And so, the last post of 2014. The last three New Year’s Eves I have posted from some party or other and I did go to one tonight, but this is a nicer shot than I managed there. Appropriate too — it’s the 7th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven swans-a-swimming I believe… Happy New Year.
Not an exciting shot. Or a particularly technically adept one. In fact, I can’t claim anything much for this one other than that it was the best I managed on the day. It’s picturesque enough I suppose. Boxing Day, nothing much happened… We got a walk in the woods and some family time.
Day trip down South for my annual appearance at the Rose Bruford College exam board. A year ago tomorrow I snapped one of Lamorbey Park’s colony of parakeets, here is another resident of that green space. I did have a carefully composed urban scene taken outside King’s Cross as well, but I’ve done a few of those lately, so let’s go with the cute foraging rodent.
Pictured on the Hebden Water this afternoon. A sunny day but a damn cold one, certainly the coldest so far in 2014.
A glorious morning. Well-Lit Moments On The University Of Manchester Campus, number n+1.
A weekend at home, with no work, and there haven’t been many of those lately so let’s make the most of it. Though stormier by the evening much of today remained mild and bright, and with colours like these sometimes you may as well just go with the cliched shot.
In recent months the Muscovy duck which has featured several times on this blog has been joined by four more, all said to have escaped (or been deliberately released) from a duck farm nearby — which is probably where the ‘original’ one came from as well, as this species is not native to Europe. However, if there are both boys and girls in the flock now, who knows, perhaps we could start a whole new Yorkshire colony. This is one of the newer ones, taking a drink on a Saturday afternoon.
My knowledge of ornithology is not that fine-tuned, so I can’t identify which of the 40 or so species this is, but it’s definitely a cormorant. I’m travelling again — this is taken in Norway, but not on the sea: instead, this fine specimen was resting on Stavanger’s city centre lake, Breivatnet, which has featured on the blog before.
One day short of three years doing this blog and there’s still some scope for novelty — pretty sure that yesterday’s cover stars were the first cattle to feature and here’s the first fish. It and its fellows live in the garden of my friend Doug, in Wetherby (where we were a year ago today, too).
Being 42 