Or should it be, the parked red car? I know there is supposed to be some kind of innate order to English adjectives, but here I am unsure. Anyway it is often seen in this position — this was not a lucky capture. And yes, it tilts to a noticeable degree: otherwise, this shot is faithful enough to the perpendicular.
Sometimes there is no better place to spend a glorious evening than somewhere like Marsden FC. Not quite perfection — there were too many insects buzzing around for that — but not bad, not bad at all.
The weather has been pretty good for some time now and things seem to be emerging earlier this year, nature-wise. It feels we should be well into May already, but that month doesn’t start yet for two more days. The dandeliion clocks are heavy with seeds, and an explosion is surely imminent.
On Saturday it will be day 5,000 of the blog, but I won’t be leading up to this milestone with an eventful week. Having done four trips abroad already in 2025, thus, one a month, it’s time to stay at home for a while and Write Up. Writing Up is the one obligation I owe from these travels and the sooner it is done, the better. None of this has anything to do with today’s picture except to offer a reason why I was in the pub again. I suppose today is an effort at a collage, although a very random one.
Am I claiming some status via this pamphlet? No, someone was just making suggestions. Anyway if by God you mean The Planet then I’m all for that.
The Manchester marathon took place in quite warm conditions and Alex definitely needed this assistance as he passed the 26-mile marker, thus, 385 yards to go. By the time she reached this point — over four hours later — Clare was also very much in need of some water, but she made it nevertheless, thus completing her second marathon after Edinburgh in May last year. That’s two more than I have ever done, or ever will do: even at walking pace (like, up a mountain or something) I see no need to ever propel myself 26.2 miles in one day. Well done to all who do so.
There must surely be a kind of terror in the face of the stag and — even more so — the hen parties that descend on certain places every weekend. Liverpool seems to particularly attract them: this is taken on platform 11 of Crewe station, but Liverpool is where they’re going, inflatables and all. Perhaps the photo is flawed because none of their faces can be seen, but maybe that does everyone a favour.
Red kites (Milvus milvus) were nearly extinct in Britain at the end of the last century but in the 2000s, thanks to some serious efforts on behalf of conservationists, have made a remarkable recovery. If you are aware of the place you might not think that Luton would be one of their strongholds, but that is where this picture was taken, just on the edge of that town. There were a number of them gliding around this afternoon seeking prey, and clearly, Luton is not a great place to be a fieldmouse.
It’s a shame about the foliage but these are near-perfect ripples, and the impression I got was very much that the goose was just sitting there and making them simply because it could. A human equivalent might be holding a ruler down on a desk and making it go bdrrbbrrrddbrrdd. A pointless but pleasing application of physics.
This ‘reading in the pub’ theme has been done before but after nearly 5,000 days some things just come round again. Anyway, taking in James V. Wertsch’s concept of ‘mediated action’ is better done with the accompaniment of alcohol, I feel.
Back to work, and back to campus, at least for today. This was one of those shots where the shapes pleased me so I went for it, and even the red box is fine, it’s part of the composition. The wonky sign is the anomaly, but I could claim that’s deliberate too. (It wasn’t.)
Being 42 