Thursday 15th March 2018, 10.55am (day 2,394)
I’m pretty sure this is the plant growing out of the wall down Keighley Road that becomes the purple spearheads of buddleia later in the year. Metamorphosis. I quite like both forms of it, actually.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Author Archives: Drew Whitworth
Waiting it out on platform 5
Wednesday 14th March 2018, 10.50am (day 2,393)
This blog isn’t intended to be political and it’s been a little while since I had cause to depict the lousy state of the local train service. I know this can be a default position for the commuter, that it’s always terrible, but really, Arriva Northern have surpassed themselves in recent months with overcrowding and cancellations. I am lucky – I can organise my day to avoid peak rush hours, on the whole, hence the timing of this shot. Many cannot and are forced to put up with the same crap every week day.
Walker on Pike o’Blisco (better weather)
Tuesday 13th March 2018, 11.20am (day 2,392)
Back in the foul summer of 2012, on 23rd August 2012 in fact, I pictured a walker up in the wilds south of Great Langdale with Pike o’Blisco in the background. Well, here is another walker, actually up on the summit of that fell; and as you can see, the weather was thankfully rather better today. (That is Wetherlam in the background.) I did speculate today about how many nice photos like this I might feature on, unknowingly.
Spring cleaning needed?
Monday 12th March 2018, 10.45am (day 2,391)
A profoundly uneventful day, spent entirely at home, working, with grey light. Time to poke around in the dusty corners of the house to get a usable photo — and to be thinking that maybe it was time they were made a little less dusty.
Pollination
Sunday 11th March 2018, 2.10pm (day 2,390)
With the extinction of pollinating insects being one of the more plausible end-of-the-world scenarios doing the rounds, it’s gratifying that this one has survived the cold snap and sees in our winter-flowering heather some pleasant sustenance. I like how it looks as if its little eyes are closed, though of course that’s not how insect eyes work. Gives it a look of contentment though.
The ball comes my way
Saturday 10th March 2018, 3.15pm (day 2,389)
How often do football photographers, concentrating on their shot, fail then to pay enough attention to the shots of the players and get a ball in the face? A split second after taking this, the missile to top right smacked into the fencing a foot from my head. No wonder I seem to be the centre of attention….
Ah well, no harm done. The guys in yellow and blue were my hosts today, Stockton Town of the Northern League. Expect to see more of them on 24th March.
Plant crossing
Friday 9th March 2018, 9.20am (day 2,388)
Decided I’d better put in a photo from Manchester just to prove I do still occasionally show my face there. I know this sign doesn’t mean what it seems to mean, but there’s always something mildly amusing about this idiom. Each generation of kids anew must look around them in trepidation when they pass one.
It was also nice to depict an outdoor scene without a crust of winter over it. Quite a pleasant day in Manchester, in fact.
Brystene
Thursday 8th March 2018, 7.15am (day 2,387)
Early flight home out of Tromsø. The first half-hour was spectacular: a panorama of seemingly endless white mountains, the tips tinted pink by the rising sun. Felt like asking for compensation from SAS as I had a rather grubby window beside my seat, but did manage to get a couple of tolerable shots. This one is impressive, first, because of the scale and prominence of the rocky towers on both peaks: measurable from the fact that the shadows cast by both are quite visible on the slopes behind (it’s clearer with the right-hand peak).
But I swear it was only later I realised how closely these resemble… well.. if you can’t see it, translate the title of the post out of Norwegian. Please tell me I’m not the only one that thinks this.
On Storsteinen (The Big Rock)
Wednesday 7th March 2018, 11.55am (day 2,386)
Storsteinen is the name of a 421-meter (1381 feet) summit not far outside Tromsø city centre and reachable by the Fjellheisen cable car. As far as my primitive Norwegian can establish, its name just means The Big Rock. Certainly a fine place for an excursion to pass the time on my last full day here on this particular trip — though I’m due back in about seven weeks.
Even including the picture taken on the summit of Kilimanjaro, and the ones in Moscow in January 2017, I nominate this the coldest of all the 2,386 pictures thus far. According to information on the Fjellheisen web site, it was -13ºC up there today. And I can assure you all that it felt like it.
Helene and Lars at dinner
Tuesday 6th March 2018, 6.15pm (day 2,385)
Let’s have a change from snow and winter. I’m sure there will be more tomorrow. Almost exactly a year from when she was pictured at dinner on 10/3/17, on my first visit to Tromsø (the present one being my fourth), here is Helene again. I know she does a lot more than just eat dinner….
