Posted by Pete Morley
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted in: Blog, 2026, Chorlton, Photography
Black Swan in Chorlton
I’ve been buzzing off this guy. Originally seen at Chorlton Water Park, he’s since moved on. Still local but I don’t want to say exactly where he is while he’s still around.
Native to Australia, a lot of wild Black Swans are ornamental escapees. This guy doesn’t have any tags on him so it’s difficult to tell where he’s come from but he’s definitely a long way from home.
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted in: 2026, Blog, Photography
A quiet weekend’s camping
I haven’t updated for a while. I’ve not forgotten about you, blog friends.
I’ve started writing this post in Edale, so this will be the first of two posts. The second once I’ve edited the images I’ve taken, which is the second reason for me coming here.
The first reason was to get out of Manchester for a weekend. As much as I love it I also miss living in the middle of nowhere from time to time.
And so I packed my tent, two camera lenses, some food, couple beers and a 38 minute train ride later, arrived in Edale.
One of the main reasons I wanted to come here was to get out of Manchester’s oppressive night time glow. If you’ve ever tried to photograph the sky in a city then you’ll know exactly why I’ve come to a small village. Edale isn’t particularly out of the way but it’s far away enough that light pollution shouldn’t be much of an issue.
However I didn’t account for cloud cover and as I sit here outside the Rambler Inn drinking a lovely plumb porter, I can see the clouds rolling in. I’ll set my camera up once I get back to the tent so hopefully there’ll be a few minutes of clear skies. Time left for a couple more pints before the farm shop down the road closes though.
So, what have I lugged all the way to Edale?
Food wise?
And my camera gear, again just taking the essentials this time.
And what did I forget?
*I won’t be lugging the tripod next time, it was heavier than my tent and sleeping bag combined and defeated the point of trying to travel light. It didn’t make it up Kinder Scout as I left it in the tent. We’ll see if Father Christmas has space in his sack for a carbon fibre tripod this year but until then I’ll carry on shooting handheld.
Hopefully I can fit a couple more trips in before winter hits. And now for the pate, super easy recipe:
1 tin of kidney beans (drained), a white onion, 3 cloves of garlic, juice a lemon, deseed a chilli, a teaspoon of little olive oil, cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Wizz it all together in a food processor. Pop it in the refrigerator over night.
Told you it was easy.
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted in: Blog, Pure rants, Warhammer
The most anticlimactic first Warhammer post
I love Warhammer, it’s so over the top. I enjoy painting the models, working on armies and lists, and occasionally I enjoy playing the game. I was going to post about last Saturday’s Warhammer game, but I was curb stomped by Grumble.
Who brings three knights to a friendly game of beer dice? It was over by round 3 but I wanted to see what I could win points-wise; turns out not much.
I was going to write a battle report, but the game boiled down to Morvenn Vahl and her Nundams killing a Knight turn 1, her being killed turn 2 and it all going downhill from there. Celestine was brave as ever and managed to last until the end of round 5, but the rest of my army didn’t do too well. Becky’s last stand was as cinematic as ever, as she took on a knight solo after losing the rest of her unit but I’d stopped playing to win by that point. I was playing purely for the lore.
Anyway, here’s some actual footage of my Sisters getting pummelled by three knights, two tanks and a squad of Terminators.
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted in: Blog, Graphic design, Internet, Web development
How the internet used to be
Back in the old times, The Internet was pumped directly in to your house through a pipe. It was the same pipe that was used for the analogue telephone and so it came with various caveats that we just accepted as modern, futuristic life.
In the olden times you would be surfing The Internet Super Highway, or ‘the web’ and then suddenly your Mum’s on the phone and you’re cut off.
There was a romantic, Wild West side to this. One moment you could be reading about some obscure Australian soap, catching up on the latest Evangelion gifs, or half way through printing a 1400 page pure text walkthrough of Final Fantasy 7. You could be planning Friday night on MSN while downloading -I promise this is System Of A Down doing Legend Of Zelda this time.mp3- and then boom. Screech, Chuurn, your Aunt’s talking through the internal speaker.
The early internet was exciting, frustrating at times; but there was one thing that made it great.
There was a level of kudos in just doing, sharing knowledge and making new things. People who were online at the time were semi-confined to niche groups or interests and people in those groups tended to share fandom, development, design and general ‘internet’ knowledge. Often you’d find yourself breaking out of your little web-groups, falling down rabbit holes of interesting snapshots of people’s lives, fandoms and stories. As you found new websites and groups you discovered new ways of presenting, coding and designing things. And with that came more little snippets of knowledge that people shared, for the kudos.
The thread that kept these little pockets of the internet thriving was the idea that knowledge was something to be celebrated and shared and that you could just create something for the sake of it.
One of my first websites was an Evangelion fan site. So as a little tribute to that, I set up https://centraldogma.co.uk. Part of me looks at the web nowadays and I’m sad how commercial it’s become, like a lot of early web-tinkerers I make websites for a living now. But I think it’s important to keep the experimental and whimsical aspect of the Internet alive, have a bit of fun with it, and to foster that free flow of knowledge and ideas when you can.
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted by Pete Morley
Posted in: Blog, Small wins, Video games
Gotta go fast
A favourite Sunday activity over the last 15 years has been trying to one-life Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I’ve never managed it. I’ve been playing the game since it came out in 1992 and I genuinely think it’s one of the best pieces of media ever created.
One day around 2011-ish I made it to the last level without losing a life. It wasn’t planned. Every jump was hit perfectly, every roll, bounce and spin had been executed to perfection. It was zen; for 20 minutes I was inside the matrix. Of course the moment I realised I hadn’t lost a life the fear set in and I immediately died. That’s when my personal quest began. I can consistently make it to the final stages on pure muscle memory but something always gives.
The rules are simple. If Sonic dies, the game is reset. No ifs, no buts.
I have a varied Sonic 2 diet. As well as living rent-free in my head it lives on pretty much every video game platform I own. My all-time favourite version is the SEGA 3D classics version on the 3DS, the colourful sprites and parallax backgrounds mixed with layered 3D are pure eye candy. A nostalgic serotonin blast for the jaded millennial.
Fans of the 16-bit games will tell you that Sonic 3 is the best game. They’re wrong of course. It’s a great game but Sonic 2 is platforming perfected, it’s just too pure not to be the standard.
So what happens when I eventually do one-life Sonic 2? No idea, I like to think it’s not possible and to be honest I don’t need that hole in my life but until that day I’ll keep picking away one level at a time.
Posted by Pete Morley
Blogging again Pete, in 2026?
I have had blogs before but nothing I’ve kept up with (good start). Work and life tends to get in the way. Truth be told my blogging career used to work around a website or portfolio refresh before looking for a new job but over the last 9 years I’ve been running my own creative studio, Typeface.
Good friend and fellow freelancing peer Rhys Wynne has inspired me to stop complaining about how shit and impersonal the internet is these days and to do something about it, so here we are.
I’ll be keeping most of my design-focused thoughts on the Typeface website but many of my interests and hobbies cross over with my professional life so I’ll probably talk about the odd Typeface article in an informal way here.
… And honestly, I’ve been fed up of social media for a couple of years now. As somebody who has been creating for, writing and posting on the web since the late 90s; I miss the days of RSS feeds, webrings, top 100 website lists and forums. Maybe it’s time to get some little pockets of human nonsense back online in that sea of sales, advertising, and AI.
For me to be honest. Mainly things I can’t put on the Typeface website, a personal journal and digital footprint of sorts. It’s also a place to talk about design and photography, a home for photos, painting projects, illustrations and drawings.
© 2006 onwards petemorley.co.uk/petemorley.me