Wednesday 1st January 2014, 3.55pm (day 860)
Another year, still here. But that’s a good thing.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: 44
Neighbourhood party – New Year’s Eve 2013
Tuesday 31st December 2013, 11.10pm (day 859)
So here we are at the end of 2013. I cannot really complain about any of it, at a personal level — an excellent year, full of incident and variety. No fewer than 14 countries have featured on this blog since 1/1/13 and even if four of those are explained by airport stopovers that’s still a mighty haul. 2014 will start slowly on that front but if everything works out I know that, at least, the US, Greenland and Italy will have featured by the end of the summer, as well as returns to familiar places like Norway and Russia. But who knows for sure. That’s the fun of it. For what it’s worth I think that October 11th’s is my favourite single shot of 2013 (one of the UK ones, taken in Cumbria) — though there were several other very good candidates.Note also that if I keep this going — and I do intend to — I will reach the 1,000 day mark on 21st May 2014.
As for 31/12, photographically the year ends with three monochrome shots in a row, but it is all rather grey at the moment so seems fitting. We attended (in fact, organised) a party for our local neighbourhood last night and it went well, thanks largely to the free beer donated by a brewer friend.
Rooks taking off
Monday 30th December 2013, 11.00am (day 858)
Birds, again, but hey. So it goes. We could have a New Year challenge, see if your count of the rooks on this photo (in flight or still in the tree) matches mine. For what it’s worth I get it to over 100, and all were circling over Hebden Bridge town centre this morning in a mildly ominous way.
Seagulls over Bloomfield Road
Sunday 29th December 2013, 3.15pm (day 857)
They came, they saw, they conquered. Blackpool FC (‘The Seasiders’) 0, Brighton & Hove Albion FC (‘The Seagulls’) 1. This picture taken from the away end at Bloomfield Road stadium, during one of longueurs which characterised the match — not a great one, it has to be said, but the right result. For the seagulls, anyway.
After-school club (empty this week)
Saturday 28th December 2013, 1.25pm (day 856)
Clare works here during the school term but at the moment, obviously, it is closed. We dropped off some spare toys today, being as we are clearing the house at the moment, so I used the opportunity to get a shot of the nice afternoon light within, at a point where I can do this without being arrested for taking photos of other people’s kids (these things have been known).
Hebden Water and Hebden Bridge Town Hall
Friday 27th December 2013, 12.55pm (day 855)
Back home for the rest of the year. This photo has the same subject matter as the one posted a year ago today; the Hebden Water, which joins the River Calder just below this point. The building is the new extension to our Town Hall, opened in 2012.
Feeding sparrows
Thursday 26th December 2013, 10.25am (day 854)
Christmas at the in-laws’ in Morecambe ends with this nice little scene, photographed from the front room (hence through glass, explaining the blotches of yellow light below the sparrow on the right — they are reflections).
Christmas Dinner: the aftermath
Wednesday 25th December 2013, 1.50pm (day 853)
*Burp*. And I cooked, too. Happy Christmas to one and all of you.
View south from Scout Scar, Christmas Eve
Tuesday 24th December 2013, 12.05pm (day 852)
Christmas Eve. Ignoring the typically apocalyptic weather forecast (as I have all year), I went on walk #77 of my Lake District project and despite a breeze that could be called ‘bracing’ and the odd hail shower, I had a thoroughly good time on Scout Scar, a limestone outcrop to the west of Kendal, Cumbria. And managed a couple of decent photos too. The rest will be up on my other blog soon…
I am not fully certain of the identities of these hills by the way. I think the one on the left is called White Hill, and the horizon is formed by the Three Peaks of Yorkshire, melding into one at this distance but I am sure the step on the right must be that of Pen-y-Ghent or Ingleborough, with Whernside the rise in the ridge in the centre. But I could be wrong.
Dalton Square, Lancaster
Monday 23rd December 2013, 7.25pm (day 851)
Visiting the in-laws’ for the annual Christmas stuff. This square sits beside Lancaster Town Hall, the large building in the background, and is attractively lit for the season — suitable accompaniment to the showing of It’s a Wonderful Life at the nearby cinema, another annual tradition in our household.
Being 42 