John M 🇬🇧🇺🇦
LightNews LightNews
banner
john0109.bsky.social
John M 🇬🇧🇺🇦
@john0109.bsky.social
360 followers 380 following 1.4K posts
Dad, RAF Veteran and survivor of numerous Leeds United ups and downs. Lover of nature, history, books and making miniatures. 75% English, 15% Welsh, 10% Odds & Ends.

Just looking for things to make me smile...or think...or think and smile.
Posts Replies Media Videos
john0109.bsky.social
As it's #ThrowbackThursday here I am with the family heading for Bridlington beach. Smartly dressed, one and all! Oh yes, that's me in the pushchair.
#seaside #holiday #photography #Bridlington #Yorkshire #1950s
A black and white commercial holiday snap from c1954. Mum and Dad with three sons, the youngest in a pushchair. Grandma completes the group.
December 18, 2025 at 2:20 PM
john0109.bsky.social
Sandringham House on a sunny June day.

#HappyThursday everyone! 😊

#WeekYforYearPast
#AlphabetChallenge
A sunny June view of Sandringham House in front of which is a grassy terrace incorporating a recently replanted shrubbery.
December 18, 2025 at 8:41 AM
john0109.bsky.social
As it's a cold, dreich December day here in the UK, what better than to look back to a sunny August day on the Rhine.
#HappyWednesday all you lovely BlueSky people out there! 😊

#WeekYforYearPast
#AlphabetChallenge
Looking northwards from Boppard towards a sharp bend in the River Rhine with the steep hills of the Rhine gorge as a backdrop. In the distance two cruise ships are approaching. In the foreground a display of pink and red flowers.
December 17, 2025 at 3:43 PM
john0109.bsky.social
It never quite seems fair. 😢
By the side of a driveway leading up to a white painted building is a sign for "Ugley Village Hall".
December 17, 2025 at 9:33 AM
john0109.bsky.social
A waltzing Firefly? That's a 10 from me!
December 17, 2025 at 8:46 AM
john0109.bsky.social
I think I must have been in 'be careful what you wish for' mode when I posted this back in January. I refuse to be downhearted. 👍 #lufc
December 15, 2025 at 1:23 PM
john0109.bsky.social
Happy #BlueSkyMonday everyone!

"Love is all you need" ♥️

#WeekYforYearPast
#AlphabetChallenge
Keukenhof Botanical Gardens, Netherlands. April 2025.
December 15, 2025 at 11:50 AM
john0109.bsky.social
@heisholt.bsky.social "Lær mer norsk" - Det er mange år siden nå, men jeg husker denne læreboken veldig godt! 😊
The cover of a textbook from the Norwegian language course "Lær mer norsk"
December 15, 2025 at 8:34 AM
john0109.bsky.social
I always felt that Patrick Bamford's brief flirtation with plastic chickens was slightly unsettling. I do hope he's over it now. #lufc #CamdenMarket
Still from a Greater Anglia TV advert featuring a Patrick Bamford impersonator getting a bit too friendly with a plastic chicken. Apparently it was meant to inspire a visit to Camden Market.
December 14, 2025 at 11:18 AM
john0109.bsky.social
A bit of a Christmas cheat today. 🤔 🎄

#WeekXForXmas
#AlphabetChallenge
#stamps #philately #stampcollecting
December 14, 2025 at 8:30 AM
john0109.bsky.social
The Dutch war film, The Forgotten Battle (De Slag om de Schelde - Netflix 2020) was a pretty good effort at showing the war from a Canadian perspective. With Hollywood nowhere in sight. 🇨🇦🇬🇧
A still from the movie "The Forgotten Battle" showing Canadian soldiers moving up for an assault on the Walcheren causeway, November 1944. (Photo Credit: Darkknight / MovieStillsDB)
December 13, 2025 at 6:15 PM
john0109.bsky.social
I honestly don't know how old this Nativity set is, but the original box says it came from Woolworths. Anyway, it's time for its annual appearance...

#AlphabetChallenge #WeekXforXmas
December 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
john0109.bsky.social
Some of this aerial view might look familiar perhaps. I've circled where the Norths had a house, retail shop and workshops. #batley
Aerial view of Batley, Yorkshire from 1951. Image taken from "Memories of Dewsbury and Batley"
December 12, 2025 at 3:54 PM
john0109.bsky.social
My all time favourite photo from the family album could be a scene from Dodge City but in fact it's from the Wild West of Batley, Yorkshire. My great grandfather's brother William North with the staff of his joinery business, taken about 1874.
#OldPhotos #FamilyHistory #Genealogy #VictorianPhotos
December 12, 2025 at 2:58 PM
john0109.bsky.social
You know we're in for a rough winter, flu-wise, when the BBC lets Dr Chris out of his cupboard. #SuperFlu 😷 #StaySafe
Dr Chris Smith, virologist. Picture from BBC.
December 11, 2025 at 1:22 PM
john0109.bsky.social
Don't quite know what it is but there's just something incredibly sexy about a page of Brewster Buffaloes in Finnish markings. 👀 💙

(Page from "Finnish Aces of World War 2", Osprey Publishing)
#aviation #aircraft #WW2 #avgeek 🇫🇮
Brewster Model 239 Buffaloes in Finnish markings. Book cover showing the Messerschmitt Bf 109G of Ilmari Juutilainen, Finland's top fighter ace with 94 confirmed aerial victories.
December 10, 2025 at 9:57 AM
john0109.bsky.social
Growing up not too long after the end of #WW2 my childhood #aviation hero wasn't Douglas Bader, "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham, or Johnnie Johnson. After reading his autobiographical "Fighter Over Finland" it was definitely Eino Luukkanen. 👍🇫🇮
December 9, 2025 at 8:56 PM
john0109.bsky.social
In Jan 1943 Dad joined his last ship, HMS Moyola, operating as escort to several Atlantic convoys until June when the ship was re-deployed to the support of over 20 convoys between the UK and West Africa. Here the threat was not only u-boats but also 'Condor' bombers.

#RoyalNavy #WW2 #Veteran
HMS Moyola, a 'River Class' Frigate launched in 1942. Moyola served with the Royal Navy until Oct 1944 when she was transferred to the Free French Navy and renamed Tonkinois.
December 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
john0109.bsky.social
After my father-in-law qualified in “Higher Submarine Detection” he was posted to HMS Boadicea which deployed to the Med in support of the allied landings in North Africa (Nov 1942). This included the rescue of 449 survivors from the torpedoed troopship “Viceroy of India”.
#RoyalNavy #WW2 #Veteran
HMS Boadicea, a B-Class Destroyer launched in 1930. IWM photograph.
December 9, 2025 at 1:32 PM
john0109.bsky.social
If you're interested in reading some background to #RoyalNavy escort operations during #WW2 I can recommend Nicholas Monsarrat's three-part autobiography, published together as "Three Corvettes". He went on to write "The Cruel Sea" on which the classic movie was based. Also recommended!
The covers of two books by Nicholas Monsarrat. "Three Corvettes", an autobiographical account of his time in the Royal Navy during WW2, and "The Cruel Sea", a novel based on his own experiences.
December 9, 2025 at 11:43 AM
john0109.bsky.social
Just a bit late for a Happy Monday, but I knew I had some Papua New Guinea stamps lurking somewhere! This set of Kingfishers from 1981. Happy Tuesday!
December 9, 2025 at 11:26 AM
john0109.bsky.social
Looks good!
New livery for Great British Railways revealed - Department for Transport picture.
December 9, 2025 at 7:55 AM
john0109.bsky.social
Dad served on HMS Kipling from Nov 1940 until Dec 1942 and saw plenty of action in the Mediterranean. In May 1941 Kipling rescued survivors, including Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, from sister ship HMS Kelly which had been attacked and sunk by German bombers.

#RoyalNavy #WW2 #Veteran
HMS Kipling, a K-Class Destroyer launched in 1939. Sister ship to HMS Kelly which was the inspiration for the fictional HMS Torrin in the movie "In Which We Serve". Image from IWM collection.
December 8, 2025 at 6:36 PM
john0109.bsky.social
HMS Ivanhoe, my late father-in-law's first ship which he joined in April 1939 at the age of 18. Ivanhoe survived an attack by German bombers at Dunkirk in June 1940 but later that year had to be scuttled after striking a German mine off the Dutch coast. #RoyalNavy #WW2 #Veteran
HMS Ivanhoe 'D16', an I-Class Destroyer built for the Royal Navy in 1937.
December 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM
john0109.bsky.social
Not too bad, thanks!
December 8, 2025 at 2:13 PM