88 Today

A perfect date storm brings together Mother's Birthday, Easter Sunday and the clocks going forward. She is spending it with Auntie Alison [her sister] in Oxford. Here are the troublesome two taken by Cousin Gill.

Sanquhar 1

Last Saturday with the snow at its peak the line on the radio was repeatedly "Police have advised motorists not to travel in Dumfries and Galloway". Fine, except that we were due to travel to Sanquhar [pronounced to rhyme with Jeremy Clarkson] for a week staying in the converted Station. In the end I decided to risk it, and we got there fine. Sanquhar is an amazing place, remote, bleak, atmospheric. The Station has been brilliantly converted, a marvellous place to stay with a steady stream of trains as well. And they let you take dogs.

Sanquhar Station

Beach Guernsey

A different scale to the other sand and sea shots that I am showing. Taken from the cliff top in Guernsey. I am still focusing on the interface between sand and sea.

Silent Running

Silent Running

It had been a long, wet, cold day at the athletics meeting. When the sun came out and cast these shadows off of the statuettes I knew the photograph would make the day worthwhile. “Are they not of real people?” gets asked.

Lomnice

Taken in 1984. An ethnic Albanian village in the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. A man had carried our rucksacks up on his horse and invited us for a drink. “Can I take a photo?” resulted in this tableau. Much has happened to this region since.
A look at Google Earth shows that there is now a road to the village which there was not in '84. The children will now be in their 30s and 40s - blimey.

Lomnice

Sheffield Fountains

There are at least four layers to this shot. The fountains at Sheffield Station, together with the low sun and wet stone all came together at the right time.

That is me in the centre of the shot.

Baildon Ice

Baildon Ice

Taken on a cold January morning on the canal at Baildon in the Yorkshire West Riding. The possibilities of photographing ice are endless. The trick is to find the image that resounds.

Back to the photos I showed at the Lumen show last year. This shot made less of an impact than I had hoped. I still like it.

Cold

If you follow the link to last year's entry for today http://palmour.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/spring.html you will see that it was "A lovely spring day, wearing shorts". This year the snow is just starting, the temperature is below zero and spring is the last thing on our minds.

The cattle are back on the sodden, frozen moor, looking bemused at the frozen ponds.

Footie

Mark has taken me to some strange football games over the years;

Italy under 21s at Stamford Bridge [Gianluca Vialli in the team]
Carlisle losing at York
Carlisle losing at a dismal Stamford Bridge in the 80s
Carlisle winning [!] at Darlo
QPR v Forest on a plastic pitch
England v Albania [Gasgoine scored]
Watford v CSKA Sofia [who could resist]
Arsenal getting taken apart by Spartak Moscow 2-5 in 1982

but none of these can top where he and Mandy took me on Tuesday night. Guernsey [where Mandy is from] play in the 5 tier non-league League in the south. So they have to travel across the sea for every away game. They were playing against Epsom, so off we went. Freezing cold, weak tea, vociferous Guernsey fans, a great goal, 5-2 victory to the island boys; a great evening.

More Music

Baker Street Tube

Another musician that I am discovering for the first time, like Bruckner, is Paul Kossoff who was the guitarist for Free. I never really listened to Free very much [the singles put me off maybe] and never knew much about Kossoff [the Les Paul put me off maybe] other than he died of Heroin aged 25. Listening to tracks on Spotify is a bit of a discovery; he is a great player mainly because he is a mixture of understated yet intense playing – quite a rare combination.

We got the Circle Line from Baker Street to Kings Cross on Sunday; not sure if I had ever been on that platform before. Atmospheric.

Back Home

Photo is of Rowan and Blandine on the Tube. It was a good trip down to London. It is still raining here [started in October I think] and the Moor is now definitely the wettest I  have ever seen it.
I have just listened to some music by Bruckner for the first time [8th Symphony], and I think it is great; like Wagner without having to put up with the singing. Recommended

A Londres

Friday Rob & Kath came up to stay over, en-route to daughter collection duties from the Uni the next day, so we had a great evening chatting and eating [Kath and Danielle did the drinking, Rob and I had water]. Meantime Rowan was out with Blandine watching Netball Superleague in Leeds. Then next day we were down to London for Carl's 50th in Marylebone. On the Saturday Danielle was speaking in Euston, the girls went shopping in Oxford St [le Primark est tres populaire avec les jeunnes filles Francaise] and I headphoned some weird electronic music [the great Tim Hecker] to help me deal with the nightmare of a Saturday shopping time in the west end; it worked fine, I enjoyed myself.

We then all got to our hotel off of Wigmore Street and could walk around the corner to the pub where the gig was. The photo is of Carl on his bass clarinet with his clarinet and trombone group doing a Kelzmer tune. Mighty Fine

Gorse

Rowan has her French exchange student with her this week; Blandine is a lovely girl and seems to be happy here.

When I was walking in the Wolds I came across this Gorse flowering in the snow; made me think of my Father's saying "When Gorse is out of flower, kissing is out of fashion"

Farm

Some photos I know that I shall never show; they are just not what people want to buy. But they are sometimes my favourites. This is one such - you need to click on it to get a good size to look at. Taken yesterday on the high Wolds at Danesbury. This is a typical Wolds farm; high up, big, unattractive, stark brick buildings.

Netball Dad

I am not sure what the masculine of Soccer Mom is but I think it maybe Netball Dad. Any way, that is what I have been for the last few years [together with the Athletics], driving Rowan all around the country. And I have enjoyed it a lot. So far the list has included
Wigan [start with the bright lights]
Barnsley [stay there]
Cleckheaton [best name]
Wakefield [there last week, went for a great walk by the River Calder]
Sheffield [times too numerous to dare think about, lots of great walks by the canal and river, mountain bike rides in the hills]
Gateshead [for English Schools last year; the highlight of Rowan's high jump career so far. I, literally, could not watch]
Bedford [it is a long way]
Leeds [great riding up the hills above Otley]
Bradford [always cold and windy]
Hull [no comment]
and many more.
My way of looking at it, is that in five years she will be gone, so make the most of the time and travels together, which I am doing.

Mother's Day

Rowan made this delicious Lime Pie for Mother's Day, she also cooked a lovely salmon main course, so we all had a treat.

The photo is an Instagram [another new social networking thing I don't particularly want to understand but thought I better try out]

Got it

Well I got the work in London, so I should be seeing more of Richmond Park. Always a bit daunting when you get a new assignment, but it should be a good one. If you look at this picture closely you can see the deer seated in their splendour.

Incongruity

Walking through the perfectly English landscape of Richmond Park, with deer grazing and cyclists imagining, the sight of a gnarled old oak tree festooned with Parakeets is quite hard to get your head around. I think it is a good thing, but not so sure. Folk round these parts take them for granted; they scare me a bit.

Hob Moor Dawn

When the sun rises in the morning the Moor can be a magical place.

Springtime in London

The Thames at Teddington Lock

I was down in London for a meeting about some possible work. I stayed at Mark and Mandy's in Wimbledon then walked across Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, across the Thames then to my meeting. It was a beautiful spring day [the last we can expect for 2 weeks apparently] and London was at its incomparable best.

Meal

Saturday night we were are Edward and Fay's for a meal. Great time, good company [might have found a bass player] and great food [paella]. What Saturday nights are made for. Edward is off to South by Southwest in Austin Texas for "work" next week - lucky him.

Due Claw News

Milo's other dew-claw had to be seen to by the vet, which led to this natty sheep-covered bandage for Milo and a very sorry face from Milo.

Southend

Sunset Over Canvey

I was working in Southend all last week. Went very well. Whilst down there I took the unusual step of photographing a sunset: normally something I avoid like anything. This time though the sun was going down over Canvey Island oil refinery so I made an exception. With Wilko Johnson on his way out with cancer http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21187740 it seemed fitting.

Brussels Bench

The contrast in textures between the stone surfaces and the bench, and the geometry of the shapes was good. The depersonalised figure made it an image I wanted to capture.

I had to rope Rowan into to be the figure on this shot, taken in Brussels.