Monthly Report, January 2025

A month of two parts.  First part in Oxford and London, second part north of the border.

Reporting Days: 31

Locations: Oxford, London, Dundee and Shetland

Distance Walked: 222 km

Distance Driven: 1002 km

South

Mostly London - drawings at the King's Gallery, exploring at the V&A Museum and early morning shopping in Covent Garden.

Drawing the Italian Renaissance

V & A (London branch)

Quiet morning at Covent Garden

Mostly Oxford - the Covered Market, the Lye Valley and searching for signs of Spring 

Quiet morning at Oxford's Covered Market

Frosty morning on the Lye Valley boardwalk

Snowdrops in Headington Hill Park

North

And back north, this time to Shetland - via Cumbria, Fife, Dundee and Aberdeen - and trying to keep ahead of the weather.

V & A (Dundee branch)

Quendale Bay - wind and wave swept

Sumburgh Head - lighthouse and foghorn

Sunshine on West Voe of Sumburgh

Across the Scat Ness chains

Fair Isle on the horizon

Winter time on Shetland in real life is lots of stormy weather and occasional gaps when the sun shines and it's possible to stand up without holding onto the fence posts.  Winter time on Shetland in a photographers record is lots of calm weather with the occasional wind swept shot.

So, I'm expecting to have lots more sunny Shetland images to share in next months report. 

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.