Not sure if anyone will be popping in here as it’s Christmas Day, but if you do, my very heartfelt Best Wishes for a lovely day for you, wherever and however you are. Sundays are my post days here, and not even Christmas prevents that, so here’s a short one, that is at least apt for the day.
On our last outing together before Sophie’s return to Spain, we decided to visit the Christmas Market in North Shields. There were many, many stalls selling all sorts of produce, arts, crafts, clothes. All the usual stuff, and the place was heaving with people, it you stood still you got knocked into. Not really conducive to taking photographs. So we didn’t, we sauntered around trying to peek through people to see the stalls. I know Sophie was looking at a hat stall for a Christmas present but not sure if she bought one in the end as I’d wandered off to look at something else, and I bought three scotch eggs of different flavours as Phil likes them, but mostly we didn’t buy anything.
They had some fairground rides for the kids, so we went and photographed those instead. They’d kind of given it a Christmas feel, candy canes, penguins, Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa.
Helter Skelter
Runaway Train
Woolly Hats
It was nice for the Mums and their little kids I guess, and I realise I still prefer fairgrounds empty.
On the way back to the car I spotted a man parked on the corner of a road, or his car was anyway, and he was underneath it, I think he’d broken down and was trying to fix it.
Anyway the afternoon would be drawing in soon enough so we went over the river to South Shields Christmas Market, which we took one look at and decided it was not in the same league as the one we’d been to, so we went to lunch instead. On the way to where we thought we were going we spotted a sign outside the library building advertising the café within, so a snap decision was made and we went in. Not the best photo but I was trying to be unobtrusive (sneaky really) and fluffed it.
The Victorian Pantry.
It was so lush to be in from the cold for a while. We both had a home made vegetable soup and I had a ham sandwich with mine. The sandwich was nothing special, but the soup was glorious. I don’t do ‘food at the dinner table’ pics really, not a fan, but I had to remember this one! Made it myself last week, so yum!
Sooooop!
The evenings arrive so quickly up North here at this time of year, you just finish lunch to find the sun beginning to set. And so it was as we walked back to the car, and we could see it was going to be a lovely sunset and if we were sharp I could drive us up the coast to get some nice shots. So I did, and we did.
On the Tyne
I had my Contax on the go too, still waiting for those to come back, so the iPhone was enlisted for this post, don’t usually bother but they look much better clicked through to, especially the last two. Anyhow enough of me,
I know last week I said I’d be posting the photos of the old gun battery which Sophie and I visited after Alnwick, but I’m saving them for Film Friday as they were all taken on the Contax. Instead, ths week I’m posting our trip to a train museum called Locomotion, in Shildon, which we visited after going to the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland. I did take pictures at the gallery too though struggled with the lighting, and it was cool to see the Salvador Dali Christ of Saint John of the Cross, on loan from Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum Glasgow, in the same room as El Greco’s Christ on a cross. If you really are interested in 16/7th C Spanish art and religious iconography, there’s my gallery of less than great photos in the link HERE.
And so, Choo~choo! on with the trains!
The History Bit ☕️ 🍪
Shildon. An unassuming little town, (pop. about 9,900) I’ve visited a few times in the past for hearing aid purposes, and never knew that in the 1820s, the new Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) chose the town for its engineering headquarters. Shildon became known as the ‘Cradle of the Railways’ and the world’s first true railway town, when on 27 September 1825 George Stephenson’s Locomotion set off from outside the Mason’s Arms public house, hauling the first passenger train to Stockton.You could say that the Mason’s Arms could be classified as the world’s first railway station. In the early stages of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, tickets were sold at the bar. Between 1833 and 1841 the company hired a room in the pub for use as a booking office.
A chap from Shildon, Timothy Hackworth, was recruited by George Stephenson in 1824 and put in charge of building locomotives for the company, becoming superintendant in 1825. He also established his own company, the Soho Locomotive Building Company, and worked alongside the S&DR. In 1855, Hackworth having gone to the Great Railway Station in the Sky, the Soho Works were bought by the S& DR, merging with the North Eastern Railway in 1863. Locomotive production was shifted to their North Road Works in Darlington. The Shildon Works continued but focus was shifted to the construction of waggons.
It did suffer from industrial action when a strike in 1911 kicked off. The Govt sent in the Army (a bad habit they’ve got as they’re still using them to break strikes today) A driver of a mineral train was stoned and dragged from his engine then pursued by an angry mob and had to be rescued by soldiers so maybe he was happy they were there. Mineral wagons had their bottom doors undone and the contents allowed to fall out. Wagons in the sidings had their brakes undone and freewheeled for miles, railway signal cables were damaged and the cavalry had to be called. At one stage soldiers had to mount a Bayonet charge to clear a bridge. They certainly knew how to strike back then, none of this namby pamby placard carrying outside the workplace!
By 1926 and at its height, the Shildon Wagon Works was the largest in Europe and the massive infrastructure of sidings that supported the works was the largest in the world employing 2,600 people. But all good things come to an end, and in the 1930’s the London and North Eastern Railway Company had decided to concentrate their operations to Darlington. The Soho works laid derelict since the 1940s and were scheduled for demolition in the 1970s, however, the buildings were saved when they were restored and opened to the public as part of the Timothy Hackworth Museum.
The Locomotion Museum, incorporating the existing Timothy Hackworth Museum and part of the National Railway Museum in York, was opened on Friday 22 October 2004. The new museum came about as part of a £70 million government funding arrangement for museums across the country. The project received £2 million from the European Regional Development Fund along with grant aid from a number of groups. The museum hoped to attract 60,000 visitors in the first year but had 70,000 visitors in the first two months
Lastly, an inspired piece of journalism from The Northern Echo newspaper on the advent of the 50th anniverary of the railway in 1855, that made me laugh ~ ‘Shildon is one of the ugliest places on the earth’s fair surface. It was once a swamp, the malaria from which laid many of its early inhabitants low with fever. It is now a hideous congerie of houses, growing like fungus on either side of a network of rails. A huge colliery rears its ungainly head close to the rails, and the noise of its working ceases not for ever. Engines are plying about with restless activity, like spiders running along the threads of their nets seeking for hapless flies’.
They don’t write’em like that anymore!
OK, edumacation over, let’s do some pics.
Steam locomotive, Southern Railway, Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 No 34051 “Winston Churchill”, designed by O.V. Bulleid, built at Brighton in 1946, withdrawn in 1965.
After Winston Churchill’s state funeral on 30th January 1965 the locomotive hauled the funeral train. Thousands lined the trackside to watch as the train pass. More Info HERE
Diesel-electric locomotive, prototype English Electric 3300HP “Deltic”, 1955, BR number ‘DP1″ Deltic was withdrawn in March 1961 after failing in service. In April 1963 it was presented to the Science Museum and was then transferred to the National Railway Museum in 1993. Though this one’s a prototype 22 locomotives were built in 1961–2 to take over from steam on express trains such as The Flying Scotsman and to offer the first services regularly running at 100mph. More info HERE
Snow plough, North Eastern Railway, No DE900566, 1891. The first NER snowplough was built in 1887 and, despite an accident in 1888 where a plough train upended a locomotive at Annitsford, 23 more were made. All 24 were made of wood except the final two, which were metal.
Railway carriage, London & North Western Railway, Queen Alexandra’s Saloon, No 801, built in 1902.
Internally, the arrangments included a day saloon, two dressing rooms, a bedroom, lavatory, and two vestibules at each end. When the carriage was first built there were two beds, the second being for Queen Alexandra’s daughter the Princess Victoria.
Royal knobs.
You are not allowed to go inside so the first 2 were taken with my iPhone stuck on the window, the website lets you use their shots so here are 2 of the inside, taken inside.
Royal Saloon
Royal Saloon
The North British Railway, one of Scotland’s major railways, operated the branch extending from Carlisle to Silloth and its sub-branch to Port Carlisle. Freight services on the latter branch were discontinued as early as 1899, but a horse-drawn passenger service instituted in 1863 remained until early 1914, when it was finally superseded by steam. Known as Dandy Cars, this one was made in 1856 and designed like a stagecoach. First and second class travellers would sit inside, and third class passengers would sit on the benches outside. 😳
Steam locomotive, remains of Timothy Hackworth’s 0-4-0 locomotive “Sans Pareil”. More info HERE
Fire Engine 1880 ~ Gateshead Railway Works
Royal Mail carriage.
Those are the highlights, more trains and details in my album HERE for any ferroequinologists out there and the Locomotion Website can be accessed HERE.
It’s a nicely done museum, free to get in though they do like a donation if you can. The café is fine, usual stuff, hot and cold drinks, soup and roll, jacket potato, pasties, toasties, paninis at reasonable prices. We would have liked to go inside the Royal Train, but that doesn’t ever happen, and I do understand, everyone would want to get in and everyone mostly had little kids with them! There were lots of information boards and videos and we really enjoyed it and learned a lot, in spite of neither of us being really interested in trains!
So much of the North East is dedicated to its industrial past, none more so than the mining industry, and my regular reader will have seen various memorials along my photographic journies recorded here. The Washington ‘F’ mine pit has been restored so you can see it in action, and as Sophie was in Spain when it had an open day, I dragged Phil along with me and let him use my fuji XT2 whilst I did the iPhone shots and a couple of videos.
First though, as always,
The History Bit. ☕️ 🍪
In December 1775, a banking and mining tycoon from Sunderland called William Russell, leased all the coal underneath the village of Washington. There were two other leasers, those being the Lords of the Manor of Washington, one of whomst was Robert Shafto. Appropriate name thought I. Shafto ~ mine-shafts, you see? Robert Shafto was a member of parliament who used an old British (possibly Irish) folk song in his election campaign ~
Bobby Shafto’s gone to sea, Silver buckles at his knee; He’ll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shafto!
Anyhoo, I digress. A series of pits were sunk in the leased area, known as “the royalty”, and imaginatively labelled A to I, and they would comprise the New Washington Colliery.
They started hoying out the coal in March 1778 and transported it to Sunderland by waggonway; a horse-drawn railway. By 1786 another waggonway ran to the Tyne, meaning Washington coal could be exported by ships on both the Wear and the Tyne. The ‘F’ pit was sunk about 1777 but got flooded in 1786 after an explosion, and so was abandoned. Roll on 1820 and it reopened, presumably after the water had soaked in, and in 1856 it was deepened 660 feet, (200 meters) to reach the Hutton seam and it became the most productive of Washington Colliery’s nine pits. Seams were given names with a bit more pzazz than the pits. In 1954 it was deepened again this time to reach seam ‘Busty’ 🤷♀️. By the 1960’s new owners had taken over and modernised the colliery, and also by then a Labour government had nationalised the coal industry. The colliery was no longer owned privately, but by the National Coal Board (NCB).
By the mid-1960s it was annually producing 486,000 tons of saleable coal and had a workforce of over 1,500. But it was to be the pit’s last hurrah.
The NCB had a programme of modernisation which didn’t include Washington. All of its remaining pits including ‘F’ closed on Friday, June 21, 1968. Following closure the NCB presented the pit’s winding house (the building containing the huge coil of steel rope that raised and lowered the lift) and headgear to the people of Washington to honour their mining heritage. I’m sure they all appreciated that when they were queuing up at the dole. (The dole:- Unemployed and in receipt of state benefit.)
In the 1970s the Washington Development Corporation took up restoration of the steam engine. It’s recognised as a unique example of 19th century mining machinery: a twin-cylinder horizontal type Simplex for one of the earliest colliery shafts in England. In April 2013 Sunderland City Council took over the Grade II-listed building. Visitors can see the steam engine used to wind the lift up and down. It was once steam operated, but now works from an electric motor for demonstration purposes.
On with a few photo’s and a couple of short videos.
artwork in the entrance.
I have no idea what it does.
the huge coil of steel rope that raised and lowered the lift
the flux capacitor
Automatic Expansion Gear
shiny metal bits
more shiny things and the flux capacitor.
Two very short videos of what it looks and sounds like. The twin-cylinder horizontal type Simplex steam engine.
Mining was, is, such a hard and dangerous job even now, I wouldn’t want to spend all day 600 feet underground digging stuff!
I took Phil and my iphone with me on my daily stay alive walk, and used the hipstamatic app, which is about the only photography thingy I have on my phone other than it’s inbuilt camera. Can’t wait for Sophie to get back and us to start up our outings again!
Here we go then!
Just outside our house on the drive
Lord Vincent
at the end of our drive are some unruly rose bushes, at least I think they’re roses,
maybe roses
round the corner and back on ourselves, up the pedestrian path and we found blackberry bushes growing amongst the trees by our fence.
jam!
The path that leads to the common has really grown over since last I was here, in summer last year. I used to be able to see to the end of this bit of path.
foliaged
Not sure what little flowers these are, they were all over the wilderness part of the common.
pink flowers
The common is actually marshland, and half of it has been left to go wild, and the other bit has a nicely mown large lawn about the size of a tennis court, maybe a bit bigger, where kids can play footy, and people train their dogs to fetch. In the marshy bit there are 2 ponds which serve the wildlife and birds, but even though we’ve had 2 days of heavy rain last week, the ponds have gone down the road of drought.
pond life
the oak that a few of you might remember, well Pete will anyway 😊, is still going strong, all alone in the ridge between the ponds-that-were.
The Wardley Oak
after the common we got to a path that used to be a road
5
and then we walked back home through the estate. The buildings here are a small busness kind of estate, mostly car fixers and pimpers.
MOT stations
This is the long road that cuts through the middle of this estate, from the metro station and out towards the A1 or A19. The trees are lovely.
This is one of the houses we walk past on the way back and I love the giant cactus in the porch, it’s been there a long time, and whoever lives there decorates it at christmas 🤣.
Cactus – house.
A random flower poking out of someone’s fence, think it’s a honeysuckle but could be wrong.
I like the shared creeper here, I’m thinking it’s liking No.32 best.
32 for the win!
this is the last one, just before we turn into our bit, beyond the trees.
So that’s it, stay tooned in case I do something interesting for next time!
Regular visitors will have seen a few posts from Tynemouth Market over my past 9 years on WordPress, there’s always something to photograph and it’s a fab place for great coffee, interesting foods, daft purchases and funny looking people. For those who are new here, or have forgotten, the market takes place in Tynemouth Metro station, the station is also a Grade II listed building which opened in 1882 as a railway station. It later became the first section of the Metro network in 1980, making it a great attraction for local history buffs. (Metrospotters?) Anyway with Sophie back in Spain, I decided to go looking for vintage spoons for a photo I need to do, and Phil came along as there are plenty of vinyl record stalls to browse.
I took my Contax of course, so there’ll be a Film Friday post at some point, but I also took my iPhone and used the Hipstamatic app to photograph anything/one I fancied that took my notice.
Just at the entrance there’s a small section of floor tiles that are cracked and blue, which I hadn’t noticed before today
the blues
I love the light in the market, the glass panelled roof makes some great shadows when the sun is shining.
shadows
in the navy.
got the blues
in the pink
decisions, decisions.
wooden hearts.
Bone Idol
I think it takes a fair bit of courage to stand at the top of the steps on your own singing to a herd of people who are not interested and don’t give a monkeys, but she needed to be a better singer to grab any attention. Also The New Seekers songs are a bit beyond 🙄 .
busker lady
I accidentally pressed the shutter at the bottom of the stairs, but I like the result
happy accident
I have no idea what this musical dummy is for, I don’t think it can be for dressmaking judging by the boob area, you could rest your drinks on that ledge!
Booby Doll.
I am not sure why this fellow is dressed in the (pesky) Scottish National Costume, but he does look fetching I think.
Foxy Scotsy
actual health and well being.
Phil purchasing tat 🥴 🤣 ♥️
That’s it for this week! Stay tooned for where/whatever next time!
This week has been sodding selfie week, but also I have been away since Wednesday visiting my son Ben and his lady Charlotte, and Ben’s son Lewis, so doing pictures for this project has mostly been a quick snap on the iPhone as I wanted to focus on my little family.
On with the pictures! (Warning there’s a swear word in here somewhere).
Day 199 ~ Togetherness. ~ As we start another Picture You Week, remember including yourself in your 365 project is important BUT it doesn’t have to mean a week of selfies! That’s right! You can share just a little of you or something representative of you! Consider the details of your day as they relate to the prompts. As you can see from the photo above, I was able to document our get together with the “mermaids” without including very much and the best part of all? No one grumbled about having their photo taken. How will you photograph “just the details” and manage to include yourself too?
Have to say they didn’t look much like mermaids, I would have thought having a fishy tail would be a necessity, but they all had people legs. In spite of being an AFAC (airy fairy abstract concept) it wasn’t hard to fathom.
togetherness
Day 200 ~ Junk.~ My hubby wasn’t very happy with me when I told him we needed to take a photo with his Bronco for my prompt word “junk.” His exact words were “My Bronco isn’t junk!!” I just giggled at him and made him play along. He has owned this truck for 22 years but only drove it for 7 of those years, which is exactly why I consider it junk! When we started dating, we spent countless hours driving around getting to know each other personally (and romantically to be completely honest *wink, wink*) in this truck. To me it’s junk, but special junk for us both. My hubby is holding on to it hoping to one day get it running again. I hope you’ll be able to share with us something you have that you consider junk but aren’t willing to part with. Or maybe your “junk” isn’t something YOU consider junk – but other people do. There’s a lot of truth to the phrase “one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.” Don’t forget to include yourself in your photo with your junk today!
Frankly that was more information than I needed to know and seeing their legs sticking out of the front passenger door of the Bronco was just wrong. They had clothes on for heaven’s sakes, if you’re going to simulate car nooky *wink, wink* at least take your jeans off. Also I have to say there is no way that Bronco is ever gonna run again, it’s a shitheap. (That was the swear word) Anyway I don’t have any junk and said as much to Phil, and he said “what about all the stuff in your shed??” I was quite offended.
(not) junk
Day 201 ~ Contentment. ~ I have always considered myself to be content. I love life and I try to see the good all around me. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. One of the places I feel most content is when I get to spend time with my best friend, Marie. We have been best friends since the age of 5. We don’t get to see each other as often as we’d like but we do spend a weekend together every summer at her family cottage. I always have my camera with me when we visit as I like to capture as many details as I can of our time together. I think the smiles on our faces show how much our friendship means to both of us. What small things make you happy? What details can you capture today that represent contentment to you?
Today was not conducive to being content (another AFAC!) as work was full on ~ our office manager treble booked all my appointments for yesterday and today as I’m having 10 days off 🙄 so I worked my proverbials off, then when I got home I had to do ironing and packing for going away as I was setting off early the next day. I didn’t have time to do a ‘proper’ photo but found Winnie embodying contentment at the bottom of our bed. No I’m not in it but I’ll use the something representative of you part of this weeks prompts, and Winnie is my representative.
contentment
Day 202 ~ Heart. ~ What captures your heart? Don’t overthink it.
Congratulations to Mrs. Hypaethral for the shortest prompt ever, non AFAC too! This was an easy one for me. After a 4 & 1/2 hour drive I landed in Leighton Buzzard and got to hug my grandson Lewis. He stole my heart 11 years ago and still has it.
heart
Day 203 ~ Amusement. ~ Google defines amusement as “the state or experience of finding something funny.” It can also refer to an Amusement Park, something I love! I don’t know about you, but I can become quite easily amused when I get together with a particular group of friends. A simple look at one another can send us into laughter. When it comes to having a house full of cats, there is no shortage of funny moments. Today was laundry day and Lafayette always knows best. I don’t know what it is, but pets always seemed to be amused by whatever we humans are doing. Please show us what amuses you today. It could be a pet, an interaction amongst friends, a trip to an actual amusement park, or anything in between.
We decided to visit Willen Lake today at Milton Keynes. It comprises 180 acres of landscaped parkland which surround around 100 acres of water across two lakes. Both lakes are balancing lakes, the southern lake offers a wide range of activities on and off the water, whilst the northern lake offers a more natural and tranquil setting, ideal for quiet walks and spotting wildlife. Actually this was not a great idea. We walked round the lake in 30˚C (86F) heat, having stupidly not taken any drinking water with us. I did struggle a bit, but the kids did OK. Anyway, we thought this picture was amusing, as we always stick our tongues out when being photographed.
amusement
Day 204 ~ path. ~ It is the monthly Where I Stand prompt, it is good to get your feet into the photo, but if not possible don’t worry. I was walking along part of the coastal walk in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The whole trail is 630 miles long; we only did about 10 miles this day! I just love all the paths that the walkers create along this bit. Which path are you taking today?
Another nice prompt especially as we visited Rushmere Country Park this day. It was a. few degrees cooler and quite shady what with all the trees so a much better day all round.
path
Day 205 ~ interact. ~ Do you remember what you did on January 9th and April 3rd of this year? Do you remember the photo you took on that day? If not, go back and look because you will need to revisit that spot again today. These are my photos from the beach in front of my house. I cannot wait to show you what it looks like today in July! Today’s Picture Your World prompt invites you to photograph the same location four times throughout this year documenting the changing seasons along the way. You may choose a different perspective or choose to include different subjects in these repeating photos, but try to make it obvious to the viewer that they are seeing the same location. It is ‘picture you” week so you may want to include yourself or part of yourself “interacting” in your world. Once you have taken today’s photo, create a triptych using it and your January and April photo. There are many apps that make creating triptychs simple.
I’m amazed anyone can forget we are doing this ‘same shot in different seasons’ thing, especially as we’ve already done two, but I guess there may be some senile people doing the challenge. Anyways I hadn’t forgotten. Unfortunately this is the day I travelled back home, and after the long drive back at night I knew it wouldn’t be possible to take it on the day. So for the first time I pre-empted the prompt and went out on Wednesday evening to take the shot. I didn’t want to include myself as I hadn’t in any of the others and wanted a coherant series.
interact
and this is the large version. Interact seems a strange title to me but hey ho, whatever.
interact
Another sodding selfie week accomplished, not the best perhaps, but seeing my boys was the main thing for me this week. Back to normal life now, and this week we’ll be having adventures in ‘still life’ so stay tooned!
No more selfies for a while but now we are into ‘style’ and this week it’s all about street.
Day 66 ~ Choice. Street photography records everyday life in a public place and usually involves the taking of candid photographs of strangers. This week our goal is to include street photography in our daily photos. Challenge yourself this week to get out there with your camera and snap a photo of an unsuspecting stranger or two that you find interesting. As you’re out and about today, photograph a stranger or scene that you think tells a story.
I went on my daily walk around our estate to go to the local shop hoping to come across a stranger. I took Phil with me in case no one was about and I could cheat and use him, but I didn’t need to. I sent Phil to get the stuff and I sat outside on the wall and waited for someone to come out. This chap obliged and he’d bought a newspaper. Stop the press! ‘Man buys Newspaper!!!” Not the most enthralling story but it’s all I got 🤣 And I must say, I don’t see what ‘Choice’ has to do with any of it, but I may be dim.
Choice
Day 67 ~Signal. We are in Street Photography week and it’s Macro Monday. This is going to be a challenge. See if you can notice people signaling to each other. Or a sign that serves as a signal or warning. A traffic signal. A turn signal. Get creative. You can also stay back and crop in close to get your macro effect. The reason we take macro photos is to notice details. Look for details in your street photography. Get in close.
This was a work day for me and I got home late, so had to do my photo in the dark after dinner. We have a pedestrian crossing on the edge of our estate so I went up there with my tripod and did close ups of the crossing man and bike. They turn red for don’t cross and green for OK to cross so I turned it into black and white so you don’t know if you’re coming or going 🤣🤣 There was a fair amount of traffic so I’m glad it was dark and I couldn’t see the WTF?? look on anyone’s face. Also I think the little man is going to do a Charlie Chaplin waddle.
Day 68 ~ Interesting. These days, I am not out and about taking photos where there is much of interest going on. The streets I see are limited to those in my neighborhood that I travel on my morning runs. Though I do encounter quite a few others out for morning exercise, I am not comfortable taking photos of them. I am, however, quite comfortable photographing people’s trash piles! As you are out and about, look for an interesting object on the street. Photograph it such that we want to know its story, its history. You may be surprised by the interesting things you find.
Another work day so this one was a bit naff for me. I decided to do a photo on the way home from work so I wasn’t in the dark again. The lady who did this prompt has no knowledge of Wardley, everyone keeps their trash in bins and not in piles on the street. I dread to think where she lives. In fact there really isn’t anything madly interesting in Wardley, but I noticed up one of the side roads, the council must have planted rows of daffodils and purple crocuses in front of the bungalows there so I took a photo of them. I like that they do that all over South Tyneside, on the verges on main roads, side streets, anywhere there are spare bits of grass, so lovely to see them everywhere as spring starts up. Not sure if that’s ‘interesting’, but it’s very nice. I’m sure my council tax payments could be used for social care and the like, but damn it’s good to see spring!
Interesting
Day 69 ~ Dull. The meaning of the word dull is either:lacking interest or excitement or lacking brightness, vividness, or sheen. So, let us go with the second meaning. As you know, street photography is meant to have candid photos of people. This can’t always happen. If this is where you find yourself today, use who you have around; but, do include a person as this gives the photo an interest. Converting it to black and white for today’s prompt word will help, to not make it bright but dull looking!
It was chucking it down when I finished work and there was no way I was going out in it.Luckily I had some post to do at the Post Office, so after I’d done that I sat in the car and waited for people to come along and then take sneaky pictures with my phone. At first I was using the windscreen wipers to get a clear shot, but then I tried shooting through the rain and liked it better. Dull it is though.
Dull
Day 70 ~ Simplicity. Street (candid) photography is an art that features chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Though people are usually featured directly, a photograph can also be taken that is absent of people and can be that of an object. Take a walk and find a simple street scene of objects that tell a story.
My days off now so I took my usual walk up to the shop and back. Our estate has some small grassy areas for kids to play on, though no equipment like slides or swings. This one is a little bigger than the others and has a single goalpost in it. Reminded me of the simple joy lads and maybe girls these days have kicking a ball about, not much else is needed other than a ball and goalpost.
Simplicity
Day 71 ~ Coin. Find a penny, pick it up and all day you’ll have good luck! You might be hard pressed to find a coin since change has become a novelty. So as we continue on with Street Photography lets also be on the look out for circle shapes. You might find that lucky penny but if not maybe an architectural feature, some colorful street art or a cool manhole cover? Show us your lucky street find today!
I had no lucky street find today. Wandered about the place looking for circular things, but all I could find were these manhole covers for the underground drainage system. Neither colourful or cool I’m afraid. Sigh.
Coin
Day 72 ~ If you find that you have no mountains high enough to climb in your neck of the woods, maybe take a drive and see if you have a road or bridge that brings you high enough to look over a beautiful view. If you feel inclined, add some song lyrics to your photo. It’ll be like we are taking a road trip with an awesome playlist to listen to all day.
Argh. This was a trial of a day. Firstly I thought I’d pop over to South Shields and take the view from the top of Marsden Lane which has the sea at the bottom. It took me nearly half an hour to do 2 miles. Roadworks, diversions and the sheer volume of traffic which reminded me of those disaster movies where everyone packs up the car and trys to leave before the meteor hits/aliens land/tsunami arrives/zombies get them. I turned around as I got quite fed up and peed off at the knobs on the road. Came home, had a cup of tea and then decided I’d walk up to the nature reserve as that’s at the bottom of a little hill and you can see the lake from the top. This was not a pleasant walk, and whilst it looks all sunny blue skies, it’s been raining for a few days and I just missed a hailstorm before I left the house. So much mud! I hate mud. Mud and clarts everywhere.
This is why I don’t have a doggy.
So I took my shots from the top of the hill and this is the best one.
Enough
On the way back I had a biting cold wind at first head on, and then from the right and my poor ear got battered. I couldn’t figure out what ‘enough’ had to do with anything but realised it works for me as I’d completely had enough by the time I got home! That’s the end of Street week, though really I don’t think it’s very streety, I know street photographers and these are not in that league. Never mind, maybe next time!
I had to choose a song lyric for the last picture, I think that was what the enough was for, so my lyric is as follows
I am enough just as I am Feel right at home anywhere that I stand Hold out my heart in the palm of my hand And I live my life like nobody else can I am, I am, I am enough
The song is called, “I am enough” not surprisingly, and is sung by Daphne Willis, here it is with a very cool video.
Stay tooned for next week, adventures in Yellow . 🥴
For three days it rained non stop, right up to 11pm last night. Then we went to the kitchen about 11.30pm to make a cup of tea to take to bed and through the window we saw
Snow
It’s been a long time since we saw ‘proper’ snow and we ran to the conservatory and opened the door and stood watching, as big clumps of snowflakes floated to the ground, and stayed. It made us smile and wonder. The world was quiet all of a sudden, the traffic noises deadened in the whitening. I grabbed my phone to take some pictures, but it gives an other worldy orange filter to everything
So I took some from all our windows and converted them to black and white
We spent a long time watching it, and were glad that we could enjoy it and not have to go anywhere in the morning. But we got up this morning and it had gone. It left us as swiftly as it arrived, with only a vestige of it’s former self on the lawns and shed roofs. We sighed, our winter wonderland was a fleeting visitor, and I’m glad we didn’t miss it.
This blog is having a little break. I don’t have enough time to do anymore of the curated series, they take a couple of days to put together, and I haven’t been on any outings with the camera this year. Sophie and I had vaguely planned to meet up this weekend, socially distancing of course, but the weather put paid to that.
I’m doing a photography course which takes up some time and also a while back now I started a project after joining the 52 Frames challenge site and have been posting my pictures to the project section of this blog. These posts don’t show up in the reader for some strange reason, but you can find them here, https://fragglerocking.org/project-type/52-frames/ there’s a post every Sunday and so maybe I’ll see you there!
fraggle ~ rocking a camera across the Universe 
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