“I don’t feel as if I have taken enough photographs this year”. This was my first thought when I decided to start writing my Year in Photographs blog. But then I counted them on Flickr … 671 … and that’s just the ones I’ve uploaded so far. You can probably multiply that by four or five, and you’d be closer to the actual number of photographs taken!
January …
The year began with a trip to Wylye Down, so much closer to home now that we’re down in deepest South Wiltshire.
This year has also meant a whole new commute to work. I usually took the road through the Woodfords – much less traffic, much more lovely countryside to enjoy – and January’s frosty mornings were a real treat. I’m leaving my current job soon, and I shall miss this morning pootle by the river Avon.
February …
… that must mean it’s time for a trip to Devon! For a change we stayed in Bovey Tracey, in a lodge on a lake. What fun … if you don’t mind noisy geese waking you up! The great thing about staying here was having Dartmoor on the doorstep …
… yet never being far from the sea. Boy, was it wild weather down in Dawlish …
March …
March arrived with snow and general chaos. Having grown up in Scotland, where it snowed every winter, I’m no fan of this sort of weather. Still, the closure of roads did mean a day off work, a walk to the shop, and sighting of the rare Wiltshire Snow Pig!
the rarely seen Wiltshire Snow Pig
Thankfully the foul weather didn’t last for long, and I was able to start doing a bit of exploring in my new neck of the woods. I discovered the most delightful coffee shop in Stockbridge (Coffee Lab). Fabulous coffee and rather scrumptious brownies. It gave me a chance to use our great new Sony F1.4 lens. Not a macro lens, but still fun for close up shots …
April …
So April came around and I really started to see my garden come together. We live in a new house, and the garden was a blank slate. It’s a lot smaller than my old garden used to be, but that is no bad thing. It’s so much easier to manage than an acre of wildness was! As I worked away in mid-April, and looked at my lovely Anemones, it felt like Spring had come around. So welcome, after the previous month’s snow.
The spring sunshine got me in the mood for exploring more of my new local area. I discovered the delights of Grovely Wood. This is one of the largest woodlands in southern Wiltshire. It stands on a chalk ridge above the River Wylye within the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (I’ve left the Wikipedia links in here, because this is a part of the country crammed with beautiful places and steeped in Iron Age, Bronze Age and Roman history, and you just might want to find out more!)
in the woods ….. so many paths and tracks to explore ……
I’m taking this path … it’s got bluebells!
May …
Oh! I love May. The days are stretching out and the sunsets on Salisbury Plain are gorgeous, especially when we’re right at the start of an amazing summer …
And of course, the wild flowers are starting to carpet the Plain in colour ….
But May was not just about our gorgeous Wiltshire landscapes … there was city-life too when I headed into Bath for a day trip down memory lane, and a spot of people-watching ….
a most splendid moustache pixie
June …
And so the summer really begins. The world is starting to ripen and turn gold, poppies spark with scarlet colour amongst the barley stalks. Good subjects to experiment with Steve’s home-made Zeiss Ikon Talon 85mm projector lens.
In June we had a trip to the South Coast, to celebrate Steve’s birthday. Keyhaven is always a delight, with its great variety of seabirds; but this year there was a real treat in store for us. We saw Avocets – a first sighting of these beautiful black and white birds, too far away for me to photograph, sadly. What I was able to capture though was another first for us … two Spoonbills standing in one of the lagoons. Wow. Just. Wow!
As the days stretched out into long, rosy sunsets, Salisbury Plain was awash with wildflowers and all the land was golden. The wild grasses were spiked with Vipers Bugloss and vivid purple thistles ….
…. and I fell in love with Wiltshire all over again ….
all the things I love about Wiltshire are here …
…. Salisbury Plain; roads and tracks, both ancient and new; copses and crop lines; a hill fort and soft, gentle landscape. Just about as perfect a place as you could hope to find. I will never get tired of taking photographs here!
July …
Oh, July, hot and sultry. It was a summer of love and much socialising for us (the people who never socialise!), with two weddings and a party. The first wedding was down in Devon, so naturally, it was an excuse for us to have a little mini holiday in one our favourite places.
I could fill a whole blog with the photos of all the beautiful people at Fern and Jack’s wedding, but here are just a few of my favourites …
those bridesmaids again HG (joke for Friends’ fans and Stevie) photographer in a hat
August …
My garden was a delight all through the summer. It was worth the work, as it filled up with flowers and bees and butterflies …
my summer garden bee on lavender getting near the end
When I took the picture of the bee on the scabious, I really thought that it was getting to the end of summer, but I was wrong. Everything had another month or so of blooming loveliness!
September …
Another trip around the local highways and byways, and we were back up on Wylye Down, with a spectacular patchwork valley below us, and layers of fluffy clouds above.
And of course, if it’s September, it must mean another trip to Devon. Once again we stayed just outside Brixham. There was still plenty of sunshine around for morning walks down to the harbour. This is one of my favourite views of Brixham; for me, this is exactly what an English seaside town should look like …
The national flag of LizzieLand …
Not every day was sunny, but the grey sky lent a certain something to the blues by the beach …
October …
I was lucky enough in this photography year to have a few photos that got lots of views and likes on Flickr. One shot that did well was of a little coombe I’ve photographed many times, in different seasons and different light. It’s my “Inshaw” place, and makes me think “Wiltshire”. In this shot, I cropped right in to show the copse, just starting to show its autumn colours, and the barn. A bit of searching on the NLS maps told me that there’s been a barn here since at least 1873 …
there’s been a barn here since 1873
In October I finally did something I’ve wanted to do since I first moved to Wiltshire, and that was take an autumn trip to Stourhead. I got there for the gardens opening, but I still had to battle my way through photographers!! This has got to be one of the most popular autumn photo locations in the South of England! I did manage to capture a few shots without other photographers in them …
If you ever get the chance to go to Stourhead, then you should take it. Legions of photographers aside, it’s a really beautiful place. I’ve been advised that spring is also a good time, with all the bulbs, so that’s on 2019’s To Do List!
November …
In November I continued my “autumn colours” theme when we took a trip to The Malverns. This was a first for me, and I loved it. It’s a very pretty part of the world, and the trees, well, they are pretty spectacular with all their golds and reds and oranges. I like the way that Little Malvern Priory, with its red-tiled roof blends so perfectly with its environment.
Of course there was no shortage of autumn colour close to home. We went to a particularly lovely little copse on Salisbury Plain to mess about with manual lenses. This shot was taken with a Pentax 110 18mm lens…
If you want to see a few more of the experiments, you can look here!
December…
The first few weeks of December flew by, with short, grey days, where hardly a photo was taken. In full “bah-humbug” mode, we headed to the Plain on Christmas day, even though it was misty (and grey – no surprise there, then!). Still, when you’ve got one of the fabulous Charlton Clumps as a subject, “mist and grey” can be good.
We were up there again a couple of days later. Luckily not so grey, so there was glorious sunset light, with the mist creeping across the Plain and into the hollows …
What a very nice way to end my photography year. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of my favourites from 2018. It would be lovely if you visited my Flickr page and looked at some more!
