Maybe it’s all down to the same combination of conditions that have produced the fecundity of fruit and fungi, but the autumn colours this year are very fine. This is not another football shot, honestly.
A colourful scene depicted from under the Mancunian Way this morning, on another beautifully sunny day. By all forecasts a storm is coming in and I’m not in Manchester again for days yet, so this might be the last time you see the city like this all year. Or, indeed, that I do.
One of the hi-vis army does his valuable stuff on the banks of the Rochdale Canal. A beautiful morning today, and a real ‘Indian Summer’ day. Fine by me.
Sofas left on the pavement, that’s one thing. But half a sofa? Like the single abandoned shoe, what’s the story here? Was it just one hell of a party? Has it been sheared off, caught in mid-transition through a wormhole to another dimension?
The second monochrome shot in a row but it was a way of bringing some added interest to this view. I worked at home all day and did not leave the house. I know it’s a pretty distinctive view, in relative terms. But it is also everyday, for us at least.
This is one of those junk shops that has grandiose self-image and calls itself an “Antiques Centre” but we’ll let it off. I believe this object is an old typesetting tray, the kind of thing useful when typefaces came as hundreds of small carved pieces of metal. What practical use to anyone it is nowadays, I cannot imagine, but on the other hand it is a pretty cool lump of wood if you ask me. Not that I decided to lug it home or anything.
After a week in northern Finland, where it was rather damp and chilly throughout, at least there was sunshine when I had to go into Manchester today and, well, spend most of the day inside teaching. But never mind. This is a rather mundane shot in the end, with a green splotch of flare on it, but I like the shadows and light.
Time for a change of scene. Finland was the first country other than the UK to appear on this blog, back in September 2011, but it’s been a while (August 2012 to be precise) since I was last here properly. But Oulu is the venue for this year’s ECIL conference, which starts tomorrow, so here I am. This is the second most northerly city I have ever been, after Tromsø. I had only a short time here this evening to wander around, but this hydropower dam, built across the mouth of the main river, was an eye-catching sight. I’m here until Thursday.
Another grim day of weather, describable, at one level, as ‘sunshine and showers’, but the sunshine was brief and brought no succour, while the showers were prolonged and heavy. Here, they coincide, but I was still getting very wet.
