Bill Bailey

Glorious warm spring morning - woke up and the sun was shining. Usually run with friends on a Saturday, but races, injuries etc meant that it was just me. I'm afraid my running takes third place to socialising with folk out on the hill and taking snaps. Nevertheless I was pleased that my Garmin recorded just over fifteen miles in distance and by visiting the trigpoint on the summit of Winter Hill and the shelter on Great Hill this will have given me just under 2000ft of climbing.

Lots of pics of glorious sunshine on the fells which I'll put on my blog when time permits, but this portrait of Bill Bailey in B&W seemed to select itself today. I stopped to chat with Bill at Belmont Reservoir he was walking unsteadily, but enjoying the outing. He had got the bus into Bolton and then out to Belmont and was going back via the market to pick up some shopping. We chatted for a while and he asked me which paths around didn't have stiles so that he could plan a different walk. I asked if I could take a few photos of him and he was delighted and surprised that I should want to.

It turns out he lives very close to my sister and he asked if I would let him have a copy of a photo of him. As I left he called after me to tell me his name - well I couldn't forget that. I spent the rest of my run making sure I'd memorised his address for the photo delivery. I got the feeling that I may be the only person Bill might talk to today - I hope I'm wrong : )