Thursday, 13 November 2025

Late Light



It poured with rain most of Monday, but the sun broke through mid-afternoon, and I managed to get in a walk through the Sports Ground, where millions of pounds are being wasted on a refurbishment project – a typical example of "hypothecated" money won by a local authority in a bidding competition – which requires all the perfectly decent football fields and cricket pitches to be excavated and the customary pathways closed off, so that we're forced to walk around the muddy edges, feeling like trespassers.

Never mind, I like "edgelands" and brilliant corners, and the raking late-afternoon light brought something extra to the scene, which I was happy to exploit. The burnt-out car was particularly fetching illuminated by the warm sun, I thought. The detailing created by the burning paint is spectacular, like an intricate artwork using a limited palette of oranges and browns, cross-hatched by the shadow of the temporary fencing, or perhaps the hide of some heavily-tattooed elephant. Maybe they should leave it there as a spontaneous public sculpture.





Oh well, nice while it lasted!

6 comments:

Kent Wiley said...

Congrats on getting a pic on TOP. I like the one of the brilliant tree lost amidst the equally brilliant background better. Great light!

Mike C. said...

I have no idea how that happened! I put that post up at 12:10 yesterday, and when I looked at TOP later that evening there it was. I find it hard to believe that Mike is a reader, so someone must have ratted me out... ;)

Mike

Kent Wiley said...

Interesting. I would thought he had gotten approval from you first. He certainly knows about the Hat w/o being told by someone else.

Mike C. said...

Nope -- I'll get my legal team on it... A la Trump, I'm asking $1 billion reputational damages... ;)

I'm dubious Mike actually reads this blog, but would be pleased to know otherwise.

Mike

Kent Wiley said...

Any spike in your traffic as a result of “reputational damages”?

Mike C. said...

Nothing -- of course, with the new Patreon-based TOP there is no longer any link to a commenter's website (don't think I didn't check...). So the number of TOP readers who would go on actually to search for me / my blog is probably negligible to non-existent.

Mike