Between March 14th and March 20th, 3224 eligible photographs were submitted to the Geograph website that I have mentioned several times before. It was nice to see that one of my pictures had made the Week 11 shortlist but a couple of days later it wasn't just nice it was uplifting to discover that that image had been selected as the overall Photo of the Week winner! Ring the bells! Bang the drums! Pudding is back on the pedestal!
I revealed the winning picture here on this blog before I submitted it to Geograph so you saw it first my blogosphere friends. I guess I was just lucky that the judge - a woman called Pam - was drawn to the sheep. It was very different from the other nominated pictures - mostly predictable landscapes. Pam said that the sheep reminded her of one of her aunties.
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Last Friday morning, after I had dropped Clint off at the garage for his service and Ministry of Transport test, I walked home via Sheffield's General Cemetery. It is a fascinating place. Some areas are wild and overgrown but the graveyard remains a monument to Victorian England and to a northern steel city that became a world powerhouse in just a hundred years. Here are just three of the pictures I took:-
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| Victorian stone carving |
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| View from the cemetery to The Royal Hallamshire Hospital |
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| Blackbird |
I started my career in the Reference Library in Sheffield. My boss used to spend her weekends going round cemeteries, taking down information from all the gravestones. This was all put onto a card index for local historians to use. Maybe it's computerised now.
ReplyDeleteSo you were in our magnificent Central Library then Margaret? Old gravestones can tell so many stories.
DeleteWell done, Mr. P! I am so pleased for you. I remember that photo well; I found the contrast in colouration of the sheep's head and body was quite striking.
ReplyDeleteThe judge's comment is funny, but it's also true how animals can look like people. And vice versa :)
I like that blackbird in today's pictures.
Thanks for your kind support Jenny.
DeleteCongratulations! All that walking gives great opportunities for photos.
ReplyDeleteYou never know what you will see.I took the winning picture as sunlight spotlighted the slope on which my friend was grazing.
DeleteI love the blackbird photo. Congrats on yet another award winning photo!
ReplyDeleteDo you want my autograph? Only $20.
DeleteCongratulations, Mr pudding.
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the blackbirds. We have a pair nesting in our hedge. It offers a distraction from the troubles of the world.
Funny how garden birds have no idea what is currently going on in the human world.
DeleteI know a cat that reminds me of my grandpa Virgil.
ReplyDeleteGreat picture. Congrats
Thank you Linda. I once saw a snake that reminded me of Margaret Thatcher.
DeleteCongratulations! I believe you have made Photo of the Week quite a few times haven't you? How exciting for you and also well deserved for your photography skills are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt always gives me a buzz when any of my pictures are shortlisted but to get another winner - why, I am walking on air Bonnie!
DeleteWoohoo! Three cheers for Yorkshire Pudding!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to walk around that old cemetery. This week and last, I have been to Ludwigsburg's old and new cemetery for walks. All other park-like areas are either closed or there are too many people about for my liking, but the cemeteries are still peaceful, quiet and full of spring flowers - some planted there on purpose, others growing where they want to.
Watch out for the ghosts Meike! There are so many of them in old cemeteries that it is not easy to achieve social distancing.
DeleteWell done YP. You take some marvellous photographs. like visiting old churches, especially Anglican ones when ever I visit dear old Blighty,
ReplyDeleteI am a non-believer but I still love visiting old churches. There are some great old churches in Ireland too. Thanks for your nice comment Dave.
DeleteMy congratulations too Mr P. Your photos are always impressive.
ReplyDeleteI bow to thee fair lady.
DeleteCongratulations. It also makes a change for you to be waiting for Clint rather than the other way round.
ReplyDeleteWe are a dynamic duo, I'm Batman and he's just Robin.
DeleteA Reliant Robin?
DeleteNo, an unreliant one.
DeleteHappy to offer congratulations once again on your photographic achievement. Love the sheep, but the Blackbird photo immediately had me thinking of the Beatles lyrics/tune...somehow a bit appropriate to the times.
ReplyDelete"Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free"
That song does indeed have a special resonance at this point in time Mary. Thanks for calling by again - but please keep at a safe distance!
DeleteI'm thinking that 3,570 miles (give or take a few) is sufficient for now. :)
DeleteYup! That's what I call social-distancing!
DeleteThis is wonderful! And it's a great picture. Congratulations on a much-deserved award.
ReplyDeleteThis blogpost is my acceptance speech because of social-distancing rules.
DeleteWe have red-winged blackbirds here and a very noisy pair has returned to nest in the tree just outside my kitchen window so I'm enjoying watching them - but they are noisy!
ReplyDeleteThey are noisy but you are nosy Margie!
Delete"Hey, she's looking at us again honey!"
I don't know man, you and your sheep. Where you a sheep herder in a previous life?
ReplyDeleteI love that the woman who chose the winning photo, liked it because it reminded her of her aunt.
I love the blackbird photo. Our blackbirds have red badges on their wings. They have a lovely call and will fiercely defend their harem, yes, they have harems:)
Glad you're still able to get out for walks.
It's becoming harder to get out for a walk Lily. The Derbyshire police are becoming over-zealous - as if a solitary walk was somehow an insult to frontline health workers. I cannot see the connection.
DeleteI never tire of wandering through our cemetery here. So much artistry and history! Congrats on the fabulous sheep photo! I wonder how Pam's auntie would feel knowing that sheep makes her niece think of her??
ReplyDeleteI wonder if her auntie was into knitting...with sheep's wool!
DeleteCongratulations! I remember that "sheep portrait" from an earlier post of yours, too :)
ReplyDelete