It's been on our to do list an awful long time and tomorrow we hope to set matters straight with coverage of the buses in Cumbria. I won't be going to Barrow as recent attempts to film there have been very unpleasant, it is a weird place cut off from reality with an impoverished population who think the world owed them a living, money down the drain from my point of view but what a win for Lancashire getting rid of it! We'll start in Carlisle, another of my rogue locations, but I will deliver whatever then go back down to Workington and Whitehaven and if not flooded end at at Kendal. We'll be able to stop over at one of our favourite pubs for a meal on the way home.

Success with my family history, I've located my dads birth certificate and hope to get a copy ordered tomorrow so I can try once again to get my Irish passport issued. The registration fits the bill with the mothers name prioviding the link we got on DNA to the O'Driscoll family who were travelers. IT's great when tiny clues come together, I've a verty close match on Ancestry DNA, I've written to them and look forward to the reply it looks as if we are closely related. I think there will be some darker elements involved as I'sd already heard from ;'cousins' that the O'Dricoll girls went into a convent, if it was an unmarried mother goodness knows what ills befell them, other people have attempted to get into their records but the Catholic Church hide every bit of evidence.

I've got the DVD covers done for Bury and Widnes buses and I'll pop them on the shop before we go to the pub. I've an appointment with the eye specialists on Saturday, Sunday I hope to be at bus running day. Next week we go to my sisters in Hampshire, hopefully I'll have Wed/Tthurs and Friday filming buses sand trucks down there with Southampton, Portsmouth, Bournemouth etc in my sights. We then go on to France, perhaps some trucks at Le Havre. Anyway lets goto Hampshire for our slideshow.

I had a visit from the warden for Reader training from Chester diocese, I've already met Viv a couple of times, anyway we've decided that a period of rest with no responsibility for either doing or learning is best so I'll hopefully pick up the baton next spring. We didn't get out anywhere as it was very poor weather but the garden is well watered, I could do with putting feed on the plants and filling the bird feeders if it is dry in the morning. I'm expecting a call from my doctor to discuss health progress and Mandy has an early morning hair appointment if we are both clear by lunch we'll go to Southern Cemetery for the afternoon and give the family graves a tidy up, we've some new memorial cleaning sprays to try out plus the young plants to put in for the summer display. I did manage to get a bundle of pictures loaded on to our Smugmug/Flickr still photo sales site, links from this site, photos from just 50p each.

Youtube hits have been in the doldrums this month, it's just about held up to a reasonable figure but way behind peak, I suppose the warm spell has taken it's toll. One big job we did was to prepare the sales stock which we hadn't touched since Brooklands and my stroke. We are now ready for attending the POPS rally in June, it will be superb to catch up with all our friends, we'll be inside so no tent to erect and in the dry whatever it flings at us on that windy ridge by the football stadium.Hopefully on Friday we shall get up to Cumbria weather permitting to cover buses, a couple of years since we've been there. The slide show this evening from yesterday afternoon at Bury

Bury was one of my outstanding bus targets for the month and along with Widnes and Runcorn it completes my first UK buses for a couple of weeks with hopefully some more fine weather to follow and I'll get some South of England locations sorted as well. It is always a time of year with lots to do and little time to do it. Anyway I had a few things to sort first thing including filling up the little IQ which I have driven for a few weeks, that done I had to go first to Runcorn and found that the usual pattern of services was up the wall due to closure of the old bridge for a year, the buses and sun direction were all at odds, on a cloudy day I could have coped.

Anyway I decided to quit and head for Widnes where the sun would be spot on and the special interest as ever is that Halton is now one of a handful of English municipals to survive and possibly the most at risk. I saw just one Arriva in the new livery complete with new fleetname. I'm not sure what I'll be able to do tomorrow, no restrictions other than weather, we do inend to cover Cumbria Friday if the weather is suitable so tomorrow could be trucks somewhere, must check the computer weather predictions. Anyway lets get cracking with some shots taken this morning art Runcorn and mainly Widnes, must pay the bridge toll before I forget.

The garden bedding plants are now all in and with the second hot sunny week drawing to a close the need for watering has never been more urgent. After the hectic morning picking up the plants etc it was pleasant to have a few moments sitting in the sun this afternoon. Amidst all the activity we can now confirm we shall be a POPS rally at the football stadium at Stoke in June and will have a great array of DVDs, stock clearance four for £20 and all our recent releases. We look forward to seeing many of you at this great event and we look forward to renewing our sponsorship to the new rally team at POPS

.I'm just a bout to get all the weekends DVD orders ready to go off in the post in the morning and also to look at possible locations for filming tomorrow. We have several days clear at the end of June so could manage three trips weather permitting to the South and South East of England or Sth Wales or even East Anglia. We are also planning to get trucks fitted in somewhere! The Russian photos are all filed and I hope to upload to our Smugmug still photo sales site asap, note that Smugmug owns Flickr.

Here are the covers for the latest DVD releases

Another sunny day at a bank holiday weekend and the temperature soared to 27 degrees, we are hoping for the promised rain showers as the garden needs a watering and I've put a few new plants in the border plus Fryers at Knutsford have got the stock in that i was waiting for, they phoned just as we got back home so will go after the rush hour tomorrow morning. The Crown Inn back now to normal and a welcome from the whole community as they begin a programme of events with miniature traction engines today and here are some photos taken at lunch time.

I've edited all the Russian film, it produced 10 dvds, here are some more truck shots.

I have completed all the Russian tram and trolleybus DVDs, there are 7 in total plus 3 on trucks which I'm just working on now. In between I tidied up some of the photos taken in Russia prior to filing and then did some gardening, tidied up, sprayed for bugs and disease , fed plants with Miracle Grow, I swear by it. Then cleared the last remaining borders of bulbs and pansies ready for the rest of the summer bedding. Still no word from Fryers on when the remainder of my order will be available.

Cleaned everything up and mowed the lawns, strimmed the edges etc. Then we went out for a run over to Bakewell, had lunch there, the usual Thorntons cafe, Bakewell tart ice cream sundae. Mandy bought a neckless, we bought new beer bottle and wine bottle openers etc and I got new pair of shoes plus Thorntons marzipan and turkish delight chocolates. A few DVD orders gathered now, they'll go out on Tuesday. I'm starting to look at the dates available for film trips down south, plus East Anglia and Essex and the South West, also West and South Wales.. so not a lot to sort out there then and I also want to get over to Ireland.

I'll give you a taste of the Russian trucks this evening, clips going on Youtube throughout this evening.

Heavy rain didn't stop the gardening jobs and at least it will all be off to a good start in the damp but cool environment. I got soaked through and had to shower and put on fresh clothes after my stint which saw most of the side border planted up and the central bit of the centre piece border which waits arrival of the tuberous Begonias I've ordered from Fryers at Knutsford. I had a flick through the flurry of magazines which had arrived while I was in Russia, sorted a few more photos out from the trip and carried on with editing. I've done all four volumes of the tram,trolley and bus DVDs on Moscow.

Next to come will be the Kolomna and Ryazin which I should have ready tonight. Then I'll start work on the St Petersburg public transport footage before getting the truck DVDs sorted. I've been putting on trailer on Youtube throughout the day. Hopefully the hits on Youtube will clamber up again as they do seem to be in the doldrums this week. All DVD orders are going out daily, I found that taking orders over the phone is a nightmare with my double vision. It's been a tough month since Brooklands Cobham rally when it all licked off, I can't say I've noticed much improvement but Mandy reckons my right eye is moving more. I'm now looking at possible dates for trips to the South of England through June to catch up on these destinations but it really is weather dependent as you all be now know.. Tonight we continue with Russia and take inm scenes at Kolomna and Ryazin on my day side trip from the capital.

A great trip and many hours of films and hundreds of photos. With my eyesight up the creek it really is a case of point and shoot, this seems to work fine with the video which is further from me regards the viewfinder but the camera up close means it's almost impossible to see the image, I just click away. I've had a look through some of the truck pictures and with some trimming and squaring up virtually all of them will be fine.I've just had dinner, great to be back to home cooking and tonight down to the Crown for a couple of pints. The weather here has been champion and we've got a lot of the bedding plants but we've had to order some that I need for the front bed and it may be Sunday even Monday before they come in to Fryers at Knutsford.

I thought the Four Oaks stock looked miserable and weak, Lowes farm shop had plenty of the other things we needed so after three visits I'm still waiting but have plenty to get on with. It seems to have been quiet for DVD orders and even Youtube has been in the doldrums albeit the bottom line is a lot higher than a year back. Our next trip abroad is to France to see our friends in their boutique hotel at Corbie before they leave for Canada and establish a new hotel there. I think the results from the Russian trip will be widely welcomed, an enjoyable time and everyone helpful especially as my eyesight is bad, lots of old time politeness. Great to see they are doing well despite the sanctions.

In between gardening I'll crack on with downloading, today was taken up with the physio visit this morning, Mark the expert there reckons the damage to my spine is now at last moderate to severe and that I shouldn't be surprised at the magnitude of the problems. The new medication seems to be keeping the shoulder pain at bay, thats what keeps me awake at night, the legs problems aren't sorted at all but when rested it's not too bad , but walking ( and no doubt gardening tomorrow) I suffer. So lets have a dip into the raw footage starting in Moscow last Thursday, the sunny day there.

Sorry the lasr attempt at a blog was rather dusrupted by gettjng ye hesthrow to manchester bosrdjngbcsrd printed, shiuld ge fun its now in russin! The irish pub i used the last two days proved aareal god send as it had a wide variety of UK beers plus of course the Guinness range. Has anyone else tried their IPA it was sort of weird but I suppose once you have got used to it I bet it is fantastic when the barometer soars. The hotel has been perfect!y ok in stock petersburg .although after the poor food on the evening when I arrived I had just one breakfast which was equally uninspiring. Of course I wanted to get out and about to catch the mornjng rush hours but they didn't start until seven thirty  osrd here to edit. we, sorry the keyboard had a moment of madness, not easy with visual impairment. The worst bit was the stairs in the Moscow metro in marbkm which were hard to use as uoy couldn't see the edge of the steps.. it was CA bit of actreck to the metro in stock Petersburg, after a day in btight sunshine filming the trams and trolleys I found traders of truck trafficking and the next day explored further after trying the start of the route to Moscow which didn't provide a lot. The dock area was as good as it gets, I was surprised to see they had quite a few USA lorries and numerous pretty old scabies etc as port tugs tlthough similar appeared in service even a nbonneted kenworth. I'd better look at my flight departure details while I'm stuck here working my way through the business lounge wine.

The weather getting difficultvas im tryjng to get my bosrdjng card at reception lotsl.lots it's midday day nearly and the internet is much faster with most of the guests gone out for the day. The last day plusxa couple of hours this morning were spent filming trucks, an amazing variety and lots of golden oldies. Ibeventyalky settked down at the port which wasnt far from the metro and trams, overall it takes an hour and aaquarter to fet from the hotel to truck paradise. In between the lorries coming along a ciuple of fuel trajns rumbke out of the refjnsry. I got about two hours worth before finally a security guard got a bit twitchy. Clic here to edit.