I just stumbled across this picture; I think I saved it with the intention of blogging it, which I have now done. But I haven't a clue where this is. Any ideas?
There is a strange beauty to this massive, ugly hole.
UPDATE - I totally didn't realise (my mum and dad spotted it) that the picture title contains the name of the quarrey. It's Blaydon Hill, which is near Shrewsbury.
I don't upload pictures to Flickr as much as I did a few years ago. I have less time these days to just go out and take pictures. In fact, I have a reasonable-sized backlog to process and upload. Perhaps I'll get round to it soon.
Anyway, I was just browsing my account and looking at my stats, and was amazed to see how many views some of my pictures / found images have garnered. And then I decided that I'd share with you the top ten most viewed uploads; if other people like them, perhaps you will too.
1) The Bull Ring Centre and Rotunda, Birmingham. Postcard. Number of views - 6,948; favourited - 22 times (since 9th September 2006).
This is a view that sums up Birmingham in the 1960s. The car was king; pedestrians and shoppers were at the margins, scuttling through subways. There is an 18p stamp, and the card has been (heavily) franked 'Birmingham 1988'. The message on the back reads as follows:
'To David, hope you succeed in getting into the Guines (sic) Book of Records. Best wishes, and god (sic) luck love Shralyn Joyce'
The postcard is addressed to David, C/O Miss McWilliams, St Martin De Porres Infant School, Luton, Beds. The junk shop owner (I bought this postcard in Otley) told me that he thought it was one of many that were sent to David as part of a world-record postcard collecting attempt.
2) Police Box. Original Photograph. Number of views - 2,251; favourited - 22 times (since 3rd June 2006).
This style of police box was introduced in the 1920's, and usually contained the following items: a first aid kit, an incident book, a stool, a table, brushes and dusters, a fire extinguisher and a small electric heater. The BBC holds the trademark for this design. This example is in Wetherby.
3) Dewhirst's and Marks & Spencer. Original Photograph. Number of views - 1,042; favourited - 1 time (since 28th May 2006).
Part of my almost complete Blue Plaques of Leeds set, and (in my opinion) a surprise top-ten entry.
4) House Bus. Original Photograph. Number of views - 1,040; favourited - 3 time (since 1st August 2006).
Abbot's House Farm, Goathand, North Yorkshire.
5) Montgomery Square, Wath-upon-Dearne. Postcard. Number of views - 849; favourited - 3 time (since 20th September 2006).
Another found postcard; this one has no stamp, so I guess the card was either hand-delivered or simply never sent. The message reads:
Dear Kate, do you know where this is? How are doing (sic) with your swimming now? It will soon be your holidays again won't it. Did the fair come to The Butts last week? Andrew has a practice today in York - ready for next sunday when they are broadcasting a concert on the radio, but I don't know what time yet. Only 10 more weeks to Christmas now. I must make my cake and pudding soon. Have you written your letter to Father Christmas yet? What are you hoping for this year? Love Grandma & Granddad xxx.
6) The Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Postcard. Number of views - 834; favourited - 4 times (since 9th September 2006).
A second top-ten entry for a second-city postcard. The Rep shown was built in 1971, just off Broad Street; It was opened by Princess Margaret, and the first play featured Patricia Routledge. The message reads:
'Hello David, hope you succeed with your record breaking bid. Best wishes, Mrs L Evans'
7) Unidentified Flying Objects. Original Photograph. Number of views - 779; favourited - 0 times (since 14th May 2006).
I captioned this photo as follows: 'It pays to have your camera handy at all times, even when doing the washing-up. I looked up to see these two unidentified flying objects hurtling towards our flat from the west, and managed to get a couple of shots before they passed overhead.
On reflection, the picture, taken from the kitchen window of our flat in Cross Gates, might have been a little, er, staged.
8) Red Bus Cafe. Original Photograph. Number of views - 691; favourited - 5 times (since 9th September 2005).
Since taking this picture, the hatch has been moved to the rear, due to some kind of planning dispute.
9) Brooklyn Bridge. Original Photograph. Number of views - 666; favourited - 2 times (since 28th December 2005).
Brooklyn Bridge (along with with Manhattan Bridge in the background) connects Manhattan Island to Brooklyn. The bridge was opened in 1883 after fourteen years of building.
We were lucky enough to get the chance to take a holiday in New York and Boston in December 2005. For reasons unknown, this is the most viewed of my holiday snaps.
10) 130. Found Photograph. Number of views - 594; favourited - 2 times (since 6th September 2006).
I was leafing through some old pictures and came across this; it shows an old Midland Red open-backed double-deck bus on Whitehall Road, Halesowen (my home town). The view is very different today. Whitehall Road is now a one-way street; the terraced houses are all gone (I think maybe two or three are still standing). Mucklow Hill, in the background, is now a dual carriageway hemmed by industrial units.
I have no idea from where the photo originated, but I recall using it for research for an art project at secondary school (which, by coincidence is located a few hundred yards behind the houses on the left of the picture). My guess for the date of the photo is some time in the 1950s.
Let's be honest - we've had worse.
Just two years after the Second World War, and still many years away from the end of rationing, Britain experienced what some folks say was the worst winter in living memory.
The bad weather began on 21 January 1947; heavy snows and high winds quickly led to drifts that blocked roads and railways. Deliveries of coal supplies stalled, causing many power stations to shut down. The government found it necessary to introduce measures to cut power consumption, including restricting the use of domestic electricity to nineteen hours per day (and cutting industrial supplies completely), limiting radio broadcasts and suspending television services, and ordering the suspension of some magazines (oh how I wish this had applied to all of the trashy lifestyle magazines and wasteful free-sheets of today).
The freezing weather lasted throughout February, when the nation began to fear food shortages as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground. A quite rapid thaw arrived in mid-March, which led to widespread flooding. The Army and foreign aid agencies were forced to provide humanitarian aid to the 100,000+ properties affected.
A quick trawl of the YouTube netted parts one and two of a reminiscence of the winter of '47, including footage of the time and memories of people who were there:
But in fact this was not the worse winter in living memory. That title belongs to the winter of 1962 - 63, which is considered to the be the third coldest in England since records began in 1659 (and who amongst us can ever forget the coldest, in 1683 - 84?).
A cold easterly set in on 22nd December, and a belt of snow became almost stationary over southern England on Boxing Day. The following day a foot of snow covered much of southern England. In contradiction of our rose-tinted memories of how we used to cope, transport was brought to a standstill and sporting events were cancelled en masse. And this was just the appetiser. On 29 and 30 December a blizzard across south-west England and Wales left drifts six metres deep which left villages cut off and brought down power lines.
When the snow wasn't falling during January, the country simply froze solid. Daytime temperatures rarely and barely crept above freezing, and night frosts produced a temperature of -16°C in places as far apart as Gatwick and Eskdalemuir. Freezing fog was a frequent hazard, though the spectacular rime deposits that built up over successive days were said to be beautiful.
Also in the month of January the sea froze for 1 mile at Herne Bay in Kent, and there was speculation that the whole of the Strait of Dover would suffer the same fate. Ice floes appeared on the Thames at Tower Bridge.
The first week of February saw a 36-hour blizzard in most parts of the country. Drifts reached 20 feet in some areas. A quiet period mid-month was broken by even more snow arriving in the north of England. The weather pattern at end of this month mainly consisted of cold but clear and sunny days with severe night frosts and freezing fog.
At the beginning of March came the thaw, gradual at first, then rapid. Very quickly, a temperature of 17°C was noted in London, and the snows vanished into the ground and the earth softened.
And to hear people moaning today; anyone would think they'd just lived through a devastating earthquake or something. Get a grip and grow a pair.
I really like Thomas de Bruin's Google Earth Alphabet series, and admire the time it must have taken to put the mosaics together.
There's upper case, lower case (pictured above) and numbers and punctuation. It makes me want to fire up Google Earth and compile an aerial alphabet of Yorkshire. (Via BoingBoing.)
Also on the subject of a letters, Dave Gorman has put together a collection of single-letter shutter graffiti by an artist called Eine. Very urban!
I see from the entry page for Refuse Services on the Leeds City Council website that the closing date for the 'Community and City Pride Awards 2009' is fast approaching.
I think perhaps I will nominate the private contractors who came early on Saturday morning (without notice - luckily I decided to leave the bins out just in case) to collect our household waste (only the third collection in the eight weeks since the strike began).
Maybe they thought they were helping by emptying the contents of our two recycling bins (plus next doors, which we had filled also) into the back of their wagon. I didn't see them do it, but found the green bins in our street had been emptied after the crew had passed through. I called the council yesterday, who confirmed that no recycling collections are being made during the strike.
Brilliant. So that's nine weeks worth of recycling that has been made into general refuse and dumped in the ground. If anyone should know about the importance of recycling, it is a binman. I know the council really wants to privatise the refuse collection service in Leeds. If this is indicative of the quality and intelligence of the private contractors they hope to use, we all might as well hand back our green bins.
The strike looks set to continue for a while yet.
In down under news, Sydneysiders woke up yesterday morning to find their city engulfed in a massive dust storm, and their streets, parks and waterways transformed from a sunny late winter morning to a martian cityscape.
More pictures, including some neat before / after shots, can be seen over at The Big Picture.
It's a good job that this kind of thing doesn't happen in Leeds. Right now, there is no-one to sweep-up afterwards. For the last weeks, the refuse collection services provided by the City Council have been on strike.
Reports of rubbish bags piling up in the streets seem to be true, but not for my neighbourhood. The council has brought in private contractors and are currently operating a fortnightly collection. This suits us, as I reckon it would take three weeks for us to fill up our black bin. The big question is whether the recycling bins will be emptied next week; if not, our yard will head towards Autumn with an increasing amount of bin-bags lying about.
I have certainly noticed that litter bins of Leeds have been full to overflowing quite a lot in recent days, and the excess rubbish has been spilling out onto the streets. This is noticeable even when considering modern man's increasing willingness to drop litter.
The council website FAQ's only tell the reader that the strike relates to pay, and that they are seeking to introduce a pay review that offers female workers a fairer pay deal. What it doesn't fully explain is that rather than increase the pay of women, it would prefer to reduce the pay of male workers. The GMB reckon that some workers would lose up to £6,000 per year. Deadlock appears to have been reached, with council leader (one one of my three local councillors) Richard Brett currently standing firm and allowing his scabs / private contractors (delete as appropriate) to operate a reduced service.
Local talk is that the council's long-term aim is to maybe privatise the refuse services. What an excellent idea - this definitely will result in a better, less costly service.
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted within some of the photos taken in and of my yarden (it's a yard / garden, do you see?) a green tray. This is my wormery. After it became apparent that a 330 litre compost bin would not be suitable for our modest city-space, Gemma bought me a wormery starter pack. So far, it is doing well.
The instructions for setting up the wormery were quite extensive, and there was more to it than I had assumed. You certainly can't just throw in a bunch of food waste on day one; this would result in a box full of rotting food and dead worms.
In preparation for introducing the worms to the green plastic box, I firstly need to hydrate a block of coir (coconut fibre) as a kind of base. This takes some hours, but when the coir has absorbed all of the water and expanded from it's original size many times, it can be crumbled into the tray and mixed with a little compost. I then introduced the worms, gave them some worm food (supplied), and buried them under a couple of inches of damp, shredded newspaper.
I was not allowed to add and food waste at this stage; the worms needed time to adjust to their new habitat. They love newspaper and cardboard, and this is helpful to their environment as it helps them to breathe. I also needed to take care to keep things nicely damp; too dry or too wet can cause serious problems.
The food that comes with the pack was enough to sustain them for a couple of weeks. Once they had settled in, food waste could at last be added, a little at a time to start with. They like it ever-so-slightly mouldy, and will happily devour all vegetables (except Onions and Citrus Fruits), tea and coffee, bread, cereals, pasta and rice, garden waste (not grass cuttings; no danger there - we haven't a lawn), and even human hair and the bedding from our gerbil. They also benefit from crushed eggshells, which help with the digestion.
Three months in, and the wormery does not at all smell. This is as promised; the only aroma given off is a kind of damp, earthy smell. I'll need to wait a while for any liquid compost to be produced. This can take many months to start dripping down into the catch tray.
If the worms are in any way unhappy with their environment, they will apparently indicate this by trying to escape. I guess right now they are exceedingly happy with their lot.
