tomment » seasonal

Curiously Canadian

tom — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:10:52 +0000

Last week I returned from a trip to Canada and New York. It was great and the autumn colours were incredible. Here are some photographic highlights:

Montreal’s biosphere:

A sunset over the Hudson river, viewed from the Adirondack train between Montreal and New York (for reference, possibly the most picturesque train journey ever at this time of year):

A vote Obama mural in New York:

See the full lot here.

Loughborough Junction at Christmas

tom — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:03:23 +0000

In case you missed them, these are some pictures I took of Loughborough Junction on Christmas day (2007). Festive, isn’t it?

garden growth

tom — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:25:50 +0000

Although our window box gardening efforts have not been entirely successful this year (not helped by a week-long trip to France..), we have been treated to some lovely strawberries.

Although you don’t get the joy of eating them, you can enjoy them with your eyes:

Great British

tom — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 14:52:42 +0000

Today I experienced spectacular (Great) British weather. In fact, it felt monumental. Driving rain, thunder and lightning over head. During the 8 mile cycle home I was concerned about getting trench foot.

But perhaps more surprising than rain in the UK was that during this intense rainy spell I was offered a lift by two separate (and I assume completely independent) drivers.

Being (Great) British, I stubbornly (but politely [or as politely as one can when cycling flat out in driving rain]) declined. Besides, I didn’t want to mess up their car interiors.

it’s showtime

tom — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:33:14 +0000

All of a sudden, Edinburgh is being transformed from a quiet city enjoying a peaceful summer, with barely even a student in sight, to some uber-cultural capital. It’s odd.

This afternoon in the local corner shop, during the usual conversation about the weather (it’s been raining for the last 3 days), the shopkeeper asked how long I was around for. I explained that, actually, I live in Edinburgh. He seemed really quite surprised.

Update: I am informed that making any comment which comes close to a complaint about the weather is a surefire way of being mistaken for a festival-attending tourist.

we were saving it all up

tom — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 09:50:26 +0000

yesterday was magical. i was in a windowless room for just 50 minutes, and during that time the weather turned from bright sunshine (and very cold) to heavy snow (and very cold). what was amazing was walking outside, after just 50 minutes since i last saw the outside world, and there being inches of snow on my bike.

so i risked life and limb to the cycle the 2 mile journey home (on my road bike) in 4 inches of snow, already compacted in places to form sheet ice. i slipped twice and had plenty of wheel spin, but made it home in one piece.

one interesting thing was how the snow makes people communicate. on the way home, i had banter with 4 random people on the street.

then i took an hour off my working day and went for a walk around holyrood. I can’t get enough of that crunch crunch under foot. I took a few pictures of my extended back garden:

valentine

tom — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:30:26 +0000

i didn’t receive any valentines cards yesterday. all i got was a link to this rather funny news story.