Tag Archives: trees

Sep 18 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Humboldt University

Wednesday 18th September 2024, 5.55pm (day 4,773)

Amongst various (acknowledged) perks of my job I get to visit some world-renowned seats of learning, and the Humboldt University of Berlin is definitely one of the elite. Scholars who have worked here include Einstein, Schopenhauer, Marx, Weber, Hegel, Planck and von Braun, and if you haven’t heard of at least three of those, you need to do some more reading.

There is something terribly autumnal about this shot, even if it was 25ºC and extremely pleasant in Berlin today. But here we are, mid-to-late September, and I suppose it’s an inevitability.

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May 23 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Campus encampment

Wednesday 22nd May 2024, 3.40pm (day 4,654)

Campus encampment, 22/5/24

Having not been to campus since 5th April I decided I should show my face. Duly did so, and now won’t be back there until, probably, 26th June. Well, I am on study leave. Two things have emerged since my last visit: first, all the leaves on the trees, second, the encampment raised in protest against what is happening in Gaza. I assume the leaves will still be there in June. The tents, who knows?

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May 06 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

The Heart-Shaped Waterfall, kinda

Sunday 5th May 2024, 11.00am (day 4,637)

Waterfall of sorts, 5/5/24

More greenery. It’s not much to look at here, but this was the sum total of the flow over the Heart-Shaped Waterfall on this May Sunday. However, at least it was flowing; usually it is wholly dry, but there was plenty of rain at the weekend which stimulated it into some kind of life. It’s a nice spot to walk to, at least, but close up it’s impossible to capture its drama in a single shot, unlike from a distance.

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Apr 16 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

Dead Vlei

Tuesday 16th April 2024, 8.25am (day 4,618)

Dead Vlei, 16/4/24

Sossusvlei is one of Namibia’s major tourist attractions and probably you have seen pictures of it before — sinuous, ruddy, massive sand dunes pictured at dawn etc. etc. And I did get such shots today. But I’ll go with this one. Dead Vlei (a ‘vlei’ is the Afrikaans word for a marsh or riverbed without open water in it) was once connected to Sossusvlei but a few hundred years ago, shifting sand dunes cut it off and since then it has dessicated to a hard clay pan with ancient, dead trees still left from that time.

What is behind them, and the seated woman, is not grey sky but a massive wall of sand: the dune known as ‘Big Daddy’, which is nearly 1,000 feet (324m) high. The Namibian tourist board would like you to believe it’s the world’s biggest but I checked it out and it’s not even close to the winner, which is a dune in Argentina that’s a staggering 4,000 feet high: Big Daddy is in the top 10, though. A marvellous and highly photogenic place, even if I did have to get up at 5.30 to reach it.

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Mar 13 2024
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Landscape

Mist in the valley

Tuesday 12th March 2024, 11.20am (day 4,583)

Amongst other things that 2024 has lacked (like, my teaching, a ceasefire), I do not yet recall one of those ‘first day of spring’ moments: the kind of day, in England anyway, where it suddenly warms up, the sun starts shining and everything goes, ‘Hello….’. If it has already happened, I missed it. And 12/3/24 wasn’t it either.

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Feb 25 2024
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Daily Post, Hebden Bridge, Urban scene

Sunday dog walk

Sunday 25th February 2024, 11.05am (day 4,567)

Sunday dog walk, 25/2/24

A pleasant day for sure. Long may it last (it probably won’t). I’m sure the dogs appreciate it just as much as the walkers do.

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Feb 07 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Queen’s Park

Tuesday 6th February 2024, 10.05am (day 4,548)

Queen's Park, 6/2/24

You realise I haven’t actually done much while I’ve been here in Toronto, right? I mean, in a non-work sense. The various urban scenes from the city reflect this, all taken within walking distance of both my hotel and the building at the University of Toronto where I have been working. It’s quite an attractive city, if a bit generic, which is why so many movies are filmed here as its streets can substitute quite adequately for those of New York. The weather continues very pleasant.  

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Jan 26 2024
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Daily Post, Urban scene

This year’s lanterns

Wednesday 24th January 2024, 2.55pm (day 4,535)

Chinese lanterns, 24/1/24

A subject that comes round each year, I could have first pictured these at least a fortnight ago; I think that when the ladders were put up to get Manchester’s Christmas decorations down, they just installed the lanterns immediately, to save getting the ladders out again. Thus, at least a month before the Chinese New Year that they are there to celebrate. Never mind — today was my last chance to get them on for CNY 2024; I won’t now be in Manchester for three weeks.

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Dec 24 2023
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Balgay Hill cemetery

Sunday 24th December 2023, 1.55pm (day 4,504)

Balgay Hill, 24/12/23

A lush scene for Christmas Eve, particularly after yesterday. The cemetery on top of Balgay Hill in Dundee was a real discovery of the day. Just one of its memorial stones is pictured here but this is a huge necropolis, backed by the Firth of Tay, the hills on the far side of which are just visible here. A very un-Decemberish shot, but that’s why I’ve picked it. For tomorrow, Happy Christmas…

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Nov 15 2023
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Daily Post, Urban scene

By the Mancunian Way

Tuesday 14th November 2023, 4.50pm (day 4,464)

Flyover and car, 14/11/23

One of those where I was trying to get the shot before the traffic resumed and didn’t manage it — but in the end, didn’t care. This is a spot regularly passed on my walk to and from work, and occasionally photographed in the past. I’ve had plenty of chances to feature it as this is the 800th shot on here to be located in Manchester. As I, technically, work here full-time, you might have thought there’d be more, but even before 2020 I certainly never came to work here five days a week. Two is more like it — an arrangement I’ve always found suitable.

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