Mono Monday - Hope

Last night before I went to bed I tried to take some photos of the super moon. It was about 11.30pm and by this stage there was a distinct red halo around the moon - see extras. However I found it very difficult trying to get the shot - the moon was so high in the sky that I had difficulty getting my camera and long lens angled upwards at almost 90 degrees on the tripod. Eventually I took the camera off the tripod and was hanging outside the bedroom window, trying to balance it on the window sill (and freezing in the cold night air blowing through the window). It is not easy to hold a large and heavy professional camera and enormous lens like that - I think people get better results from small bridge cameras rather than what I got with my professional setup. Or maybe the simple truth is that I am just rubbish at moon shots! All those 45.7 megapixels of the full frame sensor means that every tiny shake cannot be hidden. 

For the Mono Monday challenge today the theme was Hope. I was lying in bed this morning planning what I could photograph that would resemble hope. Which got me thinking about something most Brits are hoping for right now - a suitable outcome to Brexit. That is what we are all hoping for. I was particularly thinking about Adam, and how Brexit has negatively affected the area of scientific research. A no-deal Brexit means that British science would instantly lose access to at least three of the major funding streams under the EU’s Horizon 2020 funding programme. These streams alone have provided around €2 billion of the €4.8 billion that the UK has won from Horizon 2020 since 2014. And in a no-deal future, imports and exports of essential goods — including food, scientific equipment and medicines — would probably be disrupted. Lack of funding means lack of opportunities for scientist like him who wish to do research. 


These fears were allayed when later this morning I got a text from Adam to say he has been chosen as the successful candidate for the PhD program he was interviewed for on Friday (with the British Medical Research Council for research into T cells and lymphoma). He is delighted about that news, although he has another interview tomorrow with the Wellcome Trust for his preferred area of research into infection, immunity and inflammation. He may even end up with a choice, and this shows that there is always hope, even if the papers are full of doom and gloom about what is likely to happen after Brexit. The truth is most people don't understand Brexit, and as Gavin says, Brexit is just a symptom of a failed EU model. 


My photo is about hope - that these frost covered tiny hellebore buds will still flower and not wither and die in the cold before they even have a chance to grow. Hope is what keeps us alive.