Our cherry tree is in blossom (which is my photo for the start of the May challenge – taken with my phone) but the Wrose Road trees are not in bloom. Was it last year that they were all pruned so they are struggling to blossom or is it just a few days too early? I guess that Wrose Road does not qualify as a street either, and it is avenues that are tree lined, not streets. Streets are cobbled – hence my submission for the last day of April is Albert Terrace.

And Yes, that is a terrace but all (?) the streets of Saltaire end there.

• William Henry St
• George St
• Amelia/Ada St
• Edward/Helen St
• Fanny/Mary St
• Herbert/Whitlam St and
• Albert St Rd

As you can see from the photo, Herbert St ends there.

Considering the weather we had over the weekend the sky on Monday was amazing, or should I just say that the sky on Monday was amazing? I spent lunch-time walking the streets (Note that. Streets!) of Saltaire and took several photos.

I composed this one of Lockwood St to try and make the most of the telephone wires. Telephone wires have been underground for many years – but not in Saltaire.

And just for the record I have not done any heavy editing of the sky.

This is another one showing telephone wires streaming from the telegraph pole, and a red telephone box. This is Edward Street, with Baildon in the background.

By this time I think I was using my polarising filter to take some of the reflection off the road and add more contrast to the clouds.

This one is taken on Fanny St that then leads to Mary St and Upper Mary St before it ends at Saltatire Road. It crosses over Caroline St and Titus St.

This is the junction of Caroline St and George St with the United Reform Church in the background and Baildon Moor behind that.

This one is looking up George St.

And the last one is of Titus St.

I think several of these show off the architecture of Saltaire quite well. Note there are lots of TV aerials and telephone wires but no satellite dishes. Does broadband come via the overhead telephone wires I wonder?

I have enjoyed doing these blogs for the #bradfordphotoaday challenge for April but I will not be able to keep it up for May. I think the May challenge will be an experiment in using the camera on my phone. I will still be going out to get photos of Kestrels etc.

As usual you can click on the images to view them in black on Flickr. You can then view all sizes on Flickr.

Going up Hollins Hill there is a narrow grass verge on the left and hedging and wire fencing. After spotting two deer in the fields I tried to hide behind the hedges and rest the camera on the wire. Cars and wagons were thundering past just behind me and I would have thought this would create enough noise and flashing to prevent the deer from seeing me. Nope. Almost immediately the one in the nearest field lifted its head and looked straight at me. It went back to eating but how did it spot me? I watched it for a couple of minutes and also kept looking across to the next field down where another deer was eating. After a while the deer in the far field started running, leapt the wall, and ran towards the other deer which then ran off. They both leapt the wall into Elm Wood.

As part of the exploring I did for Wood and Bridge I also went on the East side of Otley Road behind the old Fellmongers building – which is now a burnt out shell and took this photo of the Otley Road bridge over Gill Beck. I quite like this photo. Looking through the arch, on the left, you can just see part of the footbridge over the beck.

These shots, along with the Blue Bells, are myfavorites of the weekend shooting.

On Saturday it was my intention to take a photo of the different greens on the trees of Buck Wood, which I did, but I also took a couple of distant shots of Blue Bells. After getting back home I saw that the sun was peaking through the clouds so I decided to go out again and take some better shots of the Blue Bells. They can look really nice as a mass carpet of purple under the trees or as a patch work of light and dark in the shade of the trees. So this is theshot that I submitted for Day 28 – Wood of the @hiddenbradford #bradfordphotoaday challenge.

Earlier in the afternoon I went into the trees, looking for Wood, where Hollins Hill becomes Otley Road – at the bridge over Gill Beck. I took a few photographs in there but I also came across an old footbridge I had not seen before. I assume I had not seen it in the past due to it being hidden by summer leaves on the trees. I then realised that this would be my photo for Sunday – Day 29 – Bridge – and this is it: -

It looks as though it is only the tree growwing over it that is preventing it from falling into the beck. I certainly wouldn’t want to walk over it.

While I was around that area I took a few photos when contemplating Wood but they all got relagated when I had the Blue Bells.

A pile of timber at Affodable Fencing, Old Tannery

Buck Wood. The type of shot I originally thought of.

I also took some other shots, like this one of Gill Beck. If you view if full size you can just spot the white breast of a Dipper right in the middle of the frame

The fellmonger/tannery was presumably called Airedale Leather Works and the units have their own little sub-station. I remember bales of fleeces being pilled up there when we first moved to Baildon in the late ’70s. It also used to stink a bit in Summer

The photo of the Blue Bells I submitted was quite definitely in the Wood – hence it fitting the word for the day. But I also took some other photos of the Blue Bells:

When taking the photos of the Blue Bells there were hundreds of rabbits about. Most thumped and ran off as I approached but others just sat there quietly and let me pass.

I also came across this near the 1st tee on the Marriot Hotel golf course. I need to put it on iSpot unless someone here knows what it is.

There were several clumps of mushrooms around

I took a few other photos and I am going to create another blog for them so this photo of the rail bridge at Esholt is my last for here:

A bit of CTRL+a, CTRL+c, CTRL+v. Throw in some "up" and "down", "left" and "right" mixed with the odd SHIFT. Perhaps some CTRL+z and CTRL+y? And then all finished with a refreshing F5. What more could a Windows web programmer wish for?

Before setting off for home I went round a few of the desks at work and took some refreshing pictures. Fortunately I did not have to touch the keyboards. Some of them looked as though they should carry a health warning; and by that I mean as an infection risk not an RSI risk – though some of them looked in the wrong place, wrong shape or wrong size. Their owners probably like them though.

Before finally setting off home I prepared my desk for the weekend – cleared all paper away (like the tidy person I am) and put a plastic bag over my monitors. This is slightly different to most Fridays. The picture below shows you what my desk was like when I got to work on Friday morning. The plastic waste bin on my desk has about 4 inches of water in it. The one on the floor only about 2 inches. You can also see a rather wet wall. Considering that there is an antique dealer on the floor above and an empty floor above that it is quite impressive. It is almost as if the wall and ceiling have to cry in sympathy with the sky.

On the way into work, across Robert’s Park, the river looked rather high, covering the lower parts of the park. The water was over the wall but it looks as though the path is still useable.

The weir was roaring rather well.

This hut has an interesting history. Freddie Lambert returned from WWI severely shell shocked and so the members of the Baildon British Legion paid for a Shipley joiner to make the hut. It was pulled up to the common land of Pinfold, Baildon by horse. Pinfold (Penfold) is where the sheep that wandered into the village off the moor were penned until the owner paid a fine to get his sheep back. You can see that the wheels are still on the hut though half buried in the tarmac. The wheels have been left on so that it is exempt from rates – so I am told.

Another interesting shop related thing is shown in these photos – showing a Fish & Chips sign above what is now a Chinese take away. It has not been a Fish & Chip shop for many years.

You can also see a mess of old telephone wires. The photos below are ones that I took in 2003 of the sweet hut. Note that the Units to Let sign is still there but the banner above the hut has swapped the message round. The Coca Cola ad has gone.

I finished work later than usual and only just made it to Gumption before 6:00pm when the talk by Simon Barratt (@barog) of Four Door Lemon (@fourdoorlemon), a games development studio, was supposed to start. I needn’t have rushed, the sessions are very laid back and we migrated through to the room at about 6:20 I think, though no one was clock watching. The talk was interesting and quite interactive. I am not a great gamer but I still enjoyed it. After the talk I joined the Open Spaces group to chat about Open Source – that was the title/topic we had decided on but it was a general fun free for all that occasionally got back to Open Source – though I did leave early so for all I know it might have been more on topic later..

I know that hasn’t got much to do with Day 25 – Hall but it does explain why my photo of Baildon Hall was taken in the dark at 10:52pm. I did contemplate not taking a photo – it was raining – but now that I see the photo I am pleased that I did coz I think that it is quite nice:-

It might not look like it at night but that grass in front of the hall is green. The photo was taken from in my car with the camera on my Gorillapod using a 2 second self-timer and a 3.2 second exposure. This one was the clearest of the ones with a reasonable composition but it was very dark and has been brightened quite a lot on my PC. The others were either blurred (hanging the camera on the glass of the passenger window was perhaps not the most stable place) or the composition was poor – with the rain, cold, dark and the camera clinging delicately to the window, it was not the easiest to see what was going on in the viewfinder.

You can read more about the Coat of Arms on the Baildon Wiki here.

The text here is an extract from one of the Baildon Urban District Council’s handbooks from the 60s

The Crest consists of a Skylark with a sprig of gorse in its beak, allusive to the Moors in and surrounding Baildon. The Crest stands on a Wreath of gold and green and this rests on a Helm (or helmet).

The Helm appropriate to a local authority is that of an esquire, being of steel, unadorned by gold or silver, set in profile.

The Shield is of green (vert) and at the top, known as the “chief” appears the Golden Fleece, allusive to the rearing for wool of sheep on the Baildon Moorlands. The Golden Fleece formed an integral part of Baildon’s unofficial badge and which badge has been used for very many years. Its origin is unknown but it was an unauthorised badge and not in any way heraldic.

The Golden Fleece is in ‘Or’ as are the three Chevronels. These three chevronels point to the fact that Baildon is a three-tier Town.

The Motto, “SURGAMUS ERGO STRENUE”, means “Let us arise with Vigour”, a motto which would have appealed to the civic pride of the hillmen of Baildon and appears to be taken from a hymn attributed to St. Ambrose.

And this is a scan of part of the front cover of the handbook that shows the Baildon Coat of Arms.

During the Baildon Urban Village Initiative of 2005/6, that was worked on by Jessica Matthews (now clerk to harden Parish Council), it was decided to create two oak Baildon boundary signs. These signs were created under that initiative but it was Bernard Stone who contacted me, as a member of the newly formed Baildon Parish Council, so that we could put a proposal forward for them to take on ownership of the signs and get them put up. As a result the signs were erected on 23rd April 2009. We now have the signs on Otley Road, one near Baildon Bridge and the other near the top of Hollins Hill.

As part of the same initiative two stone signs were created and put in place on Baildon Moor. One near the cattle grid at the junction of Glovershaw Lane, Bingley Road and Glen Road and the other where Potter Brow Road becomes Hawksworth Road as you go by Moor Cottage – not too far from Sconce Lane.

When thinking about the photo to submit for this challenge I also thought about the signs around Salt’s Mill that indicated what the industry was based on. The Baildon Coat of Arms has the Golden Fleece but Saltaire is associated with the Alpaca. There is evidence of this around the mill. The window above the stairs near the revolving door entrance on the Victoria Road side of the mill is etched with an Alpaca:-

A few of the other windows have the Pace plc logo on them pretending to be etchings but they are `plastic sheets stuck to the inside of the glass.

An Alpaca is also carved into the stone, along with a lion, on the railway side of the building that is currently All Terrain Cycles – the building next to the chimney.

A much more recent reference to the link between Alpacas and Saltaire are the bronze Alpacas outside the Half Moon Cafe in Robert’s Park. These were added as part of the recent Robert’s park refurbishment.

All these are only links to Wool or the fibres that supported the industry of Bradford so I have decided to include a photo of something that is a little more closely related to Wool.

Just a little further over the hill is the trig point on Baildon Moor. This has recently had a diorama added by the Friends of Baildon Moor.

The views from the trig point are quite specatcular on a clear day. The power stations of Ferrybridge, Eggborough and Drax are visible. The trig point is also visible if you get far enough away to see the top of te hill. This photo is taken from over near Reva Reservoir about 1.6 miles distant.

It is close to here that Friends of Baildon Moor and Baildon Rugby Club will be lighting the Jubilee Beacon this year.

In my “quest” (aka quick look around) for a hill that will fit in the camera frame I also took this from about the same place on Victoria Road as the view towards Baildon. Several years ago when I was on Briar Wood in Wrose I noticed that the TV aerials on the houses were pointing in different diections. It took me a little while to realise that they were all pointing AWAY from the same place – the transmitters.

My entry for today’s challenge is the photo of the chimney on the Cliffe Avenue Fisheries. This chimney sticks out of the roof at the same angle as the roof.

I suppose it is easy to put the chimney through the roof at the same angle but you don’t often seem them keep going at the same angle.

I also went down to the end of Green Road, onto the slightly raised land before Thompson Lane and took these photos – mainly for the roof line and all the chimneys along the line of terraced houses.

Could you imagine it back in the days when most of these chimneys would have been belching out smoke from coal fires? With, no doubt, this one belching out as much as all of them put together.

I also took this one that shows Lister’s Mill chimney in the distance.

To me this looks like a Crow with white wing feathers.

As usual you can click on the image to view it larger and also see some others of the same bird on flickr.

I spotted this bird on the other side of the river from Denso Marston Nature Reserve on 14th April 2012.