Another of my occasional drinking haunts, the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge, has yet to feature on this blog, but let’s allow it to sneak on today with its regular weekly chess club, held in the back room and run by the impressively bewhiskered gentleman (John) you see here. A black and white photo for a black and white subject.
Five hundred days. Well well. An ordinary day to mark this milestone, however. Captured this shot on the way to the supermarket; a more in-focus version of this shot, taken from the same spot some nine months ago.
As verified by the Guinness World Records people, the world’s biggest working pencil is 26 feet or 7.9 meters long, and weighs 984 pounds or 446.3kg. It lies suspended from the ceiling of the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick, above Joe’s head as he rests after the exertions and celebrations of yesterday.
Tomorrow it’s day 500 of this daily photo blog – quite a milestone. To celebrate I will add some more photos to the Best of the Rest page, and also update the Stats page.
This monument to two shepherds, Edward and Joseph Hawell, stands just above the car park at the end of Gale Road, near Keswick, on the path up to Skiddaw, England’s fourth-highest mountain. But I did not climb Skiddaw today. I (and Clare and Joe, pictured here inspecting the Hawell cross) climbed Lonscale Fell and Latrigg, the gentle green slopes of which are visible behind them (the fell in the far background being High Rigg). Latrigg was the 214th Wainwright fell I have climbed – and there are 214 in total.
So it was the last one. I have completed my project. Well… better find something else to do I suppose.
Skipped off work a bit early today and visited this exhibition which has is coming to the end of its run in the Deansgate library. It is the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication and also the 40th of the movie’s release. One of my favourite books and a very good film too. Joe is here a few minutes from discovering the giant white plastic phallus from the movie, the rear end of which is visible in the distance.
This is my other project.
Up to the day I started this blog, 26/8/11, I had climbed 130 of the 214 ‘Wainwright’ fells in the English Lake District, having started on 19th July 2009. As of today, 2/1/13, I have climbed 212 of them. The last two – Lonscale Fell and Latrigg – are represented by the last two remaining red pins in my board, pictured here. And tonight I booked a room in Keswick for this coming Friday night, so by Saturday 5th at the latest they will have fallen and I will have done the lot. (Compare this to the other time the pinboard appeared on the blog.)
Last New Year’s Day I posted a pretty bad photo so here is my attempt to make up for it. A reasonably sunny, though breezy, morning to open 2013 and we, along with many others, took the air out by Morecambe Bay. The tide was in: for comparison, back in April I took this shot from more-or-less the same place. There is a very big tidal range here. The rocks are all part of the sea defences.
Two nights in a row with Clare’s family, but all the better for it – it’s been a good 48 hours. Here is Carol, Clare’s mum; her third appearance on the blog (after 24/9/11 and 26/7/12). A good shot considering I always get what lighting there is.
A happy New Year to you all. May 2013 bring fulfillment, enjoyment and love.
On 30th December 1972, Carol and Dave – Clare’s parents, thus, my parents-in-law – were married. Which makes today their ruby (40th) wedding anniversary. At least according to family legend, the wedding was held in the winter so as not to interfere with the sea bass fishing season – because that’s the kind of guy Dave is. Perhaps it’s true; I certainly half-believe it.
Anyway, a very nice celebration was had by all, and I took a very large number of photos (300+ today); picking one was not easy but this is my choice. Clare’s gran (she has both, still: this is Dave’s mum) is quite frail these days and could only come to the party for a short time, but this is a nice photo to capture them both together.
Made our way to the in-laws’ today and thus received a second tranche of Christmas presents, including this jar of olives (I like receiving foodstuffs for Christmas, and they definitely get used to their full potential); the message at the top of the green label is definitely worth sharing. The one at the top has a kind of sinister subliminality to it though.
