Last week was a pretty busy week for me, so I thought I would snap a few pictures along the way and see what I ended up with at the end of the week. Below is the result, a photographic snapshot of my week. You can click on the little pictures to enlarge them and check the details of each picture in the numbered list below.

 

1. Friday. Looking out across the Irish sea from New Brighton as Friday (12th) draws to a close.

2. Turbines of the Burbo Bank offshore wind farm as seen from New Brighton.

3. Saturday. A Welsh ‘wiggle road’ snakes it’s way over the hills near Carno in Wales where I would spend a couple of days with my friend Jeffrey.

4. Massive wind turbines serenely rotate on the Welsh hills generating clean renewable energy.

5. Arriving at Romy’s cottage. You have to drive through several gated fields to get there.

6. Romy’s cottage is in the middle of the picture obscured
by trees, however you can see her barn.

7. Romy’s beautiful stone cottage. Romy herself was not there but I joined my friend Jeffrey Hyman who had escaped from London for weekend in the Welsh sun.

8. The cottage kitchen.

9. The view from my bedroom window at Romy’s cottage.

10. A dragonfly that must have just hatched because it attempted to land on my head and had absolutely no concern with the close proximity of my camera lens.

11. Looking around Romy’s cottage you can bet that every item has a story.

12. Flower pots outside of the stone built barn next to the cottage.

13. Sunday. Jeffrey and I headed out for a drive and stopped in the little bay town of Aberdyfi where we strolled along the banks of the mouth of the River Dyfi and had ice cream.

14. A little boat tied up at Aberdyfi.

15. Cottages on a narrow road in a Welsh village.

16. A small Welsh chapel (Sorry, I don’t know where this was).

17. With no particular plans or agenda Jeffrey and I simply threaded our way though the breathtaking mid Wales countryside on the ‘wiggle roads’ that lend themselves well to such relaxed driving.

18. Wales in full of remote stone built dwellings. Part of me would love to live in one out there in the wild countryside, another part of me wouldn’t.

19. Mr posing with my car.

20. Jeffrey and I chatted away as I drove along roads chatting away merrily and stopping regularly to get out of the car and look at the scenery.

21. Me posing with my car again! It was fun driving onto the beach and doing donuts in the sand.

22. Another little village road, and another opportunity to wonder what it would be like to live in one of these houses.

23. Painted homes in the beach town of Borth.

24. To call Borth a town is perhaps overstating it somewhat. The ‘town’ practically consists of one road with a row of houses and shops. Jeffrey commented that it looked like a film set.

25. Happening upon Borth was a trip down memory lane for Jeffrey. In his twenties he had camped there with a friend so we both walked to the top of the hill for ‘old times sake.’

26. There was a telescope at the top of the hill that overlooked the sea and the town. This is a picture through that telescope. I knew I wouldn’t get a close up, and in truth my camera could easily zoom-in to the same degree, but I wanted to take the shot to see what the effect was like.

27. An accidental shot as I walked down the hill. I was going to delete this picture, but there’s just something about it that I like.

28. Monday. Passing through another Welsh village at the start of a long day behind the wheel heading south to Essex.

29. The weather was beautiful until I got to the city of Birmingham which stood under a heavy black cloud of doom.

30. Having gotten so much sun over the weekend I elected to wear a hat as I drove with the roof down in the sun. That’s the only downside to owning an open top car, you really have to be mindful of sunburn.

31. A picture postcard English cottage in North Essex.

32. Tuesday. After Yogi’s funeral Mom, Dad, my sister Louise, and I got changed then went out for something to eat. This picture was taken by our server at the Five Bells pub in the sleepy Essex village of Colne Engaine.

33. Clouds. (Well dah!)

34. A red telephone box in Colne Engaine.

35. A sun/moon face thing. It probably has some kind of name and meaning, but to me it’s just a sun/moon face thing.

36. Leaving Essex and heading North on the A14 to the midlands the clouds were amazing. However, it’s difficult to capture vast expansive scenes like a spectacular cloud filled sky. Not to mention the fact I was doing 70mph while taking this picture one handed!

37. I spent Tuesday night with my friend Andy who happens to live near a Ferrari dealership. I had to stop and look at them because there is just something mesmerizing about Ferrari’s isn’t there.

38. Wednesday. Wednesday morning I headed over to Will’s place and then over to Sainsbury’s cafe for ‘Blunch.’ (‘Blunch’ is a breakfast that is so close to lunchtime you can’t get away with calling it ‘brunch.’)

39. In traffic I spotted a van on which someone had written ‘Wish my wife was as dirty’ in the dirt on the back of a van.

40. A trip to the Apple store in some boring shopping mall.

41. Will’s birthday dinner was at some expensive restaurant in Birmingham. The meal was good, but the company was so much better. In the quartered picture… Top left: Graham, Will, and Andy (Aka ‘Orange Andy’). Top right: Andy and his girlfriend, Louisa. Bottom left: Crazy Sue and I. Bottom right: Polly and Geoff.

42. An arty shot of me taken by Andy

43. Thursday. Will was once famous for drowning everything he ate in ketchup and not eating anything that hadn’t at one stage had a heartbeat. These days he’s become something of a food ponce, but this always means that you’ll get good food when you stay with him. Last time I was there he cooked a knock-out curry.

44. Presenting slow cooked free range tofu fed chicken eggs and spa treated champagne washed bacon served with organic virgin baked fresh bread.

45. Friday. The day draws to a close as I watch the sunset at Hoylake where there is, curiously enough, no lake.

46. Saturday. An afternoon cook-out at my friend Dom’s. Vast quantities of meat washed down with beer, what’s not to love about that!

47. Wild offspring at Dom’s cook-out.

48. There’s just something great about cooking meat on a grill in the open.

49. It might look like a picture from night out but this is actually work for me. Once a month I go out and take pictures at a local nightclub.

50. Clubbing regulars Roxy and Penny pose for a picture with me.

51. My friend Hillary’s younger sister Denise showing off her pearly whites.

52. And finally, in the early hours on Sunday morning a drunk man is ‘restrained’ by nine police officers after he ‘air punches’ a little fat cop. Despite missing her completely, losing his balance and falling face first to the ground, the brave cops restrained the violent man who I think was actually snoring at this point. Well done bobbies, that’s another dangerous menace you bravely managed to apprehend!

 
 
After doing this I am tempted to embark on a photographic project to take and upload one picture each day next year, from the first day of the year until the last. I think that might be interesting, a mosaic of 365 pictures that illustrate something of the year.

Looking at these pictures it’s hard to pick a favorite. I like number 23 (which has nothing to do with the 23 enigma) but then I like 26 and 27 too.

Digital photography is great. I just love the fact that we don’t have to take pictures sparingly being mindful of the cost of getting them developed. These days you can just go crazy, point, click, review, and repeat until done. It’s great!

So do you have a favorite picture?