Hi everyone, I live in the North of England in the UK and am brand new to Steemit, having recently been introduced by a friend, the brother of @amavi.

I live on the banks of the Leeds / Liverpool canal, a manmade waterway, which stretches just over 127 miles from Liverpool in the West to Leeds in the East. It was built to move goods between the industrial areas of Yorkshire, which had built up during the industrial revolution, and the port of Liverpool. Construction of the canal started in 1770 and was completed in 1816, 46 years after work began.

There is an old flour mill opposite where I live, which was built in 1855 and was in operation until 1998, which has now been turned into apartments. I have taken hundreds of pictures of the mill, in the 13 years I’ve lived here, as it makes an excellent subject, in all kinds of weather.

In 2014 I walked the along the canal bank from Liverpool to Leeds for charity, which took me 6 days to complete and changed my life in many ways, but I’ll be telling you more about this in subsequent posts.

My interests are photography (I’ve been told I’m not too bad), the outdoors, nature, music, meditation, spirituality, technology and travel, although not necessarily in that order.

I worked in the technology industry for 21 years in sales, marketing and eCommerce roles, before starting my own business, which focuses on helping business owners understand the benefits of social media and digital marketing and how to effectively use it in their business.

I’m also just in the process of launching another business, focusing on connected tech and home automation, so exciting times ahead.

Music has played a huge part in my life and forms some of my earliest memories, I have a fair-sized vinyl record collection, which has grown throughout my life. I like all kinds of music, including Soul, Punk, Rock, House and just about anything, as long as it’s good. I like going to gigs and discovering new bands, especially around Manchester and Liverpool, which have some great live music venues.

Prior to my starting in the IT industry, some 25 years ago, I’d had a very varied life, including working as a truck driver, spending some time living and working in Los Angeles, tour managing a band (K-Klass), who had top 10 success in the UK charts in the early 1990’s and DJ’ing at clubs and parties in the early years of the house music scene in the UK, of which I loved every moment. Crazy times!

I’m loving life (and my fiancée, Jennie), and in the last few years have discovered meditation and mindfulness, which helps me to see myself, the world and the universe in a whole new way. I met Jennie while I was doing my walk on the Leeds / Liverpool canal in 2014 and we got engaged two years later on Agonda Beach in Goa, India.

Jennie and I spend a lot of our spare time in the outdoors. Where we live we are lucky enough to live very close to the countryside and are only a short drive, (around an hour or so), from places such as the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, which are National Parks in the UK and places of amazing natural beauty.

We’ve also been working a small allotment, growing our own vegetables for the last few years, something neither of us had ever done before, which is really exciting and rewarding when you start reaping your harvests and eating your own produce.

Anyway, I’m here to share some of my life with you, mainly my photography and travels, but who knows what else, only me I guess, as things unfold, and I piece everything together.

Thank you for the opportunity, I hope my introduction gives you some ideas as to who I am and what you can expect from my content, I look forward to connecting with you all, because as you know ‘everything’s connected’.

Peace! 🕉️

Gary