On 8th April 2020, during the Coronvirus crisis and lockdown, I started posting one or more of my photos each day, selected from the past at random and usually for no particular reason except that I liked them and hoped that others would also enjoy them. Then, from the fourth week, I decided to choose a theme for each week. Please scroll down below the list of themes to see all the photos I have posted this year, starting with the most recent. There is more text in the actual Posts – click on UPDATES if you want to access the originals. (To see the photos enlarged, click on one in each section and then scroll through them using the arrows on each side.)

The themes have been:

Weeks 1, 2 & 3: 8th – 25th April – Random photos
Week 4:    26th April – 2nd May – Birds of the world
Week 5:    3rd – 9th May – Landscapes (world)
Week 6:    10th – 16th May – Children of the world
Week 7:    17th-23rd May – Butterflies of UK and Europe
Week 8:    24th – 30th May – Uganda (mixed)
Week 9:    31st May-6th June – Wild flowers of UK
Week 10: 7th – 13th June – Norway
Week 11: 14th – 20th June – Reflections
Week 12: 21st -27th June – Lemurs of Madagascar
Week 13: 28th June – 4th July – Mosses and Lichens, Fungi and Ferns
Week 14: 5th – 11th July – Ruins
Week 15: 12th – 18th July – Yellow
Week 16: 19th – 25th July – Domesticated Animals
Week 17: 26th July – 1st August – Bridges
Week 18: 2nd – 8th August – Birds of Bempton Cliffs
Week 19: 9th – 15th August – Between Sunset and Sunrise
Week 20: 16th – 22nd August – Iron and Metalwork
Week 21: 23rd – 29th August – A Week in Pembrokeshire
Week 22: 30th Aug – 5th Sept – Wild Mammals in the UK
Week 23: 6th – 12th Sept – Rocks and Boulders, Stones and Pebbles
Week 24: 13th – 19th Sept – Photography day at Pitsford Water Nature Reserve
Week 25: 20th – 26th Sept – Dead Wood

Please scroll down if you want to look at a particular theme. The most recent are first.

Week 25: 20th – 26th Sept – Dead Wood

Week 23: 6th – 12th Sept 2020 – Photography day at Pitsford Water Nature Reserve

Week 24: 13th – 19th Sept 2020 – Rocks and Boulders, Stones and Pebbles

Week 22: 30th Aug – 5th Sept 2020 – Wild Mammals in the UK

Week 21: 23rd – 29th August 2020 – A Week in Pembrokeshire, Wales

We spent a week in Pembrokeshire with some of our family from 15th-22nd August so I posted photos from the holiday the following week.

Week 20: 16th – 22nd August – Iron and Metalwork

This was one of my weekly themes – and the rustier, the better! “Strange”, you may say. Perhaps – but I think rusty iron relics are very photogenic and somehow evocative reminders of a bygone age. And they are so often near the sea, where the salty air makes iron rust more quickly.

Week 19: 9th – 15th August 2020 – Between Sunset and Sunrise

No one can fail to be deeply moved and enthralled by the colours of sunsets and sunrises – as well as by the moon in between. It’s not surprising that they also have significance in spirituality and various traditions as they mark the passing of time, new beginnings and endings in such a beautiful way. The light doesn’t only transform the sky and clouds, but also the sea or landscapes around – nothing is untouched.

And now for “in between” – the night time.

The waxing and waning of a Supermoon I saw in Nepal in November 2016.

Sunrises

Week 18: 2nd – 8th August 2020 – Birds of Bempton Cliffs

Week 17: 26th July – 1st August 2020 – Bridges

Week 16: 19th – 25th July 2020 – Domesticated Animals 

Week 15: 12th – 18th July 2020 – YELLOW

A variety of photos this week which all show something yellow!

Hats for sale in Madagascar

Yellows in Norway

From around the world, a perfect combination: yellow and butterflies.

Week 14: 5th – 11th July  2020 – RUINS

We have a lovely picture in our bedroom of Rochester Castle done around 1878. It was painted by one of my ancestors, John Hornby Maw, who was a close friend of William Hunt and J.M.W. Turner. The three of them often painted together. There are very similar paintings of the interior of Maw’s living room in Hastings done by them.

We visited Rochester a couple of years ago to see if we could identify where Maw sat to make the painting and compare it with how it looks now. We found the spot, near the Cathedral, but it was tricky to photograph because of a busy road, a car park and the sun straight in front of me! But we found it fascinating to see how little had really changed with the castle itself.

Week 13: 28th June – 4th July 2020 – MOSSES AND LICHENS, FUNGI AND FERNS

Sphagnum moss in Norway

The beauty of ferns unfolding

Fungi

Lichens

Week 12: 21st – 27th June 2020 – LEMURS OF MADAGASCAR

I have been privileged to visit Madagascar twice, in 2015 and 2019. Madagascar is an extraordinary island, larger than France, with 90% of its plants and wildlife being found nowhere else in the world. It split off from Africa 170 million years ago and then from India 100 million years. It wasn’t populated by humans until between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago, the first being people from south east Asia. About 600 years ago, people from Africa came across.

Madagascar has primates, but none of them are monkeys or apes. Instead, its primates developed as lemurs. There are more than 100 species, nearly all of which are endangered or critically endangered. Thanks to the help of experienced trackers and guides and by going off the beaten track, mainly in forests, I have been fortunate to see a third of the species, including two out of only about twenty Northern (Sahafary) Sportive Lemurs believed to still be alive.

The smaller lemurs are nocturnal, so usually only spotted on night walks although I have seen some sleeping during the day. Lemurs range in size from the tiny Mouse and Dwarf Lemurs, which look a bit like dormice and weigh from only 30g (1 oz), to the Indri which weighs about 9.5kg. Most species occur in only two or three locations.

Apart from the somewhat bizarre-looing Aye-aye, they are all very endearing.

WEEK 11: 14th – 27th June 2020 – REFLECTIONS

The reflection in the fjord is so perfect that you hardly notice the difference when the photo is turned upside down!

Some reflections in man-made objects, including the Foucault Pendulum in Valdivia, Chile.

Reflections of an autumnal maple tree in our garden pond.

WEEK 10: 7th – 13th June 2020 – NORWAY

Norway is my favourite country – because of its people, way of life and culture, its wildness, beauty and rich variety of landscapes and seascapes. You can go for miles without seeing any people or houses – and when you do see houses, they are so picturesque, built of wood and often brightly painted, sometimes on stilts at the water’s edge. The sea and majestic fjords are sprinkled with thousands of rocky islands, mostly uninhabited, and there are lakes and rivers amongst the mountains and high plateaux.

I first fell in love with Norway and everything Norwegian when, as a student, I spent a few weeks south of Oslo (the capital) in 1964 as a volunteer working with an international team landscaping the grounds of a new centre of young girls with babies. Then in the 1980s, our family made a “blind date” with a Norwegian family of six, the Sekkesæters, who live in Trondheim. The first year, they stayed with us in Nottingham and we gave them a holiday exploring the Midlands and North Yorkshire. The next year, they gave us a wonderful holiday in Norway – and we’ve never looked back, enjoying many holidays together and on our own in our campervan. Due to their right-to-roam laws, you are allowed to stop overnight anywhere providing you are more than 150m from any houses. We have ‘camped’ in so many beautiful and remote spots with only birds and otters anywhere near us, and so many different wild fruits to harvest.

My problem this week was choosing just a few photos! I started with some of the lovely “wild camping” places we stayed overnight before going on to other beautiful views of Norway.

WEEK 9: 31st May – 6th June 2020

Wildflowers of England: I have always been interested in wild flowers and by my mid-teens, I knew the names of most flowers in England although I have forgotten many of them now!

WEEK 8: 24th – 30th May 2020

UGANDA: As you will be aware, if you know me or have looked through this website, Uganda is my second home in many ways. And I should have been in Uganda right now, spending a few days with Felicity Lawson and Robert Okiror touring some of the National Parks after two weeks on a SOMA mission in Soroti Diocese.

So this week’s theme will be Uganda – photos from some of the National Parks. Again, I might find myself cheating and putting on more than one photo a day as I shall struggle to choose just seven photos out of many hundreds!

WEEK 7: 17th – 23rd May 2020

This week’s photos are BUTTERFLIES of the UK and Europe.

WEEK 6: 10th – 16th May 2020

The theme this week is Children of the World.

Babies and young children so beautiful that I cannot resist taking photos of them, even if they aren’t my own children and grandchildren! But as I look back on many of these photos, I wonder what their lives are like now – or whether some of them are even still alive: are they going to school? have they got enough to eat? have they been orphaned? are they happy and carefree? And I also wonder what their lives will be like if they ever reach my age of 75. As I look at some of my photos, I notice how many of the children (many of whom I don’t know) look pensive or worried or sad already. What have they experienced and suffered already? Is that how childhood should be?

For the full explanation of this week’s theme, please look at the original post on 10th May.

I ended this week’s theme of Children of the World with a photo of my eight grandchildren who have grown up so safe and happy in a privileged environment and using more than their fair share of the world’s resources. But that isn’t their fault – any more than it is the fault of the billions of children who are growing up living in poverty, malnourished because of famine and drought due to climate change, often sick, perhaps homeless, refugees or migrants, or living in fear in conflict zones. So many have no opportunities, often due to lack of even basic education, and have a hopeless future – unlike my grandchildren, some of whom already have good jobs or are at university, while the youngest three are still at school. The holes in the girls’ jeans are designer holes which they’ve paid for, not worn out old jeans because they can’t afford new ones! There are so many gross inequalities in the world – even in the UK. The contrast between my grandchildren and the other children whose photos I have shared this week is enormous.

“It’s not fair”.
“Life’s not fair. You just have to get used to it.”

Really?? Agreed – life isn’t fair. But no one should get used to it and accept that as a maxim by which to live. We should object to the unfairness in the world and work to make it a fairer world for all. But how?!?! At least my grandchildren are growing up aware of the contrasts. Three of the older ones have even been to Teso with me several times and done voluntary work.

WEEK 5: 3rd – 9th May 2020

The theme this week is LANDSCAPES.

WEEK 4:  26th April – 2nd May, 2020

Instead of posting photos at random, I am going to start posting photos on a different theme each week. I will start this week with Birds of the World – or at least, those parts of the world I have been privileged enough to visit!

In the winter, thousands of starlings come together just before dusk and perform an amazing aerial dance for about twenty minutes before they drop out of the sky into the reeds below to roost for the night in safety. You could watch this short VIDEO I made a year ago.

I cheated today and posted a series of photos of a Goldcrest bathing in our little pond just outside my study window. I was so lucky to see it, and that the photos came out so well even though taken through double-glazing. The Goldcrest, along with the almost identical Firecrest, is the smallest bird in Europe, weighing only 5-6gm, the same weight as a British 50p coin.

WEEK 3:  19th – 25th April 2020

 WEEK 2:  12th (Easter Day) – 18th April 2020

WEEK 1:  8th – 11th April 2020