The extension, to the left of this shot, is now clad and glazed and presumably will start being decorated inside sometime soon. At this time in the morning the sun shines rather well down the narrow channel that has been left between it and the main, Victorian mill building to the right. (Notice also the red van that has snuck into the top of the shot, an indication of the sometimes surreal configuration of the streets and buildings in this town.)
The signboard puts me in mind that these two are Withnail and I on their 40-year reunion trip, returning to where they demanded cake, and fine wine, the finest wines available to humanity.
It was actually another beautiful day today but I saw nothing of this; due to my wanderings yesterday I really needed to get down to do some work today so never left home. So here is that old staple, the view from my house, over Hebden Bridge. The sun did not burn through this mist until well into the morning.
Sometimes there just isn’t the chance to take many photos. Today was Joe’s birthday party, though not his birthday precisely, that comes next week. We had a gaggle of 10- and 11-year-old boys round at ours for lunch then took them to the cinema (to see Mr Peabody and Sherman), here is the moment at which they launched themselves for the entrance, and one of the few at could deal with photography rather than general mayhem-avoidance and catering.
OK, so I know it’s a bit weird to take pictures of other people’s laundry. But it’s not like I climbed over anyone’s garden fence to do it.
This house sits to the left of the bridge over the Rochdale Canal on the way to Hebden Bridge station and is becoming the most-photographed exterior of any building on this blog, including my own house (which frequently gets in as an interior, but not exterior). There are reasons for this — on any given sunny morning it looks great. Having these guys climbing up onto it today was just a bonus.
A day working at home. The turf roof that has been promised for the Nutclough Mill extension has moved a step closer, it seems, with the delivery of a whole bunch of stones (in bags here) that presumably will form the ‘bedrock’.
I have been doing this blog for 30 months today — that is, exactly two-and-a-half years.
A day spent almost entirely working at home, not unpleasant weather but flat light, so a dearth of subjects. This sundial (despite having no sunlight to activate it) caught my eye while briefly in town in the morning, however. It can be seen on the main road through the valley, with the date of 1835 meaning this must be one of the town’s oldest buildings (there was very little here before that time, and the arrival of canal and railway). I like the ready reckoner so you can work out how inaccurate it is today — and also the Latin inscription at the top. Want to know what it means? Translation above.
The Earth orbits the Sun with a tilt to its axis and every day of each year the light falls on us all in different ways. Today at 4pm was one of those points where it shines straight down the channel of the Hebden Water as it runs below the retaining wall of Keighley Road. Nice to be in the right place at the right time to see it.
Of the near-900 days I’ve been doing this blog these last two weeks have been among the least diverse, in terms of source material. Apart from two days in that time I have had nothing but fully familiar scenes, things I have seen constantly over the last 13 years. This sight, this bridge, has been one constant in my home town for the last 500 years, in fact.
Being 42 