The End / June 2020

Well that title does sound a bit dramatic. Or at least more dramatic than I might have intended.

However - today is the last day for three ‘projects’.

It’s the last day of 30 Days Wild

This has been a regular fixture in my photographic diary each June since 2015.  Each year the Wildlife Trusts encourage engagement in the wild things around us, and the sharing of things wild things online too.  In practical terms, it means that I try and ensure that my daily picture has a wild theme.  This year has been a bit strange (poetic understatement) in that all the pictures have been taken within three miles of the Oxford house.  This has meant limited scope this year for spotting whales or puffins, but still left me with lots of birds, insects and wild flowers from the garden or from the various local nature reserves.

It’s the last day of my #FromTheArchive Project

On first of July last year I set myself the target of posting a picture from my digital photo archive each day for a year, with the proviso that the picture had to have been taken on the corresponding day.  Sometimes that was a challenge, but on other days I was spoilt for choice - so yes, I have shared at least one picture from the archive each day for a year. 

At the start, I found I was giving priority to polar trips, then to other ‘exotic’ places then to images taken in Scotland.  More recently, during LockDown it’s felt more important to share Shetland pictures (as a reminder to myself that I will get back there eventually). 

Thank you to everyone who has shared or liked an image over the last 366 days, or generally just encouraged me to keep posting.

It’s the last day of my contract at Oxford Brookes

Today is also the last day of my contract at Oxford Brookes University.  It’s been an interesting couple of years albeit a slightly surreal last four months.  And I certainly know more about Enterprise Data Warehouses and Workload Planning Systems than I did two years ago.

It’s a bit ironic that one of the attractions of the OBU role was that it meant my commute was a 15 minute stroll from home, rather than an hour (or more) on the M40 or A421 - and that I finished the contract by working from home.

What’s Next?

I had lots of the plans for the next few months - most of which involved travelling. 

Covid-19 has scrubbed quite a lot of them, but there is something to be said for a diary with lots of clear space.  There will certainly be more pictures - hopefully from the coastline at the south end of Shetland.