step. 

It was a fine spring day with plenty of warm sun although a cool breeze. Skint Wilson and Doggie Burston had devised a suburban route to the surprise of the hounds, interspaced with patches of the normal farmland.

The route headed down the road from the hostelry then crossed to Primrose Lane which we followed across Hollingworth Clough then the first part of our wilderness experience led us uphill to pass below Uppercliffe Farm. It then dropped back down to the road, along a bit then down to pass the sewage works and cross the River Sett. 

Just past the reservoir we turned right on the Sett ValleyTrail. This led us along a disused railway all the way to New Mills. Here we entered the Urban part of the run.

At Torr Top we left the trail just after the railway headed through the hill in a closed off tunnel. A brief sojourn through the streets and we arrived back in the river valley just above the confluence of the Goyt and Sett.

It’s an area of industrial history with mills still standing and viaducts across the gorge. It was very picturesque in the sunshine.

We followed the River Goyt for a while, sparkling in the sunshine, then turned left to Goytside Farm. 

It then headed to Beard Hall Farm.

This one was memorable because it was a little dirty and my
new boots suffered a baptism of cow shit. Oh well.

It then led us along an infrequently used path to Brownhill Farm, along the road before starting a long climb up towards Moor Lodge. We were back in the countryside and on normal TallyHo territory.

There were wonderful views of Kinder in the distance and other hills I didn’t recognise as I approached the summit of the run which was marked by a TV mast. It was then downhill, apart from the climb up to Ridge Top, then a sharp descent into Hayfield.

The trail led us through the urban jungle of Hayfield to emerge on the far side and follow Bank Vale Road. It then led us along the track of Middle Fields to emerge on Primrose Lane to then follow the out trail the short way back to the pub.

 

 Catching up with the hares, Doggie Burston and Skint Wislon

Wells the Elder had walked the route due to a damaged toe and was only overtaken by the fast boys and Potter, who looked very trim after his retirement. 

Shortly after my arrival the rest showed up. Bakewell Brown was in the pub having cycled over after getting the time wrong and not making it to the start in time to do the run.

We purchased refreshments and sat down around the tables allotted to us, but the food was some time arriving due to an organisational cock up (we didn’t ask for it) so more refreshments had to be ordered.

Bread arrived and disappeared then a large plate of hotpot. Very good it was too. Potter and Park and Phil had to leave before the Apple Pie arrived. 

The refreshments were consumed, although some had taken the opportunity to refill more often and then we left. 

15 sat for the meal and all left very happily.

Late Taylor Had taken a trip to India in the space between this and the last run and had only arrived back earlier in the morning, but he didn’t let that stop him being on hand to collect the dues.

Where we went:

8.3 miles (ish) with around 1200ft of ascent (and descent).

Words by Wells

Pics by JJ