It’s an attractive view, for sure, but I’m seeing it quite a lot lately. I feel a little hemmed in… I need to move around more. The weather forecast is good tomorrow though — time for a walk.
One of those cases where I looked up, saw the moon was just heading down behind the trees on the other side of the valley, and pulled (or, is it pushed) out the big zoom. I could say more, but that’s really all there was to this one.
Hopefully the ‘autumn colours’ theme isn’t stale yet. Hard to avoid at the moment, really. Clare indulged me today by coming along for the usual Saturday non-league football fetish, here at Todmorden Borough FC in the wild uppermost reaches of the Calder valley. There haven’t been many portraits of the family on here lately, but let’s change that today. Her blue top against the background is a good contrast. And I like the way the railing stops halfway along.
Maybe it’s all down to the same combination of conditions that have produced the fecundity of fruit and fungi, but the autumn colours this year are very fine. This is not another football shot, honestly.
The further north you go, the earlier the trees turn. Those who want to see displays like this in late September, come to northern Finland. The back of the traffic sign gives nice contrast.
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.
On the return home, a healthy dosage of the white stuff. This being a maritime British winter, not one of these more robust continental versions, by tonight it had all gone.
Took the scenic route over to the in-laws’ in Morecambe today. Between home and there lies the Forest of Bowland — most of which isn’t covered in trees at all, this photograph is actually atypical. Nice drive to do in pleasant weather though. The year coasts towards its end placidly enough.
Commercial forestry is not inherently a bad thing: there are many beautiful and well-managed plantations in England. But there are prices to pay, and when you see a ravaged landscape like this one — well, it does make you realise that this is not nurtured land. More like arboreal strip-mining, take the products and leave a wasteland behind. In this mist it looks almost apocalyptic, like the zombies are just over the horizon. Maybe one day Treebeard will stomp out of the remaining woods, like he does in The Two Towers, and swear vengeance against the human despoilers.
Seems superfluous to add much commentary. A truly beautiful late autumn day today.
