Another in my set of unseasonably snowy November photos. The last in the set in fact.
This temprary bar forms part of the Christmas Markets (or did – I’m not sure if they’re still there) and is situated in the Peace Gardens beside Sheffield town hall (the building at rear left). The other building is the Mercure Hotel, part of the St. Paul’s Square complex that was built on the site of the old town hall extension.
There’s a fountain beneath where the bar is sat, so I hope it didn’t get unexpectedly turned on!
My wife put up our Christmas tree and the trimmings on Monday. Normally I would help with this, but my input this year consisted mainly of carrying all the boxes downstairs. This was mostly because I had to travel into my local office on the day for my fourth attempt at getting my laptop upgraded to a new build. It fell through again, so there will now be a FIFTH attempt next Monday. I could provide details of the whole sequence of events, but they’re really not very interesting.
So, back onto the decorations, my main involvement this year will be to put up the exterior lights on the front of the house, which I think I’ll do this weekend. It’s not too difficult – we have a small first storey roof that runs across the front of the house, so it’s just a matter of using the step-ladder to attach some clips to the guttering and then attach the lights. Probably about a half-hour’s work. We shall see…
The photo today is of the big Christmas tree in Sheffield town centre outside the town hall. It doesn’t seem as tall as the ones I remember from my childhood, although whether this is just one of those misrememberings that you get when recollecting childhood memories, I don’t know.
The Christmas market is in Sheffield this year again – I don’t think it was there last year due to the pandemic lockdowns that were in place. The market has had quite a lot of complaints on local social media apparently (although I’ve learnt to try and avoid local social media lest I gnash my teeth to powder at the ignorance and general crappy attitudes that prevail). Apparently it doesn’t compare favourably to previous years, or in comparison with the markets in some other places around the country. Too many food stalls and not enough gifts and other non-edible gifts are amongst complaints I’ve heard.
I think we should be grateful that the current situation is allowing the market to take place at all. It might not be at it’s best (although it looked pretty much like every other UK Christmas market I’ve visited) but maybe let’s give it a bit of leeway given the current global situation.
It’s very rare to see these markets with snow present (apart from the fake variety) as it’s unusual that we get any before Christmas. Even though it was wet and slushy and mostly gone, it was definitely a little bit festive to see these seasonal (not really) weather conditions.
This is the second version of this post. The first one was about how the short and gloomy winter days are getting me down somewhat this year, but it made for somewhat depressing reading, so I scrapped it.
The days can be very gloomy during the winter though – it’s just after 4pm as I write this and it’s almost fully dark outside. Normally this wouldn’t be the case for another hour at this time of the year, but we’ve got some heavy rain today and the clouds have blocked what little natural illumination we might otherwise have had.
We were due to go out shortly for a family meal, but one of my boys went out with friends last night and had a few celebratory drinks too many so we’ve had to cancel and re-book as he has had a hangover all day. With the wisdom of age I can easily preach to him about the foolishness of drinking too many beers and the price that comes with them, but I’ve got plenty of hangovers of my own under my belt from when I was young which prevent me getting on too high a horse. So the meal will take place tomorrow instead when hopefully we will all be in a fit state to enjoy it.
My other son will now be having some takeaway pizza instead which, from the look on his face when I told him, I think he prefers anyway. Not sure if the rest of us will have the same (or if Mister Hungover will want some – pizza is great at the end of a night out drinking, but I can’t remember if it maintains its allure the following day), but we shall see shortly.
Today’s picture is of Park Hill Flats, a sheffield architectural landmark that has featured here on the blog on a few occasions previously. I made this photo after the shot of the magick studio, and before the picture of the pigeons I posted yesterday. It was taken from the footbridge over the road and shot through the railings.
I was concentrating so much on getting the horse – which was moving around slowly – in sharp focus that I didn’t notice it was sticking it’s tongue out when I fired the shutter…
Standing in the snow Making rude gestures to men Making photographs
The final snowy Holga shot today, unless I make more We have had a snow warning for the coming weekend…
This water-side willow tree has featured a number of times previously in the blog. It (and a couple of other trees) tends to make a nice point of interest on this section of the lakeside, which is otherwise a little bland.
The ground here, despite it looking nice and snow-covered in the photo, gets very waterlogged, and I had icy mud pouring across the toes of my boots as I walked. Good job they’re waterproof! The geese were a little wary of my presence, and quite a few of them skedaddled out of the scene before I made the picture, but I still got enough of them in the frame, I think.
A snowy lakeside Geese forage in the wet earth My boots are soaked through
The penultimate image from the roll I put through the Holga in the snow. Taken at Rother Valley Country PArk, looking back towards two former railway bridges, remnants of the time when this was an area dedicated to coal mining. The foreground bridge is disused and, while you can get up on top of it without any restrictions, it just carries a track through the trees, the stonechippings on the ground a reminder that it once bore railway tracks.
The bridge in the background now carries the Trans Pennine Trail on the section heading south towards Chesterfield.
Many locos once Carried coal across these spans An industry lost
I think that this is my favourite shot from the roll I put through the Holga on the recent snowy day (although not the most recent lot though. We had another fall this morning that caused chaos for early morning drivers on their way to work – my wife included).
I like the way the birches lean across the path here and the snow adds a special touch. The lone figure further down the path is the icing on the cake.
Footprints and bike tracks Evidence of exercise On a winter’s day
I’m tempted to start throwing in the lyrics of the Grandmaster Flash classic. 🙂
Today’s photo is one that I’ve made before, from almost exactly the same spot, using the same camera and film. Apart from the fact that I pushed this roll by a stop, the technicalities of the picture are almost identical. The only real difference is the conditions when the images where made. I’ve published the original picture before here, but will add it to this post too so they can both be easily compared.
Two pictures the same But seperated by time Such differences
First the new image, made a couple of weeks ago:
And the older image, made in April 2020:
Holga & Ilford HP5+ (@800). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20° – older shot made at 400asa and devved for 9mins.
The next in a sequence of photographs which, if you know the area, kinda maps the route I took when out walking on the day they were made. There are a few gaps where I’ve omitted some of the shots from the roll (and, unless I change my mind, the next one will have a gap of half-a-mile or so from today’s).
I guess this image might have been improved by a person waiting at the stop, but no-one was in need of a bus at the time, so it’ll have to remain human-free.
Quiet roads of white Unused shelter sits empty Folks stay home instead
I’ve now managed a full month of haiku’s too. I’m not suggesting they’re good haiku’s, but haiku’s they are. 🙂
Steel City Snapper photography 