My G9ii Journey

I didn't get to see Anglesey Abbey's interior decorations before Christmas but they were still on show today so I went to have a look.  To be honest,  I wasn't particularly impressed but it gave me a few hours away from home and a walk around some of the gardens afterwards gave me some fresh air. And, ofcourse,  I took my camera 🙂

I'd planned on today being a "Put Christmas behind me and get back to normal" day. Being out with friends and family over the past 2 weeks has been good and I'm grateful, but each outing has been a double-edged sword, each making me feel the loss of Mave more keenly. So today, chores were very much on the agenda. Then I noticed a message on my phone inviting me to go owl-hunting with friends J&J - how kind of them 🙂. It took me all of about 10 seconds to decide to go. I hadn't seen the message when it first came through and so it was a bit of a rush to get to their house in time but I made it. It was good to hear that J was feeling a bit better this week. I hope he continues to improve.  We bumped into E while we were there and I was introduced to his wife and a daughter. For a winter day, today was a good one weather-wise. Not too cold, dry, not windy and some hazy sunshine. We did see some owls although they stayed quite a distance away. Consequently, my im...

 My first Christmas since Mave died and I wasn't looking forward to it. But my family made sure I wasn't alone - thank you - and we had Christmas lunch at the Toby Inn in Bedford And here are some pictures of Thomas opening his present from me - he's growing up and no longer believes in Santa Claus. Oh well  😀 -----------------------------------------------

The Anchor at Little Paxton was the venue for the Old Geezers Christmas lunch and it was really good that all six of us were there.  The food was good,  the cider was very tasty and the company was excellent.  Lots of laughs and banter as is usual for us.  Thanks guys for making a tough year for me more bearable.    ----------------------------------

Today I spent some time at Paxton Pits (again 🙂). I hadn't arranged to meet J&J there so it was a nice surprise to bump into them.  Did my first lap of the Heron Trail in several months which was good. No kingfisher shots today but I did get these shots of a swan coming in and was pleased with the way the G9ii focus-tracking locked on to it. ___________________________

Today was the day (evening) of the Old Geezers visit I organised to see the Christmas lights at Wimpole Hall. All 6 of us were going and I'd printed out tickets and carpark passes and distributed them in advance. So I thought it was just a formality to ask if they'd all got tickets when we met in the carpark. You've guessed it - someone said h thought I'd got the tickets!  I'll spare his blushes by not mentioning his name  .... but he does shoot with a Nikon  😉.  Anyway, thankfully, I had the relevant email on my phone and we were scanned in using that. It was a good evening and the weather was kind And it wasn't as crowded as I'd expected.  Here are some of the photos I took.      ‐--‐--------‐---‐-----------------‐--------‐--------‐

Mave used to play the ukelele and joined the U3A Sparkling Ukes where she made lots of friends.  Those friendships came to include me as we often got together with them at the Bands in the Park concerts during the summer.  I am very happy that those friendships have continued since Mave left us in May.  Today we got together for a Christmas concert by St Neots Concert Band, who we've seen several times and always enjoyed their music. This concert was held  in St Mary's Church, St Neots And afterwards,  we went for a meal at the Buffolo mediterranean restuarant in St Neots. I had a lamb kebab which was, probably, the tastiest kebab I've ever had At one point during the meal, glasses were raised in Mave's memory - a lovely gesture on their part, which made me "well up". They're good people!

A few weeks ago,  PH kindly invited me to join him at a Timeline Event at the Black Country Museum in Dudley.  I was happy to accept his invitation and today was the day of the event.  Rain was forecast early in the morning but then mostly dry and that turned out to be accurate - after a rather wet journey we only had one quite heavy shower while we were at the museum. After being given entry wristbands and a "Behave yourselves!" talk, the Timeline re-enactors were pointed out to us. We then entered the museum.  P and I soon got separated from the rest of the group but that was fine with us - we were there primarily to take photos and didn't need lots of other photographers getting in our way. Here are some of the re-enactors (most supplied by Timeline Events). And here are some more general shots of the museum .... Once again, my thanks to my good friend  PH for inviting me to share the day with him.

Today was another cold day but at least the sun was shining so I took my camera down to our local nature reserve,  Paxton Pits.  As I arrived,  J&J were just leaving but stopped for a chat.  J said they'd seen a Kingfisher but I didn't let that get my hopes up too much - she spots birds much better than I do. But I got lucky too and got these shots - my first Kingfisher shots of 2023. For the technically minded. these shots ere taken with high ISO - up to 10,000!  Noise reduction software is very good these days.