Second photo in a row taken through glass: this lady was sat outside the pub as we enjoyed the usual Friday afternoon thing. A quiet weekend coming up, poor weather forecast although there was some sunshine coming in for this shot. A bit of oddness caused by the reflections but I still like the image.
The monument atop Stoodley Pike is visible for much of the train journey from Hebden Bridge to Todmorden, but the best view of it comes at the end, as one crosses the viaduct just prior to Todmorden station. You get about five seconds to see it properly before trees, then the station buildings, obscure the view. Seeing as I experience this view every time I get a train to Manchester (as long as I’m sat on the left), in a sense I have been waiting over seven years to offer up a version of this picture on the blog: so if I remain committed to never repeating myself, let’s only show it when it seems particularly worth it. Did it make the 5:35am alarm call (and 7:45am arrival in the office) worthwhile? Er…. mildly, I guess.
Notes on laptop? Check. Camera? Present, obviously. Bag of plums for distribution? Check. Students? Well, some of them. Even if they are members of uni staff on the ‘Humanities New Academics Programme’. Here we go through to Christmas, either way.
Not an eventful day at all. I am hiding at home doing my best to get ready for things opening at uni in a couple of weeks’ time. Like these guys, but just on a bigger scale. The Nightjar bar sits below the Picture House and is one of those places that serves a dozen beers, all of them over-hopped and fruity, which is why these guys have beards.
Plums. We are drowning in them. Possibly not as many as the all-time Bumper Plum Year that was 2015, but after a final harvest this morning, the now-empty tree has given up at least 30 lbs this year (14 kg). Want plums? We have them.
“Skkrrzzz-thttt. Lander to Moonbase Theta. Small crater to negotiate. Fzzztt.”
Or perhaps it’s an aphid on a wet table. You decide.
I’m all for getting freebies when they are available but come on, it’s only £8 to get in and see your local non-league football team (in this case, Colne FC of the Northern Premier League D1 West) and you can stand under cover, out of the rain. You’re just being tight, is all.
We went to a family funeral today and I faced the moral dilemma of whether to depict it on here or respect the privacy of the occasion. But then while waiting for the train home I saw this little scene over on the other side of Lancaster station, thus saving me the trouble of resolving the problem. I love the way it’s all rectangles, apart from her. Well, actually — a couple of little triangles have slipped in there too. But I’m ignoring them.
The weather was mostly good over these two days and only in the final hour or so was there some drizzle. This came down while I descended, aching and exhausted, from Scarth Gap (the notch in the hillside above) to Buttermere, while these sheep all went up the other way. There is a shepherd and dog just out of shot to the left. I did get some shots of them all coming up towards me as well, but this is the best one.
I am posting this and tomorrow’s pic while lying in bed on Friday morning recovering from a two-day hike. Between 11.15am on Wednesday morning and 3.30pm on Thursday I walked 30 miles, which I calculate as an average of around 1.05 miles/hour even while I was asleep. No wonder I feel a little delicate this morning.
Anyway, looking back — it’s never easy to choose only one photo to encapsulate a day of varied landscapes and experience, but being very close to the delights of Sellafield nuclear power station (or ‘reprocessing plant’, or whatever it is these days) was certainly a significant feature of day 1. i was hard up against the perimeter fence at one point. It hisses, throbs, puts out strange noises and generally dominates everything round here in West Cumbria. So it can feature today, albeit in the background of this shot of the churchyard where I sat and had my lunch.
Being 42 