Saturday 27th May 2017, 3.15pm (day 2,102)
The good weather broke, to some extent, although there was not the rain that the gathering clouds and rumbles of thunder promised. Dramatic-looking skies though. This was the last sighting of the sun today.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: gallery
Watching the deer watching me
Friday 26th May 2017, 12.40pm (day 2,101)
Dropping down from Sergeant Man to Tarn Crag, in Easdale in the Lake District, I saw ahead a small herd of young deer, about three hundred yards ahead. I stopped to get the camera out. They stopped and looked at me for a while; I mean, look at this picture, they clearly know I’m there. They sized me up. I sized them up. Got a few shots. Then off they went, to do whatever they do during the daytime, and I carried on my way. Everyone was satisfied with the transaction I think.
Yet another ballot paper
Thursday 25th May 2017, 7.40pm (day 2,100)
I am seeing out the day of the UK General Election, June 8th, in Siberia (honestly) so have applied for a postal vote. The ballot paper arrived today. Here it is.
I could leave my commentary there of course. But….. OK, just a few words. In my opinion the decision by David Cameron — a man who got the top job mainly because he went to the right school — to call the referendum on 23rd June last year was about the most ludicrously stupid political move made by a British politician in my lifetime. So moronic was it to do that without the slightest plan for what would happen if the vote was ‘Leave’ that Cameron sodded off not just from being Prime Minister but from the whole of public life within about a fortnight and hasn’t been seen since. In the aftermath of this raving idiocy, the increasingly right-wing lunatics he left behind are still scrabbling for power, and in order to fight what they defined as ‘instability’ (but the rest of the world considers ‘parliamentary democratic process’) they…. create more instability by calling this election. The ‘opposition’ parties could in fact have stopped this; then again they could have done many things differently over the last fifteen months, but for some reason have decided not to fulfil their mandate of keeping the autocrats in check. The result? I look at the ‘choice’ I’m offered, and decide to hold my nose and vote tactically for the first time in my life (readers who don’t know what ‘tactical voting’ is clearly live in an actual democracy, where all votes really do count, and not just a mock one, like we do here).
Four years ago today I began my final journey home after those four months in Australia and frankly the ‘Fuck Off Back To The South Pacific’ quotient has not been higher since. Those who voted Brexit and will vote Tory this time will reap what they sow, I just pray I can get out of their way before they drag me and my family down with them.
Sorry if you dislike all this political ranting, but tune in tomorrow when there’ll be some nice pictures of mountains and sunny weather.
Inside Paddy’s Wigwam
Wednesday 24th May 2017, 2.35pm (day 2,099)
A work trip to Liverpool today (which thanks to recent events required a train tour of most of West Yorkshire and Lancashire to reach). After I had finished there was time to pop into ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’, a.k.a. the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, a modernist masterpiece that started falling down soon after it was finished in the 1960s but seems now to have been finished properly and become a permanent fixture. It is one of those buildings that is very difficult to capture from close up or from any single point within. I changed my mind about this shot at the very last minute but I guess it is my best attempt: I like the way there is no ‘front’ to it, instead the altar is in the centre, which feels more democratic.
River frolics
Tuesday 23rd May 2017, 4.35pm (day 2,098)
The photo was taken, and it does epitomise what was a wonderfully sunny and warm day, particularly later on. But I frankly don’t really care what it was like or about, on what was another stellar day in recent British history. I was supposed to be going to Manchester today, but had an enforced day at home because of the closure of Manchester Victoria station for reasons of which I am sure you’re probably aware. At the moment I feel angry with just about everything.
Cave spider
Monday 22nd May 2017, 10.20am (day 2,097)
As has happened before, an otherwise dull day at home was photographically enlivened by visiting the cave spiders in the shed. Meta menardi is about the largest species of spider you will find in Great Britain and we have at least four of them happily living out their lives downstairs. I love the little hairs on its legs. But, OK, I probably wouldn’t want one scampering over my face or anything.
Stairwell, Salt’s Mill
Sunday 21st May 2017, 3.25pm (day 2,096)
Salts Mill was financed by Sir Titus Salt, and when it was completed in 1853, was the largest industrial building in the world. Salt built a ‘model village’ around it for his workers, Saltaire, most of which survives today as the kind of place middle-class people like me sometimes hang out on a Sunday to eat, drink and look at overpriced designer ware. But it’s worth a visit should you be in the area, so Saltaire can become the 190th identifiable location to feature on this blog in its 2,096 days of operation.
Audrey II
Saturday 20th May 2017, 11.45am (day 2,095)
Purple globe artichokes on the shelf of the grocery? Or possibly Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors? Seeing as these materialised in exactly the same spot as the aliens from the planet Kohl Rabi, I suspect the latter, and that in Valley Organics lies, in fact, a gateway to an alien micro-dimension.
Friday evening in the Railway
Friday 19th May 2017, 6.55pm (day 2,094)
I should count up how many photos out of the 2,094 published so far have been taken in or around the Railway Inn, Hebden Bridge. I imagine it must be pushing three figures by now, making the rate one every two or three weeks on average — and that allowing for the two long hiatuses caused by the floods, with it having been closed for the second half of 2012 and pretty much all of 2016. For ten years from about 2005 this was the only pub in Hebden Bridge I drank in (ever) — more recently I have diversified a little, but in the end this is still ‘my local’. Long life and good health to it and all who drink there.
Exchange Square
Thursday 18th May 2017, 7.40am (day 2,093)
Now that Manchester’s new Exchange Square tram stop is finished it gives you a whole new place to sit and feel depressed about the day to come. I am sure we have all felt like this on occasion at 7.40am on a Thursday.
Being 42 