First, some housekeeping—I apologize for the inconsistency of my numbering system for the days of the hike. Second, a friend let me know that the link for the photos in the Day 10 entry was not working—fixed. Those photos were among my favorites, so if you have the time, check them out. Finally, for those of you who are commenting, I cannot approve your comments with the mobile version of Squarespace, but I am seeing them

We are in Richmond, a market town with an approximate population of 9000. Today is our first and only rest day, and we needed one. Last night, we had Thai food for dinner, a wonderful break from the pub food we have had in each of the villages over the past ten days. Yup, ten days and 128 miles done, and just six and 77 miles to go. This morning, six days and 77 miles seems beyond my endurance.

I suspect this will be a two-part (two-day) entry. While the internet/wireless is quite good, the packing and organization this morning will take longer than usual; more on that later. We usually have breakfast after we finish packing up, but breakfast is early this morning, and we will need to finish packing up after breakfast.

I forgot to mention yesterday that we have been very fortunate with the weather. We have only had two short and gentle rains while walking. We walked under a completely clear sky and blazing sun two days ago. Even with using SPF-50 sunscreen, I have slightly sunburned arms.

I am struggling a bit to write and post a journal entry every day. There are three reasons: fatigue, time and poor internet availability. The lack of or poor internet availability is the prime reason. If there is wireless in the hotel/pub where we are staying, the router lacks the power to cover the whole building, or the time it takes to upload even the smallest image file size makes which makes it impractical to upload a post. I suspect that even the broadband service for these communities has slow upload speeds. You can see that because almost no one is looking at their phone, like in more urban areas here and everywhere at home.

We get up every morning to the same routine. In some ways, I feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. Over the past two days, we have had some relief from not walking due to my knee issues.

Yesterday morning, we caught a taxi ride to Shap. The highlight of the ride was a drive-by look at Lowther Castle. It had that fairy tale look and beautiful gardens.

Rest Day

We arranged for a taxi to take us to Patterdale, the destination of the walk we skipped. Patterdale is close to one of the lakes, Ullswater, in the Lake District Nationa Park. We were at leisure most of the day, so we rode on one of the ferries that take passengers to various stops along the shore. It was an hour's ride from one end of the lake ("water") and back. It was Sunday, so there were canoes, inflatables, motorboats, sailboarders and sailboats out on the water. A regatta was going on, and the wind was up, so the sailboats often had their spinnakers up - they were flying

It would be nearly impossible for a day of walking to be more strenuous, challenging and exhausting than yesterday, but today came very close. A large part of that was the hangover (physically and mentally, not from the consumption of alcoholic beverages!) from yesterday.

Today, we picked up the segment we started yesterday during our walk around St. Bees Head. We walked for a little over three hours and are at the entryway to the Lake District National Park in a small village - Ennerdale Bridge.

The day was supposed to include the climb over Dent Hill, regarded as one of the more difficult parts of the Coast to Coast trail - oh darn! Trees were across the path, so we were diverted to the lower trail. On the way, we passed a stone circle, a megalith, the Blakely Raise Strone Circle. I have included a photograph in today's images, that really does not do it justice. It is no Stonehinge, but you cannot help to wonder by who this was built and why. Like many of these sites, this one has suffered over time (we visited several in Spain and Portugal).

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed off to walk the St. Bees Head portion of the first day's hike—just about 6 1/2 miles. It was a fantastic walk along the cliffs with views of the Irish Sea. In the mist, we could make out the mountains of the Isle of Man. It was windy and cool most of the day, with periods of sunshine. The wind was strong enough to cause some unsteadiness, which was of concern as we walked very close to the cliff's edge.

We are here in St. Bees tired but happy that our travels are over. It was not the worst travel day (just over 24 hours) I have ever had, not even close in fact, but it was not without its challenges. We made all the connections until we arrived in Edinburgh and found out that the trains to Carlisle were all cancelled. The overhead power lines had come down somewhere along the line and they told us it would be at least late afternoon before the trains were running again. That would have meant we would miss the train to St. Bees from Carlisle, so we went to plan B - we took a bus. It was a long three and a half hour bus ride, it was a local and stopped it seemed every other mile! The length was offset by the beauty of the area.

It is a beautiful day by the bay, of course, it had to be! We are headed England to do the Coast to Coast walk, from the Irish Sea the North Sea. It will be in the low 50s in Fahrenheit, windy and raining when we get to St. Bees, the starting point for the walk. But to get to St. Bees we have quite a number of connections to make:

One of the challenges of keeping a public diary or journal is the sense of obligation and responsibility it creates. You invite readers to read your diary, and readers reasonably expect regular updates. I set that expectation myself with my Cape Cod daily diary and fell short—disappointing myself and surely some of my readers—mea culpa. My only consolation is that I sent notifications to a select group rather than all subscribers.

After writing and posting entries for Day 1 and Day 2, I started to write an entry for the penultimate day, and this is that start, written before, events, complications, and time pulled my attention elsewhere (I haven’t written a single word for Day 4, yet) —

Growing up on the West Coast, my awareness of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was primarily defined by its being one of the first points of contact for the Pilgrims (circa 1620) and the summer residence for the Kennedys. Of course, the Cape is much more than that; it is a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, known for its sweeping beaches, weathered lighthouses, and seaside villages. For many, the Cape conjures visions of salt-sprayed cottages, clam shacks, and sun-drenched memories, unless you happen to be here at peak season when your memories will include traffic, no vacancy signs, and over-crowded beaches.

I've recently found myself using Hipstamatic app almost exclusively. Someone recently asked me, offline, why I was playing with such an "amature" app, an app whose sole purpose was to make "bad" images look "interesting." I thought I had addressed that in an earlier journal post, but in re-reading that post, I did not really give a rationale for my return to the Hipstamatic app.

It's been 15 years since I first downloaded the app, and, in fact, my profile on the app website lists me as an "Original" Hipsta. I am not sure what that means exactly, but I must have been an early adopter! And while much has changed in the world of mobile photography, Hipstamatic still captures something that modern apps often overlook: fun, simplicity, and intentional creativity.

Welcome to my daily diary for my visit to New York City — April 2025. You can click on the links below and you will be taken to each day's entry. Hope you find the entries interesting, at least, and maybe entertaining. Thanks for visiting!

When I started taking photographs back in the day, it was all silver halide film and paper — now called analog photography. I started making images in my adolescence, sometime around 1968. I was a photographer in the Navy and later at Stanford University. I stopped making images in 1979. I have often described my motivation for stopping as the disenchantment accompanying making images as a profession; I know it was more complicated than that. I was frustrated that the images I was making failed to achieve what I was trying to achieve, and I had other pressing needs for what I had invested in cameras, lenses, darkroom equipment, etc. So, I sold it all, even my photo book library, moved on and made no images for almost thirty years. I wish I had kept the books! 😕

Tired of the cold weather keeping you from getting out to make images? I know I am. I struggle with [Raynaud syndrome][1] which results in my hands becoming painful and useless after just a short exposure to cold temperatures. As a result I do not get out to shoot much these days.

As winter drags on and the days feel endlessly cold and gray, it’s easy to feel restless and bored. So, rather than wasting time longing for the warmth of spring and the chance to explore the world through your lens again, use this time to slow down, reflect, and find inspiration in the stories of those who see the world a little differently.

The swan is gone. The garbage truck just came by and grabbed our garbage can, swung it up and overturned it, dumping its contents, including the swan, into its bay. 

This tale of woe is how the swan came to be in our garbage can.

Grain takes a deep dive into the growing analog photography renaissance with a focus on the timeless allure of film in an age dominated by digital precision, what I call “hyper-realism.” It helped me understand why so many photographers, especially GenZ and Millennials, are seeking out film photography’s unique textures, colors, grains, and unpredictability.