Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Jan 15 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Outside Victoria station, early

Tuesday 14th January 2019, 7.35am (day 3,064)

Tree by NFM, 14/1/20

Well, early enough. Discounting the special case of the shot taken at the airport on arriving home from Indonesia, the earliest morning shot, in Manchester or anywhere else, since the end of October. I do wish the mornings would hurry up and get lighter, which they never do until well after the evenings have lengthened. I know it’s the same every year, but we should put in a complaint to the Universe, or something. The Solar System Organising Commitee (Axial Tilt Division), at least.

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Jan 13 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Marley

Sunday 12th January 2020, 5.20pm (day 3,062)

Marley, 12/1/20

Marley is the latest candidate for ‘honorary pub dog’ at the Railway, and here takes a brief rest while eyeing up the humans, making his strategic decisions as to which might be amenable to the offering of treats and affection.

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Jan 03 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna, Hebden Bridge

I’m content, duck

Friday 3rd January 2019, 11.45am (day 3,053)

Smiley duck, 3/1/20This duck looks contented enough to me. I swear that is a smile at the corner of its bill. Mind you, one thing to not complain about in 2020 thus far is the weather, and today was another very pleasant day. I like this picture because of the very limited pallette — it’s strictly brown, maybe a bit of grey — but still interesting.

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Jan 02 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

New Year Robin

Wednesday 1st January 2020, 10.55am (day 3,051)

Robin, 1/1/20

Welcome to 2020. As with 1/1/19, the weather on the first day of this new year was glorious, and may the rest be the same (it won’t happen). I can’t imagine that life as a small bird is easy in the winter but this robin (like others of its species) seems to have humanity sussed: I was digging over part of the garden when he turned up, clearly waiting for me to finish so it could get at the worms with that dagger-like beak and fill its belly before the frosts come (if they ever do).

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Jan 01 2020
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Salt lick

Tuesday 31st December 2019, 10.55am (day 3,050)

Salt lick, 31/12/19

It’s been four years since I even tried to go out for the bells on New Year’s Eve and have stopped seeing it as a particularly ceremonial day. So let’s see a small cur licking what nourishment it can off the ground as a (possible) metaphor for the year as a whole. Or whatever… Happy New Year in any case.

My favourite photo of 2019? This one of Clare and Joe at the volcanic outburst of Hverir in Iceland. An extraordinary place, and the shot is also very pleasing — one of those times when I just noticed the chance for a good long zoom that for once stayed in focus and worked out.

Dec 24 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Five geese

Tuesday 24th December 2019, 11.05am (day 3,043)

Five geese, 24/12/19

These geese entered my viewfinder then began all lining up at the side of the canal for no reason I could establish for a minute or two. Then I realised they were getting to the side because a narrowboat was coming down. So these guys/geese are probably just looking irritated because they had to shuffle out of the way. Still, it could be worse — many of their relatives will be on dinner plates tomorrow.

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Dec 21 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Pigeon battalion

Friday 20th December 2019, 1.20pm (day 3,039)

Pigeon battalion, 20/12/19

A veritable battalion of pigeons, in tidy military formation (well, most of them), line up on the roof of the White Swan for the next instalment in the ongoing pigeon/duck war. Recent infiltrations must have provided promising intelligence. The person in the hat walks over the bridge all indifferent, but I have been observing.

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Dec 16 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Chilli flower

Monday 16th December 2019, 1.15pm (day 3,035)

Chilli flower, 16/12/19

Enough of this greyness. Let there be blues! And greens! And a flower! All happily grabbing a dose of afternoon sunshine on the comfort of our window sill. Destined to be habaneros, if all grows as it should.

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Dec 12 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

The dragon watches

Wednesday 11th December 2019, 3.15pm (day 3,030)

Celtic dragon, 11/12/19

2019 has had a number of interesting work trips, at least, but this is the last of the year; my second visit to the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) conference, which as it always is, is being held in the highly corporate Celtic Manor Hotel in Newport, south Wales. This hefty dragon sculpture stands somewhere in the complex, looking out over the M4, in case any passing motorists were tempted to wonder what country they were in. A sensation I am starting to sympathise with, in fact.

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Dec 11 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Winter blossom

Tuesday 10th December 2019, 3.05pm (day 3,029)

Winter blossom, 10/12/19

Today was one of those grim December days where it never seems to get light at all. Ragged and shadowed though it is, this winter flowering cherry blossoms at this time each year in its little courtyard under this fire escape, and does its best to lighten the gloom.

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