Shedding Gold

A quick trip out to capture my favourite larches before they finally shed their needles. The ones I'd hoped to catch were already almost bare but a few were still hanging on to their fragile golden cloaks. One more day of strong winds and these will be stripped for winter too. Today was mellow, with warmth in the sun, perhaps the last of the year for shorts and a T-shirt.

It was then a dash into Leeds - still in shorts - to catch my final two films of the festival. First, Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece Magnolia, from 1999, closely followed by Shoplifters, a Japanese film that won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Festival. Another, very different, masterpiece of film-making. All the films I've seen at the festival have offered the most wonderful and thought-provoking escapism. And at a time when escapism has been very much needed. Who would ever have thought that this Brexit business would turn out to be so much fun?