Another less-than-exciting day…. This is never the most dynamic time of the year, is it? And in 2020…. like these lights, we are all just waiting for Christmas, which may or may not make a difference.
Mondays have hardly been the most exciting days recently, even by present standards. But while, in no way, a decent photograph aesthetically, this is at least interesting. What you see here are Jupiter (the brighter one) and Saturn setting over Hebden Bridge, seen from my home. I did not realise this until today but apparently these planets are almost due to touch (from our perspective) on 21st December; the closest apparent conjunction since 1623. One to look out for, if you have any interest in astronomy.
This is the first time I have knowingly had Saturn in my viewfinder, and seeing as I had managed in the past to get a decent shot of Jupiter and its moons with my camera I did try for the rings. No joy — though the blurry disc I did get was, definitely, squashed-looking.
Went into Manchester and back, and did hope to get a photo from there to provide more variety to the locations. But it’s been a while since the view from the house at sunset made it: and today seemed a good day to return to that theme. Red sky at night is good news, right?
I thought as I walked past this guy, at first, that his facial mask was somewhat excessive even for the present. Then I saw what he was doing. It’s a way of stopping people painting ‘JOHNSON OUT’ on this wall, at least.
The family that texts together, survives house arrest together. One of the few signs of human life in Hebden Bridge this afternoon.
Now that’s a mackerel sky if ever there was one. A change in the weather is on the way…
I’ve given up wondering whether I’m being metaphorical or not. Fact is it’s that first week after the clocks go back, and dusk oppresses us an hour or more earlier than it did last week. Winter is coming. The Christmas lights are ready.
The schools are shut for half-term, there are no trains to Manchester and it rained most of the day. Hebden Bridge is back in lockdown almost by default. It’s a depressing time, a silence hangs over the place that is unnatural and wrong.
With no disrespect to the people who are sharing this life with me (Clare, Joe), things have a drabness to them at the moment: all the diary contains are work events, there is nothing communal beyond some football matches (and even they are visited alone), no parties, no gigs. This is what the world has become now the Great Fear has been used as an excuse to kick us all into a digital semi-prison. If things are different where you are, then embrace that. At least from my house the view is quite good, particularly when the afternoon sunlight catches the hills in the distance.
Whether or not Authority spasms and throws out arbitrary diktats in the next few weeks will not change the fact that I have plenty of work to do, and opportunities to get out of Hebden Bridge are going to be limited. So, Johnson, Our Glorious Leader, do your worst, I don’t care any more. Expect more photos of the local area. I don’t know why I focused on this run of satellite dishes on the street of Royd Terrace this morning — possibilities range from a ‘staying in touch’ metaphor, up to and including the decline of civilisation itself. Perhaps.
Being 42 