Thursday 18th April 2019, 12.30pm (day 2,793)
Properly back home — this is the first Hebden Bridge pic in exactly a month. The Easter holidays have kicked in, it was a beautiful day, and like this horse, I was doing my best to relax into it all.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Flora/Fauna
Saigon skink
Tuesday 2nd April 2019, 5.50pm (day 2,777)
Wildlife has been noticeable by its absence in Vietnam, even in the Delta yesterday: all that has been seen has either been trophy poodles, or a morose looking python in a cage (which I did consider making pic of the day, I admit). But I transferred today from the very centre of the city to a more suburban part, and by the lagoon of Hồ bán nguyệt [don’t ask me how you get those diacriticals on there — I just copied-and-pasted], I spotted this lizard, a skink I assume, before it spotted me.
This year’s courtyard blossom
Thursday 21st March 2019, 11.00am (day 2,765)
Last day in Manchester, certainly, for 33 days. Off tomorrow, on my most significant journey of 2019. So time for this year’s ‘cherry blossom in the Ellen Wilkinson Building’s secret courtyard’, then. I doubt it’ll still be there when I get back.
Emerging into the world
Monday 18th March 2019, 3.10pm (day 2,762)
This year’s crop of baby leeks emerges from the soil in the seed tray on our window sill. I like this shot because though they each started out as the same configuration — a seed — they have all grown up in slightly different ways, each an individual. They all liked the burst of sunshine that came around 3pm but I hope they drank it in well, because about five minutes of sun was all we got today. The JPG file you are looking at has loaded properly, by the way. The bottom strip is the tray.
The goose has a stretch
Monday 11th March 2019, 2.35pm (day 2,755)
If I had things as fine as that sprouting from my back, I’d want to show them off now and again, wouldn’t you?
Surprised earthworm
Thursday 7th March 2019, 1.55pm (day 2,751)
My unexciting week continues, but at least I got up to the allotment, where this earthworm seemed surprised at suddenly finding itself atop a slope of plastic, namely, the compost barrel. And, you know, it managed to climb up it, over the edge, and drop back into the rotting food bounty below. Which, on smooth plastic, is not bad going for what is essentially a piece of ligament.
Two seasons (by Jackson Pollock)
Wednesday 6th March 2019, 11.05am (day 2,750)
The blossom is out — very early this year, but with that run of warm weather I guess it was to be expected. But it looks odd against the brown of a hedge that seemed to decide it wasn’t actually going to shed its leaves over the winter.
Anyway I’ve decided this is my homage to Jackson Pollock. It looks a bit like one of his drip paintings. Foliage like this doesn’t half eat up the megabytes, though. Of the 2,750 photos used on this blog — three-quarters of the way through my third millennium — this is the second largest in size, at 3.4Mb, that I’ve ever uploaded (most of them come in at about 1 – 1.5Mb). The largest? This one — also with lots of foliage, proving the point…
New buds
Thursday 28th February 2019, 4.50pm (day 2,744)
A day of significant family happenings, but they were all digital and so left nothing to photograph. Meanwhile, out in the world, the week’s fine weather has brought out these buds: they weren’t here a week ago. A year ago today, it snowed substantially in Hebden Bridge, but no danger of that this February 28th.
Spawn
Sunday 24th February 2019, 11.55pm (day 2,740)
Piles of frog spawn filled various random bits of water (such as, literally, roadside puddles) on my walk yesterday and an equally huge pile filled the ornamental pond in my in-laws’ garden this morning. Now you’ve seen the size of a frog, right? These rafts of spawn were two feet wide. There must have been mass spawn-laying orgies taking place on Friday night. Wouldn’t we all like to be invited to such parties.
Grumpy little bumblebee
Thursday 21st February 2019, 1.35pm (day 2,737)
I know I’m anthropomorphosising, but please tell me you see this bumblebee’s grumpy little face… long nose, protuberant jaw, etc. It’s like, “I know it was a nice sunny day today, but bloody hell is it early in the year to get up.” However… respect the pollinators, that’s what we have to do….
