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.
Didn’t even take a photo today until after the sun went down, which at this time of year is pretty early, and it’s going to get earlier yet. The evening was a very damp one, and hopefully this shot of the canal towpath reflects that (pun not intended).
The weather was forecast to deteriorate today but it seemed alright to me. A very busy week comes to a close with a very pleasant evening.
An uneventful day, but at least the canal in Hebden Bridge usually comes up with some kind of animated scene, particularly at the moment when the summer tourist traffic is coming through. This family seemed proficient enough at working the lock. I wonder if the kid realises that two hundred years ago, all things being equal, he’d have been doing that full-time.
Canal Street in Manchester is best known for being the street in the midst of the Gay Village; but it does actually still have a canal beside it. This is probably the first time I have seen a working boat on it. If you barge it for long enough, by the way, in a generally northerly direction, this is also the canal that goes through Hebden Bridge, as seen many times on this blog in the past.
This doesn’t happen that often, but when it does it’s kind of impressive. The dry dock at Hebden Bridge marina is fully functional, and as you can see, well placed for a half-decent pub.
So here we are. It would have been nice to get a shot of something highly significant, or a brilliant capture, to mark day 1,000 of this blog, but while a family of Canada geese is maybe not something one would expect to see in Manchester city centre, like this blog’s previous 999 pictures it’s just a scene from a life.
I don’t go out of the way to get these, anything you see on this blog is just something I have passed in the course of my day. And that’s why I’m still doing it — it’s the same impulse that has kept me writing a personal diary for thirty years, it’s the recording that is the point. Thank you for making it to day 1,000 with me — as far as I can predict, I will be back tomorrow.
As it is a nice round number, I have also updated the ‘Best of the Rest‘ and Stats pages.
First Hebden Bridge picture in 11 days, on a very pleasant April evening. Did I mention I’m now off work until after Easter? Fine by me.
A reasonable proportion of the population of Hebden Bridge live on the water, specifically, the Rochdale Canal. These private moorings spread along the canal for a few hundred yards in the direction of Mytholmroyd (to where I was walking this morning, dodging the muddy puddles on the towpath).
