So it is a warm pleasant summer’s afternoon. The light is way too bright (it is mid afternoon on a summers days so what would you expect?). What else is there to do than just learn on the field gate, enjoy the breeze and talk to the cows? No? Maybe not but it was a really lovely summer’s afternoon and it felt like a rural idyll.
It was almost like a Merchant Ivory movie about August 1914. Then to top it all off I found a working telephone box with a post box. Strange things lurk in the valleys of east Leicestershire.
Should any US citizen ever come to read this they would rightly ask the question ‘what the hell does a Brit know about US Politics?’ And they would be right – up to a point. That point I suspect is that I know about as much as an average Joe might know about American federal politics. With this disclaimer in mind let me set out what I believe the single biggest problem facing Donald Trump – the Age question. This was all he campaigned on, with good reason, against ‘Sleepy Joe’ and it was working. To help matters Joe Biden had his car crash of a debate with Trump and suddenly Trump was romping home.
Pressure grew on ‘Sleepy Joe’ and he (VERY RELUCTANTLY) withdrew and suddenly Donald Trump was having to answer the age question and to date he hasn’t been able to. Does this mean he won’t find an answer to the age question? No of course it doesn’t but as I write this he doesn’t seem anywhere near close to finding an answer and with everyday that passes the question becomes a bigger and bigger drag on his candidacy.
Of course elections should be about policy I hear you shout. Yes it should but it rarely is and it certainly isn’t with Donald Trump. Instead he campaigns around great nicknames – ‘Sleepy Joe’ or ‘Crooked Hillary’ which work because they resonate with the electorate. Joe Biden is too old to be reelected and Hillary Clinton – well there are certain questions she has not properly answered – let’s leave it at that. But now he has to campaign against the ‘none of the above’ proportion of the electorate. This was the majority in poll after poll who said they didn’t want Donald Trump or Joe Biden as their only choice. Now they have a new choice.
Things will change and possibly very quickly. Harris has momentum and age on her side. Trump has what? A lot of catching up to do but he can still do it. But what do I know?
I don’t use Spotify and now I barely use Twitter, FaceBook Instagram etc. What does that make me? Well I suspect fairly unusual – better? I doubt that. One consequences of this digital hermit lifestyle is I don’t follow the latest whatever social media trend and I mostly sleep well at night. Am I disenfranchised? I don’t think so I just have too many other things going on in my life to really notice or care about the constant binary babble.
So what does any of this have to do with this image you might ask? In one sense nothing. But in a chronological sense it reflects the many changes in my life since it was captured in the early days of 2007. I have changed so much and so has the world. Back then I liked to keep abreast of the latest technological developments. Now I’m not that fussed. Getting old is a strange thing – it certainly changes your view of the world. I guess you see the emperor’s new clothes for what they are.
Of course not being on Twitter et al how would I know?
So in just over a month’s time it will never be possible to capture such an image again. Ratcliffe upon Trent power station, the final coal powered power station in Britain, will be slowly powered down and the fires steadily extinguished. Something that has, for much of my life, just been there will slowly disappear, perhaps not as suddenly as the collieries that once served her or her other sisters along the banks of the River Trent with an ending supply of coal. Yet it is now ending. I know and accept the clear arguments for moving to a more ecologically sustainable power supply. Yet I will miss her.
The nights are drawing in. This morning dawn wasn’t until just after 5 am. Shocking!
I was out and about capturing images from one of my favourite parts of the world – the Welland Valley. It doesn’t matter how many times I visit I always find there is something new to take in. Here endeth the promo for the Harborough District Council tourist board (I doubt such a thing exists.). I had been out and about on Friday with my good friend David but that was during the bright summer light. This morning it was mellow mists and radiant ironstone buildings.
On the road again in chocolate box country or should that be Jane Austen? This is what the early 19th century looked like – right?
In Austen’s time, as well as her literature, the Church of England was very rich. It had huge tithes coming in from the booming agriculture sector to pay for the upkeep of the church. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case in St. James’ Church, Horninghold. This once proud building is slowly rotting away.
I have made a profound self discovery! My playlist of One Hit Wonders is very similar to my favourites playlist. What that says about me is anybody’s idea and to be quite honest I am rapidly reaching the point in my journey through the cosmos that I don’t really care what other people think.
There reaches a point in most people’s life that you start to realise that the number of morning’s you have in front of you is less than you have already enjoyed/endured (I am also old enough to realise that too many people never have the opportunity to reach this philosophical point. I’m not sure whether this qualifies as a first world problem because my career has introduced me to some of the shittist human experiances by people also living in the first world – as a species we leave a lot to be desired!)
Yesterday, I spent the day walking around one of my favourite places – Hidcote and I captured many images of the beautiful flowers. However, I have been drawn to the more reportage/street photography images. Which, Mr Spock might say is ‘fascinating’
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” –
Douglas Adams
Every now and then, on a clear night, we should just look up and marvel at the majesty of it all. Of course in many places around the world that is just not possible due to light pollution I feel sorry for you.
Or you could have some expensive camera gear and capture an image of the most familiar object in the night sky. Then perhaps while editing the resultant image you zoom in on the inky black background to the image and…
I have just finished watching the latest Star Wars TV series ‘The Acolyte‘ and I have to say it really didn’t work for me. This is a shame because I wanted it work but it didn’t. Now of course I could start off on a clickbait attention seeking rant about this but that is not really my style. If I like something I like it. Equally if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t. I didn’t hate it or anything like that it just didn’t work.
My son thinks it is really good so it just depends on your individual tastes.
However, if I was to throw faint praise on The Acolyte then it wasn’t anything like as bad as Ahsoka which again was a real shame. I guess this puts much greater pressure on the second season of Andor
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