Wednesday 6th May 2020, 9.20am (day 3,177)
Another day celebrating green-ness, for there is not a great deal else to see at the moment. At least the sun is back out.
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: trees
Pink sunshine
Thursday 26th March 2020, 10.20am (day 3,136)
So, the longest number of consecutive Hebden Bridge shots on this blog — as faithfully recorded on the stats page — is 10, and that was way back around the end of 2011 and start of 2012. (Blimey, have I been doing this that long…?). The trip to Manchester last Saturday gave the present run a later start than it might have had, but as things stand the eleventh day will be 1st April, and assuming we’re all still here on 6th April, it will then take Brisbane’s record of 15 days in a row in the same place.
Ah, I’ll get used to it. It’s pleasant enough at the moment, in the ongoing very fine weather.
Tennyson’s Lane
Sunday 13th October 2019, 10.50am (day 2,971)
When I was growing up in Sussex there were many of these ‘sunken lanes’ around the place and I guess I never really gave them much thought. But seeing a track like this, embedded between two earthen banks, is a sign that the way is of great antiquity. Their sunken nature is not natural, it is the result of erosion, taking place as people and livestock use the track over hundreds and, probably, thousands of years, over and over.
While on a walk in the South Downs today (bagging a County Top), I turned a corner and was suddenly confronted by this most magnificent example. Actually I’m surprised the shot ended up with so much light in it, because to my eyes this was a dark, enclosed tunnel through the landscape, exactly the kind of place where you can picture Frodo and his mates hiding from the Black Rider early on in Lord of the Rings. It’s called Tennyson’s Lane in tribute to the poet who had a house nearby, and in 1905 Arthur Paterson wrote the following about it, words that are still true today:
Trees meet overhead, copsewood surrounds it, and later, it is hedged by high sandy banks thickly overgrown with plant and scrub; squirrels and rabbits, and all other small woodland creatures, disport themselves over it. It twists and turns, and to the stranger appears to lead nowhere in particular.
The South Bank
Saturday 12th October 2019, 11.25am (day 2,970)
A weekend away, which started (as my weekends away often do) with a Friday night out in London. This morning, Saturday, I walked part of the way to the station, crossing Westminster Bridge which seems to have become one of Britain’s most fortified spots — a place to point the camera away from, and turn instead to this view of the first inklings of autumn colour on the south bank of the Thames. I like the two figures just captured in the bottom corner.
By the Mancunian Way
Tuesday 17th September 2019, 9.20am (day 2,945)
I am sure that with better photographic equipment than mine one could have made this look like a lovely soft star of sunbeams, sparkling gently through the foliage on this lovely September morning. But hey, the main A57 motorway — the Mancunian Way — is a few yards to the left of this shot, and this is as firmly big-city as yesterday’s morning picture. So I beg forgiveness. I do like this little spot, an oasis in the morning walk to work — it’s featured before.
Nanyang Technological University campus
Friday 29th March 2019, 2.45pm (day 2,773)
Last day in Singapore before I move on once more on this spring tour of Asia. Nanyang Technological University, or NTU, becomes the latest campus to feature on the blog. It’s a pleasant green space, though with that generic feel that many campuses — and, in the end, the whole world — is starting to have. This is one of those shots that would be nicer if it were truly symmetrical, but I guess that level of symmetry happens only rarely, so perhaps I should embrace the nearness of it, its imperfections in that respect.
Dalton Square, Lancaster
Saturday 9th March 2019, 6.30pm (day 2,753)
A Saturday up with the in-laws’ to celebrate Carol’s 70th birthday (happy birthday to her…). Dalton Square, the ceremonial centre of the city of Lancaster, looks rather festive — the impression being that these lights were put up for Christmas some time ago (see also this shot) but everyone rather liked them, so since then they’ve been a permanent fixture.
New buds
Thursday 28th February 2019, 4.50pm (day 2,744)
A day of significant family happenings, but they were all digital and so left nothing to photograph. Meanwhile, out in the world, the week’s fine weather has brought out these buds: they weren’t here a week ago. A year ago today, it snowed substantially in Hebden Bridge, but no danger of that this February 28th.
Another very nice morning…
Monday 25th February 2019, 7.55am (day 2,741)
I have no idea what the weather’s been like in the rest of the world but in the UK this late February, as anyone round here will tell you, it has been extremely pleasant. Even 7.55am on a Monday morning looked OK in these conditions. It’d be nice to think this is spring arriving and bedding in, but it must be recalled that this time last year, it snowed.
House view
Tuesday 8th January 2019, 10.40am (day 2,693)
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.
Being 42 