Many such items have appeared in our house down the years and I don’t deny I have my equivalents, but this latest one of Clare’s is particularly honest about whether there is any point to it all. The organising I mean, not life itself.
Crocuses are an annual marker, coming out at the same time each year. This being the case they work as a marker of Joe’s birthday, which is on Tuesday. Each year I remember 2003, which had a very warm first few days of March, spent mostly in Calderdale Royal Hospital while we waited (and Clare pushed, for days) for him to make his appearance. Crocuses were coming up everywhere then, and here are more, 22 years later.
A study in blue, or possibly, ultraviolet. A study, also, in how full symmetry is so rarely possible, however hard one tries to achieve it. I will be flying out of here tomorrow, but for tonight, the airport hotel.
Spinningfields is the bit of Manchester city centre by the John Rylands Library, behind me at this point and outside which I was sat waiting for my second 2pm Monday class to start. The lack of people in the vicinity was the first thing I noticed and prompted the taking of this shot; an attempt to get a pleasing mix of line and colour, basically. Clare says she ‘likes the turquoise’, and who am I to argue?
As no one really gives a toss whether I turn up at the office or not — particularly not in August — why not take the opportunity to get on a train, do a few hours’ work on the day, but still then take the afternoon off and spend it somewhere nice and sunny? The Conwy/Llandudno region is a fine-looking part of the world (as we discovered when we came here eight years ago). These kinds of regular Days Out are probably what it will take to keep me going for the rest of my life, spiritually — so let’s take the chances while they still come. And when the trains are working.
I should have returned home after yesterday’s walk, and that I didn’t was evidence of quite how dreadful the buses were in the Lake District yesterday; also that I am lucky I could stay with the in-laws in Morecambe, otherwise I might have been sleeping in Lancaster station overnight. Like everywhere else at the moment, it is a building work-in-progress. I like the blues on this shot.
Hauled myself over to campus, which has been a rare occurrence during this bout of study leave and, in some ways, today reminded me of why. But I guess it was not a complete waste of time. This shot of the preliminaries was perhaps the most interesting thing about the seminar I attended from 3pm, however. Things seem to be floating, and I like the blue.
I know this blog has had its banal moments over the last 12.6 years but depicting the weekly supermarket shop is pushing the boundaries. Yet it was (mildly) interesting today if only because it took place in a different venue from normal, for the convenience on the day: and the trolley park caught my eye. I like the deep blue colours that contrast the dominant greyness. But is it exciting? No, that I am not claiming.
Another one of those shots that is basically an attempt to achieve some kind of perfect symmetry. Of course we are all imperfect beings so once again I cannot quite achieve it. I did wonder about asking the bloke at the back to move one seat to his left but perhaps he is the essential element that sets off everything else. Taken about fifteen minutes before our group presented at the conference — a few more people than him did turn up, honestly.
I wonder how many organisms inhabit this house along with the two of us. None on an open basis — that is, no pets — but the cave spiders have long been part of the family, and then there are the more occasional sightings of tenants. This louse made a point of crawling down the study wall from somewhere behind the shelves at the top, and disappearing behind the radiator at the bottom. This may have been a one-off journey but for all I know it’s a regular commute.
Being 42 