iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Ralley

@robralley.bsky.social

3.8K followers 873 following 6.3K posts

Historian of science and medicine. Editor for The Casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier (1596-1634), now writing about Napier, slowly. And taking photos. Views my own.

Posts Replies Media

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 16h

Castle Street, Carlisle. #AdoorableThursday 📷 #photography

A dark green door with four panels in a pale-pink-painted arch-topped opening in a whitewashed bit of wall with more pale pink on either side. The pavement in front is slightly sloping left to right so the bottom of the door isn't quite square. (At least, it's a thing blocking up a doorway that looks like a door, though since it has no handle, doorknob or keyhole I'm not sure it's made to facilitate entry.)

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Window. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekOforOpaque #WallsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A wall made of bricks some of which are brown and some (mainly in the top half) orangey red. A black drainpipe runs down the left side, and in the bottom half of the wall what looks like a walled-up window of matching bricks with a curved lintel of upright bricks above it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Back to my Tuesday afternoon walk, for the first time in months. 📷 #photography

A narrow tarmac path along a grass-covered bank beside a river, with narrowboats moored alongside and a railway bridge ahead crossing low over the river. A mature tree to the left of the path is overhanging and has sun on its leaves.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Cup, saucer, spoon. 📷 #photography

A close-up of the curves of a cup on a saucer with a teaspoon resting beside it. The cup and saucer are blue with a hint of turquoise, and the spoon is reflecting a similarly coloured canopy above and a band of orange light.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

A tiny bit of the craft and food fair on Palace Green, Ely this weekend. 📷 #photography

An old-fashioned van in green and white colours with a hatch open in the side to sell food and drink out of. It is parked on grass in front of the cathedral's west door, with a very old red brick building in the background on the right. A tree is reaching over into the picture and sun is shining across the scene.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Sun through raincloud on the way home today. #BlueskyArtShow #weather 📷 #photography

A view along a suburban street lined with mature trees and hedges and with houses visible in the distance; there is brighter sky far off but a raincloud above, with rays of sunlight streaming from gaps in it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Yesterday's rainbow. #BlueskyArtShow #weather 📷 #photography

A view along a narrow path walked into a long patch of short grass between hedges, dotted with saplings and overhung by mature trees. It is gloomy and rain is arriving, and in the distance across the grey sky there is an arc of rainbow.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Ely Cathedral, view from Cherry Hill Park. #scape 📷 #photography

A view across an uneven field of longish grass, dried stalks and fresh green mixed together, over an assortment of trees (one with its leaves browning) to a couple of tall, pale old houses and, looming over everything, the west tower of Ely Cathedral and its south-west transept, shining in pale sunlight. The sky is a hazy blue-white with a couple of fluffy clouds.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Fore Hill, Ely #FireHydrantFriday 📷 #photography

A brown-brick wall from the front of a row of shops, with the end of a window on the left, white-slatted shutter behind the glass and black window-box of red pelargoniums on the outside sill, and on the right a black lamppost with a yellow fire hydrant sign attached towards the top of the picture and a planning application paper halfway down. Alongside the lamppost some black cables run down the wall and disappear into the building via three slim boxes of varying age. The pavement in front of the wall is sloping down left to right.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

An impressive row of seaside bins at Caernarfon for #ThursdayBins 📷 #photography

A view across water to a three-storey pub painted black and white, with tall medieval walls next to it. In front is a stone jetty on which a young family are standing, and lined up along the back of the jetty nine green bins plus a further ten of assorted colours. A raincloud is arriving overhead.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Restaurant window. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekNforNeon #WindowsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A pane of a window, framed in dark green, with an 'OPEN' sign hanging in illuminated faux-neon writing. The inside is dark but a chair is just visible, and an elaborate light fitting showing as a cluster of small triangles of light high up. From behind the camera some bands of lighting and a shop sign are reflected in the glass.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Sunlit wall. #WallsOnWednesday #WindowsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A section of the front wall of an old yellow-brick building, sunlit from the left, with a white sash window and, below it, a wide oblong of wall protruding by a couple of inches, with a rectangular recess in it that goes down to ground level, looking like the place where a basement-level window might have gone. A wire trails down the side of the picture casting a thin shadow.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Nail Salon. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekNforNeon 📷 #photography

A view through a grey shop doorway into a nail salon, with an upholstered chair in view and a sink at the back. Above the sink is a circular mirror and in the mirror is reflected part of a shop sign from across the road and a bit of pink-purple glowing sign with the word 'Gel' visible (reading forwards not backwards).

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Gable end, evening light. 📷 #photography

The top of the gable end of a modern yellow-brick house with the triangular apex bright with golden sunlight, just before sunset. The sky is heavy with deep blue cloud, some paler wisps catching the light too.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Had a walk over to a large patch of ivy this afternoon to get what's probably a last look at the ivy bees for this year. 📷 #photography

An ivy bee (Colletes hederae), roughly honey-bee shaped but with more pronounced custard-coloured stripes on its abdomen and a furry thorax, on ivy flowers, with out-of-focus green behind and a pale light source in the top right corner.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Under trees yesterday. 📷 #photography

A substantial tree on the left of the picture leans across short grass with low piles of fallen leaves towards a low wooden fence. On the other side of the fence are far smaller, younger trees. Sunlight is streaking the grass.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Looking from Fore Hill to Waterside, Ely. 📷 #photography

A view across a curving T-junction, with a modern building overhanging on the right, towards a row of old sunlit buildings in yellow brick and white render. There is blue in the sky but it is hidden behind rows of greying clouds.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Graveyard, Eglwys Sant Hywyn, Aberdaron. #scape 📷 #photography

View up a hill of rather dried-out grass scattered with gravestones leaning this way and that. At the back is a wall so low against the tall grass that it almost functions as a ha-ha and beyond that modern houses, one white, the others pebbledash, and a telegraph pole with wires hanging across. The sky is blue with a swirl of hazy cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FireHydrantFriday 📷 #photography

A pale greyish-painted wall at the front of a pub, with the edge of a window visible, a poster advertising televised football matches, the outside of an extractor fan, an alarm, and a hanging basket containing orange and yellow violas... and, in the middle of it all, a yellow fire hydrant sign.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Suburban sunset. 📷 #photography

A view at an angle of a modern yellow brick terrace with white windows and trim. It is nearly dark; the sky above the roof is purplish with a haze of cloud bathed in orange light, and the same orange light is reflected in the windows.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

A door at Lanercost Priory for #AdoorableThursday 📷 #photography

A wall of sandstone, some blocks red but others pale grey or even greenish. In its upper half is a Gothic arch, filled in, and in the bottom half a round-arched doorway with a slightly shorter opening in it filled with an old wooden door mounted on elaborately designed black hinges. In the foreground the side of another stone arch curves in from the left.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Join. #WallsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

The connection between two older yellow-brick buildings, marked by a black drainpipe. An expanse of wall across the join is in the middle of the picture, with the sides of four windows towards the corners of the image. The two buildings look similar at first glance, but the bricks on the right are smaller and darker than those on the left; the building on the right is slightly further forward and the drainpipe is actually attached to its side not the front. The windows on the two buildings do not line up, and the fans of bricks above the lower windows are different on each building.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Piano. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery #ClassicMono 📷 #photography

A view down from above of the mechanism inside a grand piano, with pairs of strings running down the image, slightly off vertical (two strings to a note), and shiny black hammers resting above them in the top half of the picture. A long hinge runs across the top of the picture and two glossy black bars at the bottom, one of which is reflecting the strings. Between the bars is a printed number that may be a serial number.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Boat lift, Ely. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekMforMachinery #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A small boat lift at the edge of a river, with a marina full of boats in the background. It is a sunny day. There is a small, rather old-looking boat to the left of the lift, and everything is reflected in the water.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Rhubarb and custard scaffolding. #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A view along a stretch of pavement outside a shop, where the path runs underneath some scaffolding. The scaffolding poles are covered in pink and yellow foam sleeves, and the lattice of poles casts a series of shadows across the path.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

CAFE #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A doorway into a cafe with 'CAFE' written vertically beside it and a window beside that. There is a small square table outside with a tablecloth bearing a design with oranges, strawberries and flowers, and a wooden chair pulled up to it. Inside the cafe there are people visible, the nearest someone in a blue t-shirt and jeans sitting at a table.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Winter evening at the old Bishop's Palace, Ely. #BlueskyArtShow #lights

The Gallery, a street that threads its way between the west end of Ely Cathedral on the left and the old red-brick building on the right that was once the bishop's palace. It is dusk late on a winter's afternoon, with a little light still in the sky but colouring to gold near the horizon and a heavy cloud overhead. There are lights on in the old palace and bare trees are silhouetted against the sky. There are people walking along the pavement and a car's taillights are visible as it turns the corner.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Low-tide walk. #scape 📷 #photography

A woman walking with a girl along a stretch of wet sand by the edge of the sea. The picture is in shades of blue and blue-green, with a tall rocky headland on the right reflected in the wet sand and, fainter and further off, a lower contour of land. The shot is hazy with cloud.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Okay, I'll join in. #FireHydrantFriday 📷 #photography

A bright yellow fire hydrant sign on a black-painted lamppost, by a brown-brick building wall (painted white on the left, unpainted on the right) and a cafe window with 'BAKE' in white 3D-effect letters on it, under a narrow green-and-white-striped awning. There is strong sunlight from the left casting shadows across the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Tonight's rather unexpected sunset. 📷 #photography

A sunset of orange-coloured coarse ropes of cloud across a grey-blue sky, with suburban house roofs, a tree and a lamppost all silhouetted in the bottom of the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Doorway, Carlisle Castle. #AdoorableThursday #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A medieval red sandstone wall with cobbled pavement in front of it. In the middle of the wall is a rectangular doorway with an arch in the wall above the lintel. A green wooden door is open and there is enough light in the dark interior to see sandstone paving run inside, then stone steps leading up into darkness.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Evening sun between the clouds, Ely. 📷 #photography

The top of a terrace of modern yellow-brick houses with a heavy raincloud above, slightly less heavy cloud further off, and sunlight catching the cloud edge with a little pale grey-blue sky in the gap.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Shed window. #WindowsOnWednesday #AlphabetChallenge #WeekLforLookingIn 📷 #photography

A square window into a wooden shed. A piece of roofing felt hangs down from the top, and there is cobwebs visible in the top left. Inside sunlight from another window is catching the wooden wall and a propped stepladder

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Trees in evening sun, Ely. 📷 #photography

Two trees side by side, one a little younger than the other and with paler bark, their canopies cut to a matching height. Low-angle sunlight is illuminating their lower leaves and the grass around them, leaving contoured bands of shade in the background and casting their shadows diagonally across the picture.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Water under the trees, Caldbeck. #ClassicMono 📷 #photography

A dark image of a beck running over rocks, foaming white, under a crowd of overhanging trees with just a touch of sunlight from the back.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Tree, late summer. 📷 #photography

A tree growing out of a low landscaped grassy hill in a park, with shadow underneath it and light on its small leaves and on the grass further off. The sky, visible under the tree's spread, is a hazy pale blue.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

CASH for your GOLD #BlueskyArtShow #Golden 📷 #photography

A patch of white-rendered wall in which is a black-framed window, barred and with a poster across it advertising 'CASH for your GOLD' and 'BUY BACK SERVICE', either side of a glossy image of a heap of gold jewellery. To its right is a cluster of hi-tech rather fancy-looking gizmos that serve as a doorbell and digital lock. Below is the grottiest-looking blue-green metal cabinet you've ever seen, rusty, its paint peeling, and blobs of blu-tak on it from where posters have recently been removed.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Golden buoys. #BlueskyArtShow #Golden 📷 #photography

Two yellow buoys left chained on wet sand by a receding tide. Golden evening light is illuminating them from the side and catching the tops of the waves. The view is straight out to sea, the sky a disarrayed sheet of grey-blue cloud with a tiny patch of blue sky showing and just a hint of light above the horizon.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Finally, a chance for a walk during daylight. #scape 📷 #photography

A view past one yellow-brick modern terraced house towards another, across a junction in a small estate. There are two young trees on the left, obscuring more houses, and there is a large shadow on the road in the foreground of a further tall pitched-roof house with a satellite dish on its corner. It is a sunny day with wisps of greyish cloud in a blue sky.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A matching set of #ThursdayBins 📷 #photography

The end of a low grey-rendered pitched-roof building with two very small windows under the eaves and a featureless grey door. A small streetlamp stands beside it. There is a hazy blue sky overhead and grass in the foreground, and between the grass and the building are four very substantial bins, all deep blue with black lids.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The side of a building in Carlisle Castle for #WallsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A square, pitched-roof building in Flemish bond red brick with pale headers, with grubby stones up each corner and six walled-up (that is, fake) windows symmetrically arranged on two floors. It is a formidable, if slightly unloved-looking, building. It is a grey day.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New builds, Wigton. #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A row of nearly identical two storey pitched slate roof brick houses with solar panels on top, seen across a field of grass coming into flower, and with late afternoon sun shining in the windows on a sunny evening under a clear blue sky - but the houses are not quite the same: three are in red brick, one in yellow and one has white render on it, and the solar panels are not all quite the same size.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Lode Mill in the sun at Anglesey Abbey today. 📷 #photography

A view past and under a large tree almost silhouetted, along a green stretch of water towards a white wooden building shining in sunlight, with a rather random arrangement of shuttered windows on it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

A winter view from Watchtree Nature Reserve, north Cumbria. #BlueskyArtShow #undulating 📷 #photography

A view across fields towards lowish upland, the grass illuminated by golden light from a low angle. Fences, hedges and trees run across the picture. The clouds are sunlit.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Path under the trees. #scape 📷 #photography

A narrow winding gravel footpath runs through a gently sloping lawn of short grass, under a line of trees. Beyond the trees in the right a river is just visible, and on the left a small patch of blue sky.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Caernarfon: view out through the town wall's East Gate. #UrbanGaze 📷 #photography

A large arch-topped gateway in an enormous medieval wall, with short decorative columns either side of the opening and a clock above. A single-lane road with double yellow lines on each side runs through to an urban scene in the distance, with substantial old buildings in various pale colours running up a hill, the street busy with cars, pedestrians and a couple of children on bicycles.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Lanercost Priory for #WallsOnWednesday and #WindowsOnWednesday 📷 #photography

A mossy, crumbled red sandstone wall with a tall narrow arched glassless window in its centre and a stone slab (possibly a memorial) on the pavement in front. A tree is visible through the window and above the wall, right at the top of the picture, a little sky can be seen.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

View from Mynydd Tir-y-Cwmwd across Llanbedrog Beach. 📷 #photography

A view between tall, established trees (one of them a torn upright shard of wood) across the edge of a beach with a sweep of wet sand closer and dryer sand curving around the far side of the bay. In the distance a green and yellow landscape fades into low cloud. Tiny on the image, a group of people are at the water's edge.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Cropped. #BlueSkyMonday 📷 #photography

A view across a golden field towards a pole with wires running across the image, and beyond that greenish grass and trees. The crop has recently been cut, leaving a golden stubble criss-crossed with straight lines. The sky is pale blue with grey-blue streaks of cloud across it.

Rob Ralley @robralley.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Tower, Castell Caernarfon. 📷 #photography

A view up from the lowest level inside a castle tower that has no internal floors remaining or any roof, but has a walkway one level up running diagonally across the picture. An octagon of sky is visible in the middle of the picture, blue textured with white cloud.