A number of Hebden Bridge’s residents live on canal barges like these and I have sometimes wondered what it would be like to do so on a permanent basis. I’ve been on a couple of the boats and they are cosy, but I definitely don’t think it’s suited for anyone that has a really serious hoarding habit, which probably rules out me and (more especially) the wife. A sunny day today, but chilly, hence the stove bring run here at full operation.
Part of the reason I have felt uninspired lately is that I’ve been spending too many days at home, not going out. Also that the light has been very poor — I swear we’ve had half a dozen sunny days at most since the start of November. But both of those things changed for the better this very pleasant afternoon when I managed a stroll along the canal bank. Much of the towpath is still closed because of flood damage but this section, at the Callis Wood bottom lock, is still open.
Sweden makes it back onto the blog exactly two years after my last (and only previous) visit. With a population of just shy of a million Gothenburg is the second-largest city in that country. As you can see, it was a beautiful day. However, can’t say I’ve seen much of it (the day or the city), spending most of today in the building to the left, the city museum, for the seminar I’m attending here, hence Schiphol yesterday. The canal seen here doesn’t seem to have a name: Norra Hamnagatan is the street on the left side of this shot.
I was sat in the same room, a single meeting, for 7 hours today (bar toilet breaks) so you were lucky that a scene on the way back to the station distracted me.
I’d just like to say a big thank you to the duck at this point.
Spring continues to try to struggle through the general atmosphere of chill and damp. Taken by the Stubbing Holme lock on the canal, heavy with water thanks to the snow melt from Thursday’s unexpected fall.
Pictured by the canal this afternoon. The one on the right is flexing his/her muscles, or giving its wings a stretch. I don’t know if these are males or females — unlike with mallards it seems rather difficult to tell.
Two days in a row of pictures taken by the side of the canal. This dog barked in a kind of elderly fashion at me as I walked past this morning. Honour was satisfied, without troubling either side, but it still woke up the owner.
Today is the last of 66 days in a row for me in the UK, which I guess isn’t very long, but it is the second-longest UK-bound period of this blog. I was in Manchester today but the run ended with a damn fine — but cold — Hebden Bridge morning.
I am trying not to repeat myself on this blog even after nearly 1,200 days, but it’s still something of a surprise that this view hasn’t previously made it. It’s a standard Hebden Bridge shot and I pass it whenever I go to and from the railway station. At least, I don’t think it’s made it before — though I’m getting on a bit these days and may have forgotten.
Being 42 