Saturday 1 January 2011

2010 - Hot and Cold

Well here we are in 2011, so I thought I would start the year with a wee look back on some of my 2010. In the blogging world it's been a year turmoil. Many of us here on Blogger (and indeed at Wordpress) were evicted from Windows Live Spaces half way through the year (or in some cases, including mine, jumped ship before it went down). For me the site change has signalled an improvement in blogging and I have been joined here by a number of fellow WLS refugees as well as a number of new friends already at Blogger. Most of the pictures over the next few blogs (there should be about half a dozen in the next few days) are from my old defunct blog which some of you may recognise but there might also be the odd new one. Before I start, I hope the new year finds you healthy (being the 1st of the year, I don't count a small headache as unhealthy) and I wish you all well for 2011.

Here on Britania the weather has been high on the news front for the year and the first few months of the year saw some of the coldest snowiest weather we've seen for years. Not to be outdone, November and December turned up some even colder weather and we've effectively had a year with two winters. 

In January I passed through London and found The Lake in St James Park frozen over......


.....and the fountains in Trafalger Square.

A few days later in Calne, I actually found some snow. For a man on Shank's pony without a journey to make, it's quite delightful and picturesque.

 




The cold weather didn't last and as some compensation we were blessed with a very reasonable Spring and Summer. For most of the good Summer weather I was still down in Wiltshire - a county that really doesn't need the assistance of being covered in snow to make it look good.

A couple of cracking days were spent wandering around Chippenham for the folk festival late in May- I managed to top up my Morris bank to keep me going on that front for quite some time.



May also saw the demise of my old camera, which, on a slightly cheerier note, saw the arrival of my new camera, which is a cleverer machine than the old one. This butterfly seemed to think so and sat quite still for me as I poked the lens into his face.

And it has a much mightier zoom than the last one. This picture of the Cherhill white horse was taken from several miles away.

Even hot enought for ice cream at times!

9 comments:

Dave Wenning said...

Ah, the memories. I was just over at Windows Live to see if anything was left. The page won't even render, a complete mess. Kind of a metaphor for the state of Microsoft. After our experiences with Spaces, Sync, Office Live, Workspace etc., who would be dumb enough to hitch their wagon to the cloud? Sandy, you have happy and healthy New Year and keep sending us those great posts.

Sandy said...

Happy New Year from the Muckle Toon.

JennyD said...

I enjoyed all your memories of the year so much, Sandy. Great read and great photos.
I drop in to WLS almost every day to see if anyone, anyone at all posts. No. So sad; but we're here or wordpress now and things eventually will all come together. I agree with DaveOnFidalgo: no cloud hitching for me, ugh.

Michael (Light-In-A-Box) said...

Happy New Year Sandy! I enjoyed your year in review! I too jumped ship from Win Live before it all went down! I like my new home on Blogger much better...
Michael

Shundo said...

Happy New Year Sandy, and thanks for your comment. Were you out first footing?
Nice to see some snow vicariously at least - here in SF it is just still wet...

Sandy's witterings said...

Thank you all - indeed WLS is a bit of a shell now - frankly I prefer Blogger all round.

Shundo - long may you experience of snow be net based - I'm not sure I want to be this far North when the climate gets to a stage where San Francisco is getting snow. No first footing - I was well installed in a friends living room for the bells for guitar tunes, charades and indoor fireworks...oh yes and a bottle of beer.

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

As a latecomer to your blog I appreciate the review of the earlier part of your year. I like looking at pictures of cold, snow and ice and that is about as close as I wish to be near any of it. A good 2011 to ya.

Sultan said...

God it looks so cold in Great Britain this year. I love the frozen tree photos.

Sandy's witterings said...

Thanks guys, there more to come - reviewing blogs and cold (I suspect)