A weekend at home, with no work, and there haven’t been many of those lately so let’s make the most of it. Though stormier by the evening much of today remained mild and bright, and with colours like these sometimes you may as well just go with the cliched shot.
Third consecutive Sunday spent up in the air on my way somewhere — in this case, like two Sundays ago, Moscow. This shot was taken on the final approach in to Domodedovo airport. Probably I break a few composition rules here but hey, that’s what rules are for, right?
Not natural clouds coming down the valley, as posted a few days ago — this fire was unnatural. But hey, it’s autumn. There’s lots to burn.
We’ve been blessed by good weather for some weeks but things appear to be on the turn. Awful weather this morning, though the afternoon was OK until sunset, pictured here from the back of the house and with some serious cropping to get rid of all that distracting town below — though the top of the Nutclough Mill tower sneaks unobtrusively in.
The weather was forecast to deteriorate today but it seemed alright to me. A very busy week comes to a close with a very pleasant evening.
Think landscapes are easy to photograph? No! Landscapes are capricious and complex. Like women. You have to get them in the mood, and when they’re there, don’t hang around — it might not last long.
A night out last night, stayed over in a motel (because you shouldn’t drink and drive — so given the choice I don’t drive). This was the scene outside our room this morning.
So what to do, and which picture to pick, to mark my birthday, and the point at which the title of this blog is now three years out of date? I’m off work this week so hired a car and took the family up to the Yorkshire Dales, a place which used to play a big part in my life but since 26/8/11 has failed to feature in it. I lived full-time in the Dales national park from October 1991 until September 1994 (and some part-time living after that); in summer 1994, 20 years ago now, I worked in a pub in Chapel-le-Dale, which is about two miles down the road from this point, beneath the western slope of that gorgeous lump of rock you see ahead of you, Ingleborough. A nice trip back to mark this particular anniversary. Happy 45th birthday to me and welcome to the fourth year of this blog.
To call the weather over the last 7 days ‘unsettled’ is a gross understatement — it’s hardly been the same for half an hour at a time, all week. This was taken as I exploited a relatively sunny period this afternoon to grab more blackberries. (I seek to make wine again.) Most of the rest of the day after this, it was wet. Then dry again. Repeat…
The UK government hate public transport, and have done so, passionately, since the 1950s when they realised that, regardless of the effects on the environment and society, they could make much more money taxing private motor vehicles. They are also the type of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
This picture is taken from the Cumbrian Coast rail line which I happen to think is as beautiful a railway line as exists anywhere in the world. Cartmel Sands are the estuary of the rivers Crake and Leven, which empty Coniston Water and Windermere into Morecambe Bay. Every time I go over the bridge here it looks different, some alteration in the configuration of light, tide and season that refreshes the scene constantly.
I would — and do — travel on this rail line simply to see these kinds of thing, there does not have to be a particular destination in mind. But my government would never see this kind of value. They willfully refuse to, in fact.
Being 42 