Wanderings

Monthly Report, December 2024

A travelling month. From North to South to North to South.

Reporting Days: 31

Locations: Shetland, Oxford, London, Cupar, Cumbria, Stonehaven

Distance Walked: 184 km (2024 total, 3337 km)

Distance Driven: 870 km

Wandering

The month started on Shetland, I then headed south down the motorways to Oxford and London (stopping in Fife and the Lake District en route).

Winter Storms. Scat Ness, Shetland

Headington Hill Park, Oxford

Christmas Shopping, Covent Garden, London

South Park, Oxford

Christmas week involved another trip North to Stonehaven and Fife (again stopping off in the Lake District) before heading South to Oxford again (via the Lake District)

Fireside, Westmorland Hotel, Tebay, Cumbria

River Eden Sunrise, Cupar, Fife

Shoreline Walk, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Ladybank, Cupar, Fife

Driving

All the driving from between Oxford and Shetland does eventually takes its toll on cars - and the old car (140,000 miles) finally became too expensive to repair, a replacement was collected just before the end of the month.

Out with the old Skoda

In with the new Skoda

Next Month?

Will involve some Oxford and some London. And some Shetland.

2024 - A Year in Twelve Pictures

So, that was 2024. There were certainly some good bits, but also a fair number of not so good bits.

The photographs tend to capture the good bits. There were c. 30,000 pictures to choose from, but I've distilled the year down to twelve images - one from each month.

Part One (January to March)

A mix of Shetland and Oxford (and a bit of London thrown in for good measure)

Snow on Quendale Beach, Shetland, January 2024

The Duke's Cut, Oxford Canal, February 2024

Thames Path, London, March 2024

Part Two (April and May)

Travelling. Italy and Norway. Trains and boats and buses.

Boario Terme, Italy, April 2024

Narvik, Norway, May 2024

Part Three (June to August)

Shetland. And lots of time hanging out with the auks at Sumburgh Head.

Puffins at Sumburgh Head, Shetland, June 2024

Puffling 'Spike' at Sumburgh Head, Shetland, July 2024

Lots of pufflings at Sumburgh Head, August 2024

Part Four (September and October)

Italy, Austria and Switzerland. Mostly mountains and more trains.

Dolomites, Val Gardena, Italy, September 2024

Zurich, Switzerland, October 2024

Part Five (November and December)

Mostly Shetland, and some Oxford and Fife.

Snow on Fitful Head, Shetland, November 2024

Start of the winter storms, Scat Ness, Shetland, December 2024

Monthly Report, November 2024

A Shetland month.

Reporting Days: 30

Location: Shetland

Distance Walked: 203 km

Distance Driven: 1297 km

Photographs Taken: Thousands, mostly weather or wave related

At this time of year outdoor activities on Shetland are dominated by two things: the (variability of the) weather and the (lack of) daylight.

It is however still possible to find some weather windows most days and when the sun comes out it is so low in the sky that it is always the 'golden hour'. And I guess it's inevitable that the photographed story of a winter month on Shetland is going paint a positive picture of a month which did have it's fair share of storm days too.

These ten pictures were all taken on different November days, and all (with the exception of the Lerwick picture) were taken around the south end of the Shetland mainland.

West Voe Beach in the morning sunshine

Waves at Brei Geo, Scat Ness

Snow showers over Fitful Head

Winter calm at the South Mouth, Lerwick

Snow on Quendale Beach

Blue skies at Sumburgh Head

Calm on Scat Ness

Looking south into the morning sun on Scat Ness

Returning Guillemots at Sumburgh Head

Near sunset at St Ninian's Isle

Next month: Back south, but there again, most places are south of Shetland

Monthly Report, October 2024

An Oxford month. Haven't been able to say that recently.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Mostly Oxford

Distance Walked: 252 km

Distance Driven: 16 km (yes, really)

Photographs Taken: Hundreds. Mostly parks and pathways around Oxford.

Austria & Switzerland

The first few days of the month found us still travelling, finding our way slowly back to the UK from northern Italy. That meant time in both Austria (in the Stubai Valley and in Innsbruck) and in Switzerland (in Zurich), and very briefly in Paris.

The good weather of last month didn't last and we had a few very wet low-level walks before we left Austria.

Innsbruck - under low clouds

Stubai Valley - under low clouds

Zurich - under blue skies

Oxford

One of the downsides of spending several months away from Oxford is the backlog of appointments that drop into the diary - in my case mostly NHS appointments. And life being what it is, one appointment seems to lead to more appointments, and suddenly every day gets booked up.

I did, however, still manage to get a walk every day (sometimes just loops of Bury Knowle Park), and it was (according to the photographs) sunny for part of at least a few of the days, although that's not how I recall it.

Headington Hill Park, Oxford

The Weir at Parson's Pleasure, Oxford

River Cherwell at the Oxford Botanics

River Cherwell where it joins the River Thames

London

Having spent a few weeks in Oxford, it was good to find the excuse for a wee city break - to attend an evening lecture at the RGS (something I said I would do more often post retirement) then to find my way to UCL for the first of several (voluntary!) MRI scans.

UCL, Queen Square, London

Next month: North.

Monthly Report, September 2024

Another traveling month - almost all of the travelling by train and mostly spent in Northern Italy.

Reporting Days: 30

Location; Mostly Italy

Distance Walked: 282 km

Distance Driven: c. 150 km

Photographs Taken: Many hundreds. Mostly Italian rivers and mountains.

Trains (and buses)

This was my fourth visit to Italy over the last 18 months - and they've all been by train, although no two trips have been the same.

This month the trip started with the long day from London via Paris to Turin - the downside was the continuing need for a rail replacement bus to get around the still-blocked Frejus rail tunnel. The upside was waking up in a Turin hotel room on a sunny Saturday morning with a chilled day ahead. We probably wouldn't have been quite so relaxed if we'd known that the Sunday was the latest strike day on the Italian Railways!

Friday evening in Turin

Strike Day Sunday in Turin

Boario Terme, Val Camonica, Lombardy

Despite the fact that these regular Italian jaunts sound like an ideal holiday, there is a serious purpose behind the trips. Some of you will know that I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease a couple of years ago, and that Boario Terme is the home of the European Parkinson's Therapy Centre. The Centre doesn't promise a cure but it does help one live better with Parkinson's. Aside from exercise regimen, it's a splendid excuse to top up on good Italian food, decent Italian wine - and some warm Italian sunshine. I expect to be back at the Centre again next May, and next Autumn. And the following Spring and Autumn..

Parc Terme in Boario

Day out to Edolo in the Val Camonica, as were the Vespa Club of Pisogne

Bridge over the River Oglio in Boario

Val Gardena, Sud-Tirol

Having survived (thrived!) a two week stay in Boario Terme, it seemed right to add in some real holiday time. The first stop was in Ortisei in Val Gardena - a delightful wee town in the heart of the Dolomites, with lots of cable car options to take the grind out of the high level walks.

Ortisei in Val Gardena

The high tops of the Dolomites have a fairy tale quality particularly with a dusting of fresh snow

Stubai Tal, Tirol, Austria

The next (and final) stop was in the Stubai Valley in western Austria (just a few miles south of Innsbruck). This was one of several mountain trips that we had booked for Summer 2020, that got disrupted by the pandemic.

At the top of the Stubai Valley

Next month, more time in the Stubai Valley, and there might even be some pictures from Oxford.

Monthly Report, August 2024

Another (almost entirely) Shetland month, mostly spent loitering with the puffins and the pufflings at Sumburgh Head. The puffins arrived a bit late this Spring, but they did stay around until much later in August than is usual - and I certainly don't remember seeing quite so many pufflings.

Reporting Days: 31

Location: Shetland

Distance Walked: 322 km

Distance Driven: 1442 km (mostly in the last couple of days as I headed south to Oxford)

Photographs Taken: Thousands and thousands. Mostly puffins and pufflings.

Puffins & Pufflings

This year all my puffin pictures have been taken around the cliffs at Sumburgh Head, in past years I've also seen puffins at other smaller colonies at the south end of Shetland, but not this year.