Clearing away a bunch of dead foliage from the allotment this afternoon, I uncovered this beauty. It decided it was still far too early in the year to be exposed to the elements and crawled its way back under cover sharpish, but I managed to get a couple of shots off before it did so.
The room full of vintage arcade and computer games at the National Media Museum in Bradford is a cheap form of entertainment during weekends and school holidays — and as a result has featured on this blog before. This family seem to be enjoying their time on the collaborative game, Gauntlet — if you grew up in the 1980s I’m sure you remember it…
I spent the last few hours of the working week as an examiner for some assessed presentations. A stream of fresh and (usually) interesting 20- to 21-year-olds coming in to convince us of their plans for world domination. And you know? A few of them have a shot at it. I like this shot because of the tea ladies in the background (they had just cleared away the detritus of the morning shift), the left-hand student’s incipient bubblegum moment, the relatively grand surroundings of the very finely-named Whitworth building…. And that it’s Friday. I’ve had a 6-day week, I need a weekend.
The Railway pub was shut for nearly a year after being mostly destroyed in the flood of 26th December 2015. It has reopened in what feels like a few separate stages; the latest arriving today, when seating finally made a reappearance out at the front. Matt enjoys this fresh luxury, while trying not to mark his coat on the wet paint of the new battleship grey facade.
The third thousand begins under the Mancunian Way, a familiar scene from my walk to the office. This tent has been there for a few days now, I don’t know whether it is being occupied. Six pictures from the last seven in Manchester: in fact, in February there may end up more pictures from there than home in Hebden Bridge, which I don’t think has happened before.
The university have a campaign at the moment around environmental sustainability, and for whatever reason the marketing types see fit, it is called ‘10,000 Actions’, hence these hedgerow digits propped up by Oxford Road. Once I knew I was going to be in Manchester today, this was always going to be the choice, although I did somewhat ruefully notice yesterday that two of the zeroes had fallen down.
No matter, it’s the symbolism. I have reached my own big, round number — 2,000 days’ blogging. Every day a photo taken by me, on the day: there has been no cheating, I assure you, no retrospectives. Considering I just set out to do this for a year, I’m chuffed that I not only still have the motivation to keep going, but nothing has yet blown out on me, like a malfunctioning SD card or stolen camera — or worst of all, the feeling that on a given day, there has been simply nothing to photograph.
In celebration I have created a new ‘top 20 from 2,000’ page: my own favourite 1%. The stats have been updated too — these are an integral part of the blogging process for me, they are what allow me to notice the quirks and eddies and flows of my life, and how this daily photographing of one or other part of it build up into something meaningful. I don’t pretend to be a photographer — I hope I never have — what this blog is, is an extension of my diary, the visual, image-based journal that I show to the world on a daily basis: but most of all keep for myself. I thank you, though, for following it; likes and visits help me keep it connected to the rest of the world, and it’s nice to know that there are some of you out there who want to check in now and again and make me realise it’s not all gross self-indulgence. Thank you for still being here after 2,000 days.
And will I keep it going? Well, each time I think of stopping there seems to be just one more little carrot dangling ahead. Reaching numerical milestones like today is ongoing encouragement, and then looking forward…. over the next seven months I am already down to travel to Japan, the Arctic (twice, including for the midnight sun in June), the USA, other parts of Russia (non-Moscow) and some other new spots as well. Too much potential interest to stop now…. So on we go. Here’s to the third millennium.
The weekend was pretty grotty all round but today was a far more pleasant day of weather, particularly in Manchester. These fire escapes catch the afternoon sun very well. I also like the way this looks like it could be in New York or somewhere — one of those American cities where the fire escapes zigzag down the fronts of all the old buildings, anyway.
What ho, it’s day 1,999 of the blog. There will be a small celebration tomorrow. Assuming I don’t finally blow it and leave the camera at home.
We are in one of those crappy spells of weather. You know, where it is cold and damp and it tries to snow but it’s not cold enough to do it properly so everything turns to grey slush virtually on impact. Well, you know these things if you spend Februaries in Britain, anyway.
Incidentally, this is a luggage rack on top of a car. I like the inverted mountain-range look of the meltwater drops. Hence me categorising the post as ‘Landscape’ even though it obviously isn’t one in the classical sense.
There is an excellent photography exhibition on at Manchester Art Gallery if you get the chance to go and see it. “Strange but Familiar” — Britain through the eyes of foreign photographers, from the 1930s to the present day. I saw it first time back in December but went back today, taking the family, trying to engage the boy in some media studies. Plenty of people there, including this guy, peering aesthetically at the ‘Swinging London’ section. The shot continues the run I mentioned yesterday, though that will be the last (10th) day of it — tomorrow will definitely be spent entirely in Hebden Bridge.
Mr Cope becomes the latest rock star to feature on the blog: looking every inch the part, he nevertheless is these days as much a mixture of solo busker, stand-up comedian and raconteur (particularly about old megalithic monuments) as he is anything else.
A curiosity: the ninth photo in a row to be taken outside Hebden Bridge, even though I have spent some time at home on each of these days. This is the longest such run: all other long runs of non-HB photos have been accrued thanks to some kind of travel away from home.
Being 42 