There was no prospect at all of my leaving the house today. Thoughts — and the discussions with the Zoomland colleagues depicted, vaguely, at the top of the laptop screen — were of planning for next year, not finishing off this one. This is a photowhack: the one and only photograph I took today.
When Clare first looked at this photo as I uploaded and worked on it last night, she thought at first the backdrop was one of stormy skies; but it’s not, it’s the woodland up the side of the valley. The reason that is not catching the sun, and the houses are, is that at this time of year around 2.20pm is the point in the day where the sun is already starting to go down behind the valley wall. Here, you get what you can in the winter.
A visit from Vicki and Pete, and as I get inexorably older, days like this are increasingly welcome. I think the relatives are happy about it too, despite how Pete may look on this shot.
This was one of two photos that I took today which I like despite their technical deficiencies. I was more or less trying for this effect. My third day in a row in Manchester (and blog-wise that’s the first time that’s happened in 2024), but I was not there to work, nor, like the great majority of the people in the city centre, to shop. Instead I was going to the football and just passing through on the tram, nicely insulated from the rush — and the rather poor weather — outside, at least for 45 minutes or so.
This back street has long been a feature of my walk to campus in Manchester, and at this time of year, when the sun is shining, it is one of a number of streets on the route that channel the morning light in photogenic ways. The sun doesn’t necessarily shine much in early December in Manchester so it’s worth capturing the moments.
“Some job this is. Waiting around in line for the ice rink to open so we can be pushed around by irritating little brats.”
“Oh, cheer up, Bob. It’s a living.”
“Is it? Shouldn’t we be in Antarctica or something?”
There was certainly a decent amount of smoke coming out of one of these stacks; but it seems he was satisfied that nothing was particularly amiss. I pray that I never have to get up on our roof, or the roof of any of these overdwellings, for any reason, professional or otherwise. It’s a long way down from five stories up.
A day on which I came very close to having nothing to photograph, but I did decide, around noon, that it was interesting that the coal shed of one of the houses across the road actually does have coal in it at the moment. The photo is one of textures, making a kind of collage. That’s my justification, at least.
My Monday afternoons as a student continue, though the next one isn’t going to be until February. It crossed my mind today that we are being taught in much the same way as we would have been a thousand years ago, had we been doing much the same in an abbey somewhere. Look at examples of other people’s writing, be told about some idiosyncracies and abbreviations, and then do our best to reproduce it all. We don’t get handed a quill pen and some parchment, which is a shame, but then again these were valuable items in medieval times and perhaps not to be wasted on students just starting out. It does work if one merely wants to learn to write, or rather to copy: but although I admit my Latin is getting a bit better, there is no interpretation here. What does any of this text actually mean, not just in translation, but really mean for anyone’s life? Beats me. But for that, I guess we would have taken different classes.
Well, yes. I’d be inclined to pay attention to this one.
Being 42 