It’s a bit out of focus but this was taken with a very long zoom and squirrels move damn fast, particularly up trees. The light’s good, though. This is the earliest shot in a day for three months, which isn’t saying much, but that’s life under house arrest for you.
What are we losing at the moment? There is no sport that is meaningful (meaning, played in front of spectators). I’m assuming that very little music is being performed or created; if it is, it’s not happening round me. Maybe some great novels are being born in all this crap but we won’t be seeing them for a while. There is only this endless banality, and if my blog is itself banal under lockdown, that’s the way of it. But the hedge on the allotment still needed strimming, and that’s Joe’s job.
Even under conditions of normality I was due an unexciting week at home, whatever the weather. It’s Marking Season.
But a day spent sat in an attic, on a rocking chair covered in a white shawl, while the sun beats down outside? Bugger me. Didn’t middle age come on fast.
After yesterday’s explosion of freedom, a day spent entirely at home and mostly marking. Here, however, are my notes as to how the next teaching semester is going to pan out, following instructions from the holy of holies (UoM) regarding how they see Paranoia transitioning back to a sense of reality. We start teaching late October, apparently — and some face-to-face. I welcome that. But it’s still months away.
A beautiful late May day. A public holiday in the UK. A need to stop having a head like Munch’s The Scream, a need to say no to fear and paranoia. And all these things for Joe, too. The first shot taken outside Yorkshire since 21st March.
Lockdown notwithstanding, I live in a middle class enclave, so the olives are still flowing. I am middle class enough to say, ‘thankfully’.
In the background, a meeple from today’s Sunday afternoon distraction, Carcassonne; I like the two star-shapes complementing each other.
As we wait for the various right-wing journalists, lobbyists for the tobacco industry and corporate executives who now hold positions of power in this country to do something, anything, to help get us out of this state of incarceration — I go on a walk, look at the meadows, and don’t hold my breath.
An awkward spot to tag, for sure. It takes a certain devotion. Though the river is very low at the moment, with it not having rained properly for weeks.
One of those shots where if I’d had any longer to think about it, it probably wouldn’t have turned out as interesting. But this hat — attached to a person of course, but they’re not the subject of the photo — was spotted passing below my house today, and I just got the shot before they walked on into the shadows.
“And stretch that right leg… hold it…. hold it…. feel those calves working!… and rest.”
A shame the bird’s body is a bit grainy but this was done on a very long zoom. And on a beautiful morning, as you can see. The blog’s third magpie, according to my over-detailed files.
Being 42 