May 31 2019
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Howth harbour

Thursday 30th May 2019, 7.05pm (day 2,835)

Howth harbour, 30/5/19

I am in Ireland for a couple of days. Why? Just because I could, and I needed the head-space, and I like going to new places. I’ve been to Dublin before, but not here, which is Howth (pronounced ‘Hoat’ by the locals, seemingly), sitting on a headland just outside the city. If you’ve heard of it at all it’s probably from the opening lines of Finnegan’s Wake:

riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Not that anyone’s actually read Finnegan’s Wake of course. Try it, you’ll see why.

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May 30 2019
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Daily Post, Interior

Academic humour

Wednesday 29th May 2019, 10.50am (day 2,834)

Office door, 29/5/19

Made my weekly visit to Manchester today, to little effect, but I did like this montage, seen on a colleague’s office door. I like the plaintive comment on the pink post-it. My students react to my teaching in that way, much of the time.

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May 29 2019
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Daily Post, Landscape

Caudale Moor summit

Tuesday 28th May 2019, 1.30pm (day 2,833)

Caudale Moor summit, 28/5/19

The summit of Caudale Moor is also known as Stony Cove Pike. In the background, the peaks of Ill Bell and its little brother Froswick. Behold, the payoff for working yesterday.

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May 27 2019
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Rainy un-holiday

Monday 27th May 2019, 1.10pm (day 2,832)

Rainy day, 27/5/19

It was a public holiday today but I stayed in and worked: don’t give me sympathy though. It’s just a swap with tomorrow. And it rained today, anyway.

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May 27 2019
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Accrington, Lancashire

Sunday 26th May 2019, 3.15pm (day 2,831)

Accrington houses, 26/5/19

Getting the train from Hebden Bridge to points further north-west involves passing through — or rather (on a viaduct), over — the town of Accrington. I once got involved in a conversation on social media as to which was England’s most ‘Northern’ town, meaning, not geographically, but culturally, stereotypically. This place won, and each time I cross the viaduct and see its seemingly endless ranks of terraced, back-to-back housing, I remember why. This is just a small part of the whole. LS Lowry could paint Accrington as it looks today, and few would doubt the authenticity.

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May 26 2019
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

This year’s apple crop (so far)

Saturday 25th May 2019, 11.55am (day 2,830)

Baby apples, 25/5/19

After last year’s glut, our plums are going to have one of their years off, this is obvious already. But there are dozens of these little babies on the branches of the apple tree. Come back to us in September for the harvest.

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May 25 2019
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Transport

On the canal

Friday 24th May 2019, 10.05am (day 2,829)

On the canal, 24/5/19

One of those highly uneventful days when even everyday scenes are hard to come by. Still, the sun shone, and on such a day, drifting along the canal has a certain appeal, whether you’re human and have to use artificial contraptions to do so, or a goose, who can just use what nature provides.

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May 24 2019
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Daily Post, Interior

Joe’s school leaving shirt

Thursday 23rd May 2019, 1.50pm (day 2,828)

Joe's signed shirt, 23/5/19

On the day I started this blog, 26/8/11, Joe was just short of being eight-and-a-half years old. He did not finish primary school until July 2014. Yet today was his last day of lessons at Calder High — there are still exams to do, but no more classes. He arrived home at lunchtime in a shirt scrawled with signatures from staff and classmates. I can’t be the only parent asking — where does the time go? How quickly it passes…  at least for him. (Not for me. My life moves at a crawl.)

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May 23 2019
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Daily Post, Transport

Off we troop

Wednesday 22nd May 2019, 7.40am (day 2,827)

Wakefield Kirkgate, 22/5/19

Off we all go to our various duties and assignations, early on a Wednesday morning. And what was I doing in Wakefield Kirkgate station — a town that has never before featured on the blog (thus becoming named location #270) — at 7.40am? Well, you don’t get to see every aspect of my life on here.

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May 21 2019
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

The Arndale Centre

Tuesday 21st May 2019, 9.00am (day 2,826)

Arndale centre, 21/5/19

The Arndale subsumes a huge chunk of Manchester under its architectural footprint. The third-biggest city centre shopping mall in Europe, or something like that. It’s safe to say that when it was built it wasn’t popular. My late Gran would not go in it; it was too large, too enclosed, too alien. These days it’s getting middle-aged, having been completed in 1979. But that still doesn’t make it as old as me.

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