Back to Oxford, so I can perform an aspect of my job that still does bring pleasure, and sit in a library for at least two days. The walk to my accommodation took place partly along this stream, a branch of the Thames. Perhaps I did this shot, in spirit, on Saturday, but I’m doing it again. Note the heron hanging around inconspicuously in the centre, hoping that the prey won’t notice it.
High pressure and warm air idling up from Spain, apparently, made this surely the warmest and most pleasant November 12th in my lifetime — even on St Helena last year it was not as nice as this. I refuse to consider this a bad thing: not on the day, at least. I’m sure the ducks think it’s better than the alternative as well.
The last day in Ireland. Four days in the North, four photos with people in them, all taken in Derry — then four days in the Republic, four photos taken in different places and not a person to be seen (unless we count yesterday’s Madonna). Our drive back to Derry airport was partly done through the utterly empty landscapes of the Glenveeagh National Park. Lough Barra is in the middle of nowhere, but does have this slipway on it: maybe there is good fishing to be done there.
This is the exterior of the Alliance Manchester Business School, built for a vast amount of money and now going completely to waste, along with the rest of the campus; monuments to a time past, now standing in a city of the dead. If you think I’m being over-dramatic, have you been to Manchester lately? Nothing has happened there since October. A sense of rot is setting in, and if you (like the publicly cheery city council) think that ‘recovery’ is all just a matter of a wave of the legislative wand, I say that’s optimistic, at best.
Far too nice a morning to stay indoors today and wait like little sheep to be told that we need to stay indoors a lot more, like until Christmas. A walk along the Rochdale Canal in the morning lightened the spirits and boosted the immune system, which is, of course, why we do it.
Time for my annual trip down to Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent, where I sit on an exam board for reasons lost in the mists of history. But I don’t mind going down, and it’s always good for a photo opportunity thanks to being located in the middle of the very pretty Lamorbey Park, the natural life of which has graced this blog before (like the parakeets, and the fly agaric). So here’s some more.
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.
Manchester city centre, like all big city centres, is now substantially formed of anonymous glass buildings like these, the coating probably not doing much for the insulation, but look at the lovely reflection effect it gives. I like taking pictures of buildings though I am sure all would be better composed if I had a hundred-foot tall crane to lift me up and get the perspective right.
Conference in Manchester today — this was the venue. I like taking architectural shots like this but am aware that without some crane or giant scaffold, the angles will forever be that little bit wrong. This can be seen here with the perpendiculars around the wedge of sky. Ah well.
I am trying not to repeat myself on this blog even after nearly 1,200 days, but it’s still something of a surprise that this view hasn’t previously made it. It’s a standard Hebden Bridge shot and I pass it whenever I go to and from the railway station. At least, I don’t think it’s made it before — though I’m getting on a bit these days and may have forgotten.
Being 42 