October 2021

It was a Sunday and I decided it was time I gave my camera a good workout. I have been using my smartphone only to such an extent that I wonder if my Canon thinks I don’t love it anymore. This story here I wrote in January is no fiction, it really happened. Autumn is the time I enjoy taking pictures most, this blog was started on the second day of September in 2015. So, workout the camera got and here are the results:

The leaves have only just begun to turn so I hope there will still be more!

Cats in the Park

I encountered these two cats on my walk in the park, the walk from my previous post.

I took several pictures of this cat, who looked like quite a young cat, perhaps still half a kitten. I first spotted her (I’m going to refer to this cat as “she/her”) at that tree in the back of this photo. She didn’t run when I walked closer to her, but instead focused on something, which I soon saw were two squirrels. She wanted to catch them, or one of them at least. However, both squirrels dealt with the predator easily by swiftly climbing up the trees. One squirrel even–and I swear to you, it did–taunted the cat by shaking its tail and letting out shrieking noises. In fact both squirrels made this noise, and it was the first time I’ve heard squirrels making any kind of noise. And I see squirrels all the time in Heaton Park.

This one ran away as soon as I started getting closer.

Home 2

Well, it’s been a while–and a long one at that–since I took part in a challenge on Some Photoblog!

Almost exactly two years ago, I posted an entry Home, hence the number 2 in today’s title. I had in my mind an idea of the comfort and cosiness of home, the warmth and blankets and cups of hot coffee or tea, the snug leisure wear, that sort of thing. As the days shorten and weather gets colder (in the Northern Hemisphere, of course!), this is appreciated even more.

I also made “home” a tag on my blog, although it only features a few posts so far.

A letter addressed to Poirot’s home, Whitehaven Mansions in London

Hercule Poirot, one of my favourite fictional characters ever, liked being at home–he was definitely not an outdoors person. Quite a contrast to your traditional English country squire, fond of sports and hunting!

My Amazon Prime app opened in my phone, showing my purchased films, all starring my favourite actor and celebrity crush Sam Claflin

I’m very much like Poirot in this, though I do like to take my walks and photograph the outdoors. Staying in and watching movies or TV shows on streaming is how I spend a lot of my free time. I have three streaming services, so there’s always something good to pick. I like a lot of stuff of various genres.

“You were saying?”

My home is not only a home for me, it is also where my cat Pepper lives. She doesn’t go anywhere else–she’s an indoor cat, and no doubt she considers herself the boss around here!

There is a lot I could write about the subject of home, with regards to immigration, for example (where is home, really?) but I’ve talked about it enough and I’m tired. So, I’ll end it here.

For the Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge – Home. I have enjoyed this, I will try to participate more often!

Halifax, West Yorkshire

Following on from the Shibden Hall post, the actual town of Halifax deserves its own entry too. So here it is.

The Minster:

The Minster inside:

Flowers growing outside the Minster:

Hill outside the town:

Shopping street:

Sign on the shopping street:

Some house I thought looked nice:

Fun fact: Halifax is also a bank, so if you’re in UK and Google it, you’re more likely to see results for the bank first, before you get to results for the town. It’s understandable; the bank is one of the largest ones here, with branches all over the country, and the town is not that big, nestled between the giants of Manchester and Leeds.

There is also, of course, the one in Nova Scotia in Canada. I knew about the Nova Scotia one before I ever knew there was one in England. That is because I started reading Lucy Maud Montgomery books long before I moved to England. I learned a bit about Canadian geography from reading L.M. Montgomery. She studied at the Dalhousie University in the Canadian Halifax.

Shibden Hall, Halifax

Shibden Hall is an estate in Halifax, West Yorkshire, that used to be residence of the Lister family, and is now a museum.

I visited the place and, naturally, this is the pics:

The diarist Anne Lister lived at Shibden Hall.

I took many, many photos here and it was a struggle to pick ones for the blog. Here’s some of the rooms:

fireplace in the kitchen
the study
portrait of Anne Lister, attributed to Joshua Horner
spill the tea!
Anne’s bed

At the back of the house there’s The Folk Museum; workshops with displays of traditional crafts such as blacksmith, wheelwright, cooper, etc.

Park surrounding the house:

Anne Lister is the subject of TV series Gentleman Jack, which was also filmed here (they’re about to film some Season 2 scenes here, or they might be doing it at the time of this post’s publication, unsure about exact dates). Suranne Jones plays Anne Lister and Sophie Rundle is Ann Walker, her last lover. I can’t comment in any way on it, as I haven’t seen this show.

I bought the customary fridge magnet at the gift shop. Also a pen. That is a new thing for me. Not buying pens, but buying pens from museum gift shops.