Friday 6th June 2025, 9.00am (day 5,034)
OK, it’s not really an aquarium. But it’s more interesting to look at than the side of most delivery trucks, which I’m sure is the point.
Aquarium
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Daily Post
Threatening skies
Thursday 5th June 2025, 3.20pm (day 5,033)
I’m sure birds have just as much of a developed weather sense as do humans. Why wouldn’t they? High winds, for a start, could really screw up that trip they were planning to make to, say, the local household waste centre. These guys may or may not be trying to sort some stuff out before the latest heavy shower comes rolling in, just as we might speed up our journey home from the shops in the face of a cloud like this.
Kitchen door
Wednesday 4th June 2025, 8.55pm (day 5,032)
Took the wife out for dinner. Out of this kitchen came — or going on the time, had already come — a couple of reasonably decent fish dishes. I don’t believe I have yet to meet a chef who looks like the roly-poly stereotype depicted in the cartoon (and that picture is really why I took the shot): I don’t believe most of them have the time to eat enough to get fat, to be honest.
Monsoon moment, Todmorden
Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 4.35pm (day 5,031)
April and most of May were very dry but the last few days, though not entirely wet (Saturday was a pleasant day, for instance), have generally exhibited the characteristics of the North European Monsoon which we are all in denial about but is a regular Weather Phenomenon round here in early June. Here, it is seen in action at Todmorden, on my way home from a stint in Manchester. Pictures like this don’t always work but I’ll give this one a go, as it is the road which is in focus, rather than the raindrops on the train window.
Teenage goose and hanger-on
Monday 2nd June 2025, 4.25pm (day 5,030)
Only a few weeks back the gawky thing with over-size feet would have been an adorable little ball of golden fluff. We all go through an awkward phase at adolescence though, don’t we. The pigeon, meanwhile, is attempting to recruit this new arrival in the war against the ducks, but soon, the goose will realise it is above all that rubbish.
Drummer, outside King’s Cross
Sunday 1st June 2025, 5.55pm (day 5,029)
Judging by the number of ads that covered his pedestal (you see only a small portion of them here), this is what this guy does, full-time. But we all have our social media presence, don’t we.
The Tulip stairs
Saturday 31st May 2025, 4.35pm (day 5,028)
Queen’s House in Greenwich, London was built by Inigo Jones in the 17th century. As he was rather good at this kind of thing, it turned out to be an architectural masterpiece, bringing classical style to English architecture for the first time. The Great Hall is a perfect cube and this staircase — the first ever built in the country that lacks a central pillar — is just gorgeous. (Although not quite perfect, do you notice? There is a wider step up there forming the landing of the next floor up, and the spiral ‘kinks’ as a result.) Apparently it ‘holds itself up’, meaning that the steps cantilever out from the wall and the weight of each is supported by the one below, and eventually the ground.
It’s a bit of a shame that only a decade or so after the house was finished, the English Civil War meant there was no Queen for a while. By the time the monarchy was restored, they never used it much. But it remains a very nice house. With paintings in it.
Watching me watching him
Friday 30th May 2025, 2.30pm (day 5,027)
There have been, I count, five previous photos of deer on here down the years and with the possible exception of the first one (13/10/2015), the subjects of each were well aware of my presence, watching me just as carefully as I was watching them: take this lot, for instance. This young chap (and he is a male: there are antlers beginning to sprout) was no exception. He let me take the picture but scooted off the moment I made to come any closer. It’s just as well for him I didn’t have a gun, though.
Snail snog
Thursday 29th May 2025, 11.25am (day 5,026)
The damper weather appears to have made these two frisky. But guys — doing it on the pavement is probably a bad idea. You need to keep an eye out for the Boots of Death coming your way.
Chances of being saved, fairly high
Wednesday 28th May 2025, 2.40pm (day 5,025)
I suppose, to an insect, that the foam layer on top of a glass of beer looks like a solid landing place. But this is one of those risks that if it gets a second chance at it, this will only be because of the benevolence of the putative drinker of said beer, who doesn’t want a mouthful of insect to spoil his enjoyment. Learn the lesson, kid.
Being 42 