Sunday 31st July 2022, 4.30pm (day 3,993)
It is, perhaps, a little early to be taking a nap, but it was Sunday, after all. We’ve all been there.
Day of rest
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: photos
The goalie at Bacup Borough
Saturday 30th July 2022, 3.30pm (day 3,992)
Bacup Borough FC’s ground, the Brian Boys West View Stadium, is located at about 280m/920 feet above sea level. Which, OK, is not very high by the standards of some countries but for Britain it’s elevated: in fact this is one of the highest football grounds in the country. So even at the end of July it wasn’t exactly tropical. The goalie ponders play while the moorland ponders dumping some more rain on all participants and spectators.
The summit of Wandope
Friday 29th July 2022, 12.45pm (day 3,991)
On 29th July 2012, ten years ago, I was obliged to leave the rustic yet comfortable surroundings of the Black Sail hut and haul myself over Great Gable, a substantial lump of rock, in what remains the grimmest weather conditions I have encountered on any of my Lakeland walks. As today’s trip was the 200th of those — a pleasing milestone to reach — it was also pleasing that the weather was a damn sight better. (See my other blog for the full details.)
Wandope wasn’t one of the two Wainwrights bagged on the day, but this long-distance shot of its summit was the picture that pleased me the most: a case of it turning out just as was intended. The slopes in the background are those of the High Stile range, over Buttermere.
Underpass still life
Thursday 28th July 2022, 9.50am (day 3,990)
The underbelly of the Mancunian Way isn’t the most glamorous spot in the city, but somehow this combination of graffiti and beer bottles looks relaxing.
Ben gets some attention
Wednesday 27th July 2022, 4.20pm (day 3,989)
Ben gets some Him Time, and seems thoroughly contented by the experience. As the amount of white around his muzzle attests, he’s an old man, and at some later point in our own lives I guess we’ll all crave this kind of attention.
Work going on, ground floor
Tuesday 26th July 2022, 12.30pm (day 3,988)
Summer at uni, a time to get renovations done to buildings (like the Ellen Wilkinson) which sorely need it. A scaffold and a red tool box set off the view from up on the third floor landing. It would be nice if I was on a proper summer break by now, but not yet: ten days to go.
Trapped
Monday 25th July 2022, 5.15pm (day 3,987)
Perhaps, like this wasp, we are all trapped, aware of the world beyond the glass but frustratingly unable to reach it. But perhaps, again like this particular insect, there is a way out (undepicted here) at the bottom that we just haven’t found yet, we just need to change direction.
House deeds
Sunday 24th July 2022, 4.45pm (day 3,986)
Property is on the mind at the moment. It’s nice to have an excuse to pull out the collection of deeds to the house; when we moved in here 21 years ago we inherited this huge envelope full of documents, the oldest of which (the one at the bottom of this shot) dates back 210 years, to 1812 — although our house was built around 1890, the plot of land on which it stands was first enclosed and sold in that year. Anyway, I love these deeds, their copperplate handwriting and archaic terminology (‘messuages’, ‘indenture’). Should we ever sell this place I’m going to pretend these don’t exist, and keep them.
Postal worker convention
Saturday 23rd July 2022, 2.00pm (day 3,985)
After several days of inanimate objects it was time to put some people back on the blog and the choice today was between two groups of roughly similar size, dressed in red, celebrating something. I could have gone with the footballers of Campion FC who were witnessed winning the ‘Yorkshire Trophy’, a pre-season warm-up tournament but they put in the effort. However, let’s instead go with this one of these postal workers, clearly celebrating the end of their working week in the Rose & Crown pub opposite the main sorting office in Cleckheaton. And they put in the effort too, all the time in fact.
British weather
Friday 22nd July 2022, 3.10pm (day 3,984)
Monday saw probably the highest temperatures in recorded British history, at least in some places. Today, it was chucking it down, and cool enough to need a jacket when out in the afternoon. The weather in Britain explains a great deal about the country’s psyche. “What comes, will come. Live with it.”
Being 42 