Old Main Street

Bingley's Old Main Street has buildings dating back to to at least the mid 17th century, one of them a coaching inn sited strategically by Ireland Bridge over the River Aire. It was on the Leeds to Kendal coach route and coaches would have stopped here for refreshment and perhaps a change of horses. The inn has the characteristic stone lanterns on its gable (above), identifying that it once belonged to the Knights of the Order of St John. The street is still cobbled and is quite attractive, though it always has cars parked along its length. The main road was moved in 1904 to the other side of the church (to the right of my photo above) slicing through the church's graveyard. 

The church has an interesting old sundial on its tower, underneath the clock. 

Boats come in all shapes and sizes!

Silsden is home to a large boat hire business so the canal through the town itself is currently lined with moored hire boats, with their distinctive livery. Silsden Boats have a drum logo and many of the boats have 'Drum' in the name: Hum Drum, Drummer Boy and so on. The lockdown has meant no-one can get away for a canal-cruising holiday. Some miles further on, I came across three boats moored - and they were all very different: one a fairly traditional narrowboat, one adapted with a tall wheelhouse and then the tiniest narrowboat I've ever seen! I don't know if it is a normal one cut down or whether some are built like this. I suppose it would be easier to get through the locks but there can't be much useable space inside. Cute though...

Near Silsden

This is still the Leeds-Liverpool Canal but it's a stretch some ten miles up the valley from Saltaire, near the little town of Silsden. With some shops and services beginning to re-open, I finally managed to get my car booked in for the service that had been cancelled when the coronavirus lockdown was first imposed in late March. My garage is in Silsden so I took the opportunity for a walk whilst I was waiting. I think I've walked this part, from Silsden towards Riddlesden, only once before but it's quite a nice walk. The towpath is tarmac and easy to navigate compared with some of my more local bits that tend to be rough and stony or muddy. The canal winds through farm fields and woodland, with an open aspect giving some nice views of this broad, flat part of the Aire valley. The dry, sunny weather that we've enjoyed right through April and May has finally broken. It was cooler, a very pleasant temperature for a walk, and I only got slightly damp from a brief light shower. It's actually quite a nice change to see some clouds in the sky. Unbroken blue sky isn't really all that great for photos.

I wonder how many herons live on the banks of the canal? Each stretch seems to be patrolled by its own resident bird. This one was huddled up, its neck retracted. I think it had already had its breakfast and was settled down for a snooze.

River abstracts

I enjoyed finding patterns in the river as the water rippled in the breeze.
Then I enjoyed playing around with them in processing, to see what else I could do with them. In the images below, I just added a layer of texture and soft colour.

Flowerpots and face masks

I grew up watching 'The Flowerpot Men' on TV in the 1950s - but they didn't look like this! Isn't it amazing what lengths people will go to to decorate their gardens? In a sign of the times, even the cows are wearing face masks. (I don't think any real, scarce PPE was harmed in the making of this tableau.) In actual fact, most people in the UK don't seem to be wearing face masks when out and about, even during this coronavirus pandemic. Looking at TV coverage, the habit seems much more widespread in other countries, particularly in the Far East. Their efficacy has been subject to much discussion in our media. It now seems, however, that masks will be mandatory on public transport from next week. I've tried wearing mine in the supermarket but, even with the flexible wires to mould around my nose, I still can't stop my glasses fogging up, which is really annoying.

Improving

My motivations for taking photos are many. I relish the sheer pleasure of being out exploring with my camera and the creativity made possible during the processing stage. I'm not really too bothered what other people think of my work, though it's always lovely when people appreciate my photos. I'm not a great one for entering competitions either, though I do enter some of those at my camera club, simply because paying heed to the judges' comments is a really good way of learning and improving. On that count, I must be getting better, compositionally and in processing, as I've had a bit more competition success this year. Or maybe it's just a case of understanding better which images might do well in competitions! The one above, 'Harris rocks' was Commended in a Open Mono competition towards the end of our 2019-20 season. The one below, 'Get knotted', did even better, with a Highly Commended.

Both of them were taken on my trip to Harris last year. I have only recently got round to processing a few in monochrome and so I haven't shown these on my blog before. Makes a change from endless photos from my walks around Saltaire; I've been showing so many of those lately, as I've had nowhere else to visit.

The Quiet Eye 2

Another meditative walk along the canal bank... I was walking so quietly and calmly that the sleepy heron didn't stir. I have noticed this year, more than usually, when the different plants appear. There was early blossom: blackthorn and cherry, then bluebells, wild garlic, hawthorn blossom. Now the hawthorn blossom has disappeared and we have the lacy white of elderflowers. They make lovely cordial and wine but the smell is so disgusting (cat pee!) that it puts me off picking it. It's pretty though.

Foxgloves are beginning to flower, and I love watching the fat bees crawling into the trumpets.

On the field edges there is red clover, with its attractively marked leaves:

and buttercups. The brown spiky things are, I think, some kind of plantain.

The bracken has grown high, quite suddenly, its curly tendrils unfurling.

I don't think I've ever really bothered to study grasses before but, even in a short stretch along the canal edge, there were lots of different kinds, all rather attractive when you look closely.

I found a discarded downy feather, perhaps from the swan that was gliding alongside me looking hopefully for some food. There had just been a gentle rain shower, leaving droplets of water on the barbs. The way the barbs interlock like zips has always fascinated me.

Cow parsley is in bloom. Some of its alternative names are prettier: lady lace, Queen Anne's lace, fairy lace.

and ox-eye daisies - a favourite of mine.

The spring-born lambs are growing fast and fattening up. There was just one black sheep in a field full of white - the product, I think of a recessive gene even though its parents may both have been white. The wool was (is?) considered less valuable as it can't be dyed, so 'black sheep' has become a derogatory term - someone who is a disappointment or a disgrace in a family. Personally, I thought this one was really cute.

Mono locks

Bright, contrasty sunshine isn't generally the best for photos but it does make for some interesting shadows and details. Here are some that caught my eye around the 5 Rise Locks. 

Far and wide

Once you get to the top of the 5 Rise Locks on the edge of Bingley, you suddenly feel very aware of 'place'. The useful signpost says it's 111 miles (by canal) to the port of Liverpool on the west coast, only 16 or so to Leeds at the eastern end of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Then you realise that to get from here to the actual east coast (the North Sea coast itself, not the Humber estuary) that's about 80-90 miles from here, so we are, almost but not quite, in the middle of the country. (By boat, you'd travel onwards along the Aire and Calder Navigation from Leeds to reach the North Sea.) 

I'd only walked 2 and three quarter miles from Saltaire but I'd to do the same on my return leg, so it's near enough a 6 miles round trip from home. 

From the elevated position at the top of the locks, there's a rather good view (below) across the fields and up to the St Ives estate on the hill. It looks very green and rural but that's a bit deceptive. The railway line and two roads are hidden in the valley. There are many more houses and industrial units than those two terraces that you can see. The other buildings to the right are the sprawling site of Bingley Grammar School. 

The top and bottom of it

The Five Rise Locks at Bingley are such a massive structure that you can't really take in the whole thing from any viewpoint. From the top they drop away so steeply that you can't see them. Even from the bottom, you can't really tell that there are five chambers, though they do look quite impressive.  I suppose you'd need a drone to get an aerial viewpoint but I'm never likely to get one of those! The staircase of locks was built in 1774 and has changed little since then, though they obviously have to renew the parts every now and again. The massive oak gates eventually start to rot in the water. 

There are some more photos and information on the Canal Trust's website HERE. 

At the Five Rise

One of my longer walks along the canal took me as far as the Five Rise Locks in Bingley. Normally it's a busy spot, especially on a sunny day. Even in the lockdown there were a few people about but it was much quieter than normal. The café is closed (so I had to take my own coffee!) and there are no boats passing through, though there are permanent moorings along this stretch so there are always plenty of boats to see. The top photo shows the café on the left, which used to be a stable block for the horses that towed the canal boats. The swing bridge at the top of the locks is just beyond the boats, with Lock House alongside, built in 1885 reputedly with stone from a dismantled Liverpool warehouse that was brought by barge along the canal.  I think the rainbow in the water has to do with the fact that I was shooting directly into the sun. 

Swivel 180 degrees and you get a pleasant view looking the other way: 

The picture above is taken from the swing bridge. The moored barge had some interesting sculptural decorations, not 'the owl and the pussycat' but the owl and the... rabbit?

The old cottages opposite Lock House are quite attractive, though they've been altered quite a bit since they were built in the early 19th century.

Nature in the heart of town

It always surprises me just how pretty and natural-looking the canal is through the centre of Bingley. Surprising because it is so urban, cutting right through the centre of the town, and surprising because this is a relatively new stretch. The canal was moved sideways in 2003 to make room for the new, congestion-relieving 'bypass' - a fast dual-carriageway that also slices right through the town! Here there are reedbeds, right beside the old mill buildings, with yellow flag iris blooming and a lone swan gliding serenely.

The cow parsley nods along the water's edge, its lacy white flower heads showing up well against the dark water.

There are wild pink roses:

and some red valerian, a garden escape rather than a native British wildflower, but now naturalised and very common in our urban spaces, flowering in bright drifts and splashes of red and pink.

(All phone pics - not great quality when you zoom in!)

How much is that kitty...?

Spotted a rather sleepy looking cat sitting on a windowsill in the sun. It put me in mind of that song: 'How much is that doggy in the window?'

Then I had a little play with the photo, adding layers and textures. I don't like the effect of the glazing bar down the middle, but I had some fun anyway.

Boat lift

I've not really taken much notice before of the boatyard at Gallows Bridge in Shipley. When I walked past a couple of months ago I noticed they have a huge machine for lifting boats into and out of the water. (That tractor thing with orange loops hanging down.) It is apparently a new initiative. They provide a number of services to boaters, including supplying fuel and gas, visitor moorings and toilet disposal facilities. Now they can lift boats to repair and paint them or put them on/off transport vehicles. If you look at their website HERE you can see pictures of the lift in action but it was idle when I passed by.

Fit for a bride

The double locks at Dowley Gap, a couple of miles up the canal from Saltaire, are in my opinion among the prettier ones, largely due to the planting that has at some time been established around them. There is a fairly modern house right next door that I think might belong to the Canal and River Trust (a lock-keeper's house?), so maybe that explains it. Right now there are two shrubs covered in white blossom that cascade either side of the lock gates. In the sunshine, it reminded me of the flower arrangements that you sometimes see at weddings, on either side of the church door or chancel arch. (Remember the wonderful floral displays at Harry and Meghan's wedding in St Georges' Chapel, Windsor?) 

Shinrin-yoku

The quiet sounds in the woods, the scent of trees and earth, the sunlight playing through the leaves, the fresh air; all these things are comforting and soothing. Being among trees can restore our mood, re-energise us and refresh us, easing our stresses. The Japanese have a name for it: shinrin-yoku, the practice of forest-bathing. I've been doing it a lot since we went into lockdown! I seem to have posted little else on my blog for weeks apart from walks through the woods and along the canal and river. Happily, I have quite a lot of choice about where to walk among trees. The photo above shows an ancient bridleway that snakes down the hillside from Gilstead to the bottom of Shipley Glen, skirting the old Milner Field estate. 

The tree in the picture below is near the top of Shipley Glen. Its lovely arching boughs make you feel really cocooned underneath it. The green leaves spread like a canopy almost down to the ground. 

I noticed this little stand of birches in Trench Meadows SSSI, the silvery trunks being picked up and echoed by the delicate white flowers scattered in the grass. I was too far away to see what the flowers actually were.