Bedford..my hometown.

Bedford, England, the town I was born and grew up in.

The day before I left my parents house for Suffolk last year, I went on a walk about of my hometown, snapping all kinds of pictures.

My dad was born in 1930, his mother in 1905.  They were born on the same street, but different houses.  I thought the whole street had been demolished years ago to make room for a multi-storied car park, bus station and other business.  To my great surprise, I found what remained of the street.



There two pubs on the corner of Gwyn Street.


And across the road is the Bedford prison, which has been on the site since 1801.


Only a few of the original houses remain in Gwyn Street and then the street disappears into the multi-storied car park etc.  The remaining houses are used for business's now.  My dad really enjoyed looking at the photos of my walk about when I got home that evening and he told me the house's shown below, were the same kind as he and his mother were born in.


After Gwyn Street, I continued on my way to take pictures around the town.  Here's a well known business in very old building.


I take pictures pretty quickly.  I just pull out my camera and click away.  I didn't take a good look at some of these pictures until just now.  To my surprise I found I'd been photo-bombed by this bloke.  I didn't see him posing when I took the picture and he looks unreal in the middle of the shot.  As a former photo-bomber, I admire his photo-bombing skills.  Good on him, I say.


Instead of completely tearing down the old Bedford Modern School, they kept the facade to use as an indoor shopping center.  The Harper Centre.  There is a ghost haunting the tower part above the entrance.


These next two pictures are of St Paul's  where my grandparents were married and my dad christened.




During the London 2012 Olympics, one traditionally red post box was painted gold in the hometown of every GB gold medal winner.  In Bedfordshire we had two gold post boxes.  This post box was to celebrate Etienne Scott winning gold in the canoe slalom and there was another gold post box in honor of Victoria Pendleton's gold in the women's Keirin.   Keirin is bike racing on a indoor track.  Across the UK there are a total of 110 gold mail boxes for our 110 gold medals!


As I crossed the High Street to take a stroll along the Embankment I was surprised to see this tractor below.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.  Unlike American tractors, the tractors in England are often seen on public roads and can go pretty fast.


Next I'll show some of the photo's I took of Bedford's lovely river, The Great Ouse.

Wildairo enjoys Bran Muffin Sunday.

Wildairo still nickers softly and continually when he sees me, even though he's sort of regained his wild horse card.

He was happy to see me, until he spotted William behind me.  William feeds him every day, but seeing more than one human must have made him think it was the dreaded BLM having another round up or something.  His thoughts, to the annoyance of their mothers, was to save the children.

He grabbed a few of the calves and herded them to safety.


He gets along really well with the calves and looks after them.  He allows them to share his food and he even licks them.  Who'd have thought that Wildairo had a feminine side.

He stood far back, maybe fully expecting the helicopter and wranglers to show up.


But wait!


Think of the all the trouble the BLM could save if they got all the mustangs addicted to muffins!

With eyes full of muffin love he was in heaven.




He also enjoyed two apples.

Echo had some apples as well.


Notice Dandylyons in the back ground.  Even though I bottle fed her from birth, she will not eat out my hand.  Maybe she resents the fact I pushed food in her mouth when she was little.  I was trying to get her to like the taste.  Little calves copy their mums (or Wildairo) and nibble the same things they eat.  But Dandylyons never saw me eat hay or grass and so she didn't till she was older than a normal calf would be.  I would push bits of food in her mouth hoping she would like the taste.  Maybe I should have got down on my hands and knees and shown her how it was done.  When she was little I would often take her to visit the herd.  The big cows would rush to see what was up....why was this calf following a human??  Dandylyons was frightened of them and would hide behind me.