Flora Day

I have a feeling I am going to have to do this lot in two posts as there are masses of pics from Flora Day.  If you aren't in these pics you wont know what Flora Day is, please google it!  If you are in these pics and want to download any of them send me an email and I'll get them to you.

Flora day starts early, we didn't get to the 7am dance but we made sure we had had a glass of bubbly before we went down for the Childrens Dance at 9.40am.  I love this pic of my sister!



The streets are decorated with bunting, bluebells and leaves to celebrate May Day.

Helston Town Band leads the dancers through the town - I have danced once when I was at school and it's a bloody long way!


 

 






The weather was fantastic, we were so lucky.

This lady was dressed up for Hal An Tow - ashamed to admit I have no idea what is involved (it happens at about 6am!) but involves men in tights!





I love both of these next two photos of my Mum and a colleague of hers from Goonhilly.









After the Childrens Dance we all headed to the gardens to wait for the Midday dance to arrive.  You have to apply to dance in the Midday and the leaders of the dance have to be Helston born and bred, this year a friend from school that worked with my sister was one of the four leading the dance.





A friend of my sisters, Sally, was also dancing with Mark - they are part of a big group of really close friends and everyone came along to support them.  I loved taking pics of Sally, isn't she beautiful?



And Mark scrubs up well too!









Sally's sister in law, Carol, and her partner, Chris.

I really like this photo!



Cath's brother and his wife.

Ness and Cath - who was leading the dance which is a massive honour and requires some serious dress shopping - Cath's dress was gorgeous and she looked fantastic!











Flora day is all about the detail.





Cath was wearing a necklace that belonged to her husband's Mum, it set off her dress perfectly.











 
Considering the amount of alcohol consumed before the Midday dance even arrived in the gardens I am pleased with how the majority of these photos turned out. 

More to follow!

Easter weekend

Mum and Dad came up for Easter and in spite of the weather we had a fantastic time.

On Friday I took Mum and Dad to Leeds shopping and Mum hauled - blusher, lipstick and foundation!  We had a lovely lunch in The New Conservatory, I had never been before and it didn't look much from the outside, how wrong was I?  Lovely lunch in really nice surroundings, will definitely be going back.  On Friday evening we all went to The Street Pakistani buffet in Brighouse and that was fabulous too, one thing I wont have done this weekend is lost any weight!

On Saturday Steve, Tom, Mum, Dad and I went to Jodrell Bank.  It was fairly interesting but not perhaps as hands on as we had hoped, although it was Mum that rightly pointed out that short of visiting at night even had we had access to the huge telescope we wouldn't have been able to see anything!  Apparently the telescope is so powerful it could pick up a mobile phone signal on Mars!  Few pics of Jodrell Bank.
 
The four from the left are Dad, Tom, Mum and Steve
 

 
Fairly self-explanatory!
 
Lovely blossom.

Sunday was a quiet day, with lots of cooking and a walk for those that fancied it and then we all had a lovely dinner.

Last Easter we walked along the canal in the blazing sun envying the people who had hired canal boats.  This year we decided to hire one, although we hadn't expected blazing sun we had hoped it might not rain all day!
 



Dad driving the barge - it was a small boat and getting far enough away to get a photo was tricky!

Fantastic to have the unique perspective of taking pics from on the water, such a shame about the weather.


The view from the below decks kitchen area - loads of legs!

I think there were 9 locks in total, meant it wasn't exactly a relaxing afternoon for the men - Mum, Rachel and I had carefully stayed out of the way whilst the lock tuition was taking place!

Jez hard at work.



Mum and Dad who thank goodness don't let a little thing like constant rain ruin a good day out!

Jez and Steve watching Dad drive us through the lock gate.





It wasn't particularly "dry" below decks either!

Not least because the cover over this was a leaking tarpaulin type affair so it was all rather more chilly and damp than I had anticipated looking at the boat hire website.  Luckily the champagne Rachel bought helped warm things up.

Then we moored up and had a hasty lunch.




As we returned to Sowerby Bridge we became the entertainment!


Luckily Steve, Dad and Jez did a brilliant job!



And if you aren't already heartily sick of locks, canals and boats here's a video of us going through a lock, probably only of interest if you are actually related to one of us by blood tbh!

 

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
 

Happy Mothers Day

Took a few minutes to wander around the car park that we have in lieu of a garden.  Nothing much happening and the light wasn't amazing but at least I got the camera out.
 







Some nice bokeh and that always makes me happy!

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!