I am now staying in London for a week, and for all of it I am going to look out of my hotel window and see these balconies. I wonder whether the couch you see here will be used much in January, but I guess it’s something that makes one’s elevated rabbit hutch a somewhat more agreeable place to live.
I have been meaning to feature the footbridge at Dewsbury railway station for a while: it’s just got an appealingly old-fashioned feel to it. On the far end also resides one of the best station pubs in the country — yes, almost as good as Stalybridge’s — it is undepicted here but take my word for it. It’s the best thing about Dewsbury, anyway.
It’s Friday, it’s 5pm and, well, we’re in the usual place. It’d be great if the golden glow behind the beer glass was some tropical sunset, but sadly not, In fact we’ve barely seen sunshine for two weeks.
The snowdrops always come first. Earlier than usual? Perhaps, but not excessively so, and they are sitting in a nice, sheltered spot. This is not some rural woodland though; in fact these are on the uni campus, just next to the Roscoe building.
I was wondering whether to go with a picture that is a little less dark, dismal, drizzly and not a little bit depressing. On the other hand this seems to sum up the evening perfectly. I’ve seen some tedious football matches in my time but Halifax 1, Morecambe 0 on 21/1/26 now ranks down there with the worst.
A fourth appearance for Hugo, and this portrait sums up his general character as well as anything. Since we last saw him I believe he has lost a couple of crucial parts of his anatomy (y’know) but it doesn’t seem to have changed him much.
And so, after a weekend out, it’s back to work — at home. I suppose, somewhere to the south (about 25 miles to the south in fact) there might be colleagues buzzing around ‘in the office’ but the online meetings I had today suggested that most people were treating the day in the same way I was. None of this has anything to do with the content of today’s shot as such, but it does explain why, once again, the day required something that can be captured through our windows.
Having managed to avoid going to work in Manchester for several days (a run that is not over yet), I nevertheless concocted a reason to go there on a Sunday, to ‘get out of the house’ — go figure that one out. I did not regret this, but it was a day on which the city lived up to its reputation for a certain dampness of climate. It’s not obviously coming down in this shot, but you can just feel it, can’t you?
On the basis that no fewer than 23 people (because you do need a referee) can be gathered in each area of space that comprises a Saturday afternoon football match, then there must have been at least a quarter of a million people in the UK doing what this guy was doing at the same point in time, 3.20pm. That’s just the people on the pitches, too. At least 30 other people, including substitutes, coaches and slighly weird people (like me) were also persuaded that watching Sheffield Union v Thornbridge Villa in the 12th tier of English football was the best way they had of spending Saturday afternoon. So add another million or two for all of them…. it can’t be completely wasted collective effort, can it? At this level it’s certainly not about making any money.
The ‘treetop’ houses on Heptonstall Road have featured before, I am sure, but forgive me if I don’t dig out the hyperlink right now. But once again, you were getting something that could be seen from my place. At least, after today, my marking duties are over for a while.
Being 42 