Downtown Lights

It’s still not December yet, but I do have to say that the Christmas lights on Duke Street do manage to cheer up a damp and cold November night.

Mudflats

Walney Channel is lined with mud rather than sand, at least it is on the stretch of foreshore north of the bridge. It’s not particularly pleasant to walk on and it can be very slippery underfoot, but it’s not the filthy open sewer that it was in my early childhood. There are mussel beds, which attract oystercatchers and even hardy humans who can sometimes be seen out there with buckets, so it must all be quite clean these days. Anybody for moules et frites?

Anyway, here we are looking out across the channel towards Barrow Island. Note the abandoned push-chair – I don’t know what happened to its occupant.

Shall I do some name-dropping, for the benefit of Kris in Hobart (but apparently he’s in Sydney at the moment, and probably feeling a bit sore at Australia’s loss of Rugby League supremacy.) I was playing bridge tonight with my good friend and esteemed widow of a Barrow Local Hero, Bessie Horne. We came top! Didn’t we do well!

The Wreck of the Sea Jade

It seems such a shame, the fine old fishing boat abandoned on the Walney foreshore and left to decline gently into decay. I’d love a seagoing boat boat like that, although I’d be perfectly happy with a much smaller one.

Black Combe

It was a perfectly beautiful late autumn day today. Cold, but crisp and clear. So I went out with the Nikoff to enjoy my favourite view and record it. I also went down on the foreshore to take some pictures of the boats close up, although with the tide only just receding it was kind of muddy and slippery down there.

Anyway, here as a taster is a shot of Black Combe, looming over North Scale. I never tire of recreating this shot, because it is never the same twice. The mountain changes constantly with the light.

Walney Bridge

I’m still full of cold and loth to go out and about with the Nikoff, so here’s a shot of the Walney Bridge from the vicinity of the ferry terminal it replaced a hundred years ago.

Meanwhile, I’m off to crawl under the duvet with a hot toddy!

High and Dry

First, apologies for my absence over the last few days. I’ve had a crappy week and in addition I’m laid low with a rotten cold.

Anyway, here to be getting on with is a shot of fishing boats Elainalee and Talisker, beached at low tide.

Christmas tree

Well, it’s the middle of November after all. Christmas is still six weeks away, but already our ears are bombarded with seasonal tunes in every shop, and today the civic Christmas tree went up, in the space betwen the town hall and the Forum Twenty-Eight arts centre.

This year, apparently, we’ve to spend even more than ever to escape the recession, so there’s all the more reason to put is in the mood. Sigh.

Greengate Street

I don’t have a particular story to go with this shot, except to point out the width of the roadway on this not exactly prime arterial route. This is typical of Barrow. Trams passed this way once so the width is partly accounted for by the provision of space for tram tracks. Perhaps somebody else knows why so many Barrow streets, including plenty that never saw a tram, are so wide? It is the way from the town centre to Green’s Pie Shop [qv] so maybe that’s it.

I’m standing in the middle of the road on top of the bridge that carries Greengate Street over the railway lines and also a local street, so the bridge at least is of comparatively recent vintage.

Barrow welcomes the Ben Varrey

The Ben Varrey, registered in Ramsey, Isle of Man (hello babooshka!, was to be seen in Buccleuch Dock this morning. Loading, I think, as the big hammerhead crane was in action and turning away empty.

Ben Varrey apparently means ‘mermaid’ in Manx.

Boats at the sailing club

I get very frustrated when I see this on a glorious day like yesterday (but not today), with blue sky and a good breeze. I sailed a bit in my teens and again in my twenties, always crewing for others. I wanted a boat fo my own one day but I didn’t do it when I could and now I don’t suppose I ever shall.

Anybody want to make me an offer I couldn’t possibly refuse?