Driffield Church

This is the fifteenth century tower of All Saints Church, Driffield taken against the light, in fact against all that opticians advise, straight into the sun. 

The Weekend in Black and White continues here.

Cat on a cool car roof

This cool black cat saw me from a distance and kept staring straight through me in the way cats do. Seemed only reasonable to take his picture. The church reflected is Driffield church.

Autumn Glow

A touch of Autumn gold from the trees at the end of my street. 

Never trust the weather forecast. My last post tended slightly toward a diluvian apocalypse well, what do you know, it didn't rain at all and was fine all day and today is bright blue skies and sunshine. But tomorrow we are definitely promised more rain, believe when I see it.

A break in the clouds

For what seems like ages but in fact is only a few days we have been at the receiving end of rain front after rain front. Endless cloud and loads of rain. Still it has been really mild almost muggy. Last evening there was a break in the clouds, the sun poked through and lit up this cloud. More rain forecast for as long as they can see ahead. Now where did I put that gopher wood?

Colour Codes

OK I admit it's not the most exciting picture ever taken, nor yet the best composed but there's a reason for that I'll come to in a minute. What you're seeing here is a series of LED flags and like those maritime flags they're supposed to some special meaning, in this case it's a relationship with local groups or places. The sign below gives some sort of an explanation and also the reason why I couldn't take a better picture. The lights are controlled by the wind and within a minute of taking the picture they all went out. 

Hmmm. Anyhow there's a webpage with more about this (including a short video) written by the very man who thought it all up here.

A Coast To Boast About

Bridlington's South Beach is one of its main tourist attractions and keeping it clean is a big headache. Seems when there's been heavy rain the bathing water and the beach get contaminated from the nearby Gypsey Race and no-body likes bathing in dirty water. Mind you I can't recall seeing that many people bathing in the bracing North Sea anyway. So the local water company are installing a new storm drain and pumping station on the South Beach. A kilometer long pipe (floated over from Norway!) is being installed. Currently the whole place looks a mess but there's a big poster showing what it will be like when finished. We'll hardly know it's there and that'll be £40 million well spent. There's a webpage as you'd expect and it's here.

This gives some idea of the scale of the project.

What it should look like when finished in Spring 2014.

Four Legs Good ...

An extremely gloomy day with that rarest of things a warm stiff Easterly breeze blowing and Bridlington was fairly empty (and mostly shut) at this end-of-season time. If we'd gone the day before it was, we were told, "wonderful with bright blue skies"and "just like Summer". Hmmm. Anyhow in the harbour and quite out of proportion to its surroundings this hulk was quietly tethered up. It's a dredger of sorts, a much bigger version of the one I posted here. Looks like some serious digging going to to be done.

Meanwhile out in the bay another four legged beast was lurking but more of that in the next post.

Hull Fair

So, at long last, we reach Hull Fair which in one form or another has been going on for 720 or so years and is the largest travelling fair in Europe. Apart from this year bringing with it typical Hull Fair weather, cold, wet and windy the fair seemed to my delicate ears to be the loudest ever with every ride turning up the volume to 11. Here's a selection taken at dusk, the fair goes on till late at night but as I think I've mentioned before I'm not allowed out after dark ....

So that's Hull Fair over for another year.

Welcoming signs

Before we get to the Fair we must pass the KC Stadium. Up close the stadium is an ugly brute reminiscent of an overgrown steel can without any of the charm. Hull council splashed out £44 million for this monster in West Park nearly eleven years ago when times were much, much easier than now and the Council was flush with cash from the sale of the local telephone company. The stadium is home to two teams, the Premier League Hull City and the rugby league Hull Football Club, but as neither spherical nor elliptical balls interest me that much I've never been inside and besides they won't let me take my camera in ....(I've just checked and the cheapest tickets for an adult to watch a soccer match is £22. The last match I went to, admittedly going on for 35 years ago, cost less than £3 and I got to see Liverpool beat, I believe, Manchester City 5-0. Kenny Dalgleish scored a hat trick. I think that's enough footy for now.)

 

There's a website for the truly besotted, it's here.

Going to the Fair

So this is Hull Fair week, as I may have mentioned, and for a change I went via a new (to me) route across the rail tracks and scrub land that lies behind the KC football stadium. When the stadium was built this path was also put in to take visiting supporters directly from the rail/bus station to the ground and isolate them as much as possible from the city, much in the manner that Hull treated European emigrants passing through the city in the 19th century, that is as if they carry some contagious disease. It's a frankly stupid policy of shuttling thousands of visitors to the city in and out as quickly as possible when with a bit of guile they could be persuaded to bide a while in the town and perhaps spend a bit of money, but clearly Hull doesn't need their money. 

Anyhow once you're over this bridge the Fair hoves into view along with some spectacular giant Hogweeds, some six or seven foot tall and really rather splendid among the scrubby unkempt landscape. Quite what visitors to Hull make of this I don't know but I rather like it. Then there's one more little bridge to cross and you reach the KC stadium itself, the Fair is just on the other side of this.

Whirlybird

When you're walking along the street probably the last thing you expect to see is a helicopter taking off a few dozen yards away. I was on my way to Hull Fair (about which more later) when the police chopper arose from a patch of grass close by Hull Royal Infirmary. What it was doing there I know not but I took a few piccies for the record. 

Finally a plan ...

Welcome news that at last something will be done with this site that sits opposite the Deep, Hull's major tourist attraction, which must be off-putting to any visitor. This is become a centre for innovative digital companies, C4DI,  with the dry dock becoming a public amphitheatre! (see here). Yes I found it a bit difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Council agreed to this sensible and creative plan. After all there were the usual nay-sayers from the Civic Society wanting that derelict building with no roof saved as it was once a Georgian stable! (I cannot for one minute imagine that the Georgians paused and gave thought to the mediaeval hovels they knocked down to build this in the first place). When finished rumour has it 450 jobs might be created well whatever happens it's right next door to Humber Street and all that's going on down there and with plans for Castle Street to be improved it seems joined up thinking is going on at last. So the timetable is that in 18-24 months and with £14 million spent all this will be transformed. Well I can dream can't I?

Sudden Drop

This sign on the old dry dock near the mouth of the River Hull made me smile I don't know why. I posted about this dry dock some time ago when I mentioned that there were plans for a tourist attraction. Well now there are plans for something completely different but more about that in the next post.

Do you believe in Hull?

When I first saw these adverts I wondered if perhaps it was some silly campaign to drum up support for the City of Culture nonsense then I pondered the possibility that Hull was suffering from ontological insecurity? (After all Hull is no longer even in the worst 50 cities in the UK. If Hull's not crap then what is it?) Truth is neither of these was the case as it happens; this is just the latest gimmick dreamt up by the God-botherers desperate to rustle up some trade by saying Hull is a wonderful place (truly God works in a mysterious way).
Anyhow on a more serious note (am I ever frivolous?) it is reported that the Government is being urged to forget about failing towns like Hull (where I live) and Hartlepool (where I was born) and a host of others. Instead of pouring money into these places (did I miss out on this somehow?) the Government should help people to in effect abandon them or rather move to places where there is employment (the clever ones are doing this already, it's been going on for years). This help involves improving regional transport infrastructure instead of building the grand projects such as High Speed Rail.  In a thought provoking article that has got the Hull-lovers snarling and spitting obscenities The Economist magazine states some rather brutal opinions and some equally forthright solutions to perceived problems of high unemployment, poor education and a dependency on benefits. The Economist, of course, does not have to stand for election so it is free to posit politically suicidal solutions. I did, however, take to the idea that these empty cities would become like the Cotswolds in a few hundred years time because of the people fleeing them, now there's something to believe in.

Morning Glory

Well actually mid-afternooon glory. This little delight was blooming away just outside my front door yesterday afternoon enjoying the warmth of the October sunshine. Today it's turned pink and curled up as they do. Oh and the warmth has gone as well with a biting northerly wind setting in.

Poor little sods

Sometimes it's best not to think about how things got the way they are. So finding a palette of grass turfs on a patch of waste ground raises no eyebrows.

National Poetry Day

I've just found out that the first Thursday in October is National Poetry Day. And since I also just happen to have a piccy of  Laughing Boy Larkin's old place complete with slate plaque and glass fibre toad I thought the two would go nicely together. Now Larkin when he first came to this place thought Hull was "a frightful dump" "smelling of fish" but as the years rolled by and there was clearly no money left in running down the place Hull became "… a city that is in the world yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance’. Personally it's still a dump but both Larkin and the smelly fish have gone so it's not all that bad.

Gory details

Quite possibly the remains of a peregrine falcon's dinner dumped unceremoniously outside the Crown Court earlier this year.

More detailed posts at City Daily Photo's theme page here.

Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?

Seems we do in Cottingham at least.

Taken by Margot K Juby

Rubbish

Rubbish is how I've been feeling lately and when you feel that you are surrounded by a city full of trash it's probably not a good time to try to post 'nice' things on a daily photoblog. So until cheerier times this blog is going part-time.