Not very exciting I know, but then there’s not much outwardly going on at the moment on campus — though seeing as the A-level results are out, probably rather more behind the scenes. There is a sort of underlying green-ness to this shot that I quite like, however.
I’m in familiar territory for a period of weeks, and the light isn’t exactly sparkling at the moment, most periods being cloudy. I have to find interest where I pass it randomly, like today. Since the last appearance of Manchester’s Chinese arch on the blog, on a foul day last autumn, it has been swathed in scaffolding, being refurbished, but this started to come off today. They said the refurbishment would be finished in ‘May 2014’ — so I guess they only just missed it.
I had a range of pictures to choose from today but rejected the St. Patrick’s Day theme (no decent pub pics and I did that one last year in Brisbane) and more ‘signs of spring’ options, in favour of this shot. I doubt Reyner Street is depicted on prominent type on even the largest-scale maps of Manchester city centre, and is half-choked by scaffolding, but you have to therefore admire the conscientiousness of the road sweeper for doing its duty on a grey and fairly chilly Monday morning.
Another campus scene. I am reminded of that Terry Gilliam short film at the beginning of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, when a Victorian office building swathed in scaffolding like this sets sail as the covers billow out in the wind. Does the hole spoil it? Maybe, but I left it in anyway.
Despite spending several hours in Wigan today, a location that has yet to make its debut on this blog, any shots that might have arisen from there had already been trumped by this morning’s opportunities at home, proof that just about anything can turn into a decent photo as long as the light is right. And boy, this morning, was it right.
The refurbishment continues of the building recently named as one of the 10 worst railway stations in Britain. A mundane shot to mark a day with a good number. As well as being day 777 of the blog it is also 22 years to the day since I moved to Yorkshire.
Manchester Victoria station is like the down-and-out elder sister (*) of the brash, terribly metropolitan and far better-off sibling, Piccadilly. A backwater in transport terms already, it was further whacked by the IRA bomb which went off nearby in June 1996, and the roof has leaked, as far as I know, ever since. A couple of years ago it appeared on the list of ’10 Worst Railway Stations in Britain’, an accolade that all of us who use it heartily endorsed, I am sure. Still, at least now they seem to be putting a bit of effort into it. It only took 17 years, but let’s hope it helps the old thing.
(*) Well, it does have a girl’s name.
Warming up for Hallowe’en, the old Nutclough Tavern in Hebden Bridge puts in a bid for ‘spooky castle’ status, unfazed by a stiff recent challenge from the Beyer building at the University.
Being 42 