Friday 24th March 2023, 12.05pm (day 4,229)

I think I might finally have provoked the students into some independent thinking. They were talking about something, anyway.

I think I might finally have provoked the students into some independent thinking. They were talking about something, anyway.

On another day of restricted horizons, the choice of pictures came down to this new bud, or a storm/sun combination shot from the afternoon. As I sometimes do, I asked Clare which her preference was, and she chose this one, considering “the optimism of spring” preferable. So yes, why not. Spring should be a time of optimism, even if just in little ways.

In terms of its aesthetics I quite like Blackburn station — at least at platform level (the subway below has been choked by excessive and largely non-functional ticket machines, though). The clutter of modern life throws off the symmetry of this shot but I gave it a go.

How many of these peas will eventually sprout edible small green products remains to be seen: getting them started by the living room window is always the easy bit, each year. But we try.

Don’t expect much in the way of variety of scene over the next few days. I spent all the month’s money in Cornwall, and payday is keenly awaited. Even the pigeon turns away somewhat disdainfully from the camera as I try to inject some interest.

I drive past this house fairly often as it lies on most routes northwards from home. It’s certainly lived in on a permanent basis. I have always admired its glorious isolation, and what it must take to survive in reasonable condition 1,280 feet/380m up in the air in the middle of a peat moor. But would I want to live there myself? Not really. (If you want to check out its position on the Ordnance Survey map it lies at about grid reference SD910286.)

No apologies for doing the ‘football landscape’ shot today. A magnificent view from the home ground of AFC Crossley — which was up in Illingworth, to the north of Halifax.

Normally I would object to photos with bins and boxes in them but, you see, this only looks like a grit bin. In fact, like that luggage trolley sticking out of the wall of King’s Cross on its way to Hogwarts, it is actually on its way to another dimension. The guy’s parallel self also makes a fleeting, fragmented appearance. All I need to do is step to the left, melt through the mirror and I can be there too…..

A visit to the less glamorous side of town. I like the optimistic advertisement for the £3 all-day car parking however.

If there’s DIY to be done about the house, it’s never me that does it.
An inconsequential shot for an inconsequential day, but it does have one claim to significance: this is the first time I have ever managed seven morning shots in a row. Six in a row has been attained several times but never a full week. Getting through the weekend was the trick, at least in this case.