Tag Archives: 55

Jun 12 2025
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Daily Post, Landscape

3,000-foot staircase up Big Hill

Tuesday 10th June 2025, 10.00am (day 5,038)

Ben More path, 10/6/25

The lump to top right is Ben More. Its Gaelic name literally means “Big Hill”, and it can join the ranks of places that have clearly been named for their physical characteristics. On the left of this shot, the start of the path up it, and it’s representative of the whole — a 3,000-foot climb, all like this. Imagine climbing one of the staircases up the Eiffel Tower, three times in succession. Do I do these things for fun? Yes, I suppose I do. (See also the other blog.)

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Jun 11 2025
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Tayport harbour light (and place no. 500)

Monday 9th June 2025, 3.55pm (day 5,037)

Tayport harbour light, 9/6/25

My counting of different places featured on this blog — see the stats page (and marvel at its anal retentiveness) — is just as personal and subjective as everything else on here. I could, for example, have split up London and the Lake District, designations which cover areas the size of whole counties. Meanwhile, there are at least 50 shots where I’ve been unable to specify a location for one reason or another (like, being taken from aeroplanes, or the back of minibuses after waking up in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania).

However, the fact is that by this ‘official count’, Galashiels yesterday was place number 499, and so this melancholy little harbour (even more morose in the day’s constant drizzle) gives to the town of Tayport, on the other side of the estuary from Dundee, the distinction of becoming number 500. This means nothing at all in the grand scheme of things, but so what.

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Jun 09 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Sunday 8th June 2025, 2.30pm (day 5,036)

A stop off on the way north to Dundee. There are various routes available, things not yet seen, including the Great Tapestry, with 160 panels created collectively by over a thousand people between 2012-13. So not as old as this blog, but with more history in it, if you see what I mean. What is seen here is just the first few panels, chronologically. Having toured the country for a while it is now on permanent display in Galashiels, which makes that the 499th different place to feature on here, and number 500 should be along before the week is out, possibly tomorrow.

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Jun 07 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Mother of nine

Saturday 7th June 2025, 3.40pm (day 5,035)

Dunsop Bridge ducks, 7/6/25

I don’t think I have ever seen a brood of ducklings as large as this. Even though a couple of them are only glimpsed on this shot (there’s one right behind the duck, and another mostly concealed in the left-hand group) there were definitely nine of them. No wonder she looked somewhat frazzled: and there was an equally stressed-looking drake in the vicinity too. Still, they’re a good size: quite an achievement in fact.

Incidentally this was taken at Dunsop Bridge in the Forest of Bowland, a few yards from where, on 27/12/2011, I depicted Clare stood in the phone box that is still there, being the reputed “centre of Britain”. That was 4,911 days ago, meaning that Dunsop Bridge now takes over as the place with the longest gap between appearances on this blog. Can things get any more exciting, you ask? Hey, this particular journey has only just started.

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Jun 07 2025
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Daily Post, Transport

Aquarium

Friday 6th June 2025, 9.00am (day 5,034)

Aquarium truck, 6/6/25

OK, it’s not really an aquarium. But it’s more interesting to look at than the side of most delivery trucks, which I’m sure is the point.

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Jun 06 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Threatening skies

Thursday 5th June 2025, 3.20pm (day 5,033)

Birds, chimneys, clouds, 5/6/25

I’m sure birds have just as much of a developed weather sense as do humans. Why wouldn’t they? High winds, for a start, could really screw up that trip they were planning to make to, say, the local household waste centre. These guys may or may not be trying to sort some stuff out before the latest heavy shower comes rolling in, just as we might speed up our journey home from the shops in the face of a cloud like this.

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Jun 05 2025
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Daily Post, Interior

Kitchen door

Wednesday 4th June 2025, 8.55pm (day 5,032)

Old Gate kitchen, 4/6/25

Took the wife out for dinner. Out of this kitchen came — or going on the time, had already come — a couple of reasonably decent fish dishes. I don’t believe I have yet to meet a chef who looks like the roly-poly stereotype depicted in the cartoon (and that picture is really why I took the shot): I don’t believe most of them have the time to eat enough to get fat, to be honest.

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Jun 04 2025
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Monsoon moment, Todmorden

Tuesday 3rd June 2025, 4.35pm (day 5,031)

Todmorden monsoon, 3/6/25

April and most of May were very dry but the last few days, though not entirely wet (Saturday was a pleasant day, for instance), have generally exhibited the characteristics of the North European Monsoon which we are all in denial about but is a regular Weather Phenomenon round here in early June. Here, it is seen in action at Todmorden, on my way home from a stint in Manchester. Pictures like this don’t always work but I’ll give this one a go, as it is the road which is in focus, rather than the raindrops on the train window.

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Jun 03 2025
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Teenage goose and hanger-on

Monday 2nd June 2025, 4.25pm (day 5,030)

Gosling and pigeon 2/6/25

Only a few weeks back the gawky thing with over-size feet would have been an adorable little ball of golden fluff. We all go through an awkward phase at adolescence though, don’t we. The pigeon, meanwhile, is attempting to recruit this new arrival in the war against the ducks, but soon, the goose will realise it is above all that rubbish.

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Jun 02 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Drummer, outside King’s Cross

Sunday 1st June 2025, 5.55pm (day 5,029)

Drummer, 1/6/25

Judging by the number of ads that covered his pedestal (you see only a small portion of them here), this is what this guy does, full-time. But we all have our social media presence, don’t we.

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