[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].
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.)
pretty fly for a white guy
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 7 November 2025].
When I photographed these fun guys on a grave in Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery) in Helsinki, I honestly thought they were artificial.
I probably couldn't have got much closer, as the graves were quite close together, but if I'd realised they were natural, I probably would have tried.
Having viewed them, zoomed in, I'm sure they're real. There's no artificial appearance to the stem of the mature fly agaric mushroom in the front.
So, perhaps not my most artistic photograph, but some pretty impressive specimens captured in pixels for a Fungi Friday.
angel, impatiens, elephant's ears
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 3 November 2025].
As mentioned in a previous post, the tammerkoski on a slow day, I developed large blisters on my pinky toes during my first day wandering around Tampere with Pia.
As a consequence of that and us indulging in a much-needed lie-in (well, not that late a lie-in for either of us, really!), we had to forego our planned walk in the forest by the lake with Max.
I had hoped to see some of the beautiful natural landscapes Tampere has to offer, which I'd seen from photos and videos Pia has shared from her walks. I guess that gives me a reason to return to Tampere ;)
So, on my third day in Finland (my second and last half day in Tampere before heading back to Helsinki), Pia took me to Kalevankankaan hautausmaa (Kalevankangas Cemetery) for a quick wander with my camera before my train departed, and she went to collect her children.
The cemetery is extremely well-maintained, as is Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi Cemetery), which I visited on my last day in Helsinki.
There's a lovely natural parkland feel to the cemetery, without it falling into the 'managed neglect' of many of London's cemeteries (which I also love), and all the colours were beautifully saturated after the morning's rain.
Notably, few (if any) plastic flowers adorned the graves. There were live plants in and around the graves, which I believe are predominantly maintained by the cemetery groundskeepers.
It was a lovely way to spend our morning together, except for the mild panic attack I had, which led us to scarper to the station without locating Pia's favourite grave. Though I guess that's yet another reason to return to Tampere!
how come u don't call me anymore?
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 14 May 2025].
Egads! Where did April go?
I had a sitting with my regulars near the start of the month, then the ten-day sitting with Dudley and Betsy mentioned in my last post.
My birthday fell just before Easter this year. Usually, I spend it visiting a gallery and/or photo editing. I had thought it would be a sedate affair, editing photos with the doggos for company, as I was away from home.
However, two friends took up my invitation to visit me and the puppers on separate occasions over Easter. I also had an in-person catch-up with a client I'm designing a website for the day before my birthday, which I'd booked as annual leave.
So, I was spoilt for social engagements and spoiled myself with cheese from The Bishop's Cave (as you do). A Cornish Yarg wrapped in nettles (I decided to try the original version, as it had been recommended to me previously, but I'll indulge in the garlic version next time!), a truffle Brie, and a Scottish Blue Murder, formerly known as 'Blue Monday', for those who are wondering.
Since I returned from Bishop's Stortford, I visited The World of Tim Burton exhibition at the Design Museum with a friend. I had another sitting with my regulars, which included three more social engagements, two of which were a little last-minute (and one was virtual and lasted over five hours!)
Then last weekend, I travelled to Brighton to catch up with friends and meet a kitteh called Chilli, whom I'll be sitting for the second half of June.
I'm doing daily visits with a local senior kitteh this weekend, and planning to visit The Face Magazine: Culture Shift exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery with a friend. Otherwise, I'm at home for a stretch, which is nice.
Aside from cheese and socialising, I've been dealing with some health stuff (nothing major), including learning about predictive genetic testing, working my day job, completing over 365 days of learning Welsh on Duolingo, trying to get back up to date with my life admin (more sinking than swimming, it sometimes feels) and trying not to wear my fingertips to the bones with doom scrolling.
I already have photos edited for posts later in the week, but I hope to spend a large portion of this week/end editing more and creating other pieces to share with you.
Oh, and this photo is from my visit to the Isle of Portland in September last year. Nice light on that telephone box.
If you feel inclined, let me know how you're doing in the comments x
merry p christ
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 23 December 2024].
green and gold
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 21 December 2024].
The past few days have been hectic, so I had to forgo one of my instalments for the series.
But here's the next one.
fifty missed christmases
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 18 December 2024].
I'm a little late for yesterday's offering, but sharing this image of an infant's grave (still?)born 51 years ago today felt timely.
(Fifty missed Christmases as of today's date).
mum at christmas
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 15 December 2024].
DOLLY
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 13 December 2024].
a solitary red bauble
[I originally posted this entry as early access for my Patreon patrons on 11 December 2024].