Pochard Confusion

Common Pochard ♂

I know you will have been worrying about this all day long and so, by way of clarification, Pochards in this country come in two varieties, common and red crested. In France however pochards are not ducks at all which reminds me à propos de rien that in the Lake District there's a pub called the Drunken Duck. I think that's enough ducks for one day.

Red Crested Pochard ♂ & ♀

Mute Swan

Here's a few swan photos for no reason, who needs a reason?

Higgledy-piggledy

Humber Street

What adjective would you use to describe a collection of derelict old warehouses that no-one has any real use for? If 'higgledy-piggledy' springs to mind and you follow that with 'charm' and then you're well on your way to the grand folly of 'regeneration'. These buildings have been left unloved and unoccupied for ages; by rights they should have been demolished and replaced years ago. But now, as there's a fashion to use the area for 'arts' and other small ventures, it would be unwelcome to say the least to have them falling down on passers-by. Somehow the Council, which never fails to inform us that it's strapped for cash, found over £3 million to throw at the problem which was entirely of its own making. It is the nature of money pits to devour cash and so an extra million or so has been conjured up ... higgledy-piggledy charm, it seems, is expensive.

It being the start of a new month the theme for City Daily Photo is "If you had to leave forever the city from which you usually post, what would you miss most?". I have given the matter some thought and what follows is an exhaustive list ...

Temporary Closure

while I take a short break from the hectic life of a Hull and Hereabouts' snufflehound and take that big old black dog out back and well .... laters.

As good as gone

After a delay of a year or two (that's no time at all really) the Arc [ 1, 2, 3 ] is finally being packed up and moved on. The turbines came down a few weeks back and now, the "unique modular buildings" (yes, the estate agents did call them that) have been sold and are on their way out leaving yet another vacant lot.

Finkle Streets

There are lots of Finkle Streets scattered among towns in the north of England. No-one is quite sure what 'finkle' means but the current best guess is a corner, bend or elbow; Finkle Streets tending to have an bend in them at some point. I know it sounds a bit tenuous but I don't make the rules. There's always an exception and Finkle Street in Cottingham is as straight as a Roman road. This Finkle Street runs or rather ran from old Mytongate (now the Castle Street/A63 dual carriageway) to Blanket Row and beyond where it bent round to the Humber. It's now nothing at all really and you wouldn't know it was there; there's no street sign or buildings or anything to let you know it existed. I only stumbled upon it and its history by reading an excellent little article by a local historian.

Common Gulls

Well the first dusting of snow in two years thankfully melted away before I could get any pictures. Here's one I took earlier, much earlier, these are Common Gulls (Larus canus, the grey gull!)  in Pearson Park where they gather en masse to steal the bread out of the beaks of the ducks. Snow is just snow; you've seen one load of it you've seen the lot. I can live without thank you.