Tag Archives: photos

Jax, New Year’s Eve

Wednesday 31st December 2025, 8.40pm (day 5,242)

Jax on NYE, 31/12/25

It’s just a day like any other of course but thanks to its position in the calendar there does seem a certain obligation to mark it. A modicum of sociability was thereby achieved, though we didn’t stay out until midnight. Jax becomes, probably, the person with the longest gap between first and second appearances on here — that is also her to the right of this portrait from January 2015.

Happy New Year to her and to you all. Of all the places I visited in 2025, Orkney was definitely the best — at the end of that week Clare and I were, virtually, both planning moves there. It’ll never happen though. This picture of Stromness was the last one taken there (August 2nd at 6.40am, the earliest shot of the year) and evokes the memories very well. My favourite picture of the year photographically is probably the one of the guide at the Great Tapestry of Scotland on June 8th in Galashiels — it just turned out very well and as I hoped it would. What will 2026 bring? Let’s find out.

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The very last plums

Tuesday 30th December 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,241)

Dead plums, 30/12/25

2025 has been a very good year for the garden, probably the best ever in terms of the amount of food grown and gathered. We had so many plums that they couldn’t all get picked and used before the wasps or some other rot got them. I think these ones are well past their best though. Taken during today’s job — pruning the tree, so it can produce more fruit in 2026, we hope.

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(Not the) Paper Street Soap Company

Monday 29th December 2025, 12.55pm (day 5,240)

Manufacture of smellies, 29/12/25

It is the limbo period between Christmas and New Year, and while many of us might see this as an opportunity to do very little, our Clare (being who she is) decides to launch into a significant manufacturing operation. In Fight Club the Paper Street Soap Company was a front for the manufacture of bombs and general subversion, but I assume that’s not the case here. Who knows for sure, though.

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Southwaite services, ancillary cleaners

Sunday 28th December 2025, 1.00pm (day 5,239)

Southwaite seagulls, 28/12/25

“Hi Bob. Good pickings today, don’t you think?”

“Definitely. Must be all those people driving back from their Christmasses in Scotland. Ahh… look, I see an abandoned Kit-kat over there.”

“Sure — see you later….”

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Scottish League Two

Saturday 27th December 2025, 3.30pm (day 5,238)

Forfar Athletic, 27/12/25

I wasn’t trekking all the way to Scotland without adding one more to my life list of football grounds, and as there’s not much else to the town of Forfar (though it seemed a perfectly decent place), Station Park, home of Forfar Athletic FC, can get the nod for today’s shot. At this point I think it’s 1-1; the final score was 4-2 to the hosts, over Elgin City, with Scott Shepherd of Forfar scoring all four of their goals and thereby winning the game more or less on his own. These things keep me going…

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50-mile view, with plane

Friday 26th December 2025, 12.25pm (day 5,237)

Culter Fell with plane, 26/12/25

Boxing Day was spent walking in the Ochil Hills. Grey skies above us were contrasted with the sight of sun shining on hills to the south. This shot, from the summit of Innerdouny Hill, was taken with a very long zoom, and I am prepared to state that what is seen here is Culter Fell, the 2,454-feet high summit of South Lanarkshire — it’s in the right direction, and it certainly looks like it (see the second image down on the page as linked). Which means that here we have a view of just under 50 miles. That’s impressive — but in the end, I pick the shot because of also capturing the aeroplane, which is just cute. (More pictures from the walk will appear on my other blog in due course….)

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Firth of Tay

Thursday 25th December 2025, 12.10pm (day 5,236)

Firth of Tay, 25/12/25

The Firth of Tay makes a second appearance in a row, though this time, it (rather than a train) is the focus. The tide is definitely out. Taken from the top of Dundee Law, on what has become the mandated Post-Present Christmas Day Walk, as there often isn’t a great deal else to do on the day except the eating, drinking and watching movies part — which did follow. A Happy Christmas to you, wherever you may be and however you spent it.

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The 12:10 to Edinburgh

Wednesday 24th December 2025, 12.15pm (day 5,235)

Train on Tay bridge, 24/12/25

As seen crossing the Tay rail bridge, more-or-less on schedule. The shot is taken from Newport-on-Tay, on the opposite side of the firth from Dundee. I am feeling minimalist this Christmas Eve, it seems.

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Re-engaging with the favourite child

Tuesday 23rd December 2025, 5.30pm (day 5,234)

Joe’s first appearance since — chainsaw in hand — 4th August. It’s Christmas. It’s time to re-engage.

Re: the title. You do understand Joe is our only child, right? Just checking.

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We are not amused?

Monday 22nd December 2025, 2.55pm (day 5,233)

Victoria and wheel, 22/12/25

I believe that the person who is the subject of the most statues in the world is Buddha, but I would be fairly sure that Queen Victoria is the most-depicted woman. She never seems to look particularly happy, though: whether she really said ‘We are not amused’ or not. That most public statues have invariably become covered in guano (that’s birdshit, of course) doesn’t help either. This one stands in Dalton Square, Lancaster: another stage in a slow journey north, for Christmas.

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