Yes, I know. Where have the first 4 months of this year gone?

Here we are on Mayday, and from where I am sitting there is something about the klaxon call of the international distress signal that is ringing in my ears, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. I am one of those who fear the likely dictatorship should she be granted a mandate to take this country spiralling downwards into oblivion. I am all for progressive change and as we know, change is the only constant but a few weeks in and I am already blocking out the constant thrum thrum of metronomic chanting of siren calls without her ever answering a question. Mayday indeed.

Anyway, enough of that. Something is going on within our environs that will alter our local landmarks and vistas. I hear that yet again the ‘Winerack’ is back on track for yet another attempt to complete the build that has been stalled since 2008. Mrs O and I were down on the waterfront on Friday evening and it was heaving with punters. We were down there for our tea, celebrating 38 years of union. How times change.

The other change is the work on the old British Sugar site at Sproughton. There is much going on at ground level and I understand that the silos will be coming down soon. I don’t know if soon here is like Billy Bunter’s postal order or not but I thought I’d better get in a few images from a different viewpoint before they are gone.

I had originally gone out earlier to Paper Mill Lane to the old degenerating fertilizer factory but the light levels were far too grim to start with hence I beetled back and forth grabbing the silos before again heading off to the factory. This is a dangerous road on weekdays but thankfully for the Mayday, I was able to pull into one of the closed off entrances and erect my tripod and stepladders. Caution suggested I wear a high visibility vest but what a sight that must have been for passing motorists to see; white haired ageing male on ladders eight feet off the ground and red covered focussing cloth flapping in the wind along with the high visibility vest. I needed to get quite high to look over the fence. These are a few reference shots to compare to the 5×4 images when I get them back. Light levels were up and down like a yo-yo making things a tad difficult to set up the shutter and apertures settings. These two images show the flat and contrasty light that were seconds apart.

I have long been drawn to these tanks with their fading paint. I’m looking forward to seeing the developed negatives.

A bit further along the site towards Ipswich the buildings are a bit more modern. I don’t know what it is but this site attracts fridge doors. I know not why but today a cerise bra and dissected beer keg greeted me.

I gambled on the weather for these last few images and decided it was best to leave the large and medium format gear in the car. Just as well.

Definitely bank holiday weather.

Mayday.