Public holiday today, and a beautiful day of weather, so I made the most of it and went on a Lake District walk. The remaining photos will be up on my other blog some time tomorrow morning. Combe Gill is a hanging valley above upper Borrowdale, tucked into the massif that is known as Glaramara. And yes, there’s something, well, intimate-looking about it.
Watching a game in the sixth tier of English football — the National League North — might seem an unusual way to see in 2017, but Joe, me and 2,509 other people decided it was worth doing today; numbers which help explain the strength of the sport in this country. Halifax Town 2, Darlington 2 was the final score, a good game, quite exciting, though from listening to the home fans around Joe and I you’d think it had been a disaster of Iceland v England proportions. I worry that this shot is a bit messy, but I like the crescent moon visible to top left, so let’s give it a go. I prefer it to most pictures I get at football matches, anyway, even if it is slightly out-of-focus.
2016’s last day was an enjoyable and sociable one, but these balloons were as near as I got to what might be called a ‘party’. But either way — hope you had a good evening, and a good 2016 as well. Personally, mine’s been up and down, and there hasn’t really been a ‘big event’ (like Kilimanjaro in 2015 or Australia 2013) to inspire me behind the camera. There are possibilities emerging for 2017 though. Favourite photo of the year? Probably the proud-looking frog in our garden on 30th June, because of its willingness to pose while I maneuvered the lens two inches from its nose. Happy New Year.
If the security bolt on our front door is still drawn, it means neither Clare, Joe nor I have left the house since we got up. If it’s still drawn at 4pm, you can guess what kind of day it has been. But I did work. Seventh picture in a row from Hebden Bridge, four of which have been taken in or from my house, although these limited horizons expand a little over the weekend.
The roof nearest the camera is that of my house. I suppose the architecture of my immediate locality is pretty offbeat, but after 15 years here I no longer really think about it. This is about as early in a day as we get sunshine during the winter, as when the sun is low, it does not get above the hillside to the east in the morning. From mid-November to mid-February each year we have to wait until the light gets round to this side of the building — then enjoy our nice, better-lit afternoons.
One thing I haven’t done with the stats yet is count up the number of photos accounted for by different types of animal. I suspect that over the last 1,953 days, ducks will win, probably just ahead of dogs. Why? Because Hebden Bridge has plenty of them, and look — they’re basically photogenic.
Restarted work today, albeit at home; and herein lies my photographic challenge for the next couple of weeks, as I’m really not doing a great deal else until about January 8th. This will be a very long run of Hebden Bridge pictures on the blog. This ex-guitar caught my eye today — apparently it is about to be customised (I believe the youth of today would say ‘pimped’) as part of Joe’s art homework. I like the shot because it is obviously a guitar, but could take a second glance to determine why it is a dead one.
Last day of my 10-day Christmas break. It was a sunny day, though cold and windy — but still a damn sight better than Boxing Day last year. It seems appropriate to pay some kind of homage to my home town on the first anniversary of the floods which took out 90% of the town centre on 26/12/15, but we seem mostly to be back in operation now. The underlying issues have not been addressed, but let’s hope it doesn’t rain overly hard in the lifetime of the present government.
Never easy to know what to choose to epitomise Christmas Day, particularly when it’s been a fairly uneventful one — though nice, just spent with the family, eating, socialising, etc. The decorations on the dinner table will do as well as anything to represent this… with a guest appearance from Iris the lego lady. A happy Christmas to you all, however you have spent it.
We approach the anniversary of last year’s floods on December 26th, which took out most of Hebden Bridge’s town centre. Prior to that, this place, the Railway pub, had probably featured at least once a month for the four and a half years I’d been doing it, so say about 50 times…. But none since 22/12/15. I think this has been the last of all the businesses in the town to reopen after that day, but here you are…. One year to the day since last we drank there. Welcome back.
Being 42 