Thursday 23rd July 2026, 2.55pm (day 5,446)
Well, I can dig it. I felt much the same way at this point in the week.
Campus chill-out
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: summer
The latest marketing slogan
Tuesday 2nd June 2026, 3.25pm (day 5,395)
Actually, now I make this full-size I see the sticket is very difficult to read, but hey, this one was always more about the art than the aspiration. It says “Challenge Accepted”, by the way. The challenge we have at the moment is persuading the students (who as postgraduates are supposed to still be cranking it out) to stick around on campus, though at least these two have made it.
Picnic remnants
Saturday 3rd June 2023, 1.40pm (day 4,300)
Hmmm, a Saturday with no football (yes, OK, I’m aware that there was something going on in London along those lines, but you know what I mean). And the sun was shining. And there was work to do in the garden. All these things made a relaxing afternoon picnic, with wine, just the right thing to do. (Those are my feet, yes. Clare is unseen to the left — I didn’t drink the whole bottle myself, you know.)
St. Mary’s Church, Banbury
Friday 16th July 2021, 11.40am (day 3,613)
The ‘Strategy Forum’ came and went — nice to meet people again, not so nice to be presented with visions of the future ruled by metrics and process management, with scholarship now an apparent inconvenience, allowed for grudgingly if at all. I couldn’t make it even to the end of the last half-day so escaped about 11am and shortly afterwards was in Banbury, which can become the 349th different location to feature on the blog. St. Mary’s Church is one of those buildings that it’s very difficult to get a full impression of on a single photo, but here’s my best attempt.
Summer field
Wednesday 14th July 2021, 3.15pm (day 3,611)
A very pleasant summer’s day, the land around feels like it has reached peak fecundity. Nice to look at, although not so good for my nasal membranes, frankly. But that’s the price I pay.
More of the same
Wednesday 27th June 2018, 8.40am (day 2,498)
A double meaning in the title of today’s post. The good weather continues, that’s the first thing. But it’s also a time in which I am sticking around familiar places for a good long spell. There has always been a steady drip-feed of new locations on the blog. The only previous sustained period without them was spring 2016, broken when we went to Portugal that summer. Football matches in obscure places have kept up the run of new locations in 2017-18 too. But since the season finished at Poulton on May 19th (the last new location) every shot has been from somewhere familiar and this is going to stay the case until well into August.
Still, in such lovely weather — familiarity definitely does not breed contempt. It’s nice to be here.
The summer continues…
Wednesday 29th June 2016, 4.10pm (day 1,770)
Adding insult to the profound sense of incompetence hanging over England at the moment, the weather conforms to all the worst stereotypes about an English summer.
Bee buddleia bonanza
Wednesday 12th August 2015, 11.55am (day 1,448)
I have this image of the bee just diving in and troughing, like it’s the bee equivalent of some Roman orgy or similar. “Hah! Gimme nectar!”
August field
Thursday 14th August 2014, 2.50pm (day 1,085)
To call the weather over the last 7 days ‘unsettled’ is a gross understatement — it’s hardly been the same for half an hour at a time, all week. This was taken as I exploited a relatively sunny period this afternoon to grab more blackberries. (I seek to make wine again.) Most of the rest of the day after this, it was wet. Then dry again. Repeat…
Nutclough woods
Saturday 8th September 2012, 3.15pm (day 380)
A thoroughly glorious day, and a weekend too. The whole town was out enjoying it today. Plenty of other candidate photos today but this one serves to encapsulate the atmosphere. Do we forgive it the summer just gone, the ‘wettest for 100 years’ apparently? Well… let’s not go that far yet. If it stays sunny until mid-October, say, we might do.
Being 42 