1 Year On

04.01.16 — Burnley

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the launch of my full website, meaning that my blog has now been running for about two and a half years!

To commemorate a year of making the internet a bit more green, I’ve made a list so you can take a look over some of the coolest things that have happened…

My lovely little website has done me quite well for the past 12 months of adventures, and having my own space to share a multitude of projects and all sorts of things has been a godsend – but I’ve developed a this year and learned much.

The original design approach for my website was for optimum legibility, simplicity of the highest order, and easy navigation. I like to think that my stripped-back design has ticked all these boxes, however I’ve come to realise that it’s been at the expense of other important considerations.

The green, for example, has meant that an overview of my portfolio doesn’t reveal much in the way of how varied my projects and their styles can be, and it can sometimes get confusing when titles and links are the same colour.

My rigid width main column on desktop and tablet have kept my text in a state of optimum legibility, however on today’s increasingly large displays, lots of space is seen to be wasted.

The pop-open menu was removed earlier this year to facilitate a contact button, however this has meant that new pages are easily lost. My mobile website layout leaves a lot to be desired.

Behind the scenes, though, is where things have gotten really messy. With new pages (such as Travel and Photography) being added after launch, and with my initial coding structure and architecture, it’s been a real challenge to update, maintain and add new pages anywhere outside of my blog. Assets go missing, I get confused where I should be putting files, and updates are always a bit of a clunky disaster.

My problems doubled with the introduction of the Spanish version of my site, which is a duplicate of the English version, and so isn’t always kept as up to date as I’d like. Having the same file in two places is an absolute nightmare when it comes to version control…

All this can only really mean one thing – it’s time for an update. The coding definitely needs an overhaul and so what better time to have a stab at a redesign for the next two and a half years?

I will be posting blog posts frequently during the forseeable future to outline my progress, and I’d love your feedback on Facebook, via Twitter, or in an email.

I’d also like to thank the 5,000+ of you who visited my blog this past year, and everyone who’s left such lovely comments. I love documenting what I’ve been up to, and would continue to do so if nobody read this and it was just as a personal little account of things, but it’s really humbling to have you all on board.

Here’s to the next quarter of a decade!

More Christmas Wandering

29.12.15 — Burnley

As is tradition in the Briggs household, our festive gluttony was once again delayed a day until Boxing Day, where we were sure to make good the lack of turkey, trifle, and other indulgences from the day before. My mum cooked up a storm with a lovely Christmas Dinner, featuring turkey, pigs in blankets, stuffing and all the vegetables and trimmings you could possibly want.

Post-feasting and after an evening of party games, we felt guilty after having gorged ourselves so, and decided to head out once again into the surprisingly mild country air. I was interested in seeing how the flooding had subsided, and I thought I might as well go out into the mud seeing as my Docs were still caked in mud after our Christmas Eve wandering.

The floods of the day before had actually left minimal damage, besides a ricketier than usual road up to the top of the hill. Having only to dodge a few newly formed lakes along the route, we easily made our way around the reservoir and back home before dark.

It was lovely and refreshing to head outside, especially after having spent so much time inside switching instantaneously from gouging on turkey to shovelling handfuls of jelly beans and Quality Street into my face. We were soon back, however, motivated by the premise of a lovely warm mug of tea and some of the home-made Victoria Sponge which I’d made a couple of days prior. Bliss.

Worsthorne Floods

28.12.15 — Burnley

As most of England are probably aware at this point, it’s been a tough few days for The North. Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria have all been hit by some of the worst flooding in living memory, with homes, businesses and infrastructure destroyed or at a complete standstill.

Obviously we didn’t want to add to anybody’s woes by heading out in our cars to engage in some kind of sadistic sightseeing, however we heard news that our village square had flooded, and so grabbed our coats and walked on down to assess the damage and see if we could help out in any way.

Thankfully when we arrived the water was flowing away and very much under control. Residents had come together to open all the drain covers to encourage water flow, and also to construct a makeshift flood defence across one of the roads to stave off the flooding of some of the oldest, most at-risk cottages and homes.

The water was flowing very quickly, however, and of cause for great concern, as my village sits in one of the least at-risk areas for flooding in the region – our neighbours have all said they’d never thought they’d see the day when Worsthorne flooded. As my mum and dad headed back up to the house to continue with our boxing-day meal preparations, I hung around for a bit longer to try and find the source of all this running water.

With my shoes already ruined from our Christmas Eve wanderings over the countryside, I headed around the back of the village church to find out where all this water was rushing in from. Turns out that most of it had flown down from the fields, overwhelming the drainage system and accumulating at the rear of the churchyard, from where it was being funnelled down a tiny angled alleyway which was giving it the powerful speed which made it seem so dangerous.

The scene was awful, with the old stone walls bowing under the pressure of the fast-moving water, and jets of water spouting from holes in the churchyard pavement and the road behind.

Thankfully the water has since subsided, and nobody was hurt during our wettest Boxing Day (or any day in fact) on record. We have since been through the village and everyone has done a fantastic job of clearing away the silt, removing the flood barriers and getting life just back to it’s normal, sleepy little village rhythm.

The Grotto

25.12.15 — Burnley

Well, of course I must begin with a wholehearted Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone is enjoying their Bucks Fizz, Christmas Dinner and Sherry Trifle – we have a custom of throwing pizzas in the oven on Christmas Day and enjoying the customary gluttony on Boxing Day, so I am free to graze on chocolate and jelly beans and leftover takeaway – and just to generally be a layabout.

Over the past few weeks, in between sending out portfolios and finalising propositions for my Burnley Arts Council & Design Council Project, I have been transforming my usually minimal lime green room into a festive grotto!

First up I had to shuffle some furniture around to get the huge tree into a position where it would actually fit under my sloping roof, and then I spent an evening decorating the huge thing. Then, after a trip to Leeds where I stuffed bags and bags full of the cheapest decorations, tinsel and lights that I could find, I set about concealing the usual minimal aesthetic behind a layer of what my mother would call “tack”.

I am quite happy with the result, a lovely warm room (in great contrast to my usual aesthetic) which has gotten me in the festive spirit over the past few weeks! These decorations do hold a secret, however, which I shall reveal in a week or so…

Until then – ¡feliz navidad!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Festive Ambling

23.12.15 — Burnley

I was rudely awoken this morning by my sister who decided that she was going with her friend, Lucy, for a wander around our local reservoir, Hurstwood Reservoir. I decided I wasn’t happy with her wandering by herself, and so took the opportunity to get out of bed and go for a wander.

Lucy had brought her boss’ dog, Benji, along for a walk, and I had brought my camera (naturally). We headed through the village of Hurstwood and headed through the forest up to the reservoir, having a good old chat and catch up along the way…

The beautiful surroundings, however, were soon marred by our idiocy once the camera had come out…

Look at this excellent dog!

After fooling around by the water’s edge, we thought it best to move on along. I got really excited and jumped in a puddle, having forgotten that my Docs now have a hole in them, and so had to squelch my way back home.

Also, Ellie nearly fell down a hill, Lucy dropped some chocolate in the mud, and I nearly did my back in trying to limbo under a fence. Was still a lovely trip though.