The most elaborate and tasty picnic I've ever had (read more in the blog).
Hipster juice served in a Jam Jar ;-)
A remnant of the local kid's Christmas project at Paddington Meadows.
A tree-lined path leading 6 miles to a place I used to work called Birchwood. But the rain had started to fall so we jumped into the car and drove home.
The changeable British weather ;-)
I was inspired by thisismylife's recent blogging challenge on @liketu, 'The 30 Pictures 30 Stories Challenge'.
They were originally inspired by rubencress '30 day not-so ordinary ordinary items challenge' and I find both challenges a great way to encourage daily posting on hive.
This challenge is pretty open-ended; please feel free to follow my formula, or thisismylife's or rubencress' challenge structures listed in their posts linked above 🔼
The only stipulations are that you post one picture a day with a personal story attached to it for 30 days.
Write your story/anecdote to the best of your ability, and use the tag #30stories and/or the #notsoordinary tag if you're following rubencress' challenge. It is also advised to use the #challenge tag.
As I am a professional writer outside of hive blockchain, and as I only dabble as an amateur photographer, I thought I would follow thisismylife's challenge format to tell some stories and anecdotes about my strange life.
Last week I decided to give the new car (I say new, it's bleeding 20 years old) a real test by shooting down the motorway to Warrington and a nice countryside area for walking called Paddington Meadows. It is a well-known mechanic's trick that if an old car has been sitting idle for a while getting it up to between 80 - 100 MPH will blast the exhaust clean.
Cough, cough... I of course stuck to the speed limit of 70 MPH 😉
Lol, you'd be forgiven by looking at the pictures I've shared for thinking that we Brits are cracked in the head going for picnics in the countryside with glowering clouds, dark and heavy with the promise of rain.
The truth is maybe we are a little cracked, but if we didn't go out traipsing the hills and dales in this type of weather - where it doesn't know if it wants to rain or just remain cold and grey - we'd never leave the house for 8 months of the year.
It is good for agriculture, but other than that the weather in the UK is a pain in the ass. In autumn and winter (and most of spring) you don't know what you're going to get.
Late springtime is the exception IMO, as when the sun starts to stay in the sky for more than 5-6 hours, and the cherry blossom drifts on the breeze, this is definitely one time I'd say my country shines above many others.
I think this is because as late spring bleeds into summer we rarely get those sorts of temperatures where it becomes uncomfortable. I guess some people love 35 degrees Celsius plus heat, but ever since I became chronically ill I just can't take that level of heat.
Even when I was younger and fully healthy it took me 2 weeks of a three-month trip in SE Asia to acclimatise to the heat and humidity.
In the UK there are usually only about 2 weeks during July when it gets around 32-36 degrees Celsius and everyone wanders about half-naked like they're on holiday in Marbella 🤣
But anyway, I'm ranting about the weather... a well-known Brit pastime 😉 the main star of the show, and the best thing about our muddy and slightly damp countryside walk, was the amazing picnic my wonderful girlfriend made for us.
She is just out of shot in the title image as I wasn't sure if she'd be happy with me putting her image on this blog.
The picnic included cheese/spring onion sandwiches, Pesto pasta, sweet chilli crisps, and a multi-stack box thingy with vegetarian sausage rolls (I don't eat meat), chilli crispy coated nuts and fresh Strawberries... and I nearly forgot (the pièce de résistance) homemade chocolate cupcakes.
I also loved the fact that we had orange and mango juice in jam jars like a couple of Shoreditch Hipsters, rocking it up north like picnicking... but ironically!
Thanks for reading 🌿
All photos and media design used in this post are my own.
Camera: Samsung S7 Smart Phone.
