On my previous visit to Cleethorpes last year, the new lifeboat station consisted of little more than a series of concrete pilings set into the beach and surrounded by a metal fence. You can just make it out in the first picture of this post from February 2024.
Now, although at the time of taking these shots there were still construction vehicles parked on the slipway, it seems to be almost complete and, given these pictures were taken over three months ago now, could well be fully operational (I said that in the voice of the emperor from Star Wars, as though describing the second Death Star…).
Yashica Mat 124G & Fujichrome Provia 100. Lab developed and home scanned on an Epson V850.
Sheffield has several rivers. The main river is the Don, but there are a number of smaller rivers that join it along it’s course, including the Loxley, the Rivelin, the Porter, and the Sheaf. The latter is where Sheffield derives it’s name: Sheaf Field.
For much of it’s length through the city centre, the Sheaf is subteranean, flowing through a series of man-made culverts and tunnels. One of these, named the Megatron, sometimes has guided tours!
The section of the Sheaf just above where it joins the Don is being uncovered as part of a new park on the site of the old castle site, and it can be seen in the photograph today beneath the ladder-like series of supports in the lower part of the image. The area to the left of the picture will form the park when the work is complete, and the river will act as a border and feature of the landscape.
If you’ve read this blog for a while then you may recall the occasional post I make where I moan about what a drag it can be sometimes to post every day (approaching five full years of consecutive posts now). Sometimes I just don’t have anything I want to say. Other times I have plenty to say but don’t have the time (or sometimes, the inclination) to put pen to paper (or, I guess, fingers to keyboard). Some days I’d just rather be doing something else.
I feel like I’ve been having a bit of a run of those days recently. That’s not to say that there haven’t been any longer posts – there have – but I feel like the frequency of the quick posts where I just fart out a sentence or two and have done with it has been on the rise.
I think this is a symptom of a wider issue I have where I feel I don’t have enough time. And this is true – I don’t. But it’s also true that I waste too much of the time I have doing things that probably don’t matter. Most often, this will be reading stuff online – not articles, features, or long-form pieces, but social media-type lightweight content. It’s like junk food – it’s very tempting, but it’s all empty calories.
Maybe there’s a new-year’s resolution in here. To stop wasting time with the stuff that doesn’t really matter – or at least cut back on it. In that half-hour I spend on Reddit (or wherever) I could have read a couple of chapters of a book, a good feature about something interesting and mentally nourishing, or maybe put together a longer blog post.
Ironically, as is always the case when I post about this stuff, I’ve written a lot more than usual, despite moaning about not having the time to do so.
Another new building project takes shape on Paternoster Row, near Sheffield Midland railway station. I don’t know what this will be, but I won’t be surprised to discover that it’s something else to do with the university.
This old iron bridge – I’m not actually sure if it’s officially named Iron Bridge as well – crosses the River Don at Nursery Street. It’s flanked on either side by modern concrete bridges carrying vehicular traffic across the river. From the viewpoint in both pictures you’re looking approximately southwest towards the city centre, which lies around half-a-mile distant.
The two new buildings under construction will be, most likely – although, again, I don’t know for sure – more apartment developments. I like how the one on the left currently looks like a very tall, thin castle.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
There always seems to be construction taking place in Sheffield, much of it seemingly either extensions to the university, or accommodation for the students. I don’t know what the subject of today’s photograph will be (and it might not be anything to do with the university at all), but it wll change the skyline and feel of the place in some new and previously un-experinced way.
Yesterday, when returning to my car after a rail journey, I looked down one road only to realise that another new building had now changed the look of the street completely. Where once the road curved away with low-rise buildings and a view of the sky, now these low-rises have a much larger and taller building rearing up behind them. I think it will make for an interesting picture, especially in its current partially-constructed state, so I will try and get down there with my camera soon,
This same feeling of change, where much travelled routes now feel strangely unfamilliar, is becoming much more commonplace. I wonder if this is just because of the pace of change, or perhaps the fact thatt I’m getting older and the new is becoming overlaid upon my memories of the old?
Whatever the case, this sunny day picture shot on Portra 800 (over-exposed a stop to 400asa) looks rather nice. The bright sunny conditions could have something (probably a lot) to do with this, but I much prefer how the film looks in these conditions than how it performed shot at box speed on an overcast day.
Olympus 35 RC & Kodak Portra 800 (shot at 400asa). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Steel City Snapper photography 