At this time of year you just take what comes, when it comes to the weather. This week it appears to be coming sunny — though cold. As you can see, most of the leaves are gone, but a few trees are still determined to sustain their blaze of glory for a little while longer yet.
This week has been one of those periods where keeping this blog going is as much an exercise in persistence as it is one of creativity. Despite all the countries that have been seen in the last 12.25 years (see the stats) it’s been seven months since I have left the UK (the last shot taken away from Blighty being this one of the Pyrenees on 5th April). But this will change in 2024, with fairly definite plans for trips to Canada, the US (including New York City) and at least one return to St Helena, via Namibia. So hang in there…. Meanwhile, here’s a shot of a local tree.
Autumn has hit in Manchester too, of course. These steps are to be found on Princess Street, as one arrives in Manchester city centre on the walk back from work (my walk, anyway). I think of them as the wonky steps because they are, aren’t they? Why those slopes or mini-ramps are present I have no idea. Accessibility-wise they would only take, say, a pram or bike up to the first platform, with three-quarters of the steps left to go after that. Maybe the builders were just having a creative moment back in the 1970s.
Our nine days in Scotland come to an end. A fine trip, although a lot of driving — all by me — including today’s six-hour stint from Dundee back to West Yorkshire. Over the last two years this has become a familiar journey, and we know where to stop for tea, lunch, the toilet, etc: and also photo opportunities, as I can’t shoot whilst driving. Broughton, a little village nestling in the Scottish Borders, has become one of those spots. There’s a great little tea room just to the left of this shot. This house has a pleasing look to it but yes, the straight line on the left (coming off a telegraph pole I presume) does bother me.
Onto campus for a day that was less-than-inspiring, but at least the sun was shining. This tree caught the light very well as I transitioned across Oxford Road for a much-needed cup of tea.
I guess it would be nice to have got both the moon and the leaves in focus, but that would only be possible with a long zoom, and I was standing just below the tree as I took this one. In any case I was aiming more for the nice combination of colours and shapes, and capturing the vivid blue of the sky as the backdrop to it all.
As with most of the rest of Europe, we haven’t had a great deal of rain in 2022, but it certainly came down today. Time to check the drainage…
Even the recent run of storms has not blown off this little clump of last year’s leaves. Today, on the other hand, was a first real inkling of spring sunshine and relative warmth. I already know it doesn’t last, though. But there’ll be more, eventually.
Halifax Minster is a great, soot-coated monolith of a church, and its gate provides a suitably Gothic (and autumnal) vista for this year’s Halloween shot, with Clare playing the part of the spectral apparition. Maybe. Anyway, with this shot, the town of Halifax hauls itself up to 9th place in the ‘all-time list’ (see the stats), with its 34th appearance on this blog.
Can’t say I had the greatest day at work today but at least it was sunny outside. A walk in the woods helped, a little. I guess because these trees are more sheltered than most, they’ve barely begun to turn yet — just the merest splash of autumn has hit them, thus far.
Being 42 