Walking across the fields towards Tideswell was something of a test. The footpath passed throught a whole bunch of fields with a stone stile forming part of the dry-stone walls to be climbed between each. While I’m not getting any younger, stiles dont generally pose me much of a problem, but on this day I discovered that my hiking boots don’t grip very well on limestone, particularly that which has been worn smooth by countless other feet! This meant I had to be super careful climbing over each and every one.
The route took me past a field of cows though, and one of them walked over to look at me with a curious gaze, so I made a portrait.
A curious cow Walked away from its herd mates To see what was up
I’ve had a bit of an indulgent weekend, having dined out for lunch with my wife two days running. The food has been good on both days, although we ate too much yesterday and felt stuffed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It means that I’ve not been out making any photographs this weekend thoug. In fact, against my general rule of alway carrying a camera, all I had with me was my phone – and all that got used for was some pictures of out food to share with family members, plus some selfies. Not the sort of subject matter I generally go for.
But, while I haven’t made many new pictures this week, this is offset to a degree by the fact that I have a decent-sized backlog of unpublished images made over the preceding weeks. In fact, ignoring the Yashica Mat images I’m currently uploading, I have five full rolls of 36-exposure negatives to publish (although not every shot, of course!). Four of the rolls are scanned (or nearly scanned) already, and the fifth roll was developed and sleeved ready for scanning today. I’ll probably get started on those later in the week.
Because I don’t tend to bulk-upload images, instead uplaoding just two or three to my Flickr account each day, it’ll likely be some time before many of these photos are featured here on the blog. Whether I’ll let this continue, or if I’ll choose to try and catch up somehow, I don’t currently know. Given I’m not using the photos as some sort of cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute viewpoint on what I’m doing though, it probably doesn’t matter.
So, for today, here’re a couple of photos from Miller’s Dale taken almost four weeks ago.
My photography Can sometimes feel a bit like A compulsive need
A few weeks ago I wrote about my exhausting hike through Monk’s Dale. Today I’ll share a couple of photos from the hike – or at least the most difficult part through the steep-sided and heavily wooded limestone gorge.
This first image was a point of great relief. It looks back into the gorge that I had just exited through the gap in the wall. Ahead of me lay only a short section of grassy fields before I reached the road (although I then had to hike up the steep incline to the top). The photo is nicely atmospheric but doesn’t really convey the sweat-dripping tiredness I felt at this point.
This next image was taken part of the way through the thickly wooded area and shows the thick, dripping moss that covered the stones and trees at the foot of the valley. What it doesn’t convey is the autumnal orange colour that this moss displayed.
The valley is a very interesting place photographically, but I’m not sure if I’ll venture back just yet.
My path wandered through A place of rocks and woodland Humid and mossy
This “amusing” play on the Alec Guiness WWII movie title has been forced upon my readership once before. But this is a different bridge, so I’ll wheel out the rubbish joke once more. 🙂
Cross the River Wye Prisoners of war might not Have built this one though
New Era Square is a recently completed development to the south of the city centre, just the other side of the ring-road that circles the middle of town. It consists of three building surrounding a pedestrian plaza and has been dubbed in the local press as “Sheffield’s Chinatown”, and “Sheffield’s very own version of New York’s Times Square” apparently, although the latter would seem a little on the ambitious side.
One of the features of the development is a family of three eye-catching panda statues. A public campaign sought names for each of the trio from the readers of the local paper, The Star. The final names chosen were Little Mester, who sits on a bench – named in reference to the small cutlery workshops which used to be numerous in the city; Coe Coe, a small panda climbing one of the building columns – named after Sebastian Coe, the Olympic athlete who lived in Sheffield as a boy; and Hendo, the largest of the three pandas which was mounted on the roof of one of the buildings for a while, but who now sits in the plaza, and is named after Sheffield’s much-loved local delicacy, Henderson’s Relish (or Hendo’s as it is generally known).
I don’t have a close-up photo of Coe Coe, but he can be spotted in one of the images featuring Hendo and Little Mester if you look carefully.
Not Winnie the Pooh Nor Baloo. But pandas are A type of bear too
Even the Women of Steel statues in Sheffield city centre are taking precautions. Well, one of them is at least. The one on the left is showing blatant disregard for social distancing guidelines while not wearing a mask. Perhaps the anti-vaxxer movement has even found a hold in the staue community…
Finding some humour In a public health crisis You have to laugh, eh?
I’ve been very impressed with the quality of the images from the tiny Olympus XA3. Given the zone focus system I wondered if they might not have the sharpness I might expect in comparison with a camera that allows full focusing and control of aperture, but it makes tack-sharp photos.
I’ve often heard said That you might find some good things In small packages
The branch of Debenhams shown in today’s post has been in Sheffield since 1973 when it replaced Paulden’s department store. It closed for good (along withe every other branch of the store) in May 2021, the mandated closure of non-essential retail businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic hammering the final nail into its coffin.
It marked a double-whammy for Sheffield as there were not just one, but two seperate branches of Debenhams in the city. The one shown here at the top of The Moor, and another, more recent branch, in the Meadowhall shopping mall.
There are not many Department stores left in town I hope some survive
The John Lewis department store in Sheffield can trace it’s history back to 1847. It was originally a silk mercer and hosier founded by brothers John, Thomas and Skelton Cole and traded under the name Cole Brothers. The Cole Brothers business was sold to Selfridge Provincial Stores in 1920 which was itself then bought by John Lewis during the Second World War.
The store continued to trade under the Cole Brothers name in Sheffield and moved to new premises in Barker’s Pool in 1963. The store expanded further when the former primitive methodist chapel, Bethel Chapel, which sits across the road from the main building on Cambridge Street, was purchased to house the offices. Later, these secondary premises would house the toy and sports departments. The store branding has now been removed, but the upper floors of this building can be seen in the image below.
In 2002 the store was formally re-branded to John Lewis. In 2021 it was announced that the store would be closing permanently. The main entrance to the building is covered with messages from staff, customers, and Sheffielders recounting memories of working in and visiting the store and lamenting its loss.
Hearts on store window A lament to memories past Working and shopping
A quick post today as it’s almost time for our Saturday-night movie – we’ve been watching the whole MCU series in release order for the past few months, one movie per week, and are now almost at the end – just Avengers: Endgame tonight, and then Spider Man: Far From Home next week and that’s all twenty-two viewed in sequence. Then we’re done until Black Widow gets it’s belated release in a couple of months. We’ve also had a Chinese takeaway and I’m feeling stuffed to the gills with all manner of dishes.
Anyway, here’s a photo of a small passageway in the centre of Sheffield that I’ve never noticed before. I always presumed it was an entrance to the office building beneath which it passes, but it’s actually a thoroughfare!
Lots of Chinese food Now I’m ready for Thanos And his comeuppance
