Another day with not much happening. But at least it marks the end of the present stint of work — I am now off until the start of August. I doubt this will lead to any radical changes in the content of this blog, at least not immediately. Although it would be nice to see people feature more — there have been no people at all, even in the background of shots, for ten days now.
First trip to campus since March 8th, which as it was a Sunday, already had a desolate, end-of-the-world feel about it that the subsequent closure has cemented in place. On the few days over lockdown that I have visited, all of the city of Manchester has seemed like a coma patient. There is a certain amount of internal activity, things moving around from place to place, but there’s no real life or consciousness to it. This guy looks very much like he’s pondering his future and so should we all. Plants are doing well, though.
A day working at home, but it was grey and chilly and there was little motivation to head outside. I did poke my head through the skylight though, to see how things were getting on with the roof garden. It’s coming along nicely.
A few more months of this current climate and the whole planet will look like this. Sort of like the beginning of Interstellar. Or even if it does cool down, we’ll manage it anyway, by killing off the bees.
Every year around this time there will be some new shoots on one south-facing window sill or other, getting ready for the moment when, like good parents, we decide they can be let out into the outside world. Usually, they survive.
Taken just past the halfway point of a walk undertaken from my parents’ house this afternoon. The leaves are well and truly turning here and I did get a couple of good photos of autumn colours but this one I like because it seems less a picture of foliage, and more a picture of a moment, a burst of light captured by the water and trapped there.
I remember that on the very first day I moved into my house I walked up through the woods to the point at which they thinned out into fields and bramble patches. I looked at the scenery and thought, bloody hell, I live somewhere. This is a place. The environment round here can still do that.
Today I gave myself a break from work by going out and looking for blackberries. It’s been a cold, grey day and I didn’t find much fruit, but I did see these plants, and while I’m not botanist enough to identify them properly, this was the one point today at which the sun shone and it still felt like there was a vestige of summer in the air.
