The mink farm

The mink farm is up the hill behind our house, it's abandoned now and like a lot of abandoned places it has a strange, rather eerie feel to it.  For me anywhere that something was kept against its will is always going to have a melancholy atmosphere and this place is no exception.  Whilst I know the barbed wire was in fact to keep thieves out it feels now very much as if it was also to keep the mink in.

The mink were kept in small cages, a row down either side of the 50 foot long sheds, of which there are about 12.

 
The sheds are now falling down and overgrown and this only adds to how strange the how place feels.
 






The barbed wire is everywhere.
 
Because the mink farm is so high up it does give the most incredible views over Elland and the wider Calder Valley.
 



Elland by-pass
 
 
And the M62







My favourite barbed wire photo
 

Wilderness Walk

I was looking at some old photos of Elland recently and it dawned on me that at the time they were taken they would not have been all that inspiring, had it not been for the fact that capturing anything on film at the time was a novelty in itself, and it made me realise that even something as seemingly uninspiring as the view of the Calder Valley from Upper Edge would, in 100 years time, potentially be of great interest if only to note how much had changed.  So, for posterity:
 





And because I wanted something that spoke to me as landscapes rarely do, these:
 

 



Tom hates that I make him my muse if he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, sorry Tom!

Gannex Mill, Elland

Remember this:


Well now it looks like this:
 

Demolition is almost complete and it will soon by social housing. Which is much more in keeping with what Elland needs than "luxury" apartments.

Keeping up with my just get out there and do it approach to 2011.








It will be weird without it, that's for sure.

Sunset

First time it's been warm enough to sit out combined with me having time to be able to, so a lovely afternoon. Not the most dramatic sunset on record but I thought I should start practising for our trip away in May.

Here goes nothing! First pictures on my blog taken of snow yesterday - spent 2 hrs and took over 50 photos and only 2 of them were keepers! Climbed over a crash barrier and slid down a hugely snowy hill to get below these trees and then messed it all up and totally over exposed 3 shots in a row, didnt notice til I stuck them into Lightroom and then somehow when I reduced the exposure and twiddled about a bit I liked the result, thats what I love about photography! The colour photo is as shot, with just a bump in contrast and a snip off one side to take out a telegraph pole - like the texture of the snow in this one.