‘Fast flowing or deep floodwater is likely, causing danger to life‘
Thank you Storm Claudia. Seems that autumn has decided to impress the awesome majesty on we mortals up here in very damp England. Just for good measure there is just the chance of snow by the middle of next week. It is unlikely to reach down to we valley dwellers but maybe on top of the hills and mountains.
Good job we visited Nottingham yesterday.
Many years ago I remember going on a course where I was told with certainty that the Soviets would drop the bomb within the next two to three years. So much for certainty.
I hope no one who might come across this post will ever experience such a horror. But nearly 50 years on I imagine that this might be what it would look like.
Not at all sure what made me think about this.
How big is too big? The above photo asks this question. In its raw state it is almost 1 GB which is huge. That is what you get when make a panorama out of 7 x 61 MPixel images. Crazy. That is until you look at the detail such an image has.
For those of you who might not know this is the view from Mount St. Bernard’s Abbey of the Trent valley from Ratcliffe Power Station to East MIdlands Airport. It is a view I have captured before but yesterday I decided to really go for it. Perhaps the most memorable thing about the view is that very shortly it will no longer exist. Ratcliffe no longer produces any electricity and by 2030 it will be pulled down. Well at least that is the plan at the moment.
So you can see I was out about capturing images for my latest photo project. If I keep this pace up I might have things wrapped up by Christmas. Not sure I want to rush things that much.
If you ever despair about the value of human creativity, take a trip to the latest exhibition at the Djanogly gallery, Nottingham. AI nonsense might produce a tidal wave of slop, but this exhibition restores faith in creativity.
(Full disclosure: That opening paragraph was rewritten by AI. For some reason it doesn’t like its redraft of my slop!)
Kate Mccgwire really has a thing about feathers. The deeper you examine the works the more intense things get.
I left the exhibition feeling just a little better about the world. I am not sure that is what the artist wished but that doesn’t matter. Human creativity is a wonderful thing.
The other day I was standing on the wrong bridge over the M1 pointing my camera in the wrong direction. This morning I corrected that. M1 in North West Leicestershire District council. It was a damp morning but great photography weather. Well I thought so.
Every now and then the low cloud would part and the sun would shine through. This being late autumn when it did it was very low and bathed things is a warm glow. On the subject of autumn, today is Bonfire night in England. When I was growing up, this night marked a cold and frosty time of year. Today at dawn it was around 14 degrees C. That is insane. Thank god global warming is a myth and we don’t have to decarbonise our world.
The last stop this morning was at the Noon Column at the Sence Valley Forest Park. The first time I visited this sculpture by David Nash was in 2008.
The trees have certainly grown over the years! Nice to see the picnic tables are still there. I still like a good sky.
Some days for just have to pick up your iPad and have a good sketch and draw. I always feel better afterwards.
There is no real story behind any of these other than it scratches a creative itch. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Autumn has finally arrived. No frosts yet but the trees are turning. One of the enjoyable aspects of the last twenty years or so is watching that the National Forest started to mature. With this maturity has come the joy of autumnal colour. Better than the old slag heaps and and pit yards they have replaced.
Talking of change a new town is springing to life in a way I never thought possible. It is a few months since I came this way. The once open fields with diggers in the distance are now show homes, a new school and an Aldi.
Before we start waxing lyrically about a lost pastured idle we should remember: This is the world where King Coal once ruled. The boundary of the new town is one of the earliest steam railways in the world. The reason for its construction was to transport coal to Leicester. The old site of South Leicester pit is just over a mile to west. All around the new town, sheds and distribution centres of the modern online world stand sentinel. They guard the brave new world we live in. Nonetheless it was a bit of a shock!
Footnote
Update on the Taylor Swift bump to my numbers. There was one very small and slight. So perhaps Ms Swift’s coattails don’t reach as far as this little blog. Are well. I’ve listened to the new album several times since I posted my post and I stand by my review: Perfectly good pop music. I’m sure Ms Swift won’t lose any sleep.
So the plan was this… After having had lunch with my great friend I would drive home over the Charnwood Forest hills and hopefully capture a couple of images for my latest photography project ( Paradise – Consumed).
Great lunch – tick
Charnwood Forest looked great in the afternoon light – tick
Captured Images – tick
So far so good. Unfortunately, when I got home, I quickly found out I was pointing my camera in the wrong direction. All the images were actually in the Hinckley and Bosworth or Charnwood district council areas. Not North West Leicestershire!
Are well. The one silver lining is that Hinckley and Bosworth is the next district council we’re going to move onto. So I have got a bit of a head start. That’s Stanton under Bardon done. I guess I’ll have to think up a title for the next project….Now is the winter of our discontent or A horse a horse?
Pip pip.
These are remastered images from this day (17th October) in 2008. I was on the beach at dawn at Hunstanton. Whilst working on these images I was listening to the latest Taylor Swift album The Life of a Showgirl. (Sidebar: Perfectly good pop music …I suspect I’m not the target audience)
So I started to ponder:
“What was Taylor Swift doing on the that day almost 20 years ago”?
One thing for sure is that she wasn’t standing on a cold beach in west Norfolk. Instead she was the support act for a band called Rascal Flatts. (I have no idea what they are/were like as this is the first time I have ever heard of them.) That night she was at Nashville, TN. In a couple of weeks time she would release her second album Fearless.
So to make clear. On that day in 2008 Taylor Swift was already warping away from the World I knew. Now she is several large galaxies away … far far away. As far as I know I have never meet her.
Anyway I hope the title isn’t too clickbaity. I guess I’ll know if it is in a few days time. If for some reason you have clicked on this blog because of the title then ‘Hello’. I hope you enjoy what you might have found here. I’m sorry for any disappointment you might have encountered.
If you happen to be Ms Taylor Swift herself then again: ‘Hello and haven’t you done well.’
Great plans. Great great plans.
Yesterday was all planned out. Get up early. Capture some wonderful early morning misty autumnal photographs. Come home satisfied with a job well done and a few more villages marked off on my Paradise – Consumed project. Problem was the weather didn’t get the memo. Instead of artfully decorative mist I awoke to full blown fog! I did get out but had beat a retreat. The fog was just too thick.
Instead I took a walk around the local park.
Reality 1 Great Plan 0.
Such is life.
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