Friday 29th August 2014, 8.15am (day 1,100)
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.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Category Archives: Landscape
Ingleborough from the Hawes-Ingleton road
Tuesday 26th August 2014, 11.25am (day 1,097)
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to do, and which picture to pick, to mark my birthday, and the point at which the title of this blog is now three years out of date?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.
August field
Thursday 14th August 2014, 2.50pm (day 1,085)
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…
Cartmel Sands, Cumbria
Thursday 7th August 2014, 8.25am (day 1,078)
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.
Scene 5, ‘Hansel and Gretel’
Monday 4th August 2014, 9.55pm (day 1,075)
For 25 years there have been seasons of outdoor promenade plays in Williamson’s Park, Lancaster. This is this year’s, and the first such performance I’ve seen. We were told not to photograph it, but when faced with a scene like this I bent the rules slightly — this is not actually the performance, the audience were just starting to gather at this point. I also hope it’s considered free advertising. What a spectacularly staged piece of work.
Pendle Hill, from above Mereclough
Thursday 31st July 2014, 7.35pm (day 1,071)
Had my evening meal with my parents over the border in Lancashire and captured this on the way back. Pendle Hill is 1,827 feet high, but to be honest, looks higher, particularly when one is closer to it (this image is taken from many miles away). Its name is actually the same word repeated three times; Pen from Celtic languages, ‘dyl’ from ‘hill’ in Old English, and then ‘Hill’ from Modern English. So its name basically means ‘HillHill Hill’. It is most famous for its association with the Pendle Witches, one of England’s more notorious witch-hunts.
Where I’m going next year
Wednesday 9th July 2014, 5.30pm (day 1,049)
After yesterday’s fun with the elephants, spent the day working in Nairobi and had very little chance to get a decent photo of anything.
But I did buy this map, and for a reason. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in the world that one can just walk up (as opposed to needing specialist mountaineering skills) and I’ve already paid a deposit to do exactly that, on an organised trek, around this time next year. So if I’m still blogging then — and I hopefully will be — here’s an advance notice of what to expect…. Isn’t this a great-looking map? Let’s hope the reality matches the anticipation.
Cragg Vale’s bunting, at dawn
Monday 7th July 2014, 3.45am (day 1,047)
To mark the passing of the Tour de France, pictured yesterday of course, the people of Cragg Vale, a valley to the east of Hebden Bridge, created the world’s longest-ever line of bunting — 12,115 meters, or over seven miles, with nearly 60,000 flags (see this page for the details). It ran up the longest continuous uphill gradient in England, which the cyclists ascended after leaving Hebden Bridge yesterday.
And why the hell was I there at 3.45 in the morning? Well, off on another work trip — you’ll see where tomorrow. What I’ve also done is definitely break the record for the earliest ever morning shot on this blog. There have been three before at around 1.00-1.45am but all of them were from me having stayed up from the night before. Today’s was definitely the earliest shot at which I’ve had to respond somehow to an alarm call.
The Pulpit Rock
Thursday 19th June 2014, 12.25pm (day 1,029)
I booked today in as a day off months ago specifically so I could go up here. This has been called one of the greatest views in the world by the Lonely Planet guide (see this page) and, well, see for yourself. This is Preikestolen, or “The Pulpit Rock”, which hangs 604 meters, or over 1,980 feet, vertically above the Lysefjord below. Should you visit it, you won’t be alone — but at least the other people give it a suitable sense of scale. An amazing place, and I highly recommend it.
Roof slates
Monday 21st April 2014, 6.50pm (day 970)
There is a month — this being April, 30 days — to go until I hit the 1,000-day mark on this blog, on 21st May. I have been mulling over whether or not to keep it going after then. The difficult days are not the ones where I travel and have plenty of source material but ones like today, when I’m inside, working, throughout and the light isn’t great. (Yes, I went back to work today after 10 days’ break.) Sometimes I feel like I am running out of ideas, at least to keep coming up with a new post every day. But I do promise to try to get to the 1,000 and that gives me time to consider my options.
Compelling myself to post each day at least forces me to try to see the world from an artistic perspective and within my technical abilities, capture something interesting about it, even if I am stuck at home. Like this evening’s shot, where the setting sun reflected off the residue of an earlier rain shower and produced this rocky, arid landscape on the slates of our roof.
