Jul 15 2025
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

St Swithin’s Day

Tuesday 15th July 2025, 12.45pm (day 5,073)

Rainy canal, 15/7/25

15th July is the feast day of St Swithin, and according to the legend, if it rains on St Swithin’s Bridge in Winchester on this day it will rain for another 40 days. Apparently there is a certain basis for this: this is about the time of year when the jet-stream kind of settles in and decides where it is going to sit for the rest of the summer: over Britain (we get wet) or to the north of it (we stay dry)? I don’t know what the weather was like in Winchester today but in Hebden it was chucking it down, the wettest day for months, let alone weeks. If the legend is true let me be the first to come out with that old chestnut, “That’s the summer over.”

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Jul 15 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Passing through

Monday 14th July 2025, 12.55pm (day 5,072)

Newcastle station, 14/7/25

You can see where I was when this was taken. Newcastle marks more-or-less the halfway point on the rail journey between Dundee and Hebden Bridge, at least in terms of time taken. I just like the shape she makes and the way the pink jacket in the background sets off the rest.

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Jul 14 2025
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Daily Post, Urban scene

On the old railway line

Sunday 13th July 2025, 12.10pm (day 5,081)

Old railway line, 13/7/25

Originally I was heading for the Scottish Highlands again today, but a general sense that it was not the right time was confirmed by a dubious weather forecast — not for today, which remained a pleasant day, but for tomorrow, Monday, a forecast of wet weather which I already know as I post this seems to have come to pass. So I made the right decision, stayed in Dundee, and went out on a walk anyway, which included this agreeable stretch of woodland growing along what, a century or more ago, was one of Scotland’s first railway lines. Like many such spots it now exercises legs rather than engines, but is none the worse for it.

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Jul 13 2025
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Pleasureland…

Saturday 12th July 2025, 2.40pm (day 5,070)

Arbroath Pleasureland, 11/7/25

Great Britain is the only place which tries to do seaside resorts at around 57ºN, and in a location which, as it proved today, is prone to being covered in sea mist (here they call it haar) when the whole rest of the country bathes in sunshine. But Arbroath perseveres. Get a ticket for Arbroath FC — part of one stand of it is in the background, with visiting St Mirren fans — and you can get £12.50 worth of credit at Pleasureland for just £10. Or so we were told.

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Jul 12 2025
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

Joe prepares to graduate

Friday 11th July 2025, 1.45pm (day 5,069)

Joe, graduation photo queue, 11/7/25

The photo of Joe (with Clare) on 9/9/2021 was the last one of him taken before he headed north, to Dundee, and his studies at the University of Abertay. 1,391 days later, here he is at the other end — his graduation ceremony. Yes, of course I am a proud parent, how could it be otherwise? We cannot know what his future will bring, but he has made it to this particular transitional point relatively unscathed, at least. Congratulations to him and everyone else from Abertay (it’s a small college and so got through the entirety of its graduations in two ceremonies today: at Manchester there are three ceremonies a day for two whole weeks).

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Jul 12 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Bad shot of great bridge

Thursday 10th July 2025, 7.05pm (day 5,068)

Forth Bridge from train, 10/7/25

This is the fifth photo of one or other of the Forth bridges to appear on here, and all apart from one (17/8/2021) have been taken while moving, usually on a train though the first one was an exception, as I was a passenger in a car on that occasion. Meaning none of them have been of the rail bridge: when on a train, all you get to see of it are some close-up girders. Anyway, I am sure this is a terrible photograph in some ways but in other ways I quite like it. It looks like something ephemeral, maybe three stupendous maypoles lined up over the estuary.

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Jul 10 2025
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Taking in some air

Wednesday 9th July 2025, 12.10pm (day 5,067)

Skylight, 9/7/25

You could consider this an abstract. Or, a sign that I didn’t particularly leave the house today and so was needing to point the camera at something that could be seen from within it. Or that I’m spying on the neighbours again. Either way, that’s been nearly four weeks at home, and 18 of the last 26 photos in Hebden. Time to go somewhere else for a bit.

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Jul 09 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Stop! then stop again!

Tuesday 8th July 2025, 6.20pm (day 5,066)

Stop sign, 8/7/25

Roadworks on Keighley Road continue to increase in both volume and density. Soon the entire street may disappear, collapsing in on itself to form a kind of roadwork singularity, or possibly a new form of matter, which will, while largely inert, occasionally flare up into frenzied and noisy activity at, like, 7 in the morning. Having thereby woken up any sleepers in the vicinity it will then return to its inactive state for the rest of the day.

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Jul 07 2025
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Yesterday, tomorrow, today

Monday 7th July 2025, 9.10am (day 5,065)

Well, the header of this blog still does declare “Life, One Day at a Time”. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. I can live with that.

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Jul 06 2025
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Caught in the rain

Sunday 6th July 2025, 3.10pm (day 5,064)

Chimneys in rain, 6/7/25

Taken while sheltering under the tree on our allotment. Showers like this came in every half an hour or so for most of the day. Nothing else happened, but that’s the way it was planned.

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