The spiky looking bridge in the first picture below provides an alternate route across the railway tracks in Lincoln when the level crossing barriers are closed. It crosses the same road where yesterday’s blog photograph was taken. The bridge was nicely backlit and I noticed some lovely silhouettes of pedestrians crossing. Unfortunately, when I got in a position to take the picture they’d all left or were walking at the far side of the bridge where they couldn’t really be seen. After waiting 15 minutes to see if the scene would replicate itself, I eventually left to find other pictures to take. I did take the shot of the signal box before I left the scene though (another picture of the signal box may make an appearance in a future post…).
The main railway line through Lincoln crosses a number of busy roads, necessitating the use of level crossings. While level crossings are quite common in the countryside, and probably in some other towns and cities, there are relatively few of them in Sheffield (five according to this website), where I live – although, that being said, there is one only a mile from where I live.
Which makes the situation in Lincoln quite novel for me. Level crossings are the only real place where you have an opportunity to take photographs of railway lines while actually on the tracks (without trespassing) as long as the barriers are raised, and in Lincoln this makes for interesting compositions like the one in today’s picture.
It’s turned very warm and humid here over the past 24 hours and I’m not in a mind to write much for the blog today (and I have a videogame that has my attention calling out for me to play! 🙂 ).
This single track railway line heads north from Bridlington, passing through Bempton, Hunmanby and Filey, before joining the line to Scarborough at Seamer. I have a fond memory of Seamer despite never having stepperd foot in the place. When I was young we would visit my godmother (who was one of my mum’s childhood friends) who owned a Bed & Breakfast at Filey, and stay there for a summer holiday. I can’t remember how many times we did this, but at least a couple of times, and maybe more.
I haven’t heard anything of my godmother for a very long time, or her three daughters, but seeing Seamer on a map or signpost reminds me of these holidays as it’s where the train would split off the Scarborough line to Filey.
There’s a hint of Stephen King’s story, The Body (made into the movie Stand By Me) about this picture, I think.
The photo today is the view north from the bridge depicted in yesterday’s blog post. No trains were forthcoming (although I didn’t hang about to be fair).
Today I crossed a hurdle in my Couch to 5K running plan. After suffering my calf injury on my first attempt (on week 1, day 3) I rested the sore leg for a couple of weeks before starting afresh. My progress so far has been steady with no further injuries, and no failed attempts at any of the runs – I am running at an embarrassingly slow pace though!
This week say me reach week 5 of the plan, one which I had felt some apprehension about. Week 5 (as is week 6) is a transition week where you move from shorter runs interspersed with brisk walking, to longer runs, culminating in a full 20-minute run on the third day. A few short weeks ago the thought of running for twenty minutes straight seemed impossible – even running for 90 seconds felt like an achievement – but, gradually, as the weeks passed and my fitness and stamina improved, I began to feel more confident about it. The second run of this week was two 8-minute runs broken by a 5-minute brisk walk, so not too much of a difference, and I managed that session without any real difficulty.
So, late this morning, after my breakfast had had time to digest, I did my warm-up, got dressed in my running gear, and headed out. After the 5-minute warm-up walk I began to run at my usual slow pace, a podcast my companion for the duration. Every so often – at five, ten. fifteen and, finally, eighteen minute intervals, the Laura’s voice on the C25K app let me know my progress, finally declaring that I had finished and that I should be proud of the achievement!
And I am. I’m not quite there yet – the final goal is to be able to run for a full 30-minutes non-stop – but it feels within reach now. Just a few more weeks to go.
My legs are aching But now it’s in a good way Feeling fulfillment
Another photograph from near West Burton power station. This is a shot I’ve thought of making for quite some time and have looked at the location on Google Streetview to get an idea of the view. Unfortunately, Google uses super wide-angle lenses on it’s Streetview vehicles which makes it a little difficult to ascertaing what the view might be through a longer lens, and all I had with me on the day was my Zeiss Mess-Ikonta and Canon Sure Shot Supreme – both of which have fixed focal length lenses, with the Supreme’s 38mm being the widest.
Still, this opportunity arose mostly because this location is pretty close to North Leverton windmill, which had been my primary location for the trip, so I’ll chalk this up to a first attempt and will hopefully get out there again at some point to have another attempt, probably with a zoom lens to afford me some additional flexibility.
All things considered though, I like this quite a lot. My original thought was to have the cooling towers fully visible, but their hidden, but looming presence works well.
Steel City Snapper photography 