Aug 19 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Plum preservation

Thursday 19th August 2021, 12.05pm (day 3,647)

Plums in vodka, 19/8/21

Despite the propping up (an action which probably saved most of the remainder), half our plum tree has given up the ghost; the weight of the fruit was too much. So today I had a great many green plums to process. It was the fate of these ones to end up in a demijohn with sugar and vodka. Apparently, in a year, we’ll have slivovitz. Or, I’ll forget about them, stashed in the closet as they now are, and our descendants will rediscover them in forty years, playing host to entire new ecosystems.

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Aug 19 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Joe visits Manchester

Wednesday 18th August 2021, 11.10am (day 3,646)

Joe at Victoria, 18/8/21

Three weeks and two days until Joe goes off to university, the psychological implications of which (for us all) remain unexplored. But at least we can get the logistics prepared, so he accompanied me to Manchester today to pick up practical stuff, plates, cutlery, you know, things that mean he won’t have to eat off the floor. Will this be the last shot of him in this particular city? Impossible to say what the future will bring.

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Aug 17 2021
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Daily Post, Transport

North Queensferry

Tuesday 17th August 2021, 8.50am (day 3,645)

North Queensferry, 17/8.21

The long drive home was broken up at various points; the first break taken here, on the north side of the Firth of Forth, so I could get a shot of the magnificent bridges that cross it. The new road bridge has featured before on here; the Forth Rail Bridge is behind me as I took this.

Spectacular though that is, I chose this shot today, the reason being that it looks like it will be the last shot taken with my Canon Power Shot SX60 camera. The same thing has gone on it as goes on all the cameras I have had down the years, and used every day — the motor on the lens. It’s been creaking and grinding for a few weeks now, and after just about teasing it up and down Ben Lawers it conked out once more this morning, and I’m giving up on it. A shopping trip awaits.

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Aug 17 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

Ben Lawers

Monday 16th August 2021, 11.55am (day 3,644)

Ben Lawers, 17/8/21

Ben Lawers towers over the shore of Loch Tay and, at 3,983 feet (1,214m), is the tenth-highest mountain in the UK. In the whole country south of this point, there is no higher land. Tell you what though, it made me work to bag it; the day was a classic illustration of how conditions can deteriorate with altitude. This walker was heading up it after the worst had passed — which is more than can be said for me. See the County Tops blog for the gory details and more pictures.

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Aug 17 2021
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Keeper of the Crannog

Sunday 15th August 2021, 2.10pm (day 3,643)

Crannog keeper, 15/8/21

A day spent between walks. Did another dose of museum instead, specifically the ‘Scottish Crannog Centre‘ on Loch Tay. A crannog, it seems, is an Iron Age dwelling built on an artificial island in the loch; there are reckoned to be many of these throughout Scotland and Ireland. This centre had a reproduction of one, until it burnt down last year — the impressive thing is that the place was still interesting and good value without it. That had a huge amount to do with the staff, including this guy, clearly the boss, but his minions earned their wages too.

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Aug 15 2021
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Old Military Road

Saturday 14th August 2021, 10.05am (day 3,642)

Old Military Road, 14/8/21

The A93 runs north from the town of Blairgowrie, in Perthshire, to Braemar in Aberdeenshire. Just north of this point — and a couple of hundred feet below the point from where I took this picture, looking back into Glen Shee — the tarmac reaches the Cairnwell Pass, which at 2,199 feet above sea level, makes it the highest public road in the whole of the UK. It’s called the ‘Old Military Road’ as it was originally built as part of the general plan to assert military dominance over the Highlands of Scotland after the last Jacobite rebellion in the 1700s.

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Aug 15 2021
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Daily Post, Interior

The ghost of New Lanark

Friday 13th August 2021, 12.35pm (day 3,641)

New Lanark ghost, 13/8/21

On Friday 13th, let’s go ghost-spotting. This spectral figure appeared from round some old cotton-spinning equipment in a former mill at New Lanark, Robert Owen’s planned industrial settlement in the gorge of the River Clyde. Or maybe it’s just a projection in one corner of the museum, visited as we made our way to Scotland to begin (finally) a summer holiday. But whether put on for the tourists or not, it’s still a ghost, in some form.

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Aug 12 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

On the threshhold

Thursday 12th August 2021, 3.50pm (day 3,640)

Dog, Railway entrance, 12/8/21

The 2020-21 academic year has been buggered about with, and broken, and (for me) unusually extended — but as of this afternoon, at about 3pm, it is OVER. I am on holiday. Could say ‘feels good’. The reality — more like this.

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Aug 12 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

The condiments are ready

Wednesday 11th August 2021, 9.55am (day 3,639)

Old Gate condiments, 11/8/21

They start serving early at the Old Gate pub/restaurant in town. The condiments are set and prepared even before 10am. Off they stretch into the distance, like little table-set skyscrapers.

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Aug 11 2021
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The stewards, Blackburn

Tuesday 10th August 2021, 7.35pm (day 3,638)

Stewards, Blackburn, 10/8/21

My latest trip to Ewood Park, this time to see Morecambe FC (still buoyed up by their recent win at Wembley) play Blackburn Rovers in the League Cup. The stewards had plenty of visiting Morecambe fans to deal with but not, it has to be said, a great many Blackburnians. Perhaps this was because they knew the result was fated, as I was in attendance. This was my fifth visit to the ground as far as I can ascertain, and Blackburn Rovers have now lost every one of them: a 1-2 defeat to the mighty Shrimps this evening continuing the run. I won’t be back for a little while, guys, I promise.

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