Category Archives: Flora/Fauna

Boot man, Hebden Bridge market

Thursday 10th October 2019, 9.40am (day 2,968)

Boot man, 10/10/19

On the 10th October 1991 I turned up in Yorkshire for what was originally planned to be a stay of a few weeks while I ‘got myself sorted out’. Twenty-eight years later, I am still living here: the last eighteen of those in Hebden Bridge. So let’s make today’s pic a home town shot. This is commercialism again, but of a far less predatory sort than yesterday’s. In the matter of boots, defer to the boot man (Bakunin — paraphrased). I hear the olives on the next stall along are pretty good too.

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The first satsuma of the season

Tuesday 8th October 2019, 4.50pm (day 2,966)

First satsuma, 8/10/19

Always a good culinary moment. The first ones just seem to taste so much better. The act of peeling allows the anticipation to build pleasantly, before that opening bite allows the sweetness to cover the tongue. Well, it was the best bit of an otherwise very mundane working day.

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The first autumn colour

Saturday 5th October 2019, 1.30pm (day 2,963)

First autumn leaves, 5/10/19

First to be explicitly depicted on the blog, anyway — seen by sticking my head (and lens) upwards on a day trip to the in-laws’. The world turns…

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Crossing Acomb Street

Monday 30th September 2019, 11.20am (day 2,958)

Acomb Street, 30/9/19

I go one way, the bird goes its way, the cat goes that. None of us necessarily find out about what the “NO” is so keen to dissuade us.

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On the Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Saturday 21st September 2019, 11.00am (day 2,949)

Huddersfield duck, 21/3/19

This canal — and its birdlife — have featured once before, in Slaithwaite. But whereas that’s a fairly rural spot, this picture was taken in the midst of the industry of Huddersfield itself. Still, it delivered a mallard so superbly lit it might have employed a Hollywood lighting director, which graciously posed in the midst of slurping up the nearby vegetation.

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Cobweb city

Friday 20th September 2019, 8.30am (day 2,948)

Cobweb city, 20/9/19

Continuing my two-day walk, in the morning, the heath was at points a profusion of cobwebs, highlighted by dew and the morning sun: this photo captures a portion of it but cannot reflect the sheer scale of this spider-city, a fly’s vision of hell. When I returned past this point a few hours later, there was no sign of all this. Note the little brown leaf trapped to centre right, proof this is not a monochrome shot.

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Just out of reach

Friday 30th August 2019, 1.25pm (day 2,927)

Blackberries, 30/8/19

So many blackberries. So little freezer space. This clump dangles tantalisingly off the wall at the end of Victoria Road, ten feet up; no one can pick them. But then again so much of this free bounty remains unharvested at the end of a summer; and so in November, the shops feel it’s OK to sell the imports from Guatemala. What a waste…

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The blacks and the blues

Wednesday 28th August 2019, 12.55pm (day 2,925)

Black and blue berries, 28/8/19

Wilfully ignoring the political developments of the day — let’s photograph some food instead. Two days after being picked, these blueberries have darkened to become indistinguishable, colour-wise, from the blackberries tossed in the bowl with them. Add some sugar and cream, and eat to forget.

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Buddleia butterfly

Friday 23rd August 2019, 2.55pm (day 2,920)

Buddleia butterly, 23/8/19

The last few days have seemed a bit drab colour-wise. But the blue skies returned today. This peacock butterfly (not a red admiral, as I originally identified it — apparently) was enjoying the local buddleia bounty.

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Birds on the Kent estuary

Tuesday 13th August 2019, 8.50am (day 2,910)

Kent estuary, 13/8/19

Whatever the reason for the journey, travelling on the Cumbrian Coast rail line is always an aesthetic pleasure. If the windows of the carriage are clean, that’s even better.

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