Some pictures must be taken, some things must be blogged. Photography and pop culture.
It’s actually only one canal–Rochdale Canal–but the plural sounds better as a title.
It runs between Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire and Manchester. I walked along part of it that flows through Manchester city centre and took some pictures.
Canal Street, aka Gay Village.
Lock in Canal Street.
Reflection of a typical Manchester architecture.
Tunnel.
Ducks, my old friends.
Goose posing for me.
Photographed from my window, as usual.
Waxing crescent is my favourite moon phase.
It’s a D, as in Devil!
I was looking out of the window one day–as I do on most days–and I noticed that when a cloud covered the sun, it made it look like a white disc. I quickly grabbed my camera.
I felt so lucky I got to capture it. The clouds were moving fast.
I planned to post something else today, but then I saw this week’s Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge was Bend. I like this prompt (many, many moons ago there was a challenge like that from WordPress, remember when they used to do those?). I dug through my archives for a suitable picture; I was after one that captured a bend in the road. I found something even better:
It’s from my trip to Lyme Park in June 2021.
The reason I like this prompt is because it gives me a chance to quote my favourite heroine, Anne Shirley. At the end of the first book, Anne of Green Gables, Matthew dies and Marilla is left in a bad financial situation, in addition to her falling eyesight. Anne makes a decision to stay with her and teach school, instead of taking the scholarship to college. As she tells Marilla, before the trouble began, her life stretched in front of her like a straight road. But now there is a bend.
I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes—what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows—what new landscapes—what new beauties—what curves and hills and valleys further on.
Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
She continues to refer to the bend in the road throughout the rest of the series.
The Anne books are filled with so many gems, and this is just one of them.
(Also, they’re not children’s books, neither is majority of LMM’s work–but that is a topic for another day.)
The beginning of a new year is like a blank page. What will you fill it with?
This is about one’s own life, obviously none of us can influence world events.
(This photograph is almost a year old! I did it at the same time as the paper men I posted last year. I haven’t been taking pictures lately.)
A new year is here and it’s important to start it well.
First, make sure you’re going in the right direction.
And two, take a bold leap.
Happy new year!
The year is ending, it’s time for another recap post.
Let me get this out of the way first: this is a personal post on a personal blog. This is not a current events blog. There’s been a lot of bad stuff this year. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of all, the cost of living crisis, the absolutely insane weather brought on by climate change. But for me, on purely personal basis, it has been a good year.
My mum said the other day when we spoke on the phone, that things happen that we have no control over and can’t do anything about. So what is left but to live one’s life? I’m devastated at the state of the world… I hope it gets better and wish I could do something… I hope Putin’s head explodes… I want a better world, for everyone. I want the Star Trek future to be real, not just a fantasy. But to want something is just that.
So, the recap.
I have made 106 posts on Some Photoblog. That’s not just a record, that’s outstanding. I thought last year’s 89 was an achievement. (Note, these numbers are correct at the time of writing, I sometimes delete old posts, sometimes without a trace, sometimes I republish them later, keeping the original text and adding new pictures, or keeping the pictures and changing the original text.) Over on my writing blog it was 13 posts, also a record. Although not all of them are technically stories, writing is writing.
And in 2022, I’ve had my share of nice things.
Well, it can hardly get any better than meeting one’s favourite actor and travelling to one’s home country after seven years of not travelling to one’s home country, like the proverbial prodigal daughter.
Meeting Sam Claflin was without question a highlight of the year (and one of the highlights of my life), not only because of how nice he was, and how magical the experience felt, and how his smile is really like that, but also because the whole trip to London for the convention (by coach, because one can’t rely on trains anymore in this kingdom united, meaning I had to leave the day before and spend a night at a hotel) thrust me out of the familiarity of my comfort zone straight into the uncharted waters of the big wide ocean. For someone who never goes anywhere and sticks to the same places and activities, my stress levels reached the stratosphere. I knew once I got through it, I’d be able to do anything.
At the convention, aside from meeting Sam Claflin, I also got an autograph of Ben Barnes. He, too, was very nice–and chatty! (Sam seems more quiet.) His eyes are really that dark.
Another favourite I saw was the band Bastille live in concert. They were my most streamed artist on Spotify wrapped.
Taylor Swift released her album Midnights. But I still keep listening to Evermore.
And it was a good year for an Agatha Christie fan. Death on the Nile was finally released in the cinemas, after numerous delays (and a scandal involving one of the actors), with Kenneth Branagh directing and playing the role of Hercule Poirot. Then there was the film that directly honoured the queen of crime: See How They Run. A murder is committed in the theatre that hosts her play The Mousetrap and Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan of the London police force team up to solve it. It takes place a year after the play opened, 1953. The film very meta–and the character of Agatha herself appears too. And finally just in time for Christmas, Glass Onion came out on Netflix. After the success of Knives Out, Rian Johnson gives us another case for detective Benoit Blanc, played (with much fun) by Daniel Craig. Rian once again brilliantly combines Agatha Christie-like tropes with current issues and lots of humour. If you hate Elon Musk, you’re gonna love this movie.
I’ve seen a few articles talking about how murder mysteries are back, but I think people have always liked them.
The above mentioned Mousetrap celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2022 and I went to see it when they came to Manchester as part of the anniversary tour.
It was so good to see my home town of Bratislava again. I was so happy I finally took some pics there with my Canon (last time I had gone there I didn’t have a DSLR camera). November is not perhaps the best time to travel (right after the clocks went back too, so days became even shorter) but I made the best of it and I got lucky with some nice weather.
I was a bit worried about putting my cat in a cattery, fearing that she would think I was abandoning her. It was her first time staying in a cattery. But she got through it alright. (Imagine running a cattery, though, it seems like one of those dream jobs.)
I cannot do a 2022 recap post without mentioning the death of the longest reigning monarch, Elizabeth II. I’m not keen on monarchy, it’s inherently anti-democratic, but I can’t deny Elizabeth was an impressive person. She’ll be remembered for centuries to come.
The UK also went through three Prime Ministers. One of them, Liz Truss, was at the job for 49 days–and was outlasted by a lettuce.
The chaos in British politics would not have existed had Leave not won the referendum in 2016. But, you know *shrug* I have said everything that needs to be said about it.
So as not to end the post on a depressing note, let us remember the heroes of the year. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the women of Iran who rose up in protest of the regime. And also you. The person reading this, for getting through whatever you had to get through. Keep on keeping on.
Bring on 2023!
One from my archives: the Cabinet of Curiosities shop in Haworth, the Yorkshire village famous for being the home of the Bronte sisters.
I took this photo on my visit to Haworth in March 2019. I meant to post it on Halloween that year, but I forgot. I forgot to post it for Halloween the following year too, and each year after that, I forgot I even had this photograph. It was Guillermo del Toro’s anthology series on Netflix that reminded me of its existence. The series is also called Cabinet of Curiosities. Instead of waiting till Halloween 2023, I’m posting it now. After all, it’s the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. This should be the time to tell spooky stories, really, it’s just that it’s Christmas. Almost.
I have no idea if this shop is still there. If not, then it’s a relic.
Check out my Haworth tag to see more of the place.
I took some shots from the window earlier in the month. The top two with camera, the last one with smartphone. (It’s not snow, it’s frost.)
Temperatures plummeted to, like, minus eight degrees Celsius, and I was legit worried it would never get warmer. Cold snaps like this tend to last two to three days; this one went for longer than a week. It was awful. I still went for my usual walk in the park on my lunchbreak, but I had to keep my hands in my pockets. There was nothing to photograph anyway.
Luckily it got better, now it’s back to the normal Manchester weather of grey skies and rain, and much warmer temperature.
I’ve not taken any pictures since 9 December, apart from this one of Pepper chilling on the kitchen radiator:
Although “chilling” is probably not the right term here. More like “warming”.
Depressing post is depressing, but it explains why there was no content on the blog. I’m not depressed, in fact I’ve been reflecting that 2022 has been a quite good year for me.
I don’t have any concrete plans for any Christmas-themed post, but I’ll probably slip something in, because I usually do.
I hope you’re keeping warm.
This weekend’s Weekly Prompts Challenge is a colour challenge and the colour is pinkish. Colour challenges are the ones I most like to participate in, so I dug through my archives, as pink definitely features in my collections.
One of my dearest books in the whole world, of course. Pink was Anne’s favourite colour, but she felt she couldn’t wear it because of her red hair. (Also for some reason, looking at the teapot on the cover reminds me of Mrs Potts of Beauty and the Beast, voiced by the absolute legend that was Angela Lansbury, whom we recently lost…)
Anne was also a fan of pink roses.
The only real roses are the pink ones. They are the flowers of love and faith.
Anne of the Island
She says this as she ties the ribbon around Diana’s bouquet on Diana’s wedding day.
Some Photoblog 