Lovely morning today, which at least means the three-day storm has passed over without flooding us again (though towns to the east were definitely not so lucky). Beautiful light at the station as I waited for the 0856 train in. And here it is, right on time.
Tomorrow is day 400 of this blog, so as I do with these milestones, I have updated the ‘best of the rest’ page with some more recent pictures that didn’t quite make the one-a-day cut.
This blog is one of my personal diaries as well as a gallery, so occasionally you get pictures because they have meaning, even in a small way; and not because they are particularly accomplished photographs. Today is one of those.
This is Joe going off to school fully on his own for the first time, as opposed to being accompanied at least part of the way. I suppose there is no going back from here. Which is fine, good luck to him.
We are still above water, for now. Let’s move on to other things.
This photo is not bad considering I was slumped forward, half-naked, on a bench, sticking my camera over my shoulder and shooting blindly, while in the middle of a four-hour session, the first half of which was marked by stoic acceptance, the second half by suffering and pain. Yes, my tattoo is under way. This is Clare at work, you may see here again in a few weeks’ time.
Many Hebden Bridge shops that have been closed since the double floods of 22nd June and 9th July are just about getting ready to reopen. But, after three weeks of relatively dry weather, it’s been raining all day again and the rivers are very high. Christ, I hope it doesn’t flood again or some of these shops will probably never re-open. These don’t look the most adequate flood defences in the world.
The Boy can still be enthused by models of worlds with trains in them, all lorded over by men of a certain age with, presumably, a slight God complex. But I do admire the skill that goes into their creation and some of them really are very fine miniatures. However, I got more interested today in taking photos of the people (almost, but not quite, exclusively male); this one was the best, I thought, mainly because he had good lighting. They all had this look of intense concentration, however.
There are only so many things you can capture on camera when you spend most of the day on a plane. I know I have done the theme – the picture taken just after take-off from Domodedovo – before, but what the hell, different day, different sunrise, different picture, different beauty.
Another beautiful day in Moscow to mark the Autumnal Equinox. As you can see, the trees are just starting to turn. I did get some great photos of the Moscow River again tonight – the Hotel Ukrainia lit orange by the setting sun – but as I did that theme yesterday, here’s somewhere else. This is the Baumann Park, in the district of Krasniye Vorota.
Utterly glorious day in Moscow today, as good as any have been on this blog so far. I was pretty sure this was going to be today’s picture as soon as I took it, but when fully ‘developed’ I did notice imperfections around the sun – due to it being taken through glass. Nevertheless I decided to go with it because the thrill of having this as literally the first thing I saw this morning when I pulled back the curtains in my room stayed with me. The ‘spires’ are the Hotel Ukrainia, which has appeared before on this blog, and for me is one of the most spectacular buildings in this city – one day I will treat myself and stay there.
Nearly posted a random picture from my transfer in Frankfurt airport, purely to get a gratuitous 8th country onto the blog, but then managed to capture this sign, which I’ve been trying to take a photo of for the last few visits. That I managed it today was a result of the car being stopped right by it – on what was not a great night to experience Russian traffic.
All the students arrive all at once, and it’s both the most hectic time of the year as well as the most optimistic, in some ways. Everyone’s fresh, we meet people for the first time and learn about their hopes and aspirations. Scary time too, for them at least. Hence the ‘Purple People’ who have dotted themselves around the campus, and they’re being used, as you see here.
Significant academic year for me too. I am on sabbatical in the second semester and from mid-December to late August will not be in Manchester at all. January – June I will be in Australia. Looking forward to it…
