What a year
2020 has turned out to be.
For me, a
daunting start to the year, which saw me relinquishing more of my independence,
started off with surrendering my HGV, PSV, Motorcycle and full car licence
categories, purely for automatic car licence only.
Why, well, I
can only drive a car today with adaptations, my right leg no longer able to
safely operate the right-hand pedals of a manual or standard automatic vehicle,
nor will it operate the foot controls of a motorcycle or reliably sustain
holding the weight of a motorcycle while stationary.
So, it is a
safe move, but one, that has seen my hard work to attain those categories, only
to relinquish them, my independence, my pride and self-esteem.
To be fair to
the DVLA, they did say that should I become able to safely handle vehicles in
those categories again, then I could have them reinstated.
If that wasn’t
enough, Covid19 came along, and lockdown in March,
making visiting anywhere questionable without risk of spreading this
potentially fatal virus to anyone and everyone.
We need to
remember with this silent and invisible killer, it might not be us directly
affected, it could be someone close and dear to us who we infect and seriously
so, or even fatal.
So, it was
three months off work as the UK was in lockdown to slow, and hopefully, stop
the spread of Covid19, and it seemed things might be working.
I returned to
work in June, to help complete work that had to be stopped back in March, to a
very surreal scenario, one-way systems, social distancing, alcohol gel stations
on virtually every corner and by every doorway, no shaking of hands to welcome
colleagues, and of course, the compulsory wearing of face masks or face
shields, all of which is still current practice.
My employer,
like many other employers globally, have taken a big financial hit, and have
used the UK’s Furlough Scheme to try and save jobs for when things
improve, though as it seems, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon, anywhere.
TWITTER!
I’ve dumped my
Twitter account.
Why?
I’ve become
tired of the endless regime of dictations who I should follow and what topics,
to the point I was seeing more from Twitter than the people and organisations
who I wanted to follow.
I’m all for
tech that supports and makes things palatable, but I’m seeing more and more,
algorithms and artificial intelligence software trying to goad down a specific
route, rather than supporting.
Even email
clients are introducing so-called Smart features, which again, do not reflect
what I want to type, just like Autocorrect has that annoying habit of changing
text before you send your message.
I guess my
problem is, I’m too old skool, I was taught to think for myself, and that’s
what I’m happy to do. When I get to the point of not being able to think for
myself, that’s the time to shoot me, place me in that wooden box and seal the
lid.
I did check to
see whether the account had been removed, or if it was still there after a few
weeks, and to my surprise, it was, but minus my profile, profile photo, followers
and those who
I followed, but surprisingly, tweets and retweets are still
showing. So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve gone and why, that is the
reason.
Whether I’ll
return or not, I don’t know, currently have no plans, it’ll remain a dormant
account for the time being.
So
what of 2020; the year of Covid19?
Pre-Covid19:
Middleton Lakes, Snowdonia & RSPB Conwy
I did however
manage some outings this year, starting with normal visits to Middleton Lakes
and Baddesley Clinton, then a trip to Snowdonia to capture some snow scenes on
Snowdon from alongside Llyn Mymbyr, then to the Glyderau for more snow scenes
from Ogwen Cottage and a visit to RSPB Conwy
for some wildlife and the surrounding hills.
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| Blue Tit at Middleton Lakes enjoying the seeds of a bull rush reed |
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| Baddesley Clinton Grounds |
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| Snow Drops at Baddesley Clinton |
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| Grey Heron with nesting material, RSPB Middleton Lakes |
That particular
day in Snowdonia and at RSPB Conwy was as ever, a pleasant visit, where I
managed to capture Snowdon, and using the big lens, a solitary person reaching
the summit trig point!
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The key Snowdonia mountains (apart from Snowdon which is just out of view to the left)
identified from Rhydlydan. |
The short visit
to Ogwen
Cottage was a bit of a tease, for I have walked those
mountains in all weathers, and the photo opportunities are still as enjoyable as
ever. Afon Idwal provides great views upstream towards Y Garn, while looking
east, there is Tryfan, and west, Elidir Fawr and the Menai Straits.
Being a dullish
day, there was a good opportunity to set a tripod up and remote shutter
release, facilitating a long exposure setting (photos where the shutter
would be open for longer than 1/30 sec, often 5-10 seconds), to take some
photos of Afon Idwal with the water appearing to have a smooth silky effect.
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Afon Idwal (Long Exposure) with Y Garn in the background
|
From Ogwen Cottage, I then went to RSPB Conwy, and though a bit blustery, it was a very pleasant day not just watching the wildlife from the hides, but also wandering around the reserve.
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| Red Breasted Merganser swallowing lunch at RSPB Conwy |
Literally hours
before the full lockdown, I did manage a visit to Baddesley to capture the
daffodils by St Michael’s Church in all their springtime glory.
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| Daffodils by St Michael's Church, Baddesley Clinton |
In the interim during full lockdown, I spent a lot of time in the garden with the camera, capturing photos of urban wildlife in the garden. Some of the photos below are examples of what I managed to achieve.
Sir
William Hill, Froggatt Edge, and the Bearded Vulture
During the
spring, the UK, or more precisely, the Peak District, had a new and rare visitor,
the Bearded Vulture.
So, I took
drive to the Upper Derwent Valley, where the sightings had been reported,
though I could only go where it was sensibly accessible due to my disabilities,
which in this instance, was a car park alongside Ladybower Reservoir looking
towards Derwent Edge, which is where the bearded vulture was reported to be inhabiting.
Apart from a
pair of buzzards and a few other species, there was no bearded vulture to be
seen. It was a good day out, and nice to see somewhere I’d not been to for a
good while.
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| A pair of common buzzards at Ladybower |
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| Looking over toward Lost Lad, and where the bearded vulture was supposed to be. |
Later in July,
determined to try and get a photo or two of the bearded vulture I made another trip to the Peak
District, though sightings had become very quiet with some dubious reports in
areas where it wasn’t natural habitat for the bearded vulture to live. Knowing how tight parking and
access is at Ladybower and the Upper Derwent Valley can be, I decided to make
alternative plans, which would encompass the bearded vulture if there were any reliable sights, and
took a trip to Eyam Moor, where I could perch at the top by the trig point on
Sir William Hill, which wasn’t far from the nearby road.
It was a
glorious day, the views were superb, even across to Derwent Edge, and bearing
in mind the bearded vulture had a wingspan of some 3 metres,
catching a glimpse if she should appear would be more the feasible.
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| Looking over to Derwent Edge |
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| A swallow on Eyam Moor |
During lockdown, I had purchased a new camcorder, a Canon Legria HF G60, and I took that with me to Eyam Moor, and had a play around. An early result, using a tripod, was to capture a kestrel swooping down on a small rodent on the moor. Alas, the kestrel came away empty, but it was a first attempt at following nature in action.
Earlier in the
year, I compiled a writeup about the village of Eyam (pronounced Eeeem)
in the Peak District, which during the Great Plague of 1665/6, under the
leadership of the Rev William Mompesson, the villagers of Eyam self-isolated
themselves, a period that took well over a year and with a very high death toll
on the village, from the rest of the world to try and contain the plague.
I have always enjoyed photography, particularly landscape and wildlife, after my hill and moorland walking, so it was easy to find another hobby to keep me active, and I’m always keen to try new and different aspects to photography, and sometime, stellar opportunities come along, in the form of the comet Neowise, where I managed to get a couple of half decent photos of the comet in the north western sky at night, using the big lens on a tripod, I managed to get a clear photo.
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| Comet Neowise |
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| Cropped image Comet Neowise |
Warwickshire,
Tu Hwnt i'r
Bont and
RSPB Conwy
Desperate for
some photos away from the garden, which during the two periods I was on
Furlough, continued to yield many photo opportunities, I managed to make some
trips into nearby Warwickshire
during September, and later in September, with restrictions nicely eased, I
managed a trip back up to North Wales to capture the red foliage on Tu Hwnt i'r Bont, a
tearoom on the south side of Llanwryst, before making a long overdue trip to RSPB Conwy.
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| One of the many Carneddau Foal born during 2020 at RSPB Conwy |
While it was good to get back to the
reserve at Conwy, it was very surreal, but the staff and volunteers as they
always do, did a fabulous job of maintaining the reserve and making visitors feel
welcome. You can read about that day in: RSPB Conwy
19 Sept; a long overdue visit! and the photos are in the September
2020 Album, along with the Warwickshire photos.
Soon after this, Wales then went through a national
lockdown, followed by England and many other parts of the UK, so visits
anywhere were curtailed again, and as I write, still under curfew!
While travel restrictions are sill imposed, I've continued to take urban wildlife photos in the garden and here are a few more.
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| Warwickshire countryside |
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| Barn, Old Milverton |
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| Long Itchington Village Pond |
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| Long Itchington Village Green |
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| Autumn Colours in the garden |
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Autumn Colours in the garden
|
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| A nearby home firework display |
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| A nearby home firework display |
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| On a very wet day, a robin enjoying a bath in a puddle on the patio |
I don’t anticipate the travel
restrictions ending anytime soon, and even with the vaccination availability
slowly gaining momentum, I feel the Covid19 virus will hamper our
ability to move around for the next year or so, but it will settle down, and we
will regain the freedom we enjoyed before Covid19 in good time.
A final photo, for those wondering what my injuries and leg condition is, below is a photo showing my swollen and misshapen leg.
You can comment on any of the blogs, however,
ALL comments are moderated before publication, so please accept my apologies in
advance for any slight delay to publishing publishable comments.
In the interim, thank you for reading,
stay safe, take care and we’ll meet again, and finally, Wishing Everyone a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year, lets hope 2021 is a better year.
Peak Rambler
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