#blog

Dover, famously known as the gateway to England, is separated from continental Europe by only few miles of sea – The English channel. For thousands of years, it has worked as a vital defence against the invasion of outside forces. The Dover castle is one of the biggest castle in England for a reason. The castle stands on top of the cliffs proudly guarding the coast of England. Apart from the castle, the cliffs itself are a treat to the eyes. The massive white structures standing like a wall acted as a part of the defence, making it difficult for enemies to access the land. Today it’s a very popular tourist attraction and a great easy hiking spot perfect for families with kids.

Dover Castle as seen from the cliffsAs it’s only an hour’s drive from London, we decided to spend our day off hiking the cliffs of Dover. It was mid July – proper summer in England. Temperature was scorching high in London, perhaps it was a perfect escape from the unbearable heat of the city.

We left home at around 3pm, so we can escape the mid day heat. By the time we were at Dover, the Sun has tilted halfway to the horizon, the temperature has started to drop along with it. Instead of parking on the seaside, we thought we would park somewhere uphill, which would save some walk. I ended up going in to the Broadless car park, which is just behind the castle itself. It’s only then when I realised that there is no footpath to the cliffs from that car park. It’s all jungle. Since we had no intention of visiting the castle, we returned back to the roadside car park at the bottom of the hill.

There are two sections of the white cliffs, with the dover port in between them. The one in the East of the port has the most beautiful view, and the most popular too. Paying the parking ticket for one hour (as it was free after 6pm anyway), we started to walk along the seaside, and then crossed the street to join the hike.

The initial part of the walk took us through a narrow one way street consisting of colourful houses, and a portion of the cliff standing high right behind those houses. I could see some windows and balconies hanging out from the cliffs steep wall. I can imagine this was probably a part of the castle that was built within the cliff. Once past the row of houses, the actual hike begins.

Part of the cliff seen behind a row of colourful housesThe ascend starts quite easy, with the trail made of concrete footpath. There are quite a lot of steps at this stage of the hike, so a wheelchair or buggy is not suitable at all. The trail gets more of rugged after first 20mins or so. It keeps going along the very edge of the cliff, allowing hikers to snap some cool photos of the cliffs before reaching the very top. Anyone with a phobia of height should refrain from looking down from the edge.

Halfway through, we came across a car park. This is the nearest car park to the White Cliffs, and saves at least half an hour hike from the roadside car park. We had no regret talking the longer route though. My son enjoyed the hike the most. Surprisingly, he walked first quarter of the hike by himself – that includes the steepest part of the hike! Once the trail was getting dangerous, I put him in the hiking carrier and carried him rest of the way up.

A ship sailing to Europe. I saw them carrying vehicles, so perhaps they act a ferry rather than a passenger carrying ship.

As we got higher and higher, the vast ocean was unfolding in front of our eyes. The shoreline of France was subtly visible in the distance. At this point we were a bit tired from the hike. I could feel the hunger kicking in. It was a good time to take a break and have some food while enjoying the view ahead.

After spending an hour there, I realised it was almost getting dark. The way back to the car was still and hour’s walk. Although it was a pretty easy hike, I did not want to risk going down in the dark with a baby on my back.

There was quite a bit of road still left to explore. It looked quite fun to be there. But we had enough. From this point, we started our hike down to the car park. The way down seemed surprisingly shorter than I expected, perhaps because it was a bit familiar.

Gates of the port in the distance through which ships goes in and outThe sun was yet to go down, so we decided to have a coffee and chill on the seaside. In the meantime, I had just enough opportunity to watch the last third of the winning match of Argentina against Switzerland. The day just could not get any better.

I found Dover to be a perfect destination for a chill day out. We spent some wonderful time hiking the cliffs of Dover. I would definitely come back again soon.

Firevolt Festival, Friday – Stockport UK

Firevolt festival was started by husband and wife team Stret and Bev in 2022 originally called Firestorm! The festival began after a chance meeting between Stret and local farmer Karl, who visited Stret’s Recording Studio – Castle Rock Studios, looking for help booking bands for a new event. Stret and Bev became involved with Whitebottom Farm when during a tribute rock festival, Karl had organised he suggested, “You guys should do a rock festival.” As lifelong rock fans, their answer was simple: yes.

The whole festival has an amazing community and grassroots vibe, if you’d like to learn more head over to their website.

With this year being the 5th year of the festival we were very excited to make this our first official press outing!

We set off from home and drove through the Peak District to get to our destination, where we were greeted by a member of staff at the entrance, we had to drive down a single narrow road along the beautiful scenery and the River Etherow. Once we got the end, we were met by more staff who checked our tickets, gave us our wristbands and showed us where to park and camp. All the staff were lovely and made you feel really welcome.

Darren Wharton’s RenegadeOnce we found a spot and set up camp we found Nigel (media guy) in the barn at the Trooper stage to collect our drink tokens and managed to catch a bit of Renegade, the band fronted by former Thin Lizzy Keyboard player Darren Wharton. Luckily we were in time to hear them play “Jailbreak” and “The Boys Are Back in Town” where former Thin Lizzy frontman Ricky Warwick came on to perform the latter.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3fguB2Nrby1SWm1tZXsBe4?si=52PPD_LDRo6Y1HzcfL3ylQ&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A3eFR83NLQQ4icAOrS8FoYd

With 20 minute breaks between the bands on alternate stages, this meant we had time to wander around, there were plenty of food, drink and shop stalls, where the food and drink was very reasonably priced for a festival, with meals averaging at £10 and you could buy a pint of Firevolt lager for £5 which was very tasty. The decoration around the festival was great with signs, a skeleton and a kitted out old double decker bus where you could onto the balcony to enjoy the music from both stages.

The New RosesWe made our way to The Bludsucker Stage (Main Stage) to watch The New Roses from Wiesbaden, Germany. The New Roses were full of energy and a very good live rock band performing songs “It’s a Long Way”, “This Heart” and a perfect cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in a Free World”.

We loved their vibe and so did the crowd with a lot of them singing their songs back to them making it a real rock show. The energy continued with songs “Thirsty”, “The Usual Suspects” and “Down By the River”, really bringing life to the festival and got us geared up and excited for the rest of the weekend, we were gutted that they couldn’t play for longer but we do hope we get to see them play live in the future.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5RzYJPQC7Bqo2VKYbaZKjo?si=ohH-cbXeQcu6-66xo6cfzA&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A0f1J2agSVLsSny7qKUunee

Ricky Warwick & The Fighting Hearts After a 20 minute wait it was time for Ricky Warwick & The Fighting Hearts, in front of a packed barn, so we knew this was going to be good!

Ricky kicked off their set with “Rise & Grind”, “Jonestown Mind” and “Celebrating Sinking” which the crowd enjoyed, then the rock party really started when they played new single “Seek Zen Destroy” which was recorded with Phil Collen of Def Leppard.

Before playing the next song, Ricky mentioned that when he wrote this song, he could imagine a female artist singing this with him, the song is called “Don’t Leave Me In The Dark” and the artist was Lita Ford from The Runaways. Ricky said “Unfortunately Lita wasn’t available today but Richard (bassist) does a very good Lita Impression”, he did do a good job to be fair.

Ricky & The Fighting Hearts manage to perform 17 songs in their set including one of our favourites “Fighting Heart” and finishing with “Free N Easy”. We really enjoyed their set and think that Ricky is a vampire because we can’t believe he is 60.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1mMGbaFNsDoEjbwWz74Ju1?si=uRzYTqGxSYyKp9z45h6q_g&utm_source=copy-link

Mason HillWith the sun going down it was time to go back to the Bludsucker Stag for the headliners Mason Hill with new lead vocalist Tom Ward, after the previous singer Scott Taylor unfortunately got diagnosed with a heart condition and left the band.

Mason Hill opened up with “DNA”, “We Pray” and “Twisted”, with the latter being our favourite. They performed with high energy and a great stage presence, it was really cool seeing a band play at night with the lights in the middle of nature, it made you feel like you were far away from civilization.

Unfortunately we got really tired from a busy day of travelling, setting up and getting our bearings of the festival and decided to go to our tent, luckily our tent was only a minute walk away and we could listen to the band whilst relaxing.

Mason Hill sounded great from the comfort of our sleeping bags, they played “Without You” and “Hold On” before finishing with an encore of “Burning it Down”, “Remember” and Against the Wall”

Even though we didn’t watch the second half of the set, we still felt the good vibes and we could tell that the performance was great by the cheers of the crowd.

It was a great day for us to discover new bands and music, we can’t wait for more over the weekend.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0NBkmAGNcdwJpf9qPAQGaP?si=9XqdJqJbR8CL5yzmZQRI3A&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A7I3PRliP1GCyg8gGntJCNF

St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️

All rights to the songs in this review are retained by the relevant artists and this site claims no rights over them. Photos were provided by Labrat Photos.

#Blog #FirevoltFestival #liveMusic #MasonHill #Music #MusicReview #Photography #rock #TheNewRoses #Writing

Hey my friends! New article about Tamara’s adventures is available on my blog. Enjoy!

https://teofranchi.com/stolen-hours-in-hanoi?utm_source=mastodon

#Photography #Writing #Newsletter #Blog #TeosTalks

In the twisted saying today. In this puzzle box, the twisting of the needed robot chips is made into a stress dream, and the meaning is given by the end.

Find more on this with the link below or enjoy the spot-the-difference.

There is a lot of extra art to see in the post

https://inkedpath.com/robot-chips-need-for-robot/

In the twisted saying today. In this puzzle box, the twisting of the needed robot chips is made into a stress dream, and the meaning is given by the end.
Find more on this with the link below or enjoy the spot-the-difference.
There is a lot of extra art to see in the post

https://inkedpath.com/robot-chips-need-for-robot/

#art #writing #comic #games #puzzle #drawing #blog #illustration #photography #psychology

Cooking By Own-122（自炊してみると―122） https://tkt058.seesaa.net/article/521414843.html @tkt058@mstdn.jpより
#cook #cooking #cookingpapa #cookingcrush #cookingcrushseries #cuisine #photo #photography #sausage #noodle #photo #photography #料理 #料理写真 #料理好き #料理好きな人と繫がりたい #写真 #写真で伝えたい私の世界 #Blog #BlogTour #BlogPost #Blogging #BloggingCommunity #BloggingTips #ブログ #ブログ更新

Song Of The Week – Black Havana: Lost Cause

We have hand selected our song of the week! Hope you enjoy it. The band have described the song in their own words as well as given us an update about what is coming up for them.

https://loop-earplugs.sjv.io/c/5544384/2853718/16615Song Background InformationThe song was written about a back and forth relationship that always felt like something would happen but always ended up back at square one becoming a “lost cause”.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2h3Lh3XdMXVidV17JnFRQC?si=cd7ab48bc602418b

Other InformationThe band will be performing at Shunkfest 2026!

All rights to the song are retained by the recording artist. This site claims no rights over them. All images were provided by Black Havana and the image is by James Benjamin.

#Album #Art #Blog #HardRock #Music #MusicReview #Photography #Review #rock #Writing

Some news on the garden front

#photography #nature #frogs #garden #gardening #blaugust #blaugust2026 #blog

Update on The Frog Tank - The ...

Heavy Horses...

https://rosher.net/2026/08/23/heavy-horses/

Iron clad feather feet, pounding the dust... albeit, in August.

#blog #photography #horse

In the twisted saying today. Gifted rat or a colloquy only for the clone did it, the phone call is quite telling. As the foot steps in amongst the frames, a new puzzle box

Find more on this with the link below or enjoy the spot-the-difference.

There is a lot of extra art to see in the post

https://inkedpath.com/gifted-rat-makes-a-memory/

In the twisted saying today. Gifted rat or a colloquy only for the clone did it, the phone call is quite telling. As the foot steps in amongst the frames, a new puzzle box
Find more on this with the link below or enjoy the spot-the-difference.
There is a lot of extra art to see in the post

https://inkedpath.com/gifted-rat-makes-a-memory/

#art #writing #comic #games #puzzle #drawing #blog #illustration #photography #psychology

The “Quiet” Chemical Killers – ChlorineStarted with the Doom Fogger , just one of the 100s of chemicals used extensively in the Game Lodges.To write on every type of Doom like spray to prove it should not be allowed in ANY Reserves would be a mission on its own there are so many. Later I will just attack , ja attack, we not playing Painball here, every single shop in the Parks that sell any poisons.  The “Quiet” ones will have to point out. Although should NOT have to point it out to ANY Lodge owner. The ALL say they support Nature Conservation, claim huge knowledge of the subject for the most part….

Every 5 Star Lodge has at least one , crystal clear pool, and every one I have seen, the runoff just goes into the ground. This is what the Greenpeace site told me.

Pool chlorine runoff damages the environment by altering soil chemistry, killing local vegetation, and introducing toxic chemical residue into natural water sources. In Bushveld and game-lodge settings, this contaminated backwash or overflow endangers localized wildlife, amphibians, and sensitive aquatic ecosystems.

Climate Change? Have a theory just recently about this. We all know it is a money making thing, but too many people believe the Trust the Science “facts”, still!! After looking at poisons for one month only, the Climate Change is Mickey Mouse, even if all we read is true.  Recently the Bees got a bit of attention, they die , we die. This is biologically sound reasoning. BUT. Few things, first it is NOT only if the Bees go, we are at a point that the loss of even one tiny species of insect more and we take another big step towards …well, Armageddon. Then, I have just checked on all the insecticides/pesticides. I was sure they ALL kill bees, then I researched and found out this is 100% true. We have not even looked at herbicides yet!! That is another big issue I shall get to, as Agri Chems are just as bad. Time…. I will get there.

The reason that this chemical became the do all and end all of a clean pool is not a surprise……

The Post-WWII Backyard Boom & Mass Production

Chlorine production scaled up massively during World War I and II for industrial and chemical warfare purposes. When the war ended, chemical manufacturers had vast amounts of infrastructure to repurpose. [1]

A lot of things we EAT have a similar history!!!

I will make a quick post on that, but as you know, my concern for the general unwashed masses is not…. that great. It will be a just facts one.

Big Five Wars is my main mission for now and they also get updated regularly.

Facebook:

The Mexican Horse Thief

Section Eight Solutions

THE FERDIVERSE!

Rate this:

New on my #blog: https://aspi.blog/2026/08/23/a-comprehensive-win-for-somerset/
A look back at #SomersetvEssex in the #CountyChampionship and a #photo gallery.
#cricket #CountyCricket #SOMvESS #photography #birds #starlings #LittleEgret #insects #bees #butterflies #RuddyDarter #Dragonflies #Damselflies

📸 pictures of the day: aug 22 (just missed posting before midnight 🤦‍♀️)

https://cjs-wunderkammer.ghost.io/pictures-of-the-day-aug-22/

#photography #blog #ShittyCameraChallenge

Cooking By Own—121（自炊してみると―121） https://tkt058.seesaa.net/article/521395857.html @tkt058@mstdn.jpより
#cook #cooking #cuisine #cookingpapa #cookingcrush #cookingcrushseries #photo #photography #料理 #料理好き #料理好きと繋がりたい #写真 #写真パシャリ #豚肉 #スパゲティ #spaghetti #Blog #Blogtour #Blogpost #ブログ #ブログ更新 #ブログ更新しました #Blogging #BloggingTips #BloggingCommunity

SPIRIT's Diary: Cooking By Own-66 https://tkt058.blogspot.com/2026/08/cooking-by-own-66.html?spref=tw
#Cook #Cooking #Cookingpapa #Cookingcrush #cookingcrushseries #photo #photography #cuisine #spaghetti #mayonnaise #pork #porksaute #Blog #BlogTour #BlogPost #Blogging #BloggingCommunity #BloggingTips

With read speeds topping 160MB/s, effortlessly transfer Full-HD and 4K UHD media files with the Lexar Blue Micro SD Card.

On sale now: amzn.to/4zwpEl0

#Advertising #Tech #Photography #Android #Games #TV #Blog #Business #Travel #Art #USA #Europe #PromoSky