Thursday 17th September 2026, 4.25pm (day 5,502)
Back hone. And here was the weather: a dozen of these seemed to sweep through the valley today. What the hell, I had to go back to work.
The rain sweeps through
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Landscape
On the Miners’ Track
Tuesday 8th September 2026, 1.05pm (day 5,493)
Begging the pardons of Kinder Scout and Broad Law, which both might feel they qualify, but it was time I went up a proper mountain, and Yr Wyddfa (a.k.a. Snowdon), the highest peak in Wales at 3,560 feet, is a big pointy beast and definitely counts. I will additionally note that Wales can offer alcoholic beverages at its highest point thanks to the summit cafe, though I stuck to tea. No summit views today though, thanks to cloud up high, so let’s choose this shot featuring the day’s walking companion — my sister Vicki making a second appearance in a fortnight, seen here on the way down.
Cool blue with moon
Tuesday 1st September 2026, 9.15am (day 5,486)
My September 2026 definitely didn’t open with a bang, and the subject matter of this shot reflects that. But the cool blue, plus the generally laid-back clouds and the moon — and who doesn’t like the moon? — together they make for as good a representation of the day as I otherwise managed to achieve with the camera.
Partial eclipse
Wednesday 12th August 2026, 7.05pm (day 5,466)
Prior to this evening, this blog had featured two solar eclipses: one annular, witnessed in Laura, Queensland, in May 2013, and the total one seen from Ullin, Illinois, in August 2017. Both of those I had travelled specifically to see. This partial eclipse, however, came to me (and the rest of the UK) rather than the other way around. I did get a photo of it through the eclipse glasses but not a particularly sharp one, so let’s document it this way.
This was, more or less, the peak — I was in Leeds, and it peaked there at about 91% totality — and while it was definitely a noticeable dimming of the light there is still plenty of sunshine coming through and the moon is not at all visible without the eclipse glasses. Going on what the media, particularly social media, was touting to those who had never seen such an event before (and the UK’s last really significant one was in 1999), many people seemed to assume things would be getting pitch black. So, welcome to the difference between hype and reality. Eclipses are still pretty cool though: as I say on one of the other two pages, the fact that the apparent sizes of the Moon and Sun are so nearly the same is a massive cosmic coincidence: we may be one of the few planets in the galaxy that can possibly experience such an event.
Home, for 25 years
Friday 3rd July 2026, 2.50pm (day 5,426)
Having exchanged contracts the day before, it was on 3rd July 2001 that Clare and I moved into our house in Hebden Bridge: separately, I recall, as on the day I came in from our previous place in Leeds with the help of my Dad while her family brought her over from Morecambe with stuff from there. And we’ve been there ever since. I’m not sure we expected to stay for a quarter of a century — but it’s how things have panned out and right now we have no plans to move out.
It seemed appropriate to get a shot of the town and of the house within it for today, so here you are: as seen from the little, overgrown graveyard at the top of the Buttress. Our place is pretty much in the middle of the shot, part of the ‘castle walls’ that line the Keighley Road. Hopefully they’ll still be standing in another 25 years, or indeed another 125: maybe we’ll still be there after the first span of time, but not the latter.
I can see the office from here
Monday 29th June 2026, 1.05pm (day 5,422)
Well, it’s somewhere over there, anyway. But far enough away to be mostly out of mind. Better and more uplifting things were to be found today on the summit of Kinder Scout, in the Peak District; you can read more about this on my other blog.
View from the bus stop
Thursday 25th June 2026, 7.30am (day 5,418)
Most things in Norway are expensive. Public transport, however, is not one of them. Our bus back to Tromsø airport this morning cost 50 krone each, which is about £3.50, and for a 90-minute ride through stellar scenery that is undoubted value for money. Farewell to this very beautiful place: I hope it is not 2032 before I return.
View from Hillesøya to Håja
Tuesday 23rd June 2026, 11.30am (day 5,416)
Climbing to the summit of Hillesøya, the sibling island to Sommarøy, made for some needed exercise in the morning, for me, Clare and the two hikers you see here, as well as a bunch of others who hauled themselves up its rocky and awkward slopes. Still, it’s undoubtedly an easier walk than Håja, in the background. This pointy little island apparently inspired the shape of the ‘Arctic Cathedral’ in Tromsø, which can be seen on the left-hand side of the first picture I took of the city back in March 2017.
One full day to go here, and you’ll probably be seeing another landscape tomorrow — but there are reasons for that.
Sommarøy
Monday 22nd June 2026, 3.55pm (day 5,415)
Time to get out of the big city (well, Tromsø) and out into the countryside for the remainder of our time here. The name of Sommarøy means ‘Summer Isle’, which is appropriate for the time of year, but not for today’s weather, which certainly reminded us that we are at 69º 37′ N. On the other hand, who doesn’t like a Wicker Man reference. Somewhere over there a policeman may or may not be landing his seaplane on the loch, sorry, fjord and dropping by to make inquiries about a missing girl. OK, we are in the real Norway, not a fictional Scotland, but the scene is reminiscent enough.
Football and big mountain combo
Sunday 21st June 2026, 4.05pm (day 5,414)
Seems like an adequate combination of two of my more favoured recreational pursuits. In the background, Tromsdalstinden, the summit of which stands at 4,055 feet (1,236m) above sea level and which I hauled myself up on 30/9/2017 — in weather that was a damn sight warmer than today’s ‘Midsummer’s Day’ incidentally, as the snow evidences. As seen from the ground of IF Fløya, the green-clad players of whom are defending here, but they needn’t have worried: they were already 2-0 up at this point just after half-time and went on to win 4-0.
Incidentally, I make this the 100th Norway shot to feature on this blog.
Being 42 