Well, that was disappointing.
It was particularly cold on Friday night, and it froze our external "condensate" pipe, which meant the hot water and central heating boiler wouldn't start. Given that the forecast was for about three inches of snow to fall overnight on Saturday, I spent most of yesterday afternoon up a ladder unfreezing the pipe (top tip: use one of those microwaveable "wheat bags" intended for wrapping round painful sports injuries), then lagging it with foam.
Woke up this morning -- not even a heavy frost. Elsewhere there has been heavy snow, with the usual disruption, but here, nothing. I suppose we should be relieved and grateful (and if I hadn't managed to get the hot water back up and running it would have been a different story) but I must admit I always look forward to the first real snow of the winter.
But the classic struggle between the Warm Wet Westerly airstream from the Atlantic and the Cold Cold Cold air over continental Europe will continue, so we may still see some snow before February has gone. Living on that front line is what British weather is all about.
And, no, these pictures have nothing to do with frozen pipes, central heating or snow. Just two more "trees and facades" images taken this week.
5 comments:
Mike,
Do you think there's a link between certain trees and facades? New buildings are often accompanied by young trees and I wonder if, given the details of a tree, you could predict what style and age of building they were planted with. If so, it must be part of the aesthetic: saplings against the most modern buildings; mature trees against the appropriately more weathered ones.
Huw
Huw,
Yes, you're probably right -- these trees are clearly "architect-approved" trees, and no doubt they are some special sort, which will be unfashionable by the next decade.
Mike
It's a topic I hope someone's written a dissertation on - I can imagine Barthes having great fun with it. But it's funny how such 'architect-approved' decisions have a direct influence on your picture taking.
Huw
Huw,
Well, part of what this is all about is that at work I am surrounded by new architecture, which I feel ambivalently about. It often stands on top of places that once held significance for me. For example, the land on which the building in these images stands was cleared by demolishing the row of houses which included the Day Nursery both of my children attended.
I have become the equivalent of the old bloke who says, "I can remember when all this was fields"...
Mike
It's one of the things I like about photography - or any sustained practice - that if you do it long enough 'texture' develops, both in how new photos relate to old ones, and what they show. Unanticipated pleasures and connections are always the best.
Huw
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