Grim and bleak seem to have been themes for a few days now, and with this particular mid-December being even grimmer and bleaker than is normal for the time of year, the theme is likely to continue. Is Limeside Park in Oldham a more welcoming place on a sunny day in May? Of course it is, but then again, so is everywhere.
As I type this there are 23 minutes left of voting in the third General Election day to feature on this blog. On all of them I have been away from home — I was in Dundee in May 2015 and Siberia just over two years later in June 2017. I had to get out from the conference venue today, there was no way I could stay in the antiseptic air-con of the Celtic Manor all day. But the prospects offered by Newport and the River Usk were grim. A dark day. If you see anything about today as heralding a bright shining future of some kind, I admire your optimism.
I made it onto campus today, at least. I like this shot of the ventilation chimneys outside the tents set up to suppor this week’s graduation ceremonies; look at the top-right third of the shot and see how it is disorted by the heat coming out of the main stack.
OK, technically it’s not ‘lost’ but I would say this ball is pretty definitively out of action. You can imagine the sulky face on the eight-year old owner, however, as he tries grumpily to get Mum and Dad to acknowledge that if only he had a big enough stick all would be fine…
Did not feel a great deal more interested in engaging with the world today than I did yesterday, but was obliged to haul myself into Manchester in any case. The city seems to have definitively adopted Alan Turing (that’s him…) as one of its own, despite the fact that he only spent the very last portion of his truncated life here. But hey, there are many worse and less significant people to eulogise.
Really didn’t feel like engaging with people today. Let this shot be a metaphor for that state of mind…. or perhaps, just the only thing I really felt like photographing today, up in the garden. At least the sun was shining. This was the day’s only redeeming feature.
The outdoor stalls at Todmorden market stay there permanently, and well before the presumed 9am opening time of the rest of the enterprise, this guy was out with his boxes trying to get the early morning trade. There wasn’t any, hence the title of this post. I like this shot because it’s the one I was trying to take, and the car headlight poking through the struts is the final bonus.
What, on the other hand, was I doing in Todmorden — as opposed to being somewhat nearer Manchester — at this time in the morning? Don’t ask. Just part of the Conservative Party’s Annual Autumn Travel Lottery.
My latest post in the occasional series, “random items strangely abandoned by the roadside”. There have been a number of shoes in this series, a pair of spectacles once. But kitchen utensils? That’s a new one. There must be a story behind this. Not just that a perfectly servicable wok was dumped, but dumped in this specific place. Someone, somewhere, knows why.
I do still turn up on campus now and again but because of the increasingly painful train journey that it takes to get there — and, just as importantly, back — I am trying to do so less and less. Rainy mornings (which lead to me smelling damp all day) are no help either. But every so often I have little choice.
Following my lament about the day’s football match on Saturday’s blog post, I shall not depict it — but here is Joe on his way to it, on a very pleasant November morning.
Golly, look what tomorrow is — day 3,000 of the blog. It would be nice to mark this with some momentous journey of some kind, but it ain’t gonna happen, as I will be spending the day working here in Hebden Bridge. But as with every other day on here, I will do my best — let us see what the light brings.
Being 42 