December 24th 2010

Final journey

A theme of this year’s blog has been the long journeys into work, whether winding through the Cotswolds or taking the long motorway drive down through the Midlands. Today will be the last, and it’s marked by the snow in Leamington Spa – roads still slushy and pavements still white from the earlier snow.

It would be nice to think that as well as the last commute of the year it is also the last snow of the year but time will tell …

December 21st 2010

Me want!

I may be 38 years old, but I still get excited when I see Cookie Monster T-shirts – this photo I took turned out to be the only one I took today. It’s not unheard of for people to pay tribute to the heroes in their life by emblazoning their image on a T-shirt though – here’s one of mine.

It won’t surprise many of you to learn that I’m now wearing it. You can never have too many Cookie Monster T-shirts …

December 20th 2010

It’s back …

I’m referring to snow, of course, although fortunately we have just about avoided it in Derbyshire. But this time, it’s made it to Leamington Spa. The downside is a long trawl through icy roads in the town at the end of my commute. But the upside is walking through crisp, white snow when I take my walk at lunch.

December 15th 2010

Leamington by Night

Today was the work Christmas party – held at a restaurant in Leamington Spa. It was a great meal and a nice afternoon to take the mind off work pressures (and cost of boilers) but not a chance to let my hair down completely. The 75 mile drive home puts paid to that idea …

December 10th 2010

Baubles

A difficult day – the end of a long, trying week. Today I tried unsuccessfully to talk to my managers about working from home, to increase my productivity, sanity and happiness at work, not to mention reducing my carbon footprint. But I can’t describe it as successful.

So here. bearing no relation to anything spoken to me today, and a propos of nothing,  is a load of baubles (the tree is courtesy of the Royal Priors shopping centre in Leamington Spa)

December 8th 2010

Super Mario

Today’s picture is tomorrow’s cake – not a cake we would buy every day but tomorrow is James’ birthday. We’re hoping, as he turns 12, that he’ll like his Super Mario cake but I think that’s probably a given. It’s an impressive cake though isn’t it?

December 7th 2010

Hoar Frost

One thing I’ve learned about this photo blog is it’s all about timing – this cold snap has produced some amazing weather and amazing scenes, but it’s all about getting the photo at the optimum time. On Friday, I snapped some good-looking icicles, only to venture out the next day and see them far larger and more impressive. Yesterday I took a snapshot of an incredible minus 12 degrees, only to get into the car this morning on the way to work and see it showing minus 13 …

Today’s photo is from outside my workplace, “down South”. While the village here is still stricken with several inches of snow and dangerous compacted ice, it has all cleared in Warwickshire. However, with such low temperatures the frost has lingered throughout the day to give amazing shimmering trees and vegetation throughout the day. Today’s photo is just one example, taken as I walked to lunch, but given my expert sense of timing, expect a far more impressive and photogenic hoar frost tomorrow to go unphotographed …

November 19th 2010

Morning mist

The last five miles or so of my commute this morning took place in a shimmering mist as the sun tried to break through. As you can see in today’s photo it even made the car park at work look moody and interesting.

If anyone was worried about the other seventy miles of my morning commute and whether I had mist to deal with, I can reassure you that there wasn’t. There was seventy miles of fog to deal with instead …

November 18th 2010

Grand Union Canal

Today, as I often do, I went to Starbucks for my lunch break. But the queue was too long, even for me, so I took a spontaneous walk along the canal. I don’t know if it was the need for fresh air, or whether it was influenced by this blog and the need for a photo, but once again it’s somewhere I’ve never headed in my lunch hour despite its proximity.

It was strangely quiet, with not much to be seen apart from one duck and a rather sheepish jogger, though I did come across a large flock of long-tailed tits later, though they didn’t make it into any photos. But when I do make these excursions I always return thinking I should do things like this more often. After all, I’m walking up the Himalayas in five months’ time. The least I can do is make the effort to make a flat urban walk for half an hour a little more often – I certainly return feeling better for it, and it beats staying at my desk for an extra hour.

November 4th 2010

Warwick Castle

I’ve been working on the outskirts of Warwick for six years now, but I very rarely see any of it. I needed a break this lunchtime, so I drove to the park for a walk. This view is from the bridge over the river Leam – it’s probably the closest I’ve been to the castle in many years, and certainly the first time I’ve photographed it.