2016 in Pictures - January 31st

Littleport to Leeds 

This summer house in Leeds is floored with wood from the decking left in my garage by the last owner. Yes, I went to Leeds and took a picture of a gazebo. 

2016 in Pictures - January 28th

Littleport at dusk. 

I took a walk down the side road to get a better sunset shot of the church tower. The side road is closer, but lower, and the view was worse. I might try to take one from the main road when I'm back in Littleport. 

2016 in Pictures - January 27th

So, obviously I'm not hitting every day, and in part that's because I basically go to the same places at the same time every day. Then again, sometimes something like this happens:

The Vortex

I took the picture to try to catch the rain suddenly hammering down; the perfect swirl of clouds was happy chance.

2016 in Pictures - January 25th

Waterbeach Sunset.

Okay, so this one is just for the caption.

2016 in Pictures - January 23rd

Into the Woods

So Much for Parenthood

Saturday's photo (nothing on Sunday, due to largely localised parenting) is of Arya disappearing into the woods at Thetford Forest. For those who are worried, she did come back.

2016 in Pictures - January 22nd

The Green Wall.

So, no picture yesterday, as I was largely confined to my flat waiting for an inspection.

Today, I present the Green Wall in the new David Attenborough Building, a carefully controlled array of planters resulting in thirty feet of greenery in the middle of a shiny new build. It's quite impressive, and apparently Sir David himself has offered to abseil down it to officially open the building, the home of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and its partners. Unfortunately, it wasn't really possible to get a shot of the whole thing; not with my camera anyway.

View from the landing.

2016 in Pictures - January 20th

Chimney Tree

Yes, it's the view from my window again, but I rather liked the way the smoke seems to be coming out of the tree.

2016 in Pictures - January 19th

Mackerel Skies

I was reading my Kindle on the train, looked up at the frosty landscape and the golden sunrise and thought: 'That's a gorgeous view.' Then I realised that was the point of this whole thing; to notice stuff like that. I got up, went to the door - no way I could get to the windows on the east-facing side of the train - and took a couple of pictures through the door as we pulled out of Waterbeach. This was the best of those.

2016 in Pictures - January 18th

Morning

I got into work very early yesterday, so I snapped a picture of the view from the window in the half-light. I shall try to limit the number of times I use this view, but I rather liked the one lit window in the foreground.

2016 in Pictures - Jan 17th

Moon Over Littleport

Thanks go to Andrew for spotting this one while we were walking with Arya. She's taken to asking where the Moon is when she can't see it, and in this case it was by the church tower at about one in the afternoon.

2016 in Pictures - Jan 16th

Daddy's Little Princess.

Weekends are obviously going to be a weakness of this project, since most of the time I'm watching to make sure Arya doesn't fall off things. Therefore, here is a picture of Arya dressed as Rey from The Force Awakens.

2016 in Pictures - January 15th

By any other name

And this is the shot that cemented the project - a single white rose blooming outside the University Accommodation Office in early January and in the coldest weather we'd had for months. It's just a shame there wasn't snow.

Again, the limitations of my camera come into play; I'd kind of like to have got a close up, but it was too far off and digital zoom is a lie.

2016 in pictures - January 14th

Cambridge in Gold

This is the first picture in my 'I take a picture of the world around me every day' project, and the view that inspired this whole thing. Sadly, it shows up the limitations of my phone as a camera and me as a photographer, but at least one of these things should hopefully end the year less of an issue than it is now.

Resolutions

It's late for resolutions, I know, but I like to be a bit different and this really only occurred to me last week.

Resolution 1 - Publish by 40

I'm going to finish a book and get it published before I turn 40 next January. It will be self- and e-published, but it will be published. That means working on my existing manuscript and having something ready to send to volunteer readers by the time I start on the next one at Camp NaNo.

Resolution 2 - Look at the world

In order to focus more on the world around me, instead of just inside my head, I'm going to aim to take one picture a day - and at minimum two a week - of something that interests me.

Old man, wonder if you'll ever know...

This song used to creep me out, and yet I loved it.
Correction: This song still creeps me out, and I still love it.

Ground control to Major Tom,
Your circuit's dead,
There's something wrong.

Can you hear me, Major Tom?

Perhaps since Superman II, I've been creeped out by the idea of dying in space. Since I'm a little too young to have caught the late David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' first time around, it was probably on Pick of the Pops with Alan 'Fluff' Freeman that I first came across and was creeped out by the story of astronaut and reputed junkie Major Tom and his highly desirable shirts. Unlike most songs that I found disturbing, however, I loved this one from the first, and perhaps that's why Bowie has retained a stronger presence in my mind than many other artists.

Part of me wishes I could share some story of the deep and profound effect Bowie's music had on me, and if nothing else the fact that I chose to discuss him here in my life blog instead of one of my more media related efforts shows that he did have some impact, but all in all I'm not the guy who is that into music. My tastes and my music collection have always been eclectic, and the dawn of the digital age freed me from the need to buy albums, but I've always been aware that Bowie was one of those artists who popped up from time to time, with something new; and actually new, rather than running on nostalgia and fame.

I mean, we're talking about a guy who recorded songs with Queen, Nine Inch Nails, Bing Crosby and Mick Jagger and has had two existential/mystical cop dramas (four if you count both US adaptations of Life on Mars) named after his songs; how many other people can say that*?

Anyway, in the absence of anything profound to add to the discussion, I shall simply include a link to perhaps Bowie's greatest work**.

* I haven't checked, but I'm pretty confident it's none.
** Seriously, I love this song.