Somewhat shamefully this is the earliest picture in a given day since late November. But it’s only now that the light is starting to return to the sky at a civilised hour in the morning. I said there would be some Oxfordshire countryside today, so here it is — the grounds of Heythrop Park, once the home of the Earl of Shrewsbury, then a Jesuit college, now a hotel of the sort where conferences are held, like the one I am attending.
After spending the last four days almost entirely at home, claustrophobia was definitively overcome by having a day out here. Looking rather different from its last appearance on the blog in August 2016, Llandudno was all built in the 1850s and 1860s as a massive piece of real estate speculation by landowner Lord Mostyn and architect Owen Williams. And I have to say, you can see their point.
On the return home, a healthy dosage of the white stuff. This being a maritime British winter, not one of these more robust continental versions, by tonight it had all gone.
‘Detectorists’ = ‘people who head out and comb fields, beaches, toxic waste dumps etc. with metal detectors’. There was an agreeable TV series featuring these lovable rogues, I believe. Well, not these two perhaps.
Excellent day for photography today by the shores of Morecambe Bay. For the first time in ages I feel minded to add something to the Best of the Rest page as well as this shot. It’s certainly an attractive corner of this island, I’ll give it that.
Commercial forestry is not inherently a bad thing: there are many beautiful and well-managed plantations in England. But there are prices to pay, and when you see a ravaged landscape like this one — well, it does make you realise that this is not nurtured land. More like arboreal strip-mining, take the products and leave a wasteland behind. In this mist it looks almost apocalyptic, like the zombies are just over the horizon. Maybe one day Treebeard will stomp out of the remaining woods, like he does in The Two Towers, and swear vengeance against the human despoilers.
I had a book to read for work. I read it today. Did I need to be in an office to do this? No, I didn’t.
There are actually two other people (who had the same idea as me) visible on this photo. While away a pleasant couple of minutes seeing if you can locate them.
…or at ten-to-four on a Friday afternoon, anyway. But not “shepherds’ delight” because an hour or so after this it started snowing. Unphotographed, but the first of the winter, round here.
And back to the Lake District I go. But why on earth not — it’s a beautiful place, particularly on a lovely autumn morning like this one.
Catching up after a two-day trip to the Lake District to give Joe something to do during this week’s half-term holiday. (And me, a break from work.) As we are both fans of the movie Withnail and I (who isn’t?), motivation and interest could be added to the walking by cheaply visiting a location or two. The first is here — what you see here is the gate that Withnail forgot to shut, thus leading to “I”‘s encounter with the bull. “Run at it, shouting!” “That can’t be right! Bastard’s about to run at ME!”
The clocks have gone back, and there’s no denying we are now firmly in autumn. The first intimations of sunset came worryingly early this evening. For some reason I feel especially reluctant to let go of the summer; the coming of winter gives me no feeling of comfort this time round.
Being 42 