Only one more full day of my self imposed seclusion. Hurrah! I have used the time well I think having pulled together my yearbook for 2023. What I didn’t notice until after finishing the book and sending it to the publisher is that I had already started the books a few months earlier – such is life. In truth I think it was better to start a fresh as the extra few months have given me a different perspective on 2023.
I’m sort of housebound for the next week which gives me time to pull together my 2023 Yearbook. Will I manage it? I’ll let you know next Thursday.
Note from Editor: I tried the WordPress AI generated titles: way too literal and lacking in my sense of nonsense. Probably generate more interest in the blog – as if I have ever been interested in such things!
Some days are good and others less so. Yesterday was very much an autumnal day. My very good friend and I spent an enjoyable day wondering around the more empty parts of the Leicestershire, enjoying each other’s company and putting the world to rights (Note form Ed: The author is very well aware that he has little or no impact on the great events of the moment that were discussed but at the end of the day both interlocutors felt they had expressed their considered opinions.)
I then I got home and felt like I was going to be sick. Perhaps it was something I ate? I don’t know but I had a very different evening. The day, as the meteorologists are wont to say, was changeable.
Today I feel like resting.
24 little hours…Also a much better camera and lens; light; weather…I could go on. Suffice to say walking along the River Trent at Sawley this afternoon was a much more pleasant experience than yesterday in the damp, strangely warm atmosphere.
We also saw what warm weather does to what I am assuming were otherwise sensible people – it seems to fry their brain. For those of you who do not know the River Trent is a major river that runs through much of the midlands of England. It really is a deep, fast flowing river that you really should treat with respect and if you should venture out then onto the surface with a boat then perhaps at least wear a life jacket?
Not perhaps on a paddle board with no safety equipment at all. But what do I know I’m only a land loving old fart. I would like to say that these were two idiot lads trying to prove something. That is very sexist of me as these two people paddling away are women. They did make it across safely but it was an accident waiting to happen.
All the interactions I have ever had with Ratcliffe on Soar power station is from the southern bank of the River Trent. Today, just in time for its closurer, I have crossed the Trent to see things from the other bank.
The light was crap but let’s not dwell on such matters. It is always good to experience different perspectives. Equally, it always good to have a brisk (I doubt few people who passed us would agree with such a description) walk with a good friend and then continue the conversation in the local pub whilst eating straightforward food for lunch. It is a hard life I know but someone has got to live it.
Artwork from whilst the builders smashed and reworked the house about.
Thankfully the builders have mostly finished, snagging – what a horrible word – and we are slowly getting used to our new reshaped house. Now the builders we employed were first rate but it is nonetheless a stressful time.
There is a dampness in the air and the cars are now covered in dew. Hello to early autumn.
What is to come? Mist and mellow fruits? Probably. What we can say for definite is that I won’t be able to stand on Beacon hill on a misty day and look over to the Ratcliffe power station and see clouds rising from its cooling towers. (I was going to qualify that statement with ‘probably’ but I understand there is no coal stockpiled so it can’t run.)
We can look forward to the nights drawing in and the clocks being put back (or is it forward? I just can’t remember and I as I live in an Apple world I don’t really have to as all my clocks are automatically reset.)
The flip side of nights drawing is that I won’t have to get up too early to capture the first rays of the sun as they crest over the horizon. It is hardly a Lawrence of Arabia moment but the autumn sunrise has a charm all of its own.
And of course we should get more rain (something we’ve had to endure this summer as well!). With the rain will come the flooding, I do live above a floodplain so this will not be something new.
These of course are the known known. What will the unknown unknowns bring? What will the world look like in December compared to know? On a more personal level what will my small bit of this wider world look like in December? I’m reaching the point in my life where many of the unknown unknown are starting to move into the known unknowns.
What I do know is that the autumn provides opportunities to make great photographs. Whether I seize those opportunities is one of the great unknowns. It’ll be an interesting few months. Or Not.
Foxton Locks are many things: a tourist attraction; a nice walk in the country; a relic of bygone times and so on. What it was yesterday was a breath of early autumn fresh air whilst the builders continue to rework my home.
Over the past few days it really seems we are entering Autumn although that doesn’t officially start until the first of September.
It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve got nothing to do so hay why not remastered some images from 2006 and 2009? Why not indeed.
Nearly 20 years on and so many new ways to make the image that I wanted in the first place. Of course I can’t really remember what I was think 20 minutes ago so I haven’t really got a clue about 20 years ago. Yet I still remember exactly where I was and what I was doing on each of these days. One other thing I realise is that these were all captured using the Mk 1 100 – 400 Canon zoom – an ‘interesting and characterful‘ lens. Still given the right circumstances still able to produce the goods.
Two posts in just over two hours? What is happening? Is the word about to end? Well as far as I’m aware the world IS NOT about to end – despite what you might have read on Twitter. No it is much more mundane. I’m having work done to the house and the weekend is the only time I have got to post (I was going to say think but I suspect that boat sailed long ago!)
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