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Appleby Horse Fair
A few riders from the Appleby Horse Fair. Every June Gypsies and Travellers from the UK and Ireland gather to buy and sell horses at Appleby in Westmorland…a custom that has lasted since 1775. At certain times, the horses are brought down to the river Eden to be hand-washed or ridden through the water before being sold. There has been much controversy about the cruelty aspect of this spectacle and the RSPCA now patrol the event and riders who are seen to abuse the horses are reported and given a warning or may be prosecuted…but most of the riders appeared to look after the horses well and instances of cruelty are said to…
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End of Year round up of some of my favourite images from 2014
My end of the year round up is a selection of some of the pictures I have enjoyed making the most over the past year. To share their blushes, I have left out family portraits…naturally they would be at the very top of the list – pictures that bring back memories of the events of the year, from the birthday of my grand-daughter in January to the birth of my second grandson in July and the birthday of my first grandson in November – moments to treasure…along with the photos of my father with his new great-grandson only a week before he suffered a stroke which took his life. These…
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Cumbria Again
I was driving back from Scotland yesterday in heavy rain, wondering whether to go straight home or stop off somewhere to do some Christmas shopping. As I drove down the M6 south of Penrith, the sky looked a bit brighter over to the south west…so I took a quick detour off the motorway at Shap and made my way over towards Ambleside. With no particular aim in mind (and shopping still on the cards), there looked like a tantalising bright area in the clouds, so I decided to carry on through Ambleside and take the road through Langdale. At this point the clouds joined up again and it started to…