The title of the shot is as much aspiration as description. Today I am in Morecambe. Tomorrow, I will be over in the Lake District, on the other side of the Bay; the fells forming the horizon are (left to right) Dow Crag, Grey Friar and Coniston Old Man. Let’s have a week off work, somewhere beautiful. That’s a decent aspiration….
Some rivers and lakes around here are somewhat lower than is usual, that is true, but this picture does not represent some heroic water shortage in the north-west of England. Rather, the Warland reservoir is being renovated, so has been drained, its bed exposed and returning to its natural state. There are some bleak panoramas up on the moors round here and the lack of water here doesn’t do this particular one any further favours.
Today was the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day. But seeing as I’ve been north of the Arctic Circle since Saturday morning this was a regression, in daylight terms. No problem with that however. The 24-hour daylight was nice in some ways but it could become monotonous after a while. Shot taken from above Manchester on the final flight home: the city centre is just visible down there in the haze.
A return to Tromsø after my first visit in March. Well above the Arctic Circle, I will comfortably see no darkness for the next few days. Expect a photo of the Midnight Sun at some point. But not tonight — the views from the final stages of the flight were too good. So I probably saw more snow than you did today, at least from a distance.
The good weather broke, to some extent, although there was not the rain that the gathering clouds and rumbles of thunder promised. Dramatic-looking skies though. This was the last sighting of the sun today.
I worked Sunday and Monday (I have witnesses) so this was a walk day. Destination, the well-known peak of Great Gable: pictured here, however, is Great End, rising above the stream of Styhead Gill which comes down from Sty Head, one of the major walkers’ crossroads of Lakeland. A very fine day, the sort that makes one glad one has a flexible job sometimes.
And so, the journey home — deliberately done away from motorways, and rest stops, and all that crap. It took a couple of hours longer than it did on Thursday, but it was infinitely more relaxing, and hey, here is the English countryside, in all its rape-flower-coloured spring plumage. Taken just outside the village of Heckington, somewhere in the wilds of Lincolnshire.
And as I said I would do 11 different places in 11 days, here they were: Manchester, Wolverhampton, Lancaster, Morecambe, the Solway Firth, Haworth, Hebden Bridge, Markham Moor, Cambridge, King’s Lynn, Heckington. These things keep me happy.
Can’t say I see a great deal to disapprove of with wind farms, and certainly not offshore ones. Picture taken from the Cumbrian coast line, not far out of Workington and heading for Carlisle: one of the most scenic railways, not just in Britain but the world — I do not exaggerate — and for the first time today, I managed to do the whole of it, from Lancaster round to Carlisle. Sit on the left-hand side if doing it in that direction.
Oh yeah, and Brighton were promoted to the Premiership today. I don’t have any photos of that: I just thought I would mention it…
Office-wise I’ve been based in the Ellen Wilkinson Building for nearly 12 years now but have little reason to venture up to its sixth floor (if you live in most of the rest of the world, its seventh). When I do I am reminded what a decent view it has, even if today the light wasn’t as it could be. But there’s quite a distance in sight here, south to the Derbyshire Pennines, and the tower of Manchester Royal Infirmary nearer the camera.
I post this picture also to launch myself on one of these mini blog-projects that sometimes motivate me. Coming up: eleven different photo locations in eleven days. Let’s do it.
