Category Archives: Family Member

Women in my life

Tuesday 25th August 2026, 12.35pm (day 5,479)

Vicki and Clare, 25/8/26

Sister on the left, wife on the right. Between them, Vicki and Clare sort out as much of my life as anyone else these days. I think both of them have my interests to heart.

With this picture I have reached 15 full years of blogging — 15 x 365 = 5,475 and there have been four February 29ths. I started on 26th August 2011, my 42nd birthday (hence the title of this blog, in case you’d forgotten), and tomorrow, well, you do the maths. I suppose there have been some occasions when I have considered bringing it to an end, particularly on some days where, working at home or stuck in the office, I really have struggled to find anything particularly worth photographing. On the other hand, as I have no intention of ceasing to document things like walks, football matches and periods of travel, I imagine that deliberately leaving gaps in the record would immediately feel like I was letting myself down. So on I go. One of these days I may simply have a camera breakdown, but que sera, sera.

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Bear Hug

Thursday 6th August 2026, 4.10pm (day 5,460)

Bear hug, 6/8/26

In Bristol’s Arnolfini art gallery currently resides an exhibition by Jonathan Baldock, called Held, which, according to the Guardian anyway, is “a tense world of folkloric psychedelia and pagan aesthetics that is weird, threatening and utterly compelling”. Well, OK, maybe I didn’t quite get it myself but Clare was not the only visitor who took the chance to get up close and personal with the exhibition’s centrepiece, entitled Bear Hug and which one was specifically allowed to engage with in this way — as long as shoes were removed. Apparently it has a heartbeat, so is a multi-sensory huggy experience.

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Clare’s immediate desire

Tuesday 9th June 2026, 10.50am (day 5,402)

Tea message, 9/6/26

So much so that, apparently, she had the sign ready beforehand. So it goes when we are both working at home on a given morning.

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White Swan garden reflection

Wednesday 3rd June 2026, 3.30pm (day 5,396)

Swan garden reflection, 3/6/26

This is a self-portrait — logically I will be on it somewhere, and you may discern me under the red umbrella nearest to this shiny ball thing. I’m in the garden early — but then again I started work early (7:45) and sat upstairs marking for several hours. Semester 2 is now officially done, though, as far as I am concerned.

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The family

Sunday 10th May 2026, 7.55pm (day 5,372)

Clare and Joe, 10/5/26

There’s something terribly familiar about this scene (and there’s me just noticing that ‘familiar’ and ‘family’ have the same root). Only it doesn’t happen all that much any more: this is Joe’s first appearance on the blog since our Christmas trip to Dundee, and his first in Hebden Bridge since early August. We did spend some time talking to each other, by the way.

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This year’s pea house

Friday 17th April 2026, 12.20pm (day 5,349)

Pea frame, 17/4/26

This year’s peas and beans are getting a relatively hi-tech home, none of this cheap cane-based arrangement this year. The frame is up, I help Clare sort out the netting, while she practices putting her feet at right angles for a minute or two.

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Dinner out with family

Friday 20th March 2026, 7.45pm (day 5,321)

Thai meal, 20/3/26

I know my sister Vicki follows this blog, so let me say that it was, as always, nice to see them in Hebden Bridge tonight. This is a picture of her and Pete (the tattoos are the giveaway) and not one of a Thai corn ball, even though that does form the foreground.

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The Other Half

Wednesday 25th February 2026, 12.55pm (day 5,298)

Most of my previous cameras have died more-or-less instaneously, but the present one is going more for the long, slow death. It stops working — the zoom lens, always that — but if I leave it overnight it seems able to drag itself into some kind of action again the next day, at least so far. (A bit like its owner, at the moment.) It was just after lunch today when I checked its status and it did, indeed, revive once more. At this point in time Clare was standing as you see her and so this is a technical test as much as anything else. But, still, the best photo taken today. C hasn’t been seen on the blog since Halloween, so it’s about time she returned.

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In the flowerpot

Thursday 15th January 2026, 11.55am (day 5,257)

Flowerpot reflection, 15/1/26

I’m still marking. This miniature world was found just outside the front door, a little flowerpot full of water and with some long-drowned little clumps of green at the bottom. Maybe it says a lot that it was the most interesting thing seen today. On the other hand, as it has turned out, this is really just a shot of my hands — they’re both on there — and in that regard I quite like the shot.

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Re-engaging with the favourite child

Tuesday 23rd December 2025, 5.30pm (day 5,234)

Joe’s first appearance since — chainsaw in hand — 4th August. It’s Christmas. It’s time to re-engage.

Re: the title. You do understand Joe is our only child, right? Just checking.

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