Clare has flown out to Toronto to join me for a few days, and why not, it’s a fine city to explore and also to look at. The skyline seems very well balanced and the CN Tower sets it off excellently. The best view of it is from the islands just offshore in the Lake, which is why a lot of people go there on a nice day — though she made it before the weekend. I like the shape her shadow makes on this one.
I first visited Niagara Falls on a freezing cold day in April 1989, when I was 19, and with a trip to make from Toronto to Buffalo for a workshop tomorrow, there seemed no reason to not stop off on the way for another look, 35 years later. On neither visit have I been unimpressed: the falls are certainly a monumental spectacle and manage to rise above the excessive tourist tat that spreads along each bank of the river (and is somewhat worse on the Canadian side, I thought). What you see here are the American Falls on the left then the narrow Bridal Veil fall on the right.
And, a curiosity: though everything you see in this picture is the territory of the USA, I was stood in Canada when I took it. Not long afterwards I walked across the Rainbow Bridge into the States, making this, I am pretty sure, only the second time I have crossed an international border as a pedestrian, after Spain/Gibraltar. (Italy to the Vatican and back can’t really count.)
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.
As seen on the canalised part of the River Calder, in Brighouse, early this afternoon. I hope it was enjoying the sunshine, as it gave its demonstration of fluid dynamics.
I could have been taking a photo of all sorts of things here in this Manchester back alley. But I’m going with the eyes in the background.
Across from our house, out of the road, cometh water: not necessarily a commodity in short supply in West Yorkshire but still, those of us who pay our bills do sometimes wonder what proportion of them goes to cover this kind of unnecessary wastage. The blue paint on the road and on the inspection cover above suggests the utilities company are ‘aware’: but that doesn’t mean anything in practical terms. Not the most exciting of shots, I know, but you could always see it as an abstract.
Pleasant weather today, which was probably a good thing bearing in mind my need to reacclimatise. The Hebden Water was spilling rather gently over its weir near the centre of town. This is the usual heron-spotting location, but there were none here today.
This shot is taken a few hundred yards down the canal from the one captured on Friday, and as is very clear, there’s been a considerable thaw in the meantime. But there remain remnants of ice on the water, sublimating these tendrils into the far warmer air.
Six shots in a row in Hebden Bridge, and eight of the last nine. There’ll be variety tomorrow though.
High pressure and warm air idling up from Spain, apparently, made this surely the warmest and most pleasant November 12th in my lifetime — even on St Helena last year it was not as nice as this. I refuse to consider this a bad thing: not on the day, at least. I’m sure the ducks think it’s better than the alternative as well.
The media would like us to think that all is heading for some kind of climate-related disaster, but personally I’m quite enjoying the decent weather this summer, which seems to have extended out to Northern Ireland, at least this week. And she is having a good time in it too.
