As I Xi It

So, here we are again for another annual retrospective review. As I am too lazy to wax lyrical about 2012, I’ll bullet point a few things which stood out in my memory-

Highlights

• I finally got a job!
• Norris, who I thought had died, came home!
• Seeing mountain gorillas in Uganda
• Getting to tick Cuba off my ‘hit list’

Lowlights

• I got robbed in Lisbon
• My iPhone 4s was liberated from my possession earlier this month while on the commute to work

Looking ahead to 2013, my aim(s) are to not get robbed, especially of any more iDevices, tick off more countries on my ‘hit list’ (when I’m finally reunited with my passport), finish PADI and perhaps take up krav maga again.

Spring is indeed in the air.

Aston Rowant

I was in Dartmoor last weekend with the intention of wild camping which turned out to be not so wild. We did however pitch our tent in a paddock complete with horse turds. Anyway, it was also a full moon and we had nice clear skies. It’d be the ideal location for star-trails. What these pics are missing though is the aurora. I miss the northern lights.

Another day with blue skies and fluffy clouds. Bodies of water really do seem to give the pics an extra edge.

Sunny day, blue skies with fluffy white clouds. Time for some infrared. I’ve got to say, this was probably one of my more successful forays into IR photography.

Where to?

A tree amongst the chalk heathland

Two paths

Went to Black Park last Monday for a cycle. It was good cycling weather and not too busy either.

This time with Bone up to the Forest of Dean. We actually stayed on a campsite in Mitchel Troy near Monmoth just over on the Welsh side. Unlike the last campsite, our pitch was on nice green grass and had a river running behind us and instead of being awoken by birdsong, we were greeted with the incessent crowing of crows as soon as morning broke.

The weather was pretty good, got rather hot during the day and quite chilly at night with temperatures of around 9/10^oC.

The days were spent walking around, eating Dairylea and cooking.

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Went hiking around the South Wales/England border over the weekend and figured I’d take advantage of the sunny weather and do some IR photography. I’m pretty sure I’ve processed them incorrectly, you can see some posterization here and there. I suspect I need to extend the shutter speed.

Pine trees on top of May Hill

More trees

Apparently, you can see 12 counties on a clear day

More trees

West Sussex again, this time for some camping in Graffham.

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