12 February 2020

Assortment

Just an assortment of recent photographs today. I snapped the top one just a few minutes ago while sitting on our La-Z-Boy sofa - tapping away at this laptop. Shirley always has cut flowers in our front room window. I noticed the sunlight streaming in.

When I returned from my walk around Shepley a week ago, I took this picture of Sheffield Hallam University students' union in fading light. Those drum-like buildings clad in steel are known as The Hubs. They used to house the National Centre for Popular Music which failed for reasons that still rankle with many Sheffielders. The idea was good: it was the execution that was wrong.

Above - on Rud Hill south of the city, I captured this image of a sheep called Margaret the weekend before last. She was named after Britain's first female prime minister because of the uncanny facial resemblance. Margaret was also carrying a cavernous leather handbag (American: purse) but that is out of shot.

Below - I took this rather random picture in Doncaster last weekend. It seems to me that vaping is a feature of modern life that will die away before very long and people of the future will look back upon the fashion with puzzlement. Why would anybody want to do that? Don't you just hate it when you are caught in a sweet-smelling cloud of vaping smoke? Lord knows what is in that stuff.
And finally - I know I have shown this before - our collection of fridge magnets in the kitchen. By putting them on a metal tray affixed to the wall, the front of our refrigerator can remain uncluttered and magnet-free.

32 comments:

  1. Very nice shots, Mr. P.
    You would probably hate the clutter of my refrigerator. The magnets aren't the problem. It's what they hold under them.

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    1. You mean like recipes and bills and photographs and tickets and stuff like That?

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  2. How did you wind up with Ohio and Washington license plates? Are they from when you lived in the states? They seem newer.

    The Hubs is a very interesting structure. I'm glad it found a second life. I'm going to have to look up what happened to the National Centre for Popular Music!

    Was Margaret also holding a cocktail?

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    1. "Was Margaret also holding a cocktail?" Steve, I am sure you aren't thinking of the Margaret YP has in mind, but the Princess (Elizabeth's sister. RIP.) Come to think of it, it's awful how easily one gets a reputation. Justified or not.

      U

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    2. Super U is right Steve. I was thinking of Thatcher. As far as I know Thatcher didn't drink cocktails. Her tipple was Newcastle Brown Ale - necked from the bottle - one after another.

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  3. But they are FRIDGE magnets, not "metal-tray-attached-to-the-wall magnets" Sir La-Z-Boy. Do you have wall decorations on the fridge?

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    1. You have got me there Sir Tasker - like a startled grouse on a Yorkshire moorland. Please don't shoot!

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  4. So a fondness for both bovine and ovine animals. Hmmm.

    I don't understand vaping at all. People don't even seem to understand what's in vape smoke...."E-cigarettes create vapor made of fine and ultrafine particles of particulate matter, which have been found to contain propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, flavors, small amounts of toxicants, carcinogens, and heavy metals, as well as metal nanoparticles, and other substances."

    Does any of that sound like it's good for your lungs, the organ that allows you to breathe, to survive? People are stupid.

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    1. I like bovines and ovines because unlike women they don't expect anything in return. I am not sure which is worst - tobacco smoke or vape smoke.

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  5. Very wise not to attach all those magnets to your fridge. The door would fall off with the weight of them.

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    1. Your practical common sense is legendary ma'am.

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  6. The Hubs look remarkably like curling rocks to me - any idea if there is a connection?

    Your magnet collection is impressive. We've had to clean all ours off our fridge and substitute animal magnets for the little grandsons. In another six months or so I'll be adding some letter and number magnets. Teachable moments :)

    Margaret has something stuck in her teeth . . .

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    1. I have always thought the same about The Hubs but I think the resemblance is purely accidental. Margaret is just chewing on some grass before composing her next poem titled "Baaaaaaa!"

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  7. I actually rather liked Thatcher. When I arrived on these shores (1982) I was horrified at the state of the nation. Some people well off but, noticeably so, many shockingly shoddily poor. Coming from where I cam from I couldn't believe my eyes. Thatcher, to my mind, seemed to clean up the mess. In zero time.

    Don't hate me, YP. Please. After all, I am just a bloody foreigner. What do I know about miners and canaries - and STUFF like, say, privatization and selling off council houses? She [MT] had a spine of steel, in a good way. Not that anyone shouldn't consider doing a U-turn if and when indicated. And yes, I cried for her when she cried on her being outed. That photograph of her, the horrible moment in a person's life (remember, she was human too) sat in her chauffeured car, done in, in full glare. Notwithstanding that Heseltine was the (possibly) best Prime Minister this country never had.

    Which reminds me: I also cried for someone else (not British) when he was finally "seen to" by the Americans. I have only entrusted two people in the whole wide world with my secret (his identity). My father and my son. Neither flinched. Whatever they may have thought of me, in that instance, they kept it to themselves. All I see is humanity; and at that moment, as pictures were sent round the world, all I saw was an old man.

    U

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    1. I think you are referring to Saddam Hussein. He was a sacrificial lamb and personally I liked him better than Thatcher. On the day she died bonfires blazed in some Yorkshire mining villages and I would have happily danced with those people. In my estimation an awful leader who treated the working people of this country with utter disdain.

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  8. Vaping has become a serious problem here resulting in severe lung disorders and even deaths, particularly in teenagers. Apparently they are buying black market refills that contain unsafe chemicals. There have been many warnings out about some of these dangerous refills that often make it to mainstrem sales. This once called "safe" method of smoking has become sometimes more dangerous than cigarettes depending on what is being used.

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    1. If cigarette smokers want to give up smoking they should simply stop and not use vaping as a substitute. I guess that many of the young vapers never smoked cigarettes in the first place.

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  9. I like the photo of your window and Shirley's pretty flowers. I, too, love cut flowers in the house and often buy a cheap bundle of them at the grocery store.

    Middle school kids at my school get caught vaping in the bathrooms all the time. They just don't understand how dangerous it is, but kids will be kids. In my day it was cigarettes.

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    1. Vaping is all about creating habits and making profits. Capitalism in miniature.

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  10. Those buildings certainly are weird-looking. They are insults to drums! I wonder who was responsible for that horrible design.

    I don't understand why anyone would vape...just smoke cigarettes...or don't smoke at all! Vapers are vaporous just like the architect of "The Hub" buildings. :)

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    1. Design: Nigel Coates Architects. Praise in "The Times": "The Hubs challenge entrenched attitudes to architecture - appearing as steel playthings in a city that was built on steel. Most striking of all is the airy internal space."

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  11. So, you have not answered the question about obtaining the license plates. "Ohio" caught my eye; I've lived here a long, long time. Mahoning County is just a county away. Home of James Trafficant, Jr. Not my county, no sir!

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    1. The Ohio licence plate was given to me by my friend Chris who lives in Canton, Ohio. We worked together at a summer camp near Chagrin Falls in the mid-seventies. Sadly, the camp no longer exists. It was called Red Raider.

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  12. You have a good start and ending with assortment. Clever!

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  13. There is nothing so cheerful than a dimple case of flowers

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    1. Flowers brighten lives. Shame they are often brought on big lorries from Holland.

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  14. I don't "get" smoking, and I don't get vaping. At Ludwigsburg's train station is a "Vape Store" I pass every time I go to and from work. It looks very modern and appeals to a target group that is definitely not me.
    The first photo in this assortment is my favourite. It spells HOME.
    Fridge magnets - O.K. is fascinated by magnets and has not only his fridge door and side covered in them, but also the metal flaps of his shoe cabinet in the hallway. Some of them hold photos and postcards, but most of them are just there for their own sake. His collection even includes two Yorkshire-themed ones.

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    1. It sounds like OK needs professional counselling re. his fridge magnet obsession.

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  15. Margaret is very fat. Luckily I can say that because she is a sheep, but I liked her portrait as well as the flowers.

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    1. Fat? I believe she is pregnant. Possibly with twins once again.

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