I know this isn’t the flower known as violet (genus Viola), but it’s certainly the colour. I bet these look pretty good in black-light. Taken on the one twenty-minute occasion on which I got out of the house today — the sun was shining, the Late May Fine Period is properly here, but I had work to do.
I guess Spring is trying, a bit, and the blossom at the bottom of Keighley Road in town usually makes for a fine display at this time of year. With this being the first of three three-day holiday weekends coming up in May, there was also a general sense of relaxation about the day.
On another day of restricted horizons, the choice of pictures came down to this new bud, or a storm/sun combination shot from the afternoon. As I sometimes do, I asked Clare which her preference was, and she chose this one, considering “the optimism of spring” preferable. So yes, why not. Spring should be a time of optimism, even if just in little ways.
Day off work today and glorious weather, so I got out and bagged the latest County Top: this one lying in the vast expanse of Swinley Forest, south of Bracknell in Berkshire. The ‘Ladies’ Mile’ was this seemingly endless, dead straight path; this view epitomising the day, both for the trees and also the large number of dogs running free, their owners largely oblivious.
Despite having come to London regularly over the years there are still parts of this massive city that I have not yet explored. The western suburbs were amongst them, but this time I am staying in Brentford, giving me the chance to take a Sunday morning walk down the banks of the Thames to Chiswick and Barnes, all desirable spots. The river looks narrow here but that’s because over there is an eyot, or river island, which splits the flow in two at this point. What the old concrete post was, no idea — but the birds like to perch on it.
With a less-than-functional camera at the moment (I have not mentioned on here the St Helena Tarmac Incident), and a week at home mostly spent sat on my arse somewhere or other, reading/marking/reading, it’s felt an effort lately to get interesting pictures. This one’s alright I guess, but it’s a very familiar scene.
The sun is just about still making it over the hillside in the mornings, but not for much longer in the year. It will be February before it makes a reappearance in the east before noon on any given day.
9th November 2021 was the day on which I landed on St Helena. No such adventures await me this November, but then again, I don’t have to spend ten days in quarantine again. It was too nice a morning to stay indoors, wherever I was.
I’m not even trying to hide the fact that I went to another football match this morning. For a while, the light was good. Better, then, than staying inside. This is how I make my life calculations these days.
Two mornings in a row on campus. Well, I should put in a bit of effort now and again. Not that many other people were doing so today. The solitary, distant figure on the left is the only one to make it into this shot.
Being 42 