2023 - Memories Of The Year
w/e 31 December 2023
All of this week's
pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490 or a Nikon D3300
It's often been said that as
people get older they can remember things from their childhood
but find it difficult to recall what they did last week. I'm
beginning to subscribe to that theory as I had forgotten many
of the places we had visited and photographed during 2023 until
I scanned through all the photos taken during the last 12 months.
Below are just a few of the images that were not used at the
time - and just a few of those recalled memories.
I'd forgotten that we'd started the new year with a walk that rolled back the years taking us along, not for the first
time nor the last, the Erewash Canal. This was followed by another
of our regular visits to Victoria Park and we
saw January out with two "water" walks, the first around
the ice covered Manor
Floods and the second at Mapperley
Reservoir.
We began February with another walk which took us on a dismal
day along Heanor Road. This provided
the images for the three parts of the eighth part in the First
Impressions series. The weather didn't improve much during the
month but towards the end, the sun was out when we went to Shipley Country Park
at snowdrop time.
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There were more spring
flowers to be viewed at the beginning
of March but then we were shocked with the sudden return of winter which covered the town with snow for a couple
of days. As the snow cleared the wet weather continued throughout
March but we still enjoyed a familiar route along
the Erewash Canal and also visited Bramcote Hills Park
for more of those spring flowers.
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The daffodils were out in April although they were rather
damp from all the rainfall. It was not only the daffodils that
were out, the lawn mower was too for its first appearance of
the season and it was followed by many more such appearances
during the summer. April also saw the Christian Walk of Witness
up Bath Street, a return to Stanton-By-Dale for
another look at the village centre and we ended the month admiring
the colours of the season in the flowers and blossoms around
the town. Oh, nearly forgot, there was the small matter of a
Coronation at the end of April too.
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May brought us bluebell time and we started the month with a
walk through Hermit's
Wood at Dale Abbey. I was also in reminiscent
mood as I looked back to some old photos of Ilkeston alongside
some new ones of the same locations in a Now and Then feature.
I also reminisced about when I first started work during a rare
visit to Nottingham and then sought some peace and tranquillity
in Attenborough
Village. Maybe it was the presence
of regular neighbouring feline visitors Snowy and Oscar to our
garden that put me in that reflective mood but they were also
joined by a sick hedgehog out in the midday sun. We rescued the
hedgehog and took it to the vets but sadly it didn't survive.
A more fruitful mission in the garden was harvesting some rhubarb
which when combined with ginger made some lovely jam.
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As the summer events got underway we visited Langley Mill for
the Canal Festival and
Long Eaton for the Carnival. Between these
two events we went to Sandiacre
Lock and ended the month back in Victoria Park
which had been prepared for the Britain in Bloom judges as the
town went for another gold award.
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Sandiacre Lock of course is on the Erewash Canal and the canal
also featured again in July when a walk to Hallam Fields and back
had to be hastily re-routed due to a closed footpath. July also
saw us at West Hallam for the annual Well Dressing Festival and Scarecrow Trail and back at Victoria Park for the Summer Sounds event. And July of course is when we spent
a few days in Yorkshire and there were enough photos from Scarborough
and Whitby to fill the Latest Images page throughout August,
September and into October!
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Interspersed with the holiday photos were some images from the
Heritage and
Classic Car Show which was held in
the Market Place and surrounding streets and this was followed
a week later by a Music Festival (above) also in the Market Place.
It is hoped this will become a regular annual event.
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In September we were enchanted by a garden at the Erewash Museum and also
at several more locations around the town centre but the bulk
of the month was taken up with more holidays photos like the
one overlooking the harbour at Scarborough above.
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We were only in Yorkshire for a few days but the holiday photos
kept coming through October until I decided to call a halt in
time for the 771st Annual Charter Fair.
This photo on a misty/smoky night at the Fair shows the Dodgems
and the Gallopers near the War Memorial in the Market Place but
we ended the month back on the towpath of the Erewash Canal looking
for some autumn colours.
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We were more successful the following week
and back at the tree lined streets in town where the autumn leaves put on a great show. There was more autumn colour two weeks later when we were back in Victoria
Park but in the intervening week it was the War Memorial
that was prominent again in the photos taken at the the annual
November Memorial Service on Remembrance Sunday. It was also in the Market
Place at the end of November that the lights went on again and the countdown to
Christmas began.
And so in this look back at 2023, we've reached December and
after feeding the hungry
birds at Swan Lake, it was nearly all about Christmas - the
shops on South Street, the lights on private properties and the shoppers
on the eve of Christmas Eve.
Well the trawl through this year's photos has certainly
brought back some memories. Some things from early in the year
I had forgotten completely, others were only half forgotten and
I couldn't really forget our holiday even though we were away
for only a few days. But how much will I remember this time next
year? Now that could be a different story. Before I finish this
page there is just one more thing before I forget that too -
Happy New Year.
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