Dec 30 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Sport

St. James’s Park

Saturday 30th December 2017, 4.20pm (day 2,319)

St. James's Park, 30/12/17

I have been to a lot of football matches in 2017 — around 25, give or take (I have lost count myself). But one distinction was claimed by this, the last match of the year — it had the biggest crowd. Around 52,000 were present at St. James’s Park, Newcastle, today to see them take on the mighty Brighton and Hove Albion — and everyone to leave rather underwhelmed by a 0-0 draw in which neither team seemed willing to take on the initiative. Frankly if there’s one thing the year’s football has shown me it’s that the 220 people at Mossley v Kendal Town last week (5-4) may well be getting rather more for their money. But we keep coming back, week on week. Amazing what tribalism can do isn’t it?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Dec 29 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Landscape

Lee Wood Road

Friday 29th December 2017, 12 noon (day 2,318)

Lee Wood Road snow, 29/12/17

On the return home, a healthy dosage of the white stuff. This being a maritime British winter, not one of these more robust continental versions, by tonight it had all gone.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Dec 28 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Landscape

The Detectorists

Thursday 28th December 2017, 12.55pm (day 2,317)

Detectorists, 28/12/17

‘Detectorists’ = ‘people who head out and comb fields, beaches, toxic waste dumps etc. with metal detectors’. There was an agreeable TV series featuring these lovable rogues, I believe. Well, not these two perhaps.

Excellent day for photography today by the shores of Morecambe Bay. For the first time in ages I feel minded to add something to the Best of the Rest page as well as this shot. It’s certainly an attractive corner of this island, I’ll give it that.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,
Dec 28 2017
1 Comment
Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Forest of Bowland

Wednesday 27th December 2017, 1.50pm (day 2,316)

Forest of Bowland, 27/12/17

Took the scenic route over to the in-laws’ in Morecambe today. Between home and there lies the Forest of Bowland — most of which isn’t covered in trees at all, this photograph is actually atypical. Nice drive to do in pleasant weather though. The year coasts towards its end placidly enough.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Dec 27 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Interior

….and so is the Railway

Tuesday 26th December 2017, 3.20pm (day 2,315)

Railway, Boxing Day, 26/12/17

Oh dear, pubs two days in a row. Well, it is Christmas. I need a break. An apposite way of recalling that this place, along with the rest of Hebden Bridge town centre, was under six feet of water two years ago today: this year’s was a rather less eventful Boxing Day, fortunately.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Dec 26 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Yes, the Blue Pig is open….

Monday 25th December 2017, 11.45am (day 2,314)

Blue Pig, 25/12/17

A dull, non-festive shot? My apologies, but yes. Nevertheless to find the Blue Pig open as we went past it towards the end of our Christmas morning exercise walk was a great Christmas bonus. This pub, run entirely by volunteers, is like Brigadoon, sometimes it’s there, more often, it’s not.

I managed to not document anything particularly ‘Christmassy’ about the day but then again seeing as it was mild enough to sit and drink a beer outside by the river, it didn’t particularly feel like it today and I get bored with all these cliches anyway. Either way… hope you enjoyed your version of the day, whatever you did with it.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Dec 25 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Interior, Sport

The tension mounts

Sunday 24th December 2017, 1.55pm (day 2,313)

Jenga, 24/12/17

Christmas Eve games at the parents’. Brother-in-law Pete makes what may or may not have been a crucial move. Look at the lean…

Tagged , , , , , ,
Dec 24 2017
5 Comments
Daily Post, Sport

The December non-league experience

Saturday 23rd December 2017, 4.35pm (day 2,312)

Mossley AFC fog, 23/12/17

Latest stop on my 2017-18 tour of the football competitions of the UK, to the Northern Premier League Division 1 North, at Seel Park, Mossley: a game with two distinctions by the end. Number one, it was the foggiest game I have ever seen, in danger of being abandoned throughout most of the second half as it was becoming difficult to see from one side of the pitch to the other.

But I’m glad it wasn’t abandoned, as were the 217 other fans in the ground with me, because the second distinction was that this game had more goals in it than any other I have seen in my life, nine to be precise: result was Mossley 5, Kendal Town 4. An absolute cracker of a game from start to finish. I really am starting to wonder why it’s necessary to pay the Premier League premium to be entertained (which I was not, particularly, last Saturday). Thank you to everyone involved with this game in fact, for giving me a quite excellent pre-Christmas day out.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,
Dec 23 2017
2 Comments
Daily Post, Interior

The last (real) Friday of 2017

Friday 22nd December 2017, 6.30pm (day 2,311)

The last Friday, 22/12/17

The last working week of the year comes to an end. Every year, semester 1 is like a marathon. Sometimes I reach the end delirious and hyper. 2017 is not one of those years. Right now I feel utterly fatigued, just grateful to have reached this point without any significant loss of faculties. It would be good to slumber through the next eleven days to tell the truth — but I can’t, there are festive duties to perform of course. But that doesn’t mean I have to think much about them; that’s the good news.

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Dec 22 2017
Leave a comment
Daily Post, Landscape

Edge of the forest

Thursday 21st December 2017, 12.50pm (day 2,310)

Felled plantation, 21/12/17

Commercial forestry is not inherently a bad thing: there are many beautiful and well-managed plantations in England. But there are prices to pay, and when you see a ravaged landscape like this one — well, it does make you realise that this is not nurtured land. More like arboreal strip-mining, take the products and leave a wasteland behind. In this mist it looks almost apocalyptic, like the zombies are just over the horizon. Maybe one day Treebeard will stomp out of the remaining woods, like he does in The Two Towers, and swear vengeance against the human despoilers.

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →