christmas

Merry Christmas!

Well, we made it to Christmas! It’s been a pretty shitty year all in all and it’s been one that will go down in history but there’s been positives nonetheless. It can feel pretty dark at the moment as Christmas this year is a different story for lots of people and in the UK and internationally we are still in uncertain times both pandemically and politically. Hopefully 2021 will be better and we’ll move forward having learnt a few lessons. At the start of the pandemic I wrote about the importance of addressing the reasons that Covid became a problem for us; the origins of the virus is a clear reminder that our relationship with the natural world is critical to our survival. I’ve not got a huge amount of confidence that humankind will do enough to address the problems we face but I am confident that many of us are willing and able to make changes in the right direction that will be of some benefit. I’ll be eating a traditional crimbo din tomorrow but it’s become much rarer for me to eat meat over the last few months and with thanks to Meera Sodha, it’s been a change in habit that has been fairly easy to establish and at least makes me feel that I’m doing a bit to help. Hopefully we are all looking at the changes we could make in the face of the future we are creating.

Here’s a shot from Newgale taken back in May. This year we’ve enjoyed musing over the colour palette visible in the sky as the sun sets. Naming the colours as we spot a sliver or a swathe of it in the sky; sometimes blueberry, navy grey, ultramarine, indigo, Prussian or Oxford blue. On this day; coral, apricot, melon, persimmon and ochre, each reflected in the wet sand.

With warm thanks for your support, words of encouragement and good vibes this year, I wish you all a peachy Christmas and a rosy 2021 whatever it holds in store for you xx

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Christmas in Pembrokeshire

Being from Wiltshire orginally, I usually spend Christmas with family there but circumstances never remain the same and so this year I spent it in Pembrokeshire. Boxing day was a beautiful day so a walk on the beach with family made a lovely change from the norm. This is Newgale and a familiar picture to anyone who has seen my front cover of the OS North Pembrokeshire 1:25k map which I took in similar conditions. Sunshine and low tide will always give you a chance for some silhouettes and there were plenty of opportunities as there were scores of people burning off mince pies.