Bluebells

I've loved reading all your comments about the Royal Wedding.  It's so good to have some pleasant news to dwell on - even though it ran alongside more global natural and man-made disasters.  (The devastation from the US tornadoes looks terrible.)   It's a bit hard 'coming down to earth' - but here we are, the first of May already and that's my favourite month.  And here's another thing this country does well..... bluebells.

Is there anything prettier than an English wood full of bluebells?  Or in this case an English churchyard, since it surrounds the Church of St John the Baptist in Adel, Leeds.  I tried to find an evocative quote to go with the picture, but it seems bluebells don't inspire poets, as I could only find a couple of not-very-good ones.  Isn't that strange?

I was on my way to view a little gem of a garden.... more of that later.... and the walk from the car park took me this way.  I was enchanted.  It's only a 20 minute drive from Saltaire but I had never been here before.

Carousel

Alongside the Christkindelmarkt in Leeds (see yesterday's post) was a small traditional funfair with all my favourite attractions, including dodgems and an old-fashioned carousel.  I love these brightly painted horses that glide up and down their brass poles.  Riding these as a child, I used to really feel as though I was galloping on the dream horse I longed for.

In fact, the rides are properly called 'Gallopers'.  The one in Leeds is owned by James A Crow and Sons, and they travel with it round all the major fairs in the UK.  It really is beautiful.  All the horses are individually painted - works of art in their own way.

I didn't find it very easy to photograph.  I had to go in close, as it was hemmed in by other stalls and I couldn't stand back to photograph the whole carousel.  But all the lights and colours mean that the individual horses don't really stand out from the background.  I tried selectively darkening the photo, to emphasise one horse.  Now I can't decide which version I prefer!

Christkindelmarkt

(View large)
Well, it's the weekend... but I'm afraid here in Saltaire it's grey, damp, dull, lifeless - the sort of weather that England does so well.  I was hoping for a few photos (my cache is rapidly shrinking!) but honestly it isn't good for much. So yesterday I headed to Leeds, our nearest big city, to make a start on my Christmas shopping.  Leeds Millennium Square holds an annual German Christkindelmarkt Christmas Market.  It started on 12 November this year and runs through to 19 December.  The stalls are housed in pretty wooden chalets, decorated with lights and greenery.  There is a traditional Bier-Keller at its heart (with live traditional German music sometimes, no doubt involving men in lederhosen) and you can buy food (German sausages, stollen, gingerbread, chocolates and amazing marshmallow concoctions - oh yes, and poffertjes, which I thought were Dutch?) as well as festive decorations, toys, clothes and all manner of trinkets.  I was rather tempted by a reindeer fur hat (proceeds to support Sami herders) but a faint reindeer fragrance seemed to linger around it, so I decided not!  I came away with some marzipan stollen, which I adore, and a nice Christmassy sense of good cheer.  Now then... off to write my Christmas cards.

Canal not wet enough

Local newspapers yesterday carried this slightly alarming headline. It seems strange... Reading blogs from various parts of the world, it seems that a lot of people are having the opposite problem, experiencing more rain than usual. But we in England have had an unusually dry start to the year. All that snow last winter didn't add up to much in terms of rainfall and the spring and summer have been markedly dry. The drought is especially affecting the north and west of the country, precisely where the reservoirs that top up the Leed-Liverpool Canal are situated. It's usually the wettest part of the country, but already the area has a hosepipe ban - and now this! The report says that a long stretch of the canal from Wigan in Lancashire to Gargrave (just beyond Skipton) could be closed by the beginning of August, unless there is significant rainfall between now and then.

They say that 'every cloud has a silver lining' (perhaps not a very apt saying in this case!). It could mean more holiday boating traffic comes this way along the canal, to explore the Gargrave to Leeds stretch that includes Saltaire, instead of the more rural mid-Pennine areas. I'm sure they won't be disappointed - it may be a bit more urban but it's a very fascinating journey through history.

PS: As I write this, it's raining heavily - so it could all turn out to be 'a storm in a teacup'. ;-)

Meanwhile, in Saltaire...

You seemed to enjoy visiting Ilkley - but meanwhile, what's been happening in Saltaire whilst we've been away? Well, proud Mama Mallard has hatched a SECOND brood of ducklings. The first lot are well grown up now - must be, because you can't tell which ducks they are. (They can't all have been eaten, can they? I watched them thrive until they got quite big.) One of my favourite things is to watch ducklings scurrying about. They move so fast, on land or in the water, and look so purposeful - but they aren't! Quite comic. It's also hilarious watching them trying to jump up onto the canal bank. Like most baby things, they're sweet.

Evening sun

Saltaire's Victoria Hall, formerly known as The Saltaire Club and Institute (see also my post of 8 July 2009) catches the evening sun quite beautifully.

The Institute was opened in 1871, as Sir Titus Salt wished to provide a social club and educational facility for the residents of his village of Saltaire (most of whom worked for him in Salts Mill). Like other buildings in the village, it was designed by the architects Lockwood and Mawson, in the Italianate style that was popular at the time. It is still used for the benefit of the local community - for meetings, evening classes, concerts, weddings, vintage and craft sales and all manner of other activities.

Click on the 'Victoria Hall' tag below to see other related pictures.

Where is Saltaire?

In response to T Becque's question in last Sunday's comments - Where is Saltaire in relation to London? - it's here:

It looks quite a long way, but England isn't very big really! It is about 175 miles (281 km) from London and takes less than three hours to travel by train from London, via Leeds, to Saltaire.

Saltaire, when it was first built, was a village (or township) in its own right. Sir Titus Salt deliberately chose a greenfield site, away from the centres of population at the time, because he was appalled at the poverty and disease-ridden slum conditions in the centre of the nearest city - Bradford - where his existing textile mills were situated. But gradually over the years, urban development has spread so that now Saltaire and Shipley, the nearest small town, have almost merged to become part of Bradford's suburbs.

It takes about 14 minutes by train from Saltaire station, travelling south, to get into the centre of Bradford. It also only takes about 17 minutes to get to Leeds, which is to the east. Leeds is the other big city in the area, larger and more prosperous now than Bradford. Perhaps in the weeks to come I will show some photos of these two cities. They were both proud and important northern cities, growing as a result of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian England. They have very different characters and Leeds has developed and prospered very differently from Bradford in more recent times.

Leeds station

(Best viewed large)
The more you keep your eyes open for photos the more you find, sometimes in the most unpromising of places. I was passing through Leeds railway station on my way to York the other day, and as I was waiting for my train I noticed the strong graphic effect of the metal staircase on the opposite platform. I would have liked there to be fewer people in the picture but I had to take it quickly as there was a train coming in! Maybe one day I'll go back and try another improved shot of this. Though I have heard of a photographer who was summarily ejected from the station by the security guards for taking photos, so it could be hazardous. (I guess a middle-aged woman with a compact camera attracts less attention than a bloke with a massive DSLR and a long lens, unfair though that may be!)

I have converted this to black and white and 'posterized' it in Photoshop but it was almost a mono image anyway.

Saltaire getting greener

Talking of zeitgeist.....Waiting on Saltaire station for a train, I suddenly noticed, tucked away round the back of the rain-shelter, this brand new rack of cycle storage. How gratifying that we are inching that bit closer to being 'green'. It will, I hope, encourage some of the many commuters who travel from Saltaire station to Leeds or Bradford each day to come on their bikes rather than in their cars. I think it all looks quite attractive too, built into this little green garden. The building glimpsed on the right is the back of the Saltaire Dining Hall, now part of Shipley college.

At Leeds station they are going one better and building a Dutch-style Cycle Point with storage for 300 cycles, plus a shop and repair facility. Jolly good, I say!