Excitement and/or variety are not really on the agenda this week, but so be it. I have a crappy cold, anyway. The distinctive topography of my home town is usually good for a picture of some kind, so saves the day here.
Two hemispheres… one of them real, atop the Corn Exchange in Manchester, one just apparent. But it balances nicely on the other. Would it be better if the spike pointed right to the terminator? Well, maybe, but then it wouldn’t balance, would it?
Two days in a row of photos at 7:nn am, as well: the last time that happened was May 2017. Must be the good weather making me keen. Or the realisation that I have six months left of my forties, which is true as of today.
Beautifully — some might even say, ridiculously — warm day today for February, with temperatures up to 20ºC in Hebden Bridge. It’s the half-term holidays as well as the weekend and all this tempted people out, including me, as the afternoon saw a decamp up to the in-laws’ place in Morecambe. Preston station was busy and well-lit; on such days it’s hard not to admire the durability and aesthetic qualities of your basic Victorian station architecture — love those pillars.
The world moves round in its orbit, the North Pole points more and more towards the sun, and we see light in bits of Hebden Bridge that have not seen light since November. It’s always a positive step when the sun comes back to the front of the house in the mornings, which should happen this week.
Today was such an uneventful day that this is a rare photowhack — the one and only photo taken on a given day. There have been about 15 of these days over the lifespan of the blog.
I’m travelling again. Like with my trip to Sussex and London two weeks ago (but hopefully this time without the day ill in the middle of it), this is a writing retreat — I have things to get down on paper, and sitting on my arse at home for days on end is not conducive for this. Hence, Scotland, today and for the next four days as well.
This clock is inaccurate, by the way. I promise.
Old and new London… Renzo Piano, architect of the Shard — tallest habitable building in Britain and the second-tallest freestanding structure, after the Emley Moor TV mast — claims to have been inspired by church spires. Myself I think he was inspired by Tolkein. If this isn’t Sauron’s tower Barad-Dur, I don’t know what is.
Despite spending the day in the centre of London my horizons were extremely limited as I was confined to bed all day feeling ill. I basically paid my hotel £154 to rent a sick room for the day. And it was a nice sunny day, too. Poking my camera out of the window now and again to fulfil my obligations, this was the best shot I managed. Consider it an abstract?
This is Sinclair’s Oyster Bar — oldest pub in Manchester, and also one of the most no-nonsense. Which is not to say it’s rough, because it’s not. But you get the drinks you’re given and you pay cash, and don’t expect plates of radicchio on the side. Best pub for Victoria station anyway — I know not only exactly how long it takes to walk from here, but how long it takes to specific platforms.
One of those days on which I got soaked in foul winter rain on the walk to campus from the station, and dreaded doing it again on the way back — but fortunately, the sun came out. Here, for once I don’t mind the lamppost in the shot.
I really hope there won’t be too many Manchester pictures over the next few months — at least that will be an indication that my sabbatical will be something meaningful. But it doesn’t start yet: I will be there most of next week before I can escape for a while.
Not an exciting shot, but then again this wasn’t an exciting day, nor is it an exciting period: I can see all the photos from a 15-day run (ending on 24th January) being from Hebden Bridge or Manchester. Never mind, I have marking to do. Here, I at least like the pipes, the red against the grey.
Being 42 