[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 27 July 2026].
putti: a different light
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 July 2026].
As promised in my previous post, though later than I'd planned (it's no longer Sunday, not by a long chalk in any hemisphere), this was the light on the same grave when I revisited the churchyard of St Mary's in Linslade, Bedfordshire, in May with my friend Phil.
Had I not previously visited the cemetery and churchyard in such lovely light as I had in November, I probably would have zealously photographed the graves in the churchyard and the adjacent cemetery.
But having seen it during the golden hour after a morning of rain, this light was simultaneously too flat and too harsh.
I'm so pleased my first encounters with these places were in the right lighting.
putti: a death (k)nell
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 July 2026].
I took these photos of a grave in the churchyard of St Mary's in Linslade, Bedfordshire, in November 2025, the second time I sat Jilly in her new home in Leighton Buzzard.
I set out for a photo walk from Jilly's house along the Grand Union Canal to the church and the Old Linslade Cemetery after a morning of rain.
Photographing the neighbouring locations around 15:00 in autumn was perfect timing, capturing the church in the golden hour before the early sunset.
The light as I walked back along the canal to The Globe Inn was lovely, though there were only sheep, no cows, for me to remark upon the lovely light upon them.
It was almost pitch black by the time I finished my post-walk pint and headed back to give Jilly her dinner.
Phil and I followed in my footsteps during a photo walk in early May this year.
The weather was perfect for our walk, especially as we were taking photos on 120 film using two pinhole cameras Phil owns. We took our time wandering along the canal, discussing life, the perils of AI and all manner of other topics.
I also had my D700, though I had neglected to charge my spare battery the night before and the charge remaining in the battery in my camera was very low, so I was sure it would run out of juice before we finished our walk (it didn't!)
When we arrived at the churchyard, I remarked upon how much difference the light made. It had seemed almost magical the first time I had visited, and I had taken over 70 photos in November.
In May, in "glorious" sunlight, I captured only 12 photos.
I've revisited places before and taken as many or more photos as the first time. But the light just wasn't right. It was too harsh and bright, and the magic just wasn't there.
I captured a few photos for my season's grievings series and a handful of other photos of the church and churchyard, but something was lacking, which I admitted to Phil at the time.
When I share the one photo I took of this grave on my second visit next Sunday, you'll see what I mean.
In the meantime, I was going to call this post 'cherubim: a death (k)nell'. However, in checking my usage of the word, I learned that the chubby, angelic children with wings many of us know from Renaissance paintings as 'cherubs' are not what was described in the original biblical references.
So, instead, I've chosen the plural of the Italian word, putto, used for the figures depicted in so many artworks we can think of.
Once again, my photography (and mild obsession with semantics) has increased my knowledge.
time in looe
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 10 June 2026].
It was a dark and stormy night when Phil and I drove into Looe. The storm had a name. Its name was Goretti*.
Despite the forecast warning of winds of up to 90 mph, we braved the elements. The weather and the journey were less hairy than I had expected from Warwick Parkway to near Bodmin, but not far from the Jamaica Inn, as the daylight started to fade, the driving rain started to have more of an impact on our progress.
The first, most direct route we attempted to take from the motorway to Looe had become flooded. The second route we considered was most likely too.
Thankfully, my need to use the ladies' led us to The Archer Arms, a village pub in Lewannick, where one of the locals gave us detailed directions for the safest route into Looe.
We made it through No Man's Land and into Looe at about 20:15, not long before entry to the town became inaccessible due to fallen trees and branches.
The most suitable car park was only a 5-10 minute walk away from the Harbour Moon Inn, where we were staying, but with winds of about 67 mph and the rain still coming down (though thankfully, somewhat less heavily), it was quite a challenge to walk to the hotel from the car.
As it was the off-season, the hotel's kitchen wasn't open. However, the staff kindly pointed us to a selection of local restaurants that would still be open, despite the weather, and allowed us to bring our Indian food back from the Viceroy to eat in the warmth of the inn. I'm ashamed to say that it was my first authentic biryani (microwaveable ready-meal versions don't count!)
By the time we sat down to eat, the wind had dropped to about 63 mph, but we were well and truly indoors for the rest of the evening. The experience of being out and about in the storm was both nerve-wracking and invigorating; definitely an adrenaline rush.
Though I don't cut the waif-like figure I once did, I'm still a short 5'2"-and-a-bit in height, and apparently still light enough to be almost lifted off my feet by the gusting winds we encountered walking back across the Looe Bridge from East to West Looe.
I only captured a handful of iPhone photos of the dark and stormy night we arrived.
We woke to a lovely blue sky (as seen in the photos above), which came and went with some lingering showers over the next couple of days. Apart from the wet and windy greeting on arrival, we fared much better with the weather in Looe than in St Ives and when we popped in to have lunch at the Jamaica Inn on our way back from Cornwall.
Phil and I really enjoyed our visit to 'Shipton Abbott' of Beyond Paradise fame. The locals we met were all so friendly and welcoming, and I have plenty more photos to share (of course!)
*Storm Elli in Germany.
fresh. frozen.
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 2 February 2026].
I hope to share a "proper" update tomorrow, but for now, here's a photo I took of a fresh grave, littered with frost, in January 2025, in Pinner New Cemetery.
It's not that cold in London at the moment, but we're not expecting temperatures above ten degrees at least until Monday (the forecast only shows me until Sunday).
(For Stranger Things fans, the family name on the grave is Hawkins.)
dynnargh
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 8 January 2026].
A belated dynnargh - welcome - to 2026.
I should have been here earlier. Alas, the past few weeks have been a tad stressful.
I had my last working day in my day job on 17 December. I had hoped to spend a large chunk of time editing around job-hunting, but there was some life admin and a couple of appointments to fit in before I headed south to Bromley for Christmas with the kittehs and the wee hamster.
Christmas was my usual (mostly) quiet affair, with the added pleasure of an early Christmas dinner with Sabine before she went north, and another on Christmas Eve with two good friends, Sophie and Dan (it would have been Christmas dinner, but the UK don't run public transport on Christmas Day and the pubs were closed, so we brought it forward).
I admit, I had a fairly lazy Christmas, as I was still mentally and emotionally exhausted from the past six months, but I was looking forward to returning home on 27 December to immerse myself in photo editing for my end-of-year wrap-up blog, which I was hopeful of sharing this year after having to forego it last year with my home move.
Unfortunately, my external Duo drive, containing (almost) all my life's work, had other ideas. I came downstairs on the day to pack up my laptop and the drive to travel home, and it was making some fatal clicking noises. Only a few folders from my primary drive (Daisy) appeared, but my Time Machine backups on Violet all seemed visible and accessible. However, after turning it off and back on again, neither my laptop nor my iMac was able to find the drives, except through the WD Discovery app. That showed the drives had a configuration fault.
Fast forward to yesterday, and I've provided a portable drive to a local(ish) company to copy the data they have recovered from Daisy, about 3 TB of what should be about 6. They haven't been able to access Violet to restore anything from her.
Fortuitously, I made a full backup to another drive (Orchid) in early April, when I had to reformat Daisy and Violet from MacOS Journaled to APFS. So, I have everything up to that date.
I haven't lost any raw or mobile photos as they were all imported to Photos on my iMac. I exported those not already on Orchid within a couple of days of returning home.
In addition, I had copied my client files and some day-to-day documents to my iCloud drive and a portable drive (Winnebago) that I usually take with me to Bromley. I copied the majority of files across in October and November, so they are relatively up to date.
It's unclear at this stage what the 3 TB recovered consists of, but I've resigned myself to the strong possibility that everything I have on Orchid and have retained on Winnebago and iCloud is all I will get back. The files seem almost unidentifiable from what the data recovery company has shown me. The task of reviewing them may not be as arduous as I first thought, as I'll likely sort by modified date and find there is little, if anything, created or edited since early April that I can recover.
So, while 2025 was a disappointing year from the perspective of how few photos I edited, it's somewhat positive when I consider the final edits I've likely lost. At a quick estimate, it's still about 50+ final edits, but not the hundreds to thousands I might have edited in previous years.
Dealing with that administrative nightmare (as well as formatting my replacement drive, sorting out some cloud storage, and trying to resolve the additional error Disk Warrior has started identifying with my iMac) will have to wait until next week.
Later today, I'll be heading down to Cornwall again with my friend and fellow photographer, Phil, to capture Looe (Shipton Abbott to fans of Beyond Paradise). And to revisit St Ives (where I took this photo on 1 March 2025) and Penzance.
I'm a little apprehensive, as we expect Storm Goretti to land in the area later today, and we're staying in an inn on the river. Fingers crossed the storm isn't as bad as forecast and/or it doesn't affect Looe too badly.
At least if confined to the inn, I have plenty of job-hunting and other things to be getting on with!
I hope 2026 is treating you kindly so far.
merry christmas!
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 24 December 2025].
with bells on
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 December 2025].
holly wreath
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 20 December 2025].
A day late and posted late in the day.
I'll be back on track for tomorrow's instalment!
work christmas party
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 17 December 2025].
I finished work for 2025 today.
I'm still technically employed until 31 December, but I also finished my last working day for an organisation I worked for for almost four years this afternoon.
Thankfully, our work Christmas party a couple of weeks ago didn't look like this.
forever in our hearts at christmas
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 16 December 2025].
pre-christmas overwhelm
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 13 December 2025].
This week was busy (which underplays that the previous weeks were too).
I ran out of time to share a 'season's grievings' photo on Thursday, or on Friday as a catch-up.
So, here is today's contribution. It pretty accurately sums up how I'm feeling at the moment after such a busy week.
Don't get me wrong. Most of the past week was positive:
Kitteh visits with two local kittehs and two slightly less local kittehs that I'll be sitting more often in the new year, staying overnight.
My last "anchor day" in my current job was on Wednesday, as I finish up my contract next Wednesday.
Eating pizza in honour of the departure of another colleague and me (which is a breakthrough for me after over three years, for those who are in the know).
A cheeky pint near work sponsored by our CEO.
Visiting the Night Owls and Abstractions exhibition at Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank, the annual exhibition of art by "individuals in prisons, secure hospitals, young offender institutions and immigration removal centres, as well as people on community sentences and probation" that Sabine and I have been trying to coordinate to visit together for a few years now (maybe as many years as I've been sitting her kittehs for). It did not disappoint and was very inspiring.
Preparing to go to Oxford for the weekend to visit, this is what you get, with a couple of longtime friends. It's an exhibition of artwork by and related to Stanley Donwood, Thom Yorke and Radiohead.
The downside was a heartbreaking update I received yesterday evening about a friend in Australia.
Although being busy with sittings is a good thing, especially in the lead-up to finishing my contract, I'm looking forward to a three-day work week next week. I'm looking forward to no pet-sittings, and time for job-hunting, editing photos and catching up on life admin, before a mix of social and anti-social Christmas festivities kicks in.
(Does it count as "social" or "anti-social" if your interactions are only with cats and a hamster?)
This year, Sabine and I will be able to enjoy an early Christmas dinner together before she goes away, as neither of us will be working (I'm usually working).
I have an(other) early Christmas dinner scheduled with friends in Bromley for Christmas Eve eve.
And there will be cheese, cider and kitteh cuddles galore (as well as binge-watching TV and films) over the break.
I'm also hopeful for some creativity and reading!
I hope the lead-up to Christmas is more zen for all of you! x
how do you like them apples?
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 9 December 2025].
a hessian-bound christmas bouquet
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 December 2025].
a wreath with all the trimmings
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 6 December 2025].
a light is from our household gone
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 3 December 2025].
lily of the incas
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 29 November 2025].
A cluster of Alstroemeria, commonly known as Peruvian lily or lily of the Incas, that I photographed at Helmingham Hall during a visit with my parents in summer 2017.
red roses and reindeer
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 1 December 2025].
It's that time again.
As has become something of a custom, life is "all change" again this December (well, at least on the work front).
Despite that, I'm aiming to share new images from my season's grievings series every couple of days between now and Christmas and make them public approximately two days later.
I hope you enjoy!
I photographed this grave in Abney Park Cemetery in February 2012. The inscription is hard to read through the plant life, but it could be for Thelma Marie Lucas. Alas, I haven't been able to find anything to confirm that or to inform me more about the interred.
I hope that those who love you miss you this much and more after you're gone.
(Though, without the requirement of it being so physically visible. I personally don't want to be buried, so there would be nowhere specific like this for those who love and miss me to show it in the same way.)
uplifting
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 25 November 2025].
grand entrances
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 19 November 2025].
I discovered some grand and ornate entrances whilst wandering the streets of Helsinki in September.
The first photograph is of the Pohjola Insurance building on Aleksanterinkatu. Pohjola translates to 'North' in English. The building also originally housed another insurance company, Kullervo, and is made of fire-resistant stone. Nordea has owned the building since 1972.
In researching the building, I learned that Kullervo was a hero in Finnish and Estonian mythology, said to be able to control fire.
My eye caught the following sentence in the Wikipedia article about Kullervo, and I chuckled at who it describes well in the world right now: "He showed great potential, but being raised badly, he became an ignorant, implacable, immoral and vengeful man."
The second photograph is of an entrance to the Lundqvist building, also on Aleksanterinkatu, a former department store that now houses a Lyonnaise restaurant, Bouchon Carême, on the first floor.
The figures flanking the entrance are of Spinning and Hunting, designed by the Finnish artist Robert Stigell. I believe the ground floor was occupied by an ecologically-minded fashion boutique, Glasshouse Helsinki, until about 2022 (based on their final Instagram posts). I didn't notice what occupied it now.
The third photograph is of Salama House, also on Aleksanterinkatu. From my quick research, it appears that the insurance company it was named after no longer exists, and Wörks Agency now occupies it. They commissioned photographer Angel Gil to document the building's interior.