Sunday 28th August 2016, 2.50pm (day 1,830)

Moody skies are the linking feature of this weekend’s shots. Is it autumn already? Taken from the beer garden of the Hare and Hounds pub, and looking generally westwards.

Moody skies are the linking feature of this weekend’s shots. Is it autumn already? Taken from the beer garden of the Hare and Hounds pub, and looking generally westwards.

St. James’ Park, Newcastle, is the greatest, and certainly the largest, true city-centre football stadium in England. Capacity over 50,000, and all ten minutes’ walk from the train station — well, 10 minutes to the bottom of the main stand anyway. If you are an away fan you then have about another 10 minutes’ climbing of stairs to negotiate: I don’t think I’ve ever been so high up in the air watching a football match before. Good views therefore; better than anything we endured on the pitch today, a poor performance (Newcastle United 2, Brighton and Hove Albion 0).

So let me start this blog’s 6th year, and mark my 47th birthday, by putting up a photo of someone else… After so long doing this, people are going to start reappearing after a gap of some years and this is true of John B, who first graced these pages back in November 2011. Carol can join the cast for the first time.

As August winds down each year there are some regular events, firstly, I get a year older and so the title of this blog becomes one more year out of date — that’s coming on Friday. To ease the pain of this, however, the garden finally begins to pay off. Blackberries, blueberries and rhubarb in this shot, with apples and plums gathered but unseen here (we have realised fruit is much less hassle than vegetables). There must be a photo like this every year around this time, and hopefully that isn’t going to change however far I take this blog.


Spent part of the day in Manchester but there was little to be seen there. I prefer this enigmatic shot for today, which I feel not at all like explaining….

And very good some of the robots were too — the small automata lined up on the table before him. Taken at ‘MakeFest’, a way of keeping the children occupied during summer at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. A shame the kids are a bit overexposed but I like Robot Man’s benevolent glow.

It’s a Saturday, it’s a time for relaxation, and drinking. It’s still raining. It’s the Hebden Bridge “Steampunk” theme weekend, what this really does to advance the cause of social justice I haven’t worked out yet but people turn up in places dressed in Victoriana. All these things combine in today’s shot.