Spring is hardly barrelling in with both guns blazing but there are hints of it here and there in Hebden Bridge…. Last day of my Easter break today, one of the most uneventful in history, but in terms of relaxation it cannot be faulted. Back to work tomorrow though (but then don’t expect a great deal more eventfulness then, either).
Why? Because reasons, as Joe would say. And this was definitely his kind of event.
The last train of the day (on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway) has gone already — we are waiting here for a bus, not a train, the weather was far too grim to wait outside. Joe’s face on this shot amuses me.
The original Kodak Brownie camera dates from the early 20th century and was the first model of camera to really achieve mass market penetration. It popularised the notion of the ‘snapshot’, the idea that not all photography had to be high art or formal portraiture, that it could reflect everyday life (‘get that Kodak moment’). I happened to find this model B Brownie in our house today during the 2016 Easter Spring Clean. It isn’t worth anything — millions of these were produced — but it’s nice that somehow it’s still around, sitting happily on a shelf somewhere, being preserved.
I am off work, but this is in no way the most eventful Easter break of my life. Nor the least chilly. Both facts lead to today’s photo being evidence of the fire being lit in the house across the road today — at lunchtime.
The Shoulder of Mutton in remains closed, as do about half the pubs in Hebden Bridge town centre. This guy looks mildly distressed by this fact, or possibly he’s decided that it’s really time he found a hobby other than skateboarding (I assume the board on the table next to him is significant).
As its name suggests, Great Gable is the pyramid on the left, and one of the most well-known fells in the Lake District and/or England. Last time I went up it was in foul weather (on 29/7/12) and I am determined to return to it in blue skies, so it was not on my itinerary today — but it was the best looking object on my walk round the upper reaches of the valleys of Borrowdale and Gillercomb. Colder and greyer than it might have been, but I quite like this shot, taken from the nearby summit of Brandreth.
Easter Sunday, and my entry in the Cheesy Chocolate Box cover shot, 2016. The horses know.
I swear Hebden Bridge was hit by a mini-tornado at about 4.45pm. If it was just a ‘squall’ I’ve never seen one like that before, not in this country anyway. Wicked winds for a sudden two minutes, enough to shuffle parked cars visibly along the street and it looks like it might have caused a car crash just out of town, near the station. Clare and I were out in it; a slightly scary but also exhilarating experience in a way….
The Pace Egg play is performed at various locations around Hebden Bridge each Good Friday. St. George defeats all challengers, there is death, rebirth, all that jazz. It dates back hundreds of years — ‘Pace’ comes from the Old English word for Easter. A troupe of actors perform it at Hepstonstall each year, and then this group from Calder High (Joe’s school) tour it round the villages with the help of a non-medieval blue van. I caught this performance in Luddenden in this Good Friday’s pleasant weather.
Being 42 