It snowed again. A lot. Enough to make it kind of enjoyable, and that’s why I like this picture — the look of pleasure on Clare’s face. OK, let’s self-criticse about the tree growing out of her shoulder, but hey.
University doesn’t reopen until Monday so I took advantage of this fact and a reasonable weather forecast to do another Lake District walk (written up in full on my other blog). The Duddon Valley slices through the south-west of the district. Walking in winter like this does lead to more time spent outdoors in the ‘golden hour’, thus plenty of chances for shots like this one.
A weekend at home, with no work, and there haven’t been many of those lately so let’s make the most of it. Though stormier by the evening much of today remained mild and bright, and with colours like these sometimes you may as well just go with the cliched shot.
Not natural clouds coming down the valley, as posted a few days ago — this fire was unnatural. But hey, it’s autumn. There’s lots to burn.
This is ‘my’ courtyard because I never see anyone else in here. There are — and I know them all — three entrances into this courtyard, surrounded by the brown-grey concrete expanses of the Ellen Wilkinson building. One is a fire exit, one looks like it’s just a conduit for the trash and one is a gate that is always closed, but never locked. None are welcoming, so this place is always deserted. Fine by me… this is my space.
Remember, the greener the landscape, the more it rains. West Yorkshire has become very green the last couple of weeks.
OK, so I know it’s a bit weird to take pictures of other people’s laundry. But it’s not like I climbed over anyone’s garden fence to do it.
The Earth orbits the Sun with a tilt to its axis and every day of each year the light falls on us all in different ways. Today at 4pm was one of those points where it shines straight down the channel of the Hebden Water as it runs below the retaining wall of Keighley Road. Nice to be in the right place at the right time to see it.
My perambulations through the centre of Manchester do seem to get later and later, don’t they. If the city has a symbolic centre, Piccadilly Gardens is probably it — no, not Old Trafford (which isn’t actually in Manchester anyway). This shot makes it look vaguely pastoral, which is why I like it: actually the place is a concrete jungle. A pretty intense rain shower stopped a couple of minutes beforehand.
Sometimes there are places — like this — that are less than five minutes’ walk from your house, that you walk or drive all around most of the time, yet never actually set foot in from one year to the next. This little wood clings to the side of a very steep hill, the trees grasping on for dear life with these claw-like roots, and the image of them as Ents (the walking trees from Lord of the Rings) was made that little bit more believable by catching flare in the lens as purple light above.
