On a day of almost constant rain these two made a stoic but attractive couple. The one on the left is certainly thinking a) why he has been so carefully groomed, almost like an anatomical diagram and b) why, unlike his mate, he wasn’t deemed worthy of a coat.
Mulling over the choices for today’s photo I said to Clare, “Is this one a bit too pathetic?”, and she replied, “maybe, but it sums her up quite well, it’s Trixie’s role to look neurotic and a bit pathetic”. This is true — except when a strange dog dares to approach her, then she turns very territorial. She hogs the fire, too. But of course we know all these things about her because she’s part of the pack.
I know I said yesterday that the weather was coming in, but this is ridiculous…. Behold, though, the opening frames of a certain 1980s TV classic, watched in its entirety tonight. Apart from Zaphod Beeblebrox, who adds almost nothing to it, it’s still funny and clever. There’s absolutely no plot, though.
From a deep hole going into the ground to a big thing pointing up out of it. Emley Moor’s TV antenna makes its third apperance on the blog. OK, I’ve cranked the contrasts up a bit, but after yesterday’s sunshine, different weather was definitely coming in.
These impressive crags would grace any mountain in the Lake District or Scotland, but instead can be found, perhaps unexpectedly, in Leicestershire — specifically on Bardon Hill, the County Top of that territory. However, as is probably obvious, they are not natural formations. Instead this is the gigantic artificial hole of the Bardon Hill Quarry, source of, apparently, some 15% of the UK’s entire output of crushed stone (for roads etc). From the summit of the hill there is an immediate, and fortunately fenced-off, drop of at least 400 feet straight down to the quarry floor, as seen here. Is it ugly? I honestly don’t know. Interesting, anyway. (For more pictures from today see the latest County Tops blog post.)
My present camera has stuck it out for about two and a half years now, which, I must admit, is longer than I thought it would and now longer than the average lifespan of my cameras which, after all, see daily use. In all that time, though, it has never really been able to take a very satisfactory handheld night shot, whichever setting I try. This one is nearly too out-of-focus to get away with, but I suppose it will do. Taken from home, looking down on the Calrec Audio car park: like this person, I also had a somewhat late finish to work today.
Life’s present exciting status continues (that was sarcasm) and so the most attractive photo opportunity of the day was the wife’s sorting out of the local wool stock. Apparently the light-coloured stuff was what was needed for the project, so out of the bag it came. The vague flesh-coloured blur to top left may or may not be the sorter.
There have been a couple of exceptions — namely 2018, when I was in Germany, and 2021 on St Helena (and in 2019 I was about to go to Indonesia but not quite yet on my way) — but the 22nd November is not usually a date on which much happens. I find this a depressing, enervating time of year to be honest. Everything’s in decline yet we are still weeks from the turnaround point at the solstice. This rose hip (and feel free to correct me if I’ve got the botany wrong) is still putting in an effort, I guess, but most of the rest of nature has kinda given up. I know how it feels.
The chilly snap continues: cold enough to make leaving the house an unappealing prospect, anyway, at least until later. My daily patterns are definitely shifting away from mornings: this is the earliest shot since 2nd August in fact, and that was taken in special circumstances (like, we were already on a moving ship). If I’m no longer a ‘morning person’ though, what have I become? ‘Couple of hours in the middle of the day person, as long as the sun’s out’ probably sums it up at this stage of life.
I do appreciate the notion of ‘First World Problems’ and that there are parts of the world where trains can run days late, if they run at all. But for Christ’s sake, Northern….. at this time of year particularly (‘leaves on the line’ plus the cold snap of the last couple of days). This train was due to arrive in Manchester at 10:01, so there went the first twenty minutes of my 11 o’clock.
Being 42 