London time is called for. Specifically, at the National Archives, which are somewhere over there, downriver a little way. It’s good to have a change of scene at this time of year.
Time to get out of the big city (well, Tromsø) and out into the countryside for the remainder of our time here. The name of Sommarøy means ‘Summer Isle’, which is appropriate for the time of year, but not for today’s weather, which certainly reminded us that we are at 69º 37′ N. On the other hand, who doesn’t like a Wicker Man reference. Somewhere over there a policeman may or may not be landing his seaplane on the loch, sorry, fjord and dropping by to make inquiries about a missing girl. OK, we are in the real Norway, not a fictional Scotland, but the scene is reminiscent enough.
A state to which I aspire? Well, it would be nice. In fact I’m unsure I even want to be particularly busy with it. But I’m not there yet, and even if I was, I couldn’t live on a boat. At least, not one without a substantial and comfortable bathroom, which, I’m led to believe, most do not have.
Couldn’t decide between two pictures today and went with this one largely to avoid having two pictures in the same weekend taken in the cinema. But this one will do. It has been a while since something has used the dry dock in Hebden town centre, but this barge obliged today while also being quite well-decorated, although what a tsunami has to do with the water on a canal does pass me by. Wishful thinking perhaps?
Welcome back to Dubai, for my third trip here after 2019 and last year. Purely for work, well, except today when I had a day off thanks to teaching all of the weekend that is to come. Dubai Creek is why the city is here, being the inlet of the Persian Gulf around which the original settlement was founded. These days it’s just another part of the big shopping mall that the city has become, albeit with cuter buildings and some cats. Oh yes, and lots of seagulls.
It’s very good that I can still find reasons, opportunity and (though this was not an expensive trip) the money to come and spend Thursday nights in places like this. As seen from outside the Ardlui Hotel, which even has its own train station.
Ever further northward we travel. Only one shot in the near-14 years of this blog has been taken from further north and still been in the UK — that being the one in Thurso on 13/7/25 — but this is a status it will keep only 24 hours. Who cares anyway, Lybster harbour was a tranquil spot on a beautiful evening. Impossible to believe that 150 years ago the herring industry meant this was one of the busiest ports in the country. It isn’t now, for sure.
Attending to the roof does seem to be his primary task, going on the strip of felt that is either not yet attached to the front, or is partway through being removed. It’s a fairly low-power way to house oneself, I imagine — and maybe in a few years time, once AI eats 95% of all electricity generated, anywhere, many more of us will be having to engage with it. (Note: not one pixel nor letter of this or any other of my blogs has been generated by AI, nor ever will be.)
The Thames breaks up into a number of channels as it flows through Oxford. This one isn’t marked on the map as the main river, but the water, flowing in the direction seen ahead, will be back there, and heading down to London, fairly soon. An unscheduled morning here, but I am home now.
Though we have been staying in London over the weekend, this part of the Thames is further upstream, just past Marlow, where the river forms the Buckinghamshire/Berkshire border for a while. I am very happy with this shot, as it turned out just as was hoped when I pressed the shutter. It seems to sum up two things about the Thames at this point — the wildlife and natural qualities are pretty good, and there’s certainly a lot of blatant displays of wealth around.
