Category Archives: Art and architecture

Oct 04 2026
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Daily Post, Art and architecture

Castell Conwy

Saturday 3rd October 2026, 4.30pm (day 5,518)

Castell Conwy, 3/10/26

This magnificent building has featured before, just over 10 years ago in August 2016, when I made my first visit to the town of Conwy and was rather taken with the place. Returning today with Clare for a day out gave me no reason to change my opinion.

The castle really is something, particularly as it’s been officially ruined and unoccupied for half its existence (completed in 1287, it was slighted after the Civil Wars, so has been unused since about 1650). This was no rustic little fortress, but a seat of kings: at the time, one of the most significant construction projects in Europe. Anyone who thinks history is irrelevant is an idiot, as how Edward I treated the conquered Welsh at that time still impacts on British politics today.

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Sep 15 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The Back to Work feeling

Tuesday 15th September 2026, 8.55am (day 5,500)

Facepalm statuette, 15/9/26

Well, that’s the end of my trilogy of summer holidays (Tromsø, Bristol, Luxembourg): nicely indulgent but it’s back to work tomorrow. These little statuettes were a feature of our apartment and seem to sum up the feelings, though I accept that it is unreasonable to complain, as such.

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Sep 09 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The Lloyds building, Halifax

Monday 7th September 2026, 9.30am (day 5,492)

Lloyds building, 7/8/26

This used to be the HQ of the Halifax, a building society that sold out to corporate capital a few years ago and is now owned by Lloyds. This office building dominates the town centre (of Halifax, in case you hadn’t grasped that point) and is a real 1970s architectural relic, a kind of mix between the Parallax View and Logan’s Run if you ask me. The reflected tree seems to be taking over, and no one actually seems to work there, particularly — people cannot be seen.

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Sep 04 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Urban scene

On Grosvenor Street

Thursday 3rd September 2026, 3.35pm (day 5,488)

Grosvenor Street, 3/9/26

She looks mildly disapproving, I think. But is the look for the pedestrian, or the photographer? Another one of the blue-themed pictures that have appeared over the last few days.

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Aug 14 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Battered but still brilliant

Thursday 13th August 2026, 3.15pm (day 5,467)

Shogun, 13/8/26

I am not saying that I think James Clavell’s Shōgun is the greatest piece of literature ever written, but I will happily, and, I believe, consistently claim that it is my favourite novel. It’s a rollicking good story and despite 1,243 pages there’s not a dull moment in it. It singlehandedly turned me into a Japanophile and I’ve read it at least ten times down the years. However, as you can see, I think it’s time I picked up a new copy. If anyone’s got a first edition…. let me know and suggest a price.

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Aug 11 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

“The future belongs to…”

Sunday 9th August 2026, 2.00pm (day 5,463)

The future belongs, 9/8/26

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today”, says the text on this latest bit of street art. Well, I’m saving for retirement — or trying to. Will that do, do you think? I guess I’ll find out at some point, for sure.

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Aug 09 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The Cathedral Church of St Andrew, Wells

Saturday 8th August 2026, 12.45pm (day 5,462)

Wells Cathedral, 8/8/26

Wells, in Somerset, advertises itself as “England’s Smallest City” thanks to the presence of this big lump of medieval architecture, which, other than a lot of shops devoted to servicing the thousands of tourists that were there today, seems to be all it has — though that doesn’t mean it was an unpleasant place. But when it comes to finding a picture to epitomise the day then the cathedral has to be it, really. With a bit of a football reference thrown in.

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Aug 07 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Bear Hug

Thursday 6th August 2026, 4.10pm (day 5,460)

Bear hug, 6/8/26

In Bristol’s Arnolfini art gallery currently resides an exhibition by Jonathan Baldock, called Held, which, according to the Guardian anyway, is “a tense world of folkloric psychedelia and pagan aesthetics that is weird, threatening and utterly compelling”. Well, OK, maybe I didn’t quite get it myself but Clare was not the only visitor who took the chance to get up close and personal with the exhibition’s centrepiece, entitled Bear Hug and which one was specifically allowed to engage with in this way — as long as shoes were removed. Apparently it has a heartbeat, so is a multi-sensory huggy experience.

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Jul 19 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Portrait

David Byrne and his band

Saturday 18th July 2026, 9.30pm (day 5,441)

David Byrne, 18/7/26

For someone who is now 74 years of age, David Byrne — who is the white-haired chap with the guitar to the lower right — can certainly still put on a show, one that I, personally, have waited some forty years to see. It’s a shame he and his former Talking Heads colleagues have belied the name of the band and not spoken to each other since about 1991 but the orange-clad, sprightly young(er) things on stage with him at the Piece Hall last night were a wholly adequate substitute. So look! It’s David Byrne….!

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Jul 12 2026
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Art and architecture, Daily Post, Sport

Malt Shovel FC

Saturday 11th July 2026, 1.00pm (day 5,434)

Malt Shovel landscape, 11/7/24

While I believe there might be a different version of football still going on somewhere in the US, here at home we are in the realm of the Pre-Season Friendly. Malt Shovel FC — the name being that of a nearby pub — play in Selby, a place which thereby becomes the 536th different one to appear on this blog and makes its debut with this quite impressive factory backdrop. And it smelt good, too: whatever was being cooked up in there wafted extremely pleasant, and hunger-inducing, scents over the pitch in the second half. It finished 2-1 to visitors Brighouse, in green, but that’s an irrelevance.

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