Bright Spots

I seem to be filled with a certain inertia when it comes to blogpost writing these days. I can't decide whether to keep plodding along with this, talking to just the few of you who stop by, or whether to try something new. The dying days of my PhD studies are taking up plenty of brain-space at the moment too. When I started blogging I certainly never had any aspirations to be A Famous Blogger, but I'm not sure what my motivation is any more. Anyone else out there blogging to no one for no particular reason?! Perhaps I just need some more fun in my life so I feel like I actually have something to talk about...

Well, for now, I shall leave you with some pretty pictures from my recent visit to the beautiful Kew Gardens in London. If you're in the big smoke between Feb 7th and March 6th get yourself there for the Orchid festival, which will be full of gorgeous colour to distract from the dreary grey winter outside (and look out for the resident iguanas too!).

And we'll see if I manage to post more than once in February!

A Year in Photos 2014

Happy holidays to you all! Slight unplanned blog holiday there, that life thing getting in the way once again. Inevitably, I of course resolve to blog more in the new year, but with a thesis to write, we'll see how that goes... Anyhow, here are my favourite photos (from on and off the blog) from 2014, here's to a good 2015!

The year started with some epic weather, but beauty can be found in the wintery Dorset countryside

Crisp bright days in Febuary

Company from a black panther on a domestic March afternoon

New life in spring

An early summer day looking down the spine of Dorset

Posers on the sands

Time to disappear...

Pirates in Portugal?

Trying to make the most of the autumnal bounty

The benefit of shorter days in October - capturing the sunrise at the highest point of my commute

A return to the delights of Kew, nice to hang out in the jungle again and forget about the November chill

An excellent reason to get out of bed - probably the best sunrise I have ever seen

Happy New Year one and all!

Make Mine a Port Wine

Working in academia does have some perks, namely that there are many conferences, and they are frequently in interesting (and hot!) places. This summer I got to go to a big one in Porto in Portugal, and in amongst the hours of presentations we did get to have some fun, those Portuguese know how to party! I also seem to have got a dangerous taste for expensive Port wine, that stuff is tasty :)

The old town is really beautiful, if a little dilapidated in places, but there is a big push for regeneration at the moment so you frequently find shiny renovated buildings right next to ones where you can see the sky through the roof. Everything is seemly randomly placed and mismatched, which give the place real charm, and is a bit of a contrast to orderly Georgian Bath! We explored on foot and also got to do a river trip, so plenty of tourist pics for you ;)

View from the town hall balcony

Clérigos church tower, was the tallest building in Portugal when completed in 1763

City centre olive grove

Famous Lello and Irmao bookshop, unfortunately no pics allowed inside

Sea mist rolling up the river, expecting a pirate ship any moment!

Dipping a Toe in the North Sea

Arghhh such a backlog of photos to post! I was planning on just doing one more wild north post, but I have too many nice pictures so I'm afraid I'll have to bore you with a couple more. The east coast was an easy drive from where we were staying, so we spent a couple of days exploring; plenty of interesting rock pools and long golden beaches. Surprisingly empty too, especially compared to my local beaches in Dorset!

Just another reason why I fell in love with Northumberland! As well as big green hills, lots of beautiful beaches too :)

Bright Colours Wild Textures

Well hello there, things are still pretty hectic around here! I have just got back from a conference in Portugal (pics to follow!), and am still in between moving, although I hope to finally be settled and reunited with my sewing machine some time next week. In the meantime, here are some pretty close-ups from Northumberland; I have tried to identify the species, the geek in me insisted ;)

Monkey flower of some kind I think

Grasses

Heath Bedstraw

Yellow flag iris

Possibly wild Thyme

Bird's-foot-trefoil

Common spotted orchid

Lichens are difficult to identify!

Green seaweed? Looks like the Grinch's back to me...

Turn Right at Nowhere

I'm back to bore you all with holiday snaps! I spent the last two weeks up in Northumberland, right on the Scotland/England border. It might not sound very exotic but it was brilliant and beautiful and the first proper holiday my boyfriend and I have had together for a fair while. We stayed in a lovely house literally in the middle of nowhere, miles from civilisation and nestled in amongst the very green hills. It was stunning and I wanted to stay there forever! We did re-enter civilisation occasionally when exploring the local area, but we also spent a good amount of time rambling in the wild from straight out of the back door. The best day was walking to Scotland up the tallest hill we could find. I was pathetically excited about going over the border, as I had never been to Scotland, and there is a certain amount of novelty in being able to walk right there! Plus we had a friendly chat with some Scottish people at the top, over the fence that marks the border, which tickled us a little as they were on Scottish soil and we were in England. Good times, can I go back please?

The home valley - our house is in those trees at the bottom

Our lunchtime view looking down at Scotland

Always bringing up the rear!

At the cairn at the top, looking at Scotland