This could be the first confirmed death of an organism to be documented on the blog: unlike this bumblebee, the wasp didn’t get away. Paralysed, wrapped in unbreakable bonds and dragged away to some dark corner where its captor will slowly suck its juices out over the next couple of days. I hope your ending is not as harsh as that. Nor mine, come to that.
A very unexciting day today, not least because I had to work for much of it — but by this point, that is over, and there are only two more working days left for me until Christmas. Whether the break will get much more exciting than this, who knows; but as usual at this time of year, I couldn’t really care.
These guys — fans of Morpeth Town — look surprisingly cheerful considering they have just come a couple of hundred miles, from Northumberland to Yorkshire, to watch a football match that did not in the end take place. Literally as I arrived at Brighouse Town FC, 2.30pm, the match was called off due to a layer of sleet and hail that had sprayed itself over the pitch from about 2:00. Bummer. I was grumpy, anyway, and I’d only come on a bus from Hebden Bridge.
The corner of Charles Street and Princess Street in Manchester: a significant place in rock music history. I’m declaring a moratorium — no more photos of building sites here for a while. But there’s nothing wrong with putting up photos of a Factory. (The old Factory Records HQ, that is.)
This is a little blurred but I took it from the train, so forgive me. Not a moving one — I spotted this pheasant while we waited on the outskirts of Todmorden, for no particular reason other than a certain level of immobility is typical for Northern Rail at the present time. This pheasant was out by the lineside, trying to look inconspicuous; but not doing a very good job. Back to gamebird school for you, young fellow.
In 2,667 days I make this the first pheasant to appear on the blog.
The transformation of Manchester into a city of tower blocks continues apace. Over the last few years, how many shots from here have featured some giant construction project, completed or (mostly) otherwise? The end of Canal Street, at the New Union hotel, is now literally overshadowed by this concrete lattice, which just keeps going up, and up, and up.
The first four-in-a-row for Hebden Bridge since June — the 14th to the 17th June, in fact. Yes, I record these things. I did get a bit further away from home today than on the last two days.
Here, I like the way the red and blue theme is repeated both on the barges and the reflections of the windows in the water. The ducks are a bonus, really.
On a day spent entirely at home, marking — at least there’s always the view over the town to provide some photographic inspiration. Of course, it didn’t really look this gloomy at 3pm on this December Monday. Or did it?
This is first light for my locality on a December morning. I showed this pic to Clare today and asked her, without knowing anything about when I had taken it, she could nevertheless estimate when it was taken, based on her knowledge of the local geography. She got it right to within five minutes, which says something about how we get used to places.
Another abandoned shoe, presumably its owner had a particularly good Friday night. Like with the bins yesterday, I accept in this shot another usual spoiler of composition — the lamp-post — because here it works perfectly.
