Tuesday 6th March 2012, 8.40am (day 194)
Actually, it’s this morning: and it was a beautiful one. But I liked this photo because there’s nothing in it that suggests the modern day. Well, there’s one exception, perhaps – see if you can spot it.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: Hebden Bridge
The new town hall
Wednesday 29th February 2012, 8.30am (day 188)
Would have been nice to have somehow encapsulated, in a photo, the fact that today was the extra day of the Leap Year. But that proved beyond me, though it did amuse me that Joe was annoyed because this year he has to wait another day for his birthday (which is on Sunday).
So here is a picture of the building site that is Hebden Bridge’s new town hall; the scaffolding and cranes of which have been visible from our house for a few months now. A time-lapse project would have been nice – but too late now.
The Mac’s still in the shop so apologies for the erratic appearance of the posts at the moment.
Weavers’ Cottages, Calder Holmes
Tuesday 28th February 2012, 8.40am (day 187)
For various reasons, including the fact that my Mac (and thus iPhoto) has gone to the shop for some surgery, I wanted to get today’s shot in early. So that meant grabbing one on the way to the station; just as well then that I don’t seem yet to have run out of things to capture, photographically, in this town. These houses are right by the canal (which runs behind the fence, unseen in this shot), and the arrangement of windows was so that they got plenty of light so that weavers could use them for their literal cottage industries in the early 19th century. Apparently.
Another Hebden Bridge sunset
Wednesday 1st February 2012, 4.20pm (day 160)
Spent the whole day at home grading papers. Ah well, at least there’s the view from the house to keep me (and the blog) going on such an otherwise monotonous – and cold – day.
Before the movie: Hebden Bridge Picture House
Sunday 29th January 2012, 4.55pm (day 157)
One of this town’s greatest assets is its old-fashioned (1920s) cinema, with its good mix of movies and lots of legroom. It is so great that Joe is growing up within walking distance of a proper movie theatre – particularly when Halifax, a town ten times the size down the road, doesn’t have one at all. I love movies; a far superior medium than TV, which I never watch. (Except Masterchef.)
Even though I went back to my little compact camera today after yesterday’s vision of the future, I did learn one or two things about it yesterday; such as how to take better photos in lower light. I like this shot; the line of heads, the light reflecting off the two follicly-challenged guys.
And the movie? Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Well, you get asked to go to these kinds of things when you have pre-teen boys. Actually I thought it was pretty decent. Silly, but entertaining.
The parents taking shelter
Wednesday 4th January 2012, 2.55pm (day 132)
The weather today was as foul as it’s been on any day of this blog so far. I was on picking-up duty from school. The only place to shelter there is this gazebo-like structure. By the time I arrived it was already full of other parents. 15 minutes later Joe ambled out and then wondered why he didn’t get a treat on the way home.
Joe’s fantasy, by the way, is that his school gets flooded. Well, it’s called Riverside for a reason. If this rain keeps up he might get his wish.
Hebden Bridge, 1.30am, New Year’s Day
Sunday 1st January 2012, 1.30am (day 129)
Having stayed up past midnight for obvious reasons – and it’s a rarity for me – this first post of 2012 becomes the earliest in a given day by far. Usually when I see anything before 6am it’s because I’m up early, not in bed late.
Hebden Bridge seemed pretty laid-back when we walked back through it after leaving the party. Maybe it was the incredibly mild weather – unseasonably warm, we were able to sit outside at 1am having a final pint of beer with no sense of cold or discomfort. I like this shot because of the mixture of lines and textures, even if it is a bit blurred (but you try taking photos like this at 1.30am with no tripod!). I also like the mysterious, solitary blonde on the right. (As a compositional device, you understand.)
Calrec Audio (as the cover of ‘Physical Graffiti’)
Friday 30th December 2011, 4.20pm (day 127)
This has not been an active couple of days. I have spent almost all of both of them at home working. Fortunately I have yet to exhaust the photographic possibilities in the immediate area. This is the factory across the street (see also 5th September, for instance), looking to me like the cover of Led Zeppelin’s finest moment(s), the Physical Graffiti album. But perhaps it’s been a long year, not to mention 33 hours in the house on my own not talking to anyone, and I am starting to hallucinate.
Moon over Hebden Bridge
Thursday 15th December 2011, 8.30am (day 112)
I don’t feel I’ve been here much lately. However, I’ve now got four weeks at home – more-or-less – so get used to photos of this place (and occasionally Manchester). On mornings like this, it’s no hardship – though the rest of the day was rather worse.
Stubbings School, Hebden Bridge – closed
Wednesday 30th November 2011, 9.55am (day 97)
The public sector comprises people like teachers, refuse collectors, immigration officers, police officers, nurses, gravediggers… performing those tasks which are essential to the functionality and health of a society but which are difficult to ‘market’, unglamorous, dangerous, non-profit-making or all of the above. The UK government has, since taking power in a right-wing, private-sector-led coup that followed the inconclusive May 2010 general election, launched a sustained raid on the pensions funds of these groups, using the proceeds to pay off bankers who privatise and tax-dodge with their profits, but nationalise their debts – the perfect scam – and spending them on nuclear weapons that will never be fired (see October 3rd commentary).
The public sector unions responded by today calling a widespread strike, which will be excoriated in certain right-wing papers tomorrow as a matter of course, despite being supported by 61% of the British public, according to one opinion poll. Had Joe’s school been open – it was not – I would have kept him off anyway as a show of support. I hope there are more. Something has to make the bastards crack. They’re a Coalition for heaven’s sake, all it takes is the Lib Dems to stop pimping our arses while the Chancellor stands behind, shafting away.
Being 42 