Tag Archives: New Year’s Eve

Jan 01 2024
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Daily Post, Landscape

Enjoying the local landscape

Sunday 31st December 2023, 12 noon (day 4,511)

NYE walk, 31/12/23

This picture was taken — at least, according to the time stamp allocated by my camera — at two seconds past noon, so here we are with exactly 12 hours, or 1/730th, of the year to go. As it was Sunday and we had a dinner date at a pub above Todmorden, there was no excuse not to get out, have some exercise and enjoy the scenery. (The sheep do this every day, of course.) This kind of thing is a significant contributor to the fact I’m still living here in Calderdale after 21.5 years.

And so ends 2023, not a bad year at a personal level I suppose but no particular changes were noted, for better or worse — what enthuses me and what vexes me today are all more or less the same as they were a year ago, or indeed two. The rest of the world, well, that seems able to screw itself up without my active intervention. This blog will continue — generative AI-free — as long as I still have something to document. My favourite picture of the year? Probably the gloriously camp duck captured on 20th September. Getting that salmon leaping the falls in Scotland on 11th July was quite a coup, and Clare, taken the following day (12th July) insists she get the award for ‘best human’. Happy New Year to you all.

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Jan 01 2023
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

New Year’s Eve

Saturday 31st December 2022, 8.50pm (day 4,146)

New Year's Eve, 31/12/22

It’s been a while since I bothered going out on New Year’s Eve, and the last one spent away from home was the one at the end of 2014, but this year I did try to reawaken my dormant social animal. Anyway the in-laws were having a party: on the far right is Rachael, my sister-in-law, I think this is her debut on here (even after 11 years, four months and five days). Joe pops up in the background, too. A good time was generally had. Happy New Year to you all.

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Jan 01 2021
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Daily Post, Flora/Fauna

Dead wood

Thursday 31st December 2020, 1.40pm (day 3,416)

With parties forbidden — by law — there was little to do except go for another walk as a way of trying to see the world. All in all, a fungus-ridden slab of dead wood seems to be a suitable metaphor for the last day of 2020. So be it.

My favourite photo of the year? Well, there have been fewer opportunities, all told, for creativity but I do like the one of the fox I took above Kentmere, Cumbria, on 4th March. I couldn’t believe that when I first saw it, it did not flee from me, but sat down to keep an eye on me (almost certainly because there were cubs nearby). It was certainly a poser, as foxes go.

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Jan 01 2019
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

2018: the final selfie

Monday 31st December 2018, 11.15pm (day 2,685)

NYE selfie, 31/12/18

So how do I feel at the end of 2018? Well speaking personally it’s not been a bad year but then again nothing has really been achieved in my life; jobs and projects both work and personal have just been going on all year without reaching any real resolution. But I did have a couple of very nice summer holidays in August (Channel Islands, Berlin). My favourite photo of the year? This one from the football at Flint on January 27th did get used in the Flintshire Chronicle the following Monday (Headline: “Pride in Defeat for Heartbroken Flint”) and was a real right-place-right-time moment; it also epitomises my year’s non-league footie habit. So I’m going with that one.

And today’s shot? It’s been a while (2015 to be precise) since I could raise it to go out on the evening of 31st December, so there wasn’t much to depict. But feel free to compare this with the shot remaining on the “About” page, showing me on day 1, 26/8/11, and evaluate what the passage of 2,685 days has done to yr. humble blogger. Wherever you are and whatever you might be doing in 2019, Happy New Year.

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Jan 01 2018
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Daily Post, Interior

Low-key N.Y.E. (card game)

Sunday 31st December 2017, 9.40pm (day 2,320)

Card game, 31/12/17

New Year’s Eve was celebrated in the household, but it’s been a while since I could really raise it to go out on this date, and all the associated hassle. Beer in the pub then back for some gaming that kept us up, just about, until the bells. Happy New Year to you all.

My favourite photo of 2017? I think the one of Tromsø on June 19th; three visits there this year and it was definitely the travel discovery of 2017, Japan notwithstanding. I actually had a lot of decent weather on my visits to northern Norway but the shot on that June day was taken in a foul rainstorm, with snow in the background, and looking naturally monochrome even though this was one where I didn’t mess with the colours. It’s sort of how I picture Murmansk as looking. Anyway — onward, into 2018. It’s not going to be a year of change for me, but we’ll get through it I’m sure.

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Jan 01 2016
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Daily Post, Interior

Busy behind the bar

Thursday 31st December 2015, 7.35pm (day 1,589)

Old Gate bar, 31/12/15

Here is where we have just spent New Year’s Eve. and this picture is worth posting if only because it depicts a Hebden Bridge pub that has managed to open despite the floods. Up yours to the last, depressing week of 2015 and here is hoping for better weather in 2016, at least. But let’s not be negative –  a happy New Year, whatever you have done, whatever you might wish.

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Jan 01 2014
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Daily Post, Interior

Neighbourhood party – New Year’s Eve 2013

Tuesday 31st December 2013, 11.10pm (day 859)

New Year's Eve, 31/12/13So here we are at the end of 2013. I cannot really complain about any of it, at a personal level — an excellent year, full of incident and variety. No fewer than 14 countries have featured on this blog since 1/1/13 and even if four of those are explained by airport stopovers that’s still a mighty haul. 2014 will start slowly on that front but if everything works out I know that, at least, the US, Greenland and Italy will have featured by the end of the summer, as well as returns to familiar places like Norway and Russia. But who knows for sure. That’s the fun of it. For what it’s worth I think that October 11th’s is my favourite single shot of 2013 (one of the UK ones, taken in Cumbria) — though there were several other very good candidates.Note also that if I keep this going — and I do intend to — I will reach the 1,000 day mark on 21st May 2014.

As for 31/12, photographically the year ends with three monochrome shots in a row, but it is all rather grey at the moment so seems fitting. We attended (in fact, organised) a party for our local neighbourhood last night and it went well, thanks largely to the free beer donated by a brewer friend.

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Jan 01 2013
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Daily Post, Family Member, Portrait

New Year’s Eve

Monday 31st December 2012, 9.10pm (day 494)

New Year's Eve, 31/1212

Two nights in a row with Clare’s family, but all the better for it – it’s been a good 48 hours. Here is Carol, Clare’s mum; her third appearance on the blog (after 24/9/11 and 26/7/12). A good shot considering I always get what lighting there is.

A happy New Year to you all. May 2013 bring fulfillment, enjoyment and love.

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Jan 01 2012
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Daily Post, Interior Gallery

Waiting for midnight

Saturday 31st December 2011, 11.45pm (day 128)

Feet, NYE, 31/12/11

The feet are those of a fellow guest at the New Year’s Eve party to which we (including Joe) were invited. It wasn’t the most exciting party in the world but it was nice to be out on Dec 31st for the first time in 9 years, since Joe was born.

So ends 2011, the last 128 days of which have been documented here. All in all, it was an interesting year… 2012 is gearing up for more of the same. And I kept my 2011 New Year’s resolution: to take my photography more seriously. This blog is one manifestation of that. Happy New Year to you all, may it be a safe and fulfilling one whatever it brings.

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