Category Archives: Daily Post

Devil’s Bridge

Sunday 14th February 2016, 3.30pm (day 1,634)

Devil's Bridge, 14/2/16

The weekend’s tour of noted tourist spots in West Wales continues. But sometimes one just has to admit one is a tourist. Devil’s Bridge was first named for the lowest of these three structures, built in the 11th century, and named for the Devil because people simply did not believe that the precipitous gorge that it spans could have been tamed by human hand alone. Anyway, just think what it must have meant for an 11th-century peasant to trust their lives to this new-fangled engineering stuff. The middle bridge was built in 1753, and the current, topmost one in 1901.

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Portmeirion

Saturday 13th February 2016, 11.15am (day 1,633)

Portmeirion, 13/2/16

Portmeirion was built by Clough Williams-Ellis over a fifty-year period as a demonstration of his theories about landscape and architecture. It should be visited by anyone with an interest in the Italianate and the exquisite configuration of the….

Oh, sod that. We all know why Portmeirion is cool. It’s because it’s THE VILLAGE, from The Prisoner, the best TV series ever made. And because this is a hotel, private ground, it hasn’t since become defiled by McDonalds’ or Starbucks or just disappoint slightly because of the fact that this location you see carefully pieced together on screen isn’t like that in reality. But at Portmeirion, everything that brought Patrick McGoohan et al to the place, seeing it as the perfect setting for his vision, is still there. There’s number 6’s cottage in the background of this shot! There’s the bandstand where they play in the episode “Hammer into Anvil”! I am in geek heaven!!

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Crossing the road

Friday 12th February 2016, 9.30am (day 1,632)

Crossing, 12/2/16

Sometimes you don’t even realise you’ve got the shot until it’s been sitting on your camera all day then you upload it. This was just a general scene but once I saw how glorious her hair was she became its obvious subject. Had to crop it down a lot, hence its loss of sharpness and increased grain — but that’s then helped by going monochrome.

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Freight train

Thursday 11th February 2016, 8.00am (day 1,631)

Freight train, 11/2/16

Still occasionally to be seen on small, provincial British railways. This monster bombed through Hebden Bridge station slightly in advance of the 8:05 to Manchester, headed for unknown places.

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Exchange Square, Manchester

Wednesday 10th February 2016, 10.45am (day 1,630)

Exchange Square, 10/2/16

I know we were here less than a week ago, with the dragon, but he’s moved on, and this was the best picture I got today to celebrate a strange atmospheric condition in Manchester this morning; an odd blue cast to the light, a weird dryness in the air and a burning yellow ball above, giving nostalgic reminders of times long past. It was very pleasant. I like here how the Corn Exchange is reflected in the glass.

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A new chilli

Tuesday 9th February 2016, 12.20pm (day 1,629)

New chilli, 9/2/16

Most of 2016 so far has been two things — firstly, lacking in any light (so few sunny days…), and second, very housebound, which this picture in its way is intended to represent. However, the latter limitation, at least, is about to change, with it being quite feasible that over the next four weeks only three pictures will have to be taken in Hebden Bridge. The weather…. well, I can be less sure about that.

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High water, again

Monday 8th February 2016, 1.35pm (day 1,628)

High water, 8/2/16

No weather warnings have been issued and it seems to have stopped raining…. but recent events suggest that we should at least be wary when the river reaches this level. It’s not just about heavy rainfall, either. We should also blame the government — flooding isn’t caused by heavy rain, but by shitty decisions about land use, some of them stretching back centuries. Ah well, seeing as we’ve reached the ‘let’s cross our fingers and hope’ stage of flood prevention, let’s just do that.

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Sunday market, Hebden Bridge

Sunday 7th February 2016, 11.35am (day 1,627)

Sunday market, 7/2/16

Limited horizons today, and don’t expect much else to change over the next couple of days either. It’s marking season. And the weather continues revolting — this is as good as the day got. There have been about half a dozen sunny days in three months, if that.

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Clare, Saturday night out

Saturday 6th February 2016, 9.30pm (day 1,626)

Clare at Trades, 6/2/16

It’s been months since there was a proper portrait of the wife on this blog, so let’s make up for it with this shot from our night out at the Trades Club (‘Nutclough City Limits’). Clare seems to be enjoying the evening despite the fact that a small woman appears to be dancing on her belly.

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Have a good day?

Friday 5th February 2016, 9.15am (day 1,625)

Homeless pitch, 5/2/16

The title of this post is taken from the graffiti in the background. I hope he did have a good day, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

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