When travelling it’s those small differences to home that catch my eye. I was impressed by the beauty of Norwegian manhole covers. I loved the way they are designed specifically for that town or area. During our visit to Ålesund we were promised beautiful art nouveau buildings but the street design underfoot was much more impressive.

1. Ålesund, 2. Røvær Island, 3. Bergen

I read about Pickering’s Beck Isle Museum on the British Letterpress website. The museum has lots to boast about – 27 themed rooms of exploring small town and rural life, from camera displays to a stuffed horse – everything you could imagine under one roof.

Arriving via the Balestrand ferry, Mundal (sometimes known as Fjærland), looks like the quintessential Norwegian Fjord-side village. Only accessible via water up until relatively recently the town has retained its wonderful charm. We spent a perfect day cycling around and browsing the twelve book shops that occupy various buildings such as the ferry port, tourist info, cafe and a couple of cowsheds.

I’ve been asked to supply some sport matchbox labels for a project, specifically Olympic ones. I’m not really into sport and I’ve not paid too much attention to these ones before. They have now sparked an interest and I think they make quite a nice collection. More Olympic matchbox labels on my Flickr.

After my visit to Miniciné recently I didn’t think I would be in a smaller cinema anytime soon. Last night we visited Hambleton Forum in Northallerton for the launch of Contrast/brilliance, a new festival that screens archive film footage. The evening was full of highlights; amazing old film footage of Yorkshire, entertainment from Ian McMillan and a trip aboard the vintage mobile cinema bus. Perfect.

The evening was part of Cine Yorkshire and we made their website!

I’m just back from three lovely weeks in Norway, with lots of holiday photos to sort and a few blog posts to write – I’ve made a small start by scanning my polaroids.

USA
From the book ‘Britain between West and East’ a Contact Publication. This illustrates the following… “In the political warfare of the USA, American labour’s support has never been given exclusively either to Democrats or Republicans.”

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London
From Bartholomew’s illustrated map series ‘Looking at London’ 1977.

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Solar System
The Solar System of sun and planets travelling anti-clockwise round it. From ‘Odhams Encyclopaedia for Children’.

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Educational map
Geographical terms in picture and map. From ‘Philips’ Pictorial Atlas of the World showing where and how people live (West Riding of Yorkshire Edition)’.

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Russia
From the cover of ‘Russia – around the World Program’ by the American Geographical Society, 1963.

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Route 50
Map of Route 50 Nevada ‘The Loneliest Road’ from the commission of tourism c. 2001.

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British shipping weather forecast areas
From ‘Seaway Code – a guide for small boat users’. Prepared by the Department of Trade and the Central Office of Information, 1976.

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Arctic Circle
Taken from ‘St Michael Picture Atlas’ by David and Jill Wright, 1982.

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I picked up several Know the Game books on a recent trip to the Yorkshire Dales. They are British education books giving an illustrated introduction to sports and hobbies. E.P. Publishing covered about 80 subjects, regularly updating them with new content, covers and illustrations to reflect the times.
View the full set on Flickr

I love film and unique cinemas. Miniciné perfectly combines these two passions. They are a non-profit film society operating in the smallest cinema in the north of England. The 26 seat cinema in Leeds Industrial Museum is created from a reclaimed Edwardian picturehouse. The films are well chosen with a short documentary preceding the film. Our main attraction was Chop Shop. We grabbed a cuppa, piece of cake, soaked up the surroundings and sat back to enjoy the film.

When Paddy Hamilton of Dungeness Studios got in touch requesting a print swap I jumped at the chance. I chose a print from his online shop and opted for the beautiful The Point, a limited edition linocut print. It’s now taken pride of place on the office mantel piece and a lovely edition it is!