The wonderful snow scenes we saw yesterday have hung around for an encore – only today there was the added bonus of blue skies as a backdrop. OK, that meant it was cold too but that was a small price to pay for such glorious vistas! I managed to juggle work with a long walk with the camera in order to get my daily exercise and capture some of the views. Fortunately, we hadn’t had much wind since the snow, so tree branches were laden with the stuff although it had started to melt in the sun, meaning wandering through the woods was a bit like running the gauntlet as you never knew when you’d feel a show-bomb down the back of your neck as a tree scored a direct hit!
Tomorrow’s forecast is for rain, so today’s probably been my final chance to get decent snow pictures. That means the picture of the day will be returned to vintage shots of somewhere warmer and more exotic than the Pennines and West Yorkshire – as you’ll find out tomorrow…
In the meantime, here’s one of my shots from today, taken on the promenade up above where we live. This is a wonderful place to sit and enjoy the views across the valley, or even a sunset (and a surreptitious beer!).
You’ll be able to find the full selection of snow shots taken over this past week in this gallery on my Zenfolio website from tomorrow.
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Apologies for no picture of the day yesterday. It’s not that I didn’t have one – but that (despite the weather being bloody awful) I ended being really busy and by the time I got around to blogging I’d run out of steam and fancied a quiet night just watching a movie with Dawn.
Today was rather different. The weather forecast had predicted a mix of snow showers and rain, but neither of us were prepared for the sight that greeted us when I opened the bedroom blinds. We had wall to wall snow, it had stuck and it was still falling. Someone forgot to order the rain! In fact, it snowed steadily until mid-afternoon, by which time I managed to venture out with the camera as part of my daily constitutional. I love fresh snow, especially on still days when it coats the trees to a depth, transforming their trunks and branches into sculptures. The road we live on passes through some woods so I didn’t have to venture far to get pictures, although in the end I decided to make a round trip through the woods and down to the railway to get my first train shots of the year (unbelievable!) before walking along the canal into Sowerby Bridge to grab a few more shots at the station just before the light went completely. Trudging back uphill along slippery pavements to reach home wasn’t the most enjoyable part of the trip as the rain finally arrived but it was worth it as I don’t know how long the snow’s going to hang around, and we don’t get that many days when the conditions are so good. The only thing missing was blue skies, but hey – you can’t have everything! I’ll be adding the full selection to this gallery on my website tomorrow, as well as yet more old slide scans to this gallery.
In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which I took shortly after leaving home this afternoon. It seems many parts of the country were blessed with rain, not snow, so I hope I don’t make too many people jealous!
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I’m feeling generous, so there’s more than one picture today as the weather’s been glorious! The temperatures rose so much under the clear skies and bright sunlight that it almost (almost) felt like a Spring day. But unlike Spring, it’s here for one day only, which I was I was determined to make the most of it by scrapping what I’d intended to do and tore myself away from the office and computer screens to enjoy the outdoors. So much of our time is spent cooped-up due to Covid lockdowns that I would’ve been a fool not to. The day started with great promise – although not so much if you lived in central Sowerby Bridge as the clouds were determined to hang on to the valley floor for as long as possible. This was the view from our bedroom window. OK, it’s not the *exact* view as it was shot on a telephoto lens!
Central Sowerby Bridge looking like it’s been tear-gassed!
Although it would have been tempting to venture further I was a good little boy and stayed local. It wasn’t that much of a hardship as we’ve extensive woodland literally on our doorstep. Today it was a pleasure to wander the woods unhindered by drizzle, which makes a change – although some of the paths are still a quagmire. With the amount of rain we’ve been having the ground’s saturated. It’ll take quite some time before firm ground returns. Even so, sights like this do lift the heart.
This is Scarr Woods, literally just down the road from us. It’s a gorgeous patch of woodland that’s looked after by local volunteers. Right now they’re removing some non-native species to open out the wood ready to replant with a variety of items as this explains…
Psst – don’t tell the anti High Speed 2 ‘Tree protectors’ that someone’s killing trees!
My stroll was pretty strenuous as these woods aren’t exactly flat, which is part of the attraction as it’s a much more interesting landscape. On leaving the woods my perambulations took me up to the promenade on the edge of Halifax which permits some stunning views across the Calder Valley. Wandering on I dropped down one of our local cobbled hills which has been made famous in one of the opening scenes of the TV drama ‘Gentlemen Jack’. Half way down there’s a great place to stop as you get two very different views. This one across the valley…
Looking down on Sowerby Bridge, plus a rare sight in the sky nowadays – a plane’s vapour trail!
Just a few metres down the hill, looking in the opposite direction (and looking up) is this magnificent sight – the Wainhouse Tower!.
See why I couldn’t countenance being stuck in the office all day today? Sadly, normal service will be resumed tomorrow as the weather forecast is crap!
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Well, the weather forecast was spot-on today. It’ll rain it said – and rain it did – all day. Only not in any entertaining way. None of that heavy showers or hailstones sort of stuff, just drizzle. And then more drizzle, broken up by differing levels of drizzle, just to break up the monotony! Even so, I managed to sally forth and get my daily exercise. I even called in at our local supermarket to get some shopping and a get-well card for a friend. Fortunately, I didn’t need much – which is just as well as there were large gaps on the shelves, especially when it came to fresh fruit and veg. I can’t think why…
I’ll resist (for now) getting into a polemic about Brexit. I’ll save that for later in the month. Instead, I’ll leave this here..
When I wasn’t out walking and getting wet I was immersed in something other than rain. Slide-scanning. I’ve been keen to get a tranche finished and this latest collection has provided the picture of the day. This shot is one of a series I took at a cremation ceremony and procession in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia on the 2nd November 1998.
Balinese cremations ceremonies are colourful and exhuberant affairs, especially if the deceased or their family was wealthy as this man’s was. These five different towers were built on the side of one of the main roads in the very centre of Ubud. On the day of the cremation they’re carried by dozens of men each. But not in any sombre procession. They’re twirled and jigged around in order to ensure evil spirits are confused. Hundreds (if not thousands) of people line the streets to see the funeral procession go by. Even the local fire-brigade joined in to spray water over the guys carrying these towers in an effort to keep them cool. The atmosphere is more like a party than a funeral. It’s completely different to the Western traditions. Once the procession reaches the funeral grounds the corpse of the deceased is loaded into one of the effigies and the whole lot is burned.
Over this next week I’ll add the pictures to my Zenfolio website just as soon as I’ve edited them, so you’ll get to see what I mean.
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After the glorious winter’s day we had on Saturday, today was very much an anti-climax and back to the usual routine of low cloud and mists accompanied by drizzle that slowly eroded the remaining snow, leaving the ground sodden and muddy. Hardly great for walking but I forced myself to go out and complete my full seven days of exercise even if I did come back somewhat bedraggled! At least it gave me a sense of achievement – as did having added another huge tranche of old travel slides to my ’round the world’ gallery. Rather than give you a link to the gallery, here’s a link to the first of the new pictures. You can find your way from there.
I’ve plodded on throughout the day scanning more. It’s a time-consuming, mechanical process yet I’m slowly but surely coming to the end. The bright spot is that I get to see pictures of times and places I’d forgotten about, so it can brighten up a dull day, despite the repetitive nature of the task. Even so, I’ll be glad when it’s finished and I can concentrate on the future and new pictures rather than the old.
I’m looking forward to a bit more variety this week and the opportunity to escape the confines of the Calder Valley as part of a commission, even though I won’t be going far. Let’s see what happens. I’d like to have a day out with the camera but the weather forecast isn’t looking promising so I expect to be housebound for most of the week – but taking a break from scanning slides. I let my eBay account run out of goodies to sell at Christmas, so it’s time to resurrect that to start disposing of more surplus slides and assorted railway memorabilia which has the bonus of freeing up cupboard space as well as making some money. Watch this space…
OK, on to the picture of the day. I took this in Lovina, Bali, Indonesia at the end of October 1998. Bali is famous for its dancers and their exotic and colourful costumes. Visiting a temple of an evening to watch some of these performances is always a fascinating experience. The routines are highly stylized and the dancers are accompanied by Gamelan music from a live band, so they’re real theatrical performances Here’s a young man performing the Baris (warrior) dance.
I’ll be adding this and many other pictures from Bali to my Zenfolio website tomorrow until the end of the week when I should have the album finished.
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Just like ‘Lockdown 1.0’ the latest version has rendered the weekend superflous for many of us – it’s morphed from something special into just another day. All the events people could look forward to attending (be it sporting events, restaurants or just going to the pub) have all been taken away. The only thing remaining is the ability to have a lie-in as you don’t have to go to work.
That situation’s rather different for us freelances as work is something that’s been taken away from many of us too! Despite that, I was up early to keep up my weekly routine of starting the day by editing or scanning pictures in an effort to feel something had been achieved. I must admit, I’ve rather enjoyed these early mornings and the chance to watch the sun rise across the valley – which it did with aplomb this morning as the skies remained clear and the valley fog-free. The pair of us decided to make the most of the conditions and enjoy a long stroll to an area we don’t normally walk to. High above Sowerby Bridge is the very edge of Halifax and an area called Norton Tower. Along with the nearby village of Warley, we could see that both were in the snowline that had spared us, so we went for a wander and discovered places we never knew existed, along with a stunning view. So, today’s picture is contemporary rather than historical. I took it this afternoon. It shows the view from Norton Tower, looking back towards where we live, with the Wainhouse Tower marking the spot.
What would have made our winter walk complete would have been the chance to pop into a pub on the way home for a warm and a drink – but I can’t see that pleasure returning for some time yet. Even so, the pair of us really enjoyed exploring, and the view was stunning.
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There’s few words from me tonight as today’s hardly been the most exciting day – unless you count hoping the snow showers we’ve had on and off all day would deliver a decent deluge and we’d be covered in the white stuff for the weekend. I was looking forward to getting some shots of snow-covered trees in our local woods, but it wasn’t to be. We’re just that little bit too low on the valley side so whilst nearby Warley looked picturesque, we were left with muddy footpaths and wet woods. Maybe tomorrow!
The pictures I’ve been scanning today couldn’t be more different, as this one shows. I took this shot in the last few days of September 1998 on a tiny little Island called Kanawa which is a boat trip from the town and ferry port of Labuanbajo on the Western end of the Island of Flores, Indonesia. We were staying in the little resort you can see by the beach, although ‘resort’ is rather a grand term for a collection of a dozen stilt bungalows and a restaurant! But, it was a fantastic place to kick back and relax. This was in the days when mobile phones was a luxury and the internet was dial-up and could only be found in major cities. There was no TV here either. Lynn and I had a short-wave radio with us and that was our only contact with the outside world. Here, you sunbathed, swam, snorkelled and slept. Supplies were brought in by boat daily from the mainland and after a couple of days you learned not to order breakfast until you saw the boat arrive and what was on it. But everything was fresh, especially the fish – and the chicken as the birds scratched a living from the ground around the resort. I remember one day someone ordered chicken for the evening meal. The chef disappeared out of the back and there was a helluva commotion accompanied by lots of flapping, clucking and squawking. 20 minutes later the cook came back and said to the couple. “Sorry, you can’t have chicken”. “Why not?” they asked. “I can’t catch one” was his reply! At least you didn’t have to catch your own…
Looking down on our little haven with the Island of Flores beyond. Happy days…
I’ve dozens of pictures scanned and ready for editing before adding to my website tomorrow. When they are, you’ll be able to find them in this gallery. They’ll include shots of both Flores and Bali as we were heading West to Java before flying to Australia to spend Christmas with friends we’d made earlier in the trip, although first, we were meeting up with a group from the UK who were coming out to join us in Bali for a holiday.
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The stunning winter weather we enjoyed yesterday lasted until sunset, then the temperatures dropped overnight so this morning we awoke to gloomy skies and a miasma that stayed with is all day, along with occasional snow flurries that thickened through the day, leaving us with a dusting of snow. More’s expected tomorrow.
Indoors my world was far less monochrome as I was busy scanning old slides and researching articles. The slide scanning’s progressing well. I’ve polished off another album, my final one of foreign rail images, dating back to 2003. This morning I added old Irish rail pictures to this gallery. Tomorrow I’ll add the last ones which were taken in Singapore and France. There’s still a few scratched images to restore (slowly) and there might be the odd image lurking in an album here and there, but to all intents and purposes that the rail stuff finally done! That just leaves me with the travel and social issues images to get through and I’ve made a start on them today.
Next in line are the travel pictures from the round the world trip that Lynn and I did in 1997-99. I’d got as far as Australia but there was an album out of sync that I’ve dug out of storage to prioritise – so we’ve leapt back in time and space a few months to return to the Indonesian Islands of Flores, Bali and Java! So, here’s the picture of the day. I took this shot in mid September 1998 atop Kelimutu, a volcano on the Island of Flores. Kelimutu is famous for three volcanic lakes which regularly change colour. When I was there in 1998, one was black, the other Turquoise. In this image you can just see the Turquoise lake behind this one. It’s a stunning and unique place to visit and worth getting up early to ascend the volcano to see the sunrise.
Tomorrow (once I’ve had chance to edit the scans) I’ll add them to this gallery which will contain all the pictures from our trip. Well, eventually…
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Well, we may be back in lockdown, but today was one of those days where I really didn’t mind being stuck around home as the weather was absolutely glorious! It was a crisp winter day with wall-to-wall sunshine that made it a pleasure to take my daily constitutional. Most of the snow has disappeared now, apart from the occasional patch in the shadows, although it tarries on the very high moors.
Either side of my stroll was spent at home working, either wading through yet more old slides from Ireland, Spain and Singapore (they’ll appear on my website tomorrow) or researching my next article for RAIL magazine. This will be rather different as the focus isn’t really on the railways, but you’ll see what I mean when it comes out.
Rather than select a vintage picture for today I thought I’d show you what life in the Calder Valley was like today. Here’s the view from the Promenade above our local woods whilst I was out strolling. Apologies for the quality as it was taken on my phone!
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Still smarting from his spanking in the courts, ‘celebrity’ conservationist Chris Packham has come up with another wheeze to try and stop HS2, the UK’s new high speed railway, of which phase 1 from North of Birmingham to London is already under construction. This time Packham hasn’t needed to persuade people to donate money for his expensive vanity project as he’s fallen back on an old StopHs2 favorite by starting a petition on the Government website! There’s a rag-bag of other names associated with the petition, but the only ones worthy of note are the veteran human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield QC (who lives near the route), plus Richard Walker, Managing Director of Iceland Foods, charity trustee and Ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts (by the way, that’s some of the same Wildlife Trusts that environmentalist George Monbiot flayed for ‘greenwashing’ road and housing projects in Buckinghamshire).
Packham and his friends have been busy since last week drumming up media support for the petition and exploiting his social media connections. So far, they’ve had quite a bit of success. As I write this, the petition has reached 47,000 signatures, nearly half-way to its target of 100,000 which it needs to hit by the closing date of 17th June 2021. On that performance, it stands a very good chance of being the very first anti HS2 petition to ever reach the magical 100,00 signatures.
There’s just one teeny, tiny problem that Packham and his fellow signatories aren’t admitting in their daft assertions and breathless bluster…
Parliament “must” vote! Really? Says who? No-one. Certainly not the Government petitions website, which points out that these petitions can’t make Parliament *do* anything, as they explain here.
So this may not be debated in June as there’s already been numerous debates (and primary legislation in the shape of 2 Hybrid Bills) already. Still, there’ll be a vote on repealing the HS2 Hybrid Bills AFTER the debate, won’t there?
Nope…
Oh, has Packham not mentioned that? How remiss of him!
You see, the petitions debates are held in Westminster Hall, not the main chamber of the House of Commons – and they’re just that – a debate. Or, to put it in simpler terms – it’s a talking shop! As the Westminster Hall website explains:
“Debates in Westminster Hall take place on ‘general debate’ motions expressed in neutral terms. These motions are worded ‘That this House has considered [a specific matter]’. Amendments to such motions cannot be tabled. Divisions (votes) cannot take place in Westminster Hall.”
So, in short, there’s no way on God’s green earth that the Government’s Parliamentary Managers – or Parliamentary process would allow this (or any other petition) to go to a division (vote) in the Commons. It’s a dead duck! Packham’s peddling the fiction that if 100,000 people sign this petition, MPs will stream into the House of Commons and (en-masse) vote to repeal both HS2 Hybrid Bills! It’s a fantasy that relies on the gullibility of people to have no idea how their Parliamentary democracy actually works.
So, let’s indulge ourselves in a flight of fancy just for one minute. What if there WAS a vote in the Commons on HS2? The Government would win it hands down – for several reasons…
Parliamentary mathematics.
HS2 has massive cross-party support and the Tories would almost certainly ‘whip’ their MPs to vote in favour. So, even in the even more ridiculous and fantastical scenario of everybody else’s MPs voting to oppose HS2 the Government have an 80 seat majority and can’t fail. But, as the only people who oppose HS2 are a handful of Plaid Cymru MPs and the solitary Green, that ain’t gonna happen – but then, neither’s the vote!
The number of MPs who oppose HS2 has fallen in recent years as many of those who did back in 2014 have lost their seats or simply left Parliament, so I refer you back to 1.
In short, this petition’s a complete waste of time. It’s just another myth that Packham’s peddling – like his Court case which was eviscerated as a waste of time with no chance of success by the Judges. This time he’s peddling the fantasy that MPs in Parliament would (if they could) vote to repeal the HS2 bill when they can’t – and wouldn’t.
Oh, there’s also the small matter that by the time this petition ends in June, two tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will already be several miles into their progress digging the Chiltern Tunnels and there’s going to be a lot of earthworks and new bridges being created along the 140 mile route of the line! This is not like pulling the plug in a computer system no-one’s ever seen, and if you think the Government will allow such a visible, physical monument to failure to be left behind you really do need to give your head a wobble! The only monument to failure you’ll be seeing here has Chris Packham’s name written all over it.
I have to say, it’s sad to see that the UK ‘Green’ movement has been hijacked by ‘conservationists’ with no thoughts for the science of climate change, whose only answer to any practical solution to tackle cutting carbon emissions is “but, Trees!” It’s this blinkered, ‘lose not one tree, not one blade of grass’ fundamentalism that’s making them part of the problem, not the solution, and it’s playing right into the oil/road lobby’s hands.
Oh, I take it back when I say this petition’s a ‘complete’ waste of time. It does have a couple of uses, but Packham won’t like either of them.
Firstly, these petitions come with a handy map showing which constituencies the people who’ve signed it live in. This will allow me to map the decline in signatures of people who live in areas HS2 passes through as I have a wealth of data from years and years of other failed petitions!
Secondly, it allows us to see what people acre about MORE than HS2! For example, here’s the top 10 active petitions at the moment.
In comparison to these, Packham and it friends have a mountain to climb. Oh, and that’s without mentioning that the petition to stop Brexit had over 6.1 MILLION signatures. That worked well…
Enjoy watching HS2 being built! If I have time tomorrow I’ll be blogging an update on progress with its construction.
I’ve a favour to ask… If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website – https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/
