We've been to Northumberland three times altogether. This was our third visit but the first one on which I've used digital equipment.

Slides and prints from our previous two visits have yet to be posted on here, so I hope these shots are enough to be going on with and give a good flavour of how how beautiful Northumberland is.

Our 2009 summer holiday to the lovely island of Naxos lasted for two weeks so we had plenty of time to explore the island and it's neighbours. We travelled out and back via a stopover in Santorini so that island got repeat coverage also. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

While the wife shopped at Cheshire Oaks, I made my first visit to the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum, just up the road. To say I found it interesting is an understatement. I was however a little disconcerted by the number of derelict and deteriorating boats on view and I wonder if perhaps the museum is underfunded. If it is, it's a crying shame and I for one would be sorry to lose some of these valuable historic vessels.

Please pay a visit and help support the museum.

Yet another trip to Paris - our most extensive yet. Four days meant that we had time to take in loads of sights, albeit at great expense due to the exchange rate.

We really enjoyed ourselves though and Paris is still our favourite city.

Hope you enjoy the photos, virtually all of which were taken with a Canon Powershot G10.

Features photos from Scarborough, Filey, Bridlington and Robin Hoods Bay and hopefully shows how beautiful and varied the coastline of Yorkshire is.

Our first-ever visit to Knowsley Safari Park was most enjoyable and I can highly recommend it. The price of admission was on the high side though, at approx £30 for two of us. Having said that, it was good value for money and the close-up views of the animals are unrivalled. I especially enjoyed the lions and the way the rest of the animals can be seen expressing their natural behaviour in a way that I've never seen in a normal zoo. Just a word of advice if you go - avoid driving through the baboon area (we did) unless you want a car repair bill!

We visited the the gardens at Tatton Park with friends and encountered beautiful tulip displays and the rhododendrons at their finest.

11th May 2008

This collection is an "overflow" from my holiday snaps of Naxos etc (above) and depicts some of the many ship movements seen during a two week period based on Naxos, although some of the pictures were taken on other islands.

A Swiss Grand Tour under the aegis of Kuoni.

First port of call was St Moritz for a two day stay, then via The Glacier Express to Zermatt for three days. The weather in the former was dire but in Zermatt it was sunny, thus allowing superb views of the Matterhorn and enabling us to go up into the mountains.

Day five of the Swiss Grand Tour was taken up with the train transfer to Grindelwald. We then stayed there three days before transferring by lake steamer and train to Lucerne. We were unlucky with the weather again at the latter, hence relatively few photos. We did however enjoy exploring the town and also made a brief visit to the Swiss Transport Museum.

This was an excellent steam rally with a great atmosphere and some lovely examples of traction engines, commercial vehicles and cars.

For pictures of the traction engines, please see my linked Steam Gallery.

Southport is one of our favourite seaside resorts. The lovely shops on Lord Street, quite a nice seafront, especially with the new addition of the Marine Way Bridge and a visit to see the Red Squirrels at Formby Point make for a very nice day out.

We've been to Paris twice; most recently at Easter 2007. Most of the shots here were taken then wheareas a few were taken on our previous, very short, visit at New Year 2005.

Paris is a fascinating city and our two visits haven't enabled us to see all there is to see. We shall go again, as we love it's atmosphere and all-round ambience. The city is also reasonably compact so a quick Metro ride gets you to another area which is often quite different in atmosphere. The different area is usually then best explored on foot.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I shall add to the collection when we visit again, which will hopefully be in the not-too-distant future.

A quick trip to the Skopos Motor Museum in Batley. I always find it very interesting and it's great drooling over some classic wheels!

I think that Derbyshire is a beautiful county which I never tire of. I haven't finished exploring it yet and we visit frequently, so this collection will hopefully increase with time.

(Freshfields Donkey Village, which is featured in the collection, is a registered charity and if you wish to learn more about them and/or make a donation, their website is at: http://www.donkey-village.org.uk/)

I've visited the Lake District times without number - not always in the best of weather conditions!

This original tranche of shots were all taken in the early to mid 1980s, but more will follow, some of which were taken slightly more recently.

Sad, I know, but the Trafford Centre is one of my favourite places! I think the wife has brainwashed me!

Seriously, I think it's architecturally stunning and I love the atmosphere. The building itself despite being ten years old is still pristine.

Built in a neo classical style, the detailing and features are superb and it looks like no expense was spared in it's construction.

I've only recently got round to taking some night shots of the exterior and I left it too late as there are very few vantage points which aren't obstructed by trees.

Still, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do (even the shopping!)

We visit Whitby every couple of years or so and I hope these pictures do it justice. I hope too that the pictures go to prove what a beautiful and picturesque place Whitby is.

This is a kind of temporary "holding" gallery for shots taken in various locations in the UK that don't fit anywhere else.

Salford Quays has to be one of my favourite photographic locations.

The architecture is superb as is the entire environment.

To convert what were formerly disused run-down docks into this modernistic, yet friendly landscape was a masterstroke of planning.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

While in Southern Spain it's a must to visit the Alhambra at Granada.

It fully deserves it's reputation and I can highly recommend a visit - it's truly awe-inspiring.

Unfortunately on the day we visited, the light was a bit flat, but hopefully some of these photos do it justice.

We had a ten day holiday in Nerja on the Costa del Sol in June 2006.

Nerja is a lovely place, which has luckily escaped the worst of the development blight that has ruined much of the Costa del Sol.
The seafront at Nerja is especially nice with lovely little quiet coves and while we were there, raging surf. Also worthy of a mention are the nearby Caves Of Nerja, which are world-renowned enormous caverns discovered in 1959. The hinterland behind Nerja, which includes the village of Frigiliana, is also worth exploring.

I hope you enjoy the photos and perhaps they'll inspire you to visit.

Skiathos & Skopelos are two of the Sporades Islands off North Eastern Greece.

We've visited both three times - once in 2000, again in 2004 and most recently in June 2008.

While both are extremely beautiful, Skiathos is slightly more developed, but we like it for all that. It has beautiful pine fringed beaches and we find Skiathos Town very interesting, with always something going on, especially round the two harbours.

Skopelos is much less developed and we find it almost too quiet. We love Skopelos Town though with it's steeply inclined streets and multiplicity of churches.

I hope these photos give you a flavour of both islands......

Spring has sprung! Some recent photos to demonstrate this........

People's Park is one of the finest surviving examples of a "Joseph Paxton" Park. Created in 1857, the Park was donated to the people of Halifax by Sir Francis Crossley, to be maintained by the then Halifax Corporation for all time.

Recently it has undergone refurbishment and in my view it is one of the "gems" of Halifax.

I'm lucky enough to work 50 yards from the park entrance and I spend a lot of time in it. It's really photogenic and I intend to place photos in this collection that are taken at all times of year.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.