Wednesday 28 February 2018

Snow...

I’m sitting in Helen’s front room in Halifax, tapping away on my laptop, as the snow continues to fall outside. And, from the look of the sky, there’s plenty more to come. The traffic is easing its way along the street, but the snow seems to be winning…

Pic licensed this morning: Calderdale looking sunnier than it is today...

 

Tuesday 27 February 2018

Seasons...

I’ve always thought that spring started on March 21st, a day before my birthday. Now I learn that it depends on whether you follow the astronomical or meteorological seasons. This year, if you use the astronomical model, spring will start on March 20th and end on June 21st. But if you follow the meteorological calendar, then spring runs from March 1st to May 31st. Using this system the seasons are defined as: Spring (March, April, May), Summer (June, July, August), Autumn (September, October, November) and Winter (December, January, February). It all seems rather academic while I’m in Halifax, watching the snow fall…

Licensed this pic today, of the Drunken Duck, near Ambleside. For maybe thirty years, writers looking to recommend a good Cumbrian pub have chosen either the Drunken Duck or the Masons Arms at Strawberry Bank (though neither would make my top ten)...

Monday 26 February 2018

Atheism...

A map of the world showing the incidence of atheism (green most atheistic, red least)...



















A map of the world showing the happiest countries (green happiest, red least happy)...

















While there are obviously many other variables to take into account, these maps certainty question the likelihood that religious faith improves our quality of life...

Sunday 25 February 2018

Bare trees...

By this time of the year the trees look perfect just as they are: bare, unadorned, their branches silhouetted against a grey winter sky. It’s hard to imagine them in leaf: too florid! Yet spring will soon be here…

Some guy wrote an article in the Guardian today about giving up TV for a month. He seemed to think it was a big deal (and decided he was going to do a jigsaw, of which most of the pieces were sky). I haven't had a TV for maybe 15 years, but I don't feel like writing an article about it. I see some TV (I'm watching football on a pub TV today), but mostly I find it frustrating. Whenever a TV programme threatens to get interesting, the credits roll. I hope I'll always be able to find more interesting things to do...

Saturday 24 February 2018

Beast from the East...

I’ve been socialising with old friends in York and Bellerby, near Leyburn. Today feels springlike, though I know that Siberian weather - the ‘Beast from the East’, as the weathermen are calling it - is on its way…

Thursday 22 February 2018

Helmsley...

Had a wander round Helmsley, and checked out the charity shops. The staff in the Oxfam shop looked like they were on a charm offensive, hoping to minimise the damage being done elsewhere in the organisation. I was mistaken for Bill Bryson (it’s usually Harold Shipman)…

Wednesday 21 February 2018

Writing...

Writing ‘on the road’ is surprisingly easy: just park up somewhere, open up the laptop and get to work. There doesn’t need to be a splendid view; a lay-bye will do (especially if it has a mobile snack-bar). It helps if I’m not online, so I’m not tempted to scan my emails, read the Guardian or check - yet again - to see if I’ve licensed any more pictures. Any facts which require checking I highlight in red, so I can scan through the text, and make corrections, when I’m next online.

Two or three hours writing represents a good session (and, anyway, that’s about all I get from the laptop these days, before it needs recharging). If I’m slightly disorientated when I emerge from the van, that’s generally a favourable sign: it means that I’ve been engrossed in the writing. One day, when my habits are more sedentary, I may find it hard to compose my thoughts in the comfort of my own unsightly home. Me and my laptop may have to seek out a congenial lay-bye instead…

Saving...

“Do you have a Nectar card?", she asked. I shook my head. “You can get points”. I shook my head again. “The more you spend”, she said, “the more you save”. “No”, I replied, “the less I spend, the more I save. The money stays in my pocket”…

Tuesday 20 February 2018

Fortune...

Last night’s Chinese take-away included a fortune cookie: “How beautiful it is to find someone who asks for nothing but your company”…

Saw a sign on a window in a Scarborough chippy: Fish & chips at it’s best. That's two grammatical errors in the space of six words...

Sunday 18 February 2018

Meat...

Had a cheap ’n’ cheerful curry at my favourite Bradford curry house: downstairs at the Kashmir. Since my last visit it’s had a lick of paint, some new furniture and a more colourful menu (which nevertheless has ‘minced meat’ printed as ‘mined meat’; it’s even possible that this is not a spelling mistake. The particular type of meat is never specified; I think they just see what turns up)…

Saturday 17 February 2018

Ambitions...

Pita Taufatofua, the Tongan athlete known for his bare-chested entrance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, managed to avoid coming last in the 15km cross-country skiing race. That’s quite a feat, considering that he first saw snow just two years ago. I can applaud his ambitions: “Finish before they turn the lights off. That’s number one. Don’t ski into a tree. That’s number two”…

Friday 16 February 2018

Another school shooting...

The aftermath of the school shooting in Florida is proceeding along predictable lines. “We need to pray”, said Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. What? Pray that God will consider gun control, since no American politician seems able to confront the power and influence of America’s gun lobby?

According to today’s Guardian, questions are now being asked about how Nikolas Cruz, a teenager known widely in his community as a “troubled kid”, who had received sporadic treatment for mental health problems and was expelled from Stoneman Douglas school for violence, had an obsession with firearms and delighted in shooting animals, could so easily buy a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. He could buy a rifle, legally, but, aged 19, was too young to buy beer…

Another shot of Helmsley licensed today: what's left of the castle keep...

Leighton Moss...

Collected my camera yesterday - all fixed and sensor cleaned - and celebrated with a bag of pic ’n’ mix and a flying visit to the RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss, near Carnforth. The light was gorgeous, making a teal look tropical and a pintail like it had been painted in oils.

Licensed this shot of Helmsley today (lots of similar pix on Alamy; maybe the two kids playing in the beck helped it to sell)...


Thursday 15 February 2018

Rag & bone man...

Saw something this morning which I probably haven’t seen for thirty years: a rag & bone man, with horse and cart, making sedate progress through the back-streets of Otley. I’m having another morning writing in the library, before driving to Kendal, where my camera - ‘as new’, I’m hoping - is now ready to collect…

Wednesday 14 February 2018

Library...

Had a Wetherspoons breakfast, while reading all my Valentine’s cards. In Otley library now, availing myself of warmth, mains electricity and free wifi. Not silence, though; a few feet away there’s a load of kids being taught circus skills: stilts, juggling, diabolo, hoola hoop, etc. I’m sharing a table. On my right is a man who’s talking to himself, and chuckling, and looking at me, and leafing through a pile of newspapers without reading them. He is, as my dad used to say, “not quite right”. On my left is an elderly couple who are attempting to choose a dishwasher by looking at back issues of Which magazine. He is making copious notes, comparing the various models; she just looks bored. She might be happier to join in with the kids... spinning plates and playing games.

I don't sell many pictures of churches, but this one was licensed today: the Saxon church of St Peter and St Paul, Albury, Surrey Hills...

Monday 12 February 2018

Café society...

According to this article in the Guardian, I’m not the only one who searches out sources of free wifi. Lots of freelancers prefer to work in cafĂ©s rather than at home (the ambient noise helps them to concentrate, apparently, and no doubt the coffee tastes better than ‘instant’). But the backlash has begun, with some cafĂ©s turning off the wifi and becoming ‘laptop-free’.

I try to behave myself… not going online for hours while still nursing a cold mug of tea. And I certainly don’t try to hog a table at lunchtime. For those who want to get the cafĂ© vibe, even when they’re at home, an app offers a variety of background noises, from ‘morning murmer’ to ‘Texas teahouse’…

Licensed this shot of the old hall at Brockhampton, complete with gatehouse and moat...

What is...

Another quote from Krishnamurti, from my email in-tray this morning. "Like most people, you have ideals, have you not? And the ideal is not real, not factual; it is what should be, it is something in the future. Now, what I say is this: forget the ideal, and be aware of what you are. Do not pursue what should be, but understand what is. The understanding of what you actually are is far more important than the pursuit of what you should be. Why? Because, in understanding what you are, there begins a spontaneous process of transformation; whereas, in becoming what you think you should be, there is no change at all, but only a continuation of the same old thing in a different form"...

Licensed this pic of the East Banqueting House, Chipping Campden...

Sunday 11 February 2018

Deadline...

With the writing going well, I’m giving myself a deadline. I’ll cut and paste the chapters of my book into a single document on the day I see the first swallow (the last week of March, I imagine), and see how it all hangs together…

Saturday 10 February 2018

Winter Olympics...

The Winter Olympics have begun, though I can’t say I’m particularly excited. I can remember being bored to tears, years ago, by Ski Sunday on the TV (mum, being Norwegian, would sometimes watch, though I don’t remember her being too excited either). Hurtling down an icy track on a bobsleigh looks fun for five minutes, but once you’ve seen one vertiginous descent (and maybe a hundredth of a second shaved off the previous best time), you’ve seen them all. Curling is even more boring than Ski Sunday, though I cherish the idea of it being ‘housekeeping on ice’.

The ski-jumping looks deceptively easy, until some chump gets wiped out and is whisked off to hospital. Back in Norway mum used to ski-jump, though she didn’t mention the fact very often. If it was me I’d try to shoehorn my ski-jumping exploits into the conversation at every possible opportunity...

Friday 9 February 2018

Not knowing...

Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project (and, unusually for a prominent scientist, a Christian), writes “Science is powerless to answer questions such as ‘what happens after we die’.” Well, yes, but the righteous don’t know either; they just pretend to know, based on what is written in their holy books. Unlike the righteous, scientists don’t usually pretend to know things they can’t possibly know. I’m learning that a simple acknowledgement - “I don’t know” - can be a perfectly valid, even scientific, response to a lot of “why?” questions. In the words of Carl Sagan, “It’s okay to reserve judgement until the evidence is in”.

A scientist who pretends to know things he doesn’t know will face innumerable problems, not least the peer review of his research papers and his eventual unmasking as a fraud. On the other hand, a man of faith who pretends to know things he doesn’t know will be rewarded with paradise...

Thursday 8 February 2018

Dream...

I had a dream last night. I was playing pool; the green baize turned into water and the balls turned into red rubber ducks floating around. I woke up and it was still February in England…

Tuesday 6 February 2018

Women...

On the centenary of (some) women in Britain getting the vote, here's a favourite quote from Christopher Hitchens, who, whenever he tackled a subject, generally nailed it with intellectual honesty and good humour. "We’re the first generation of people who do really know what the cure for poverty is. It eluded people for a long, long time. The cure for poverty has a name, in fact. It’s called the empowerment of women."

Found some amazing aerial photography in the Guardian this morning...

Monday 5 February 2018

Penalty...

I watched the Liverpool v Spurs match yesterday: a good game, for once, with both teams going for broke (not just passing sideways, then back to the goalkeeper). I was hoping for a Liverpool win, but it ended two-all. A last-minute penalty decision looked a bit dodgy, with Érik Lamela running into the Liverpool penalty area and managing to find a foot to fall over. JĂĽrgen Klopp, the Liverpool manager, said he would be hit with “the biggest fine in world football” if he said what he really felt about that penalty decision: a textbook example of how to complain about the referee without actually complaining about the referee…

Licensed this pic today: walkers on Haworth Moor...

Sunday 4 February 2018

Ulverston...

A peaceful day today, warmed by sunshine (though it feels springlike, I think a cold spell is on the way). Breakfast at Booths in Ulverston, then an hour of shared silence at Swarthmoor Quaker Meeting House. I was recognised as the “camper van man” (I’ve been called worse). Parked up at Bardsea, with a view of the waders on Morecambe Bay, and had a productive writing session. Now, as the sun dips, I’m off back into Ulverston to watch Liverpool v Tottenham on a big screen…

Saturday 3 February 2018

Woody Allen...

Hadley Freeman, writing in today’s Guardian, wonders why the name of Woody Allen has suddenly become so toxic that even actors from as-yet unreleased films are giving their fees to charity and disassociating themselves from the film-maker. Allen’s family arrangements are famously complex, but the accusations that he abused his then seven-year old adopted daughter, Dylan, date back to 1992, and he has never been charged with any criminal offense. Allen seems to be caught up in the allegations against Bill Cosby (currently awaiting re-trail for sexual assaults), Harvey Weinstein (in rehab since October), Kevin Spacey and many others. A discredited accusation, dating back 26 years, has resurfaced and I’d be surprised if Woody Allen ever makes another film.

Abusers should stand trial and face the consequences of their actions, but not be found ‘guilty’ meanwhile in the court of public opinion…

Another newly-licensed pic: Welcome to Darlo...

Friday 2 February 2018

Haircut...

Bored with the Mad Professor look, I went for a haircut today. It’s quite a rigmarole: shower at the leisure centre in Ulverston, into town for the haircut, then back to the leisure centre for another shower. Once I’ve changed into clean clothes, the job is done. I now look like the Mister Big from a drug cartel…

Who knows which pix will sell next? Some baffling signs near Sennen Cove...


Thursday 1 February 2018

Hijabs and hats...

Read this article in the Guardian, about a school banning girls from wearing the hijab until they are 8 years old. The article falls into the usual trap of calling these pupils "Muslim girls", even though they are not of an age at which they can make an informed choice about their religious affiliations.

Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector of Ofsted, has made a strong statement supporting the ban. “Under the pretext of religious belief, they [parents] use education institutions, legal and illegal, to narrow young people’s horizons, to isolate and segregate, and in the worst cases to indoctrinate impressionable minds with extremist ideology.” In her speech she told schools that they have a responsibility to “tackle those who actively undermine fundamental British values or equalities law”. A timely intervention, I'd say...

Licensed this pic today: the county ground at Taunton...