Sunday 22nd December 2013, 3.55pm (day 850)
Sometimes one just has to return to a theme. Taken from near my sister’s place in Sabden, Lancashire, where we went today for a pre-Christmas gathering.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: 44
The shortest day
Saturday 21st December 2013, 2.10pm (day 849)
Thanks to the valley wall to the south of the town, Hebden Bridge gets an earlier sunset each day than the planet’s axial tilt otherwise decrees; and today is the earliest of all.
Last day of school
Friday 20th December 2013,3.05pm (day 848)
Clare awaits the emergence of our son, which like all things he has done his whole life, will happen in its own sweet time. One way or another, two weeks off for the lot of us.
Oxford Street, Manchester
Thursday 19th December 2013, 9.40am (day 847)
I’ll post this now partly because I am on a machine that works properly (not consistently true for me at the moment, nor will it be until into January now), but also because the sun has long disappeared behind clouds: this beautiful morning light was, unlike on Tuesday, all we got today. So I doubt I’ll get a better shot later. Having done this walk a lot, I know where the sun shines in Manchester city centre on a winter’s day by now, and at around this time on Oxford Road/Oxford Street (its continuation), it shines right down the road as if it was the avenue of a stone circle like Avebury. In fact, considering it’s the solstice on Saturday, perhaps I am on to something there.
Apple blossom (in December)
Wednesday 18th December 2013, 11.25am (day 846)
Maybe I have seen apple blossom flowering in north-west England, in December, before. But if I have, I didn’t photograph it. Well, there you go. It’s been mild…
(POSTSCRIPT: my mother, fount of knowledge on all things botanical, suggests this is probably a winter flowering cherry. So there you go. It’s still been very mild, however.)
View from Midgley
Tuesday 17th December 2013, 10.50am (day 845)
Glorious day today. Had to go on a tedious errand to Halifax today but the weather was so nice that I took the opportunity to drive the scenic route home and capture the first real landscape shot to grace the blog for a while.
Parakeet in Lamorbey Park, Sidcup
Monday 16th December 2013, 3.05pm (day 844)
This blog has featured three photos taken in this park, each on one of my biannual trips to Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, one of the University of Manchester’s collaborative partners — the park and the college grounds are all basically the same place. I like Lamorbey Park, one of those ‘nice spots’ that the world still retains. Among its interesting and attractive birdlife are a colony of parakeets, clearly escaped pets, and unconcerned by the imminent winter despite their tropical origins. I know this is another out-of-focus shot, but the light was so dull and grey today, and in the end I was happy enough with the exotic fauna to live with the picture’s technical defects.
Winter berries, Keighley Road
Sunday 15th December 2013, 2.20pm (day 843)
A fairly lazy but pleasant Sunday today. There are still things growing round here, occasionally in some profusion — which I guess is a good thing if you are the kind of creature (like a bird) who still needs to forage for their meals in mid-December. And no, I can’t remember what kinds of berries these are, I know I should know but there you go….
Gogol Bordello
Saturday 14th December 2013, 9.25pm (day 842)
Altogether now… “in the old times…. in the old times…. in the old times… this was… NOT A CRIME!” If you don’t know this band, shame on you. You really should check them out.
Having originally commented that this photo could have been improved had I not been without any proper photo software, I have since changed it: going monochrome helped a lot I think.
Subway under Brook Street, Manchester
Friday 13th December 2013, 8.50am (day 841)
There is often beauty in unexpected places. This is all done with concrete, graffiti and strips of fluorescent light.
Being 42 