Yes, a conference I want to attend in a place I want to go to full of people I want to see. There is a reason that Brighton, despite being hundreds of miles from my house, has featured on this blog reasonably regularly.
Time to slip in another football reference, as we are now 11 days into the World Cup. Beautiful day in Manchester (and in most of the rest of the UK) today.
Apologies to the arachnophobes amongst you but I think these are beautiful and impressive creatures. I have no idea whether this is the same one I’ve captured before; there is definitely more than one living in our sheds, possibly three big ones or more. As long as their webs are not disturbed they make quite willing models.
Captured while out on the second very good walk in three days, this time round Hebden Bridge with my and my sister’s families. Sometimes I wonder why I’m still doing this blog but once in a while it pays off. (When I first posted this I called it “Violet” but actually it is Wood Cranesbill (Geranium sylvaticum).)
Home from Norway this morning on the twice-weekly Stavanger-Manchester flight. All of Norwegian’s planes have some Scandinavian historical personage of note on the tail fin, but I thought this was a particularly good one. I admit this picture is slightly out-of-focus, but it did best encapsulate the day.
I booked today in as a day off months ago specifically so I could go up here. This has been called one of the greatest views in the world by the Lonely Planet guide (see this page) and, well, see for yourself. This is Preikestolen, or “The Pulpit Rock”, which hangs 604 meters, or over 1,980 feet, vertically above the Lysefjord below. Should you visit it, you won’t be alone — but at least the other people give it a suitable sense of scale. An amazing place, and I highly recommend it.
It’s been November (or rather Movember) since a selfie appeared on the blog. This orange wall stands on the University of Stavanger campus where I was doing my day’s work today. I like the reflective bubble effect, but what puzzles me is where I’ve gone in the one to top right.
This building will be the only one of the Høgskolen’s five campuses to survive following its imminent move to the new campus in Kronstad, and as a result, is the only one currently able to host our project meetings. It plunges directly into the water of Bergen’s most inland inlet of the sea. Behind is the mountain of Ulriken. And the concrete post? Well, directly above my head as I took this shot, but kept out of frame, is a big concrete overpass taking the main city road over the water, so presumably it just fell of there at some point.
This street runs through the lower end of the University of Bergen campus, and leads from the hotel I always stay in here to the pub I usually drink in — so I walk along it a lot. I pick it as today’s shot not because of its scenic qualities as such, but merely for the demonstration of how high the sun remains in the sky at this time of night. At over 60ºN and in the week leading up to the summer solstice, it just doesn’t get very dark here right now. Which is nice, but I need some sleep, so I’m hoping I have good blinds on the window.
Was taken here this afternoon to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit? as a Fathers’ Day treat — and a tribute to Bob Hoskins (RIP). Maybe this isn’t the most inspiring photo (with all due respect to the person in it); but it brings to an end a full month of pictures that, with the exception of one Lake District shot, have all been taken in Hebden Bridge or Manchester, or points inbetween. But I’m off travelling again tomorrow.
Being 42 