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alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
AlexBrightsmith
@alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
81 followers 100 following 130 posts
Serving the gods of true & fair presentation dutifully by day. Writing beautiful untruths by night.
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alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Some of us can't even bring ourselves to look
A classic tortoiseshell, or calico, cat slumped implausibly - honestly, she looks as if she's been badly superimposed - across a dressing gown clad lap
November 14, 2025 at 10:25 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
The weather outside is tragic
A tabby and white cat draped forlornly over the scroll of a wing backed chair, staring listlessly through the net curtains at a day that is, in his defence, comprehensively dreich.
November 14, 2025 at 10:12 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
With scientific hidden partition? Really? This is why I hate shopping.
A fluffy grey and white cat peeks beseechingly from the open top of a pristine cat carrier. Above the text extols the carrier's features, its portability and breathability, its suitability for cats and dogs under five kilos for travel and outings, and its scientific hidden partition
November 12, 2025 at 11:05 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Was at a family thing & was glommed onto by a 10yo with a camera (literally tied to his wrist for safekeeping) who wanted someone to pose for him by this pond / needed to gull an adult into supervising him so that he could go closer to it.
Glad I fell for it since it made a lovely #SundayPixMirror
A generally quite dull pond, clearly done on the cheap (small plastic fountain, no planting, liner showing around the edges) forming a perfect mirror for fluffy white clouds in a blue sky, and for the mature trees standing some distance off
November 9, 2025 at 9:10 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Wellington also loves books. She may think she's safe from Campion up there.

(Aptly enough for #SundayPixBooks, Campion's litter mates are Wimsey and Maigret.)
A large, fluffy, slightly baleful looking tabby arranged neatly in the K-L section of our general fiction (she's obscuring a full shelf of Stephen King, and resting across a selection of Kipling, le Carre, and Elmore Leonard)
November 2, 2025 at 8:58 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
It's funny how sometimes you set everything up right with your 'real' camera and get something meh, and sometimes you snap a quick phone pic rather than type up a list and the light just loves you
#SundayPixBooks
A pile of very small, very battered, religious books, including a lady's pocket size book of common prayer, balanced on the arm of a chair, their red and black bindings and gold lettering catching the sunshine perfectly.
November 2, 2025 at 8:50 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Campion still lubs Wellington. Everyone else is still mystified (especially Wellington).
A tangled mass of cats on a pajama-clad lap. Campion, an absolute tank of a tabby and white boy, has draped himself over Wellington, green eyed, fluffy, and thoroughly pinned down.
November 1, 2025 at 12:02 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Happy Birthday Wombat

#SundayPixWombat
#Glint
A slightly tawdry hair grip, decorated with a faux enamel flower studded with fake crystals, thrust through the hat band of a rather shabby black felt Stetson.
October 26, 2025 at 10:01 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Technically Monday, but since I'm in denial about that, some #SundayPixLeaves
The last glory of a hanging basket on a bright autumn day. One proud trumpet in white and cerise, but a foreground of small and varied leaves, a spike of something that looks like rosemary, with slightly bristly needles, and riotous curves of thick leaves already fading to red along their veins and edges Looking up though the branches of a weeping willow, dark crooked branches, bright spiralling streamers of pale green leaves, a glimpse of white and blue beyond
October 5, 2025 at 11:25 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
And, apparently on this day eight years ago, taking some roses to drop off at Granny's grave, in passing. They were not roses that travelled well, but they just about made it.
#SundayPixRailway
A small section of table in a railway carriage, with a sliver of green-brown blur just visible through a strip of window. The table holds a bottle of pepsi, a railway ticket, and two wide pink old fashioned roses with their stems carefully wrapped in foil.
September 21, 2025 at 6:16 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I forgot to post this for infrastructure a couple of weeks back, so it can be #SundayPixRailway even though Galton Bridge station is the least interesting part of it.
A summertime view along a canal that runs through a wide, deep cutting. Two bridges cross it. The nearest is the broad, almost flat iron span of Telford's Galton Bridge (built for the road but closed to traffic for decades), disappearing into the trees without apparent support. The second is the brick arch of a railway bridge, both piers almost visible amongst the greenery.
September 21, 2025 at 6:06 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I was thinking I hadn't been near a #SundayPixRailway in ages, but then, there's this (though only the track's dedication to maintaining a steady elevation in the face of local conditions makes this obvious - it's slightly sinuous and surprisingly narrow)
A well made footpath, perhaps six feet wide, curves away out of sight between steep banks and woodland. The path is deeply shadowed but the trees are brightly sunlit
September 21, 2025 at 4:47 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Vaguely wondering how Tanner, big sprawly boy though he is, was managing to take up so much space ...
Two tabby cats, their coats almost identical, lie curled up nose to tail, like a big snoozy doughnut
September 21, 2025 at 4:37 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
From the Oratory to Bishop Asbury's Cottage via my employer's AGM. That was quite a day. The cottage was closed, mind, because the 45 minute bus trip somehow took an hour longer than scheduled.
A very dull cottage stands against a dull sky. The facing side is painted white, with a door and two small, oddly placed windows. The end wall is red brick, with a circular blue plaque to declare its history, and the roof is dark clay tiles with a single chimney stack. The foreground is taken up by a rough lawn and a bed of something that might be lady's mantle starting to die off. A view along a cloister - worn flagstones, stone columns supporting birch arches. To the left you can glimpse a brightly sunlit courtyard with low box hedges surrounding gravelled squares.
September 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
This, on the other hand, has universally been considered forlorn
A public sculpture on the firm of a traditional domed beehive, with bold writing around the base reading 'promise of a new dawn', is almost overwhelmed by the weeds growing thickly in what was presumably supposed to be a flower bed surrounding it
September 17, 2025 at 10:30 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Opinions from people I have shown this to so far are extremely divided on whether this is a good/pleasing/horrifying/attractive thing to do with a tree stump
In a churchyard stands the remains of what may have been a cedar tree (I can't recall, but certainly the timber is reddish). The stump, with the bark still on it, stands six or eight feet high. Above that an equal height of timber has been carved into the form of a thick candle on an ornately patterned pedestal.
September 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Anyway, Bromwich Hall. It's a lovely hour or so. Nice signage (not patronising, not too much), nice context, lovely lovely willow tree to stand under.
A view upwards through the branches of a weeping willow. A blue sky can be glimpsed through the gentle spiralling streamers of bright green leaves.
September 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
It's also been a tenement and a pub, which are also represented
A small room crammed with daily articles from the fifties, a table with a plain tea service, a dresser against the wall, an arm chair with a po (champer pot) under it, a dress hanging from a hook on the bare brick wall, a second table with nuts and household crockery An empty bar room in the rafters of a timber framed building. There is a dark wood bar in one corner and a few wooden chairs along the wall
September 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I did not know that there is a (partially) thirteenth century manor in West Bromwich. There is and it's lovely.
A timber frame building with a pantile roof, set well back from the road with lawns and a pond choked with reedmace. It's probably not much bigger than a good sized suburban detached house (in the UK ... sorry, but I have no non UK comparators). The rafters of a large open hall, showing the main arch. The ceiling is painted light buttery yellow, and the upper parts of the walls rose pink A view down onto a sparsely furnished hall. The floor is stone flags with an open hearth close to the high table. The high table sits on a shallow platform, and is spread with a decorated white and blue cloth and an array of pastries and meats. Along one wall is a representative lower table, with a coarse pale cloth and some pies and bread. The walls are covered with a bright magenta tapestry below and are rose pink above
September 16, 2025 at 7:36 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Almost by chance I discovered that it is National Heritage Week the same week that I had booked off with no plans. This was not a propitious beginning to my first outing (but things got better)
A suburban road, completely blocked off for road works.it is a bus route. Will there be information posted regarding bus diversions? Of course not, that would be dull.
September 16, 2025 at 7:25 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Shane though it is that there are so few visitors, it's rather nice to sit here peacefully and watch the light change. (More detailed explanations may be forthcoming later)
Bars of coloured light fall across a stone floor, yellow, green and blue from the narrow panes of a nearby window
September 16, 2025 at 2:11 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
I did not come to a thirteenth century manor for this kind of personal attack
A wall plaque reads "Middle age is the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel as good as ever." Credited slightly illegibly to someone who might have been Don Marcus.
September 16, 2025 at 2:06 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
TIL ... it's very important not to let the devil sit in your spoons
A dull silver spoon with a slender handle and a broad bowl lies on a coarse greenish cloth with the open bowl of the spoon face down, presenting a shallow dome that the devil will presumably slide off. A bar of sunlight falls across the cloth and the end of a knobbly, rustic loaf. There is the edge of a wooden dish in the foreground
September 16, 2025 at 1:58 PM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
Today in deranged survey questions...
The question presents images of Warhol's soup can (I think) and what looks to me like a Van Gogh self portrait. The respondent is asked to indicate which image represents them better
September 13, 2025 at 9:34 AM
alexbrightsmith.bsky.social
In summary, I should get out more, and I know appallingly little about my area, and if I ramble at you about it I may eventually resolve both these issues. Meanwhile, here are some nice rocks and a pretty sky.
A weathered expanse of limestone, as grey as thunderclouds and all smooth and knobbly, has been flaked away at one corner to expose a fresh creamy layer Framed by a tree and a suburban street the sky does its best to entertain. Deep blue peeks through a layer of high fine silver cloud partly covered by a spray of broken white cloud like a tyre track. Here and there larger clouds are starting to develop bruised grey bases that promise future thunder At the base of a weathered cliff, lightly spritzed with lichen, life forces its way into the crevices. Out of the dark remains of dry mosses fine stars of grass begin to sprout
September 7, 2025 at 8:36 PM