A couple of pictures I took on my phone whilst out and about this last couple of weeks.

They capture Stevenage in autumn nicely. Being a new town, it has been built with lots of space and lots of trees. You get a strange mixture of rural and urban.

six hills way

One thing you can’t get from these photos is the smell. A few days after I took these, I went for a walk when it had been raining overnight. The sharp, acrid smell of rotting leaves was very strong and very evocative of childhood winter mornings fishing.

I do love this time of year.

fairlands way

The famous Lindisfarne song would have you believe that “The fog on The Tyne is mine all mine.” This was the view from my window this morning. The edge of the fog bank very clear and sharp. It’s not all mine, but it makes a pretty picture.

Stevenage is 30 miles from the centre of London. It is a new town and was planned and built from scratch in the 50’s and 60’s. The town has an extensive network of cycle paths, as can be seen in the picture of Six Hills Way, one of the main routes through town.

Unfortunately, the good people of Stevenage prefer to sit in their cars, even on a lovely autumn morning like this one.

What makes this more unfortunate is that in some global warming scenarios this will become a great view of the North Sea.