These illustrated journals are lovely - 'being the doings and wanderings of an outdoor man'...

'The last eternal night had fallen on the world.'
- Pliny the Younger describing the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD. Channel 5 is showing a documentary on The Last Scrolls of Vesuvius tonight (Sunday) at 9pm. vesuviusvspompeii.com/pliny/

The canal boat Waterwitch is once again offering 40 minute trips on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from Crooklands (J36 of M6) #Cumbria . £4 adults, £1 kids, dogs free. See lctrust.co.uk/trip-boat/

Sending Eurovision love to the late Sir Terry Wogan - from Mister Bus and Tina Salmon xx

Eurovision? Pah! Premier league title race? Forget it. Let's hear it please for the Drystone Walling Grand Prix... #Cumbria

Cumbria's lonnings (dialect = lanes) often have local names not given on maps, such as Bob's Lonning, Miry (muddy) Lonning, Bluebell Lonning, Tatie Pot Lonning, Lovers Lonning etc. I've mapped many of them here... google.com/maps/d/u/0/edi…

I heard on the radio that emergency services are having another go at adding local names to their maps. Cumbrian ones include Dog Gravy, Tom Hurd's Rock and Lawson's Lowp but there must be many more. Here's some from the North East.. thenorthernecho.co.uk/news_all/23392…

'The arrival of a postman at a house was a notable event, and the writing of a letter a matter not to be rashly undertaken'
- From Spen Valley Past & Present, published in 1893

Bluebells under the Rookery at Scales, Lorton #Cumbria UK

This is great. Learn sign language one day at a time... Let’s Make A Difference

#Cumbria

A painted letter to Royal Mail to support the #NoToCodes campaign calling for barcodes to be scrapped. The envelope reflects my home town of Whitehaven but the Victorian postbox is in Fourstones, Northumberland where I'm currently staying #PostboxSaturday

I'm returning to Hexham today, which gives me the opportunity to leave a letter for the Fairy Postman at the Fairy Stone. But who to write to? Perhaps I should use an elf-addressed envelope? lakedistrictletters.blogspot.com/2015/07/keswic…

A super day out with Nialls S. . He is visiting every OS grid square in the Lake District, so I joined him on the Whiteside square. The last thing I recall is him saying, 'Just step back a bit more...' 😱

Beating the Bounds is an old British tradition in which people toured the parish boundary once a year to help them recall where it was. Patterdale in Cumbria are holding there 27-mile beat on July 6th 2024. You need to register to take part. Details... stpatrickschurchpatterdale.org/patterdale-bou…

There are many footpaths known to locals as 'postman's paths' because they were regularly walked by the rural postman. This lovely one near Broughton in Furness #Cumbria is known as 'Postman's Trod' but I'm yet to discover who the postie was and his or her precise route.

‘You can walk virtually everywhere in England by using the train’: the man connecting rail-based walks theguardian.com/travel/2024/ap…

I wonder what system they will eventually come up with to determine if a stamp is genuine or fake? Bar codes perhaps? 😉 theguardian.com/business/2024/…

Ah, that looks better. Thank goodness someone invented the Kindle 😁

A number of rural posties had to deliver mail to lighthouses which often meant long treks over rocky headlands. One was 19thC postie Barney Coy who even saved a ship during thick fog off Spurn Head, Yorkshire by blowing his GPO whistle to warn it was too close.