West Cumbria training hike - Lake District National Park
Warnings of ice on the roads in to the western valleys so we hiked from Seascale on public paths around West Cumbria livestock farms, in and out of the Lake District National Park. Another training hike building up for more major hikes. We loaded my rucksack up to 9.5 kg with 24 m. of climbing ropes, as well as my DSLR, snack, thermos, torch and the usual emergency kit. And kept the pace up.
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Mind the gap - Clifton railway bridge, Cumbria
Big engineering at Clifton, Cumbria, just south of Penrith. A mainline railway bridge over the M6 motorway was taken out last weekend. Motorway and railway both closed. Despite heavy frosts and technical hitches the M6 reopened on schedule after the weekend. As expected, the railway line has a big gap of about 130 m. ready for the new bridge: this will be moved in to place next weekend when the M6 will be again closed all weekend.
Suzuki Swift 2025
Sunrise on the A69 at Warwick-on-Eden
So a 2025 battery/petrol hybrid. The 1197cc Suzuki Swift convinced me as a driver and I did a double-take when I saw the fuel consumption display, which showed 63 mpg on my run from Newcastle to Keswick, that’s 88 miles using the A69/M6/A66 route.
Brighton Lanes
Street photography is almost an integral part of the Brighton Lanes experience: anyone can be prey to camera groups on the prowl most weekends. If you can’t beat them, join them! Here are a few street snaps from the first Saturday of 2026.
Seaford beach huts
Always a pleasure to walk along Seaford beach front in fine weather. The traditional beach huts have been photographed many times. My photo this time is about textures as well as colours.
Christmas claret: Clos René 2005, Pomerol appellation contrôlé
Clos René 2005, our Christmas claret with roast lamb. Apparently the traditional meat for a celebration feast meal in the Médoc region of Bordeaux; the local lamb in those days was presumably from the sheep grazing the salt marshes of the banks of the Gironde, if not elsewhere in Gascony.
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Dunkery Beacon (519 m.) - Exmoor National Park
Family hike on Exmoor to the Iron and Bronze Age monuments at Dunkery Beacon (519 m.). Under the moorland peat is Middle Devonian sedimentary rock. Clear air so views across the Bristol Channel to the Gower Coast as well as Porlock and the North Somerset coastline below Dunkery Hill. Great to enjoy sunshine and cake from Cumbria at the highest point on Exmoor.
Christmas Poinsettia
Our Christmas Poinsettia, yes from a nursery but a while ago and doing fine at home by following the care instructions plus a plant light. Our family first associated the Poinsettia with Christmas in 1958, when my Father was a Research Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Latin name Euphorbia pulcherrima, known in France as « Rose de Noël ».
Wonderful deep red to the eye, one of those colours that only looks right in real life, never on a screen.
Keswick BMX Pump Track - Lake District National Park
I can’t usually get on the Keswick BMX pump track due to traffic more proficient and generally a lot younger than me. But it’s far too much fun for them only. It’s a concentrated workout, bowls as well as humps. Strenuous as well as teaching the skills and commitment that are essential to ride on the surrounding fells.
Marseille riders have the Borély Bowls, which gets more sunshine and is better for tricks than Keswick but it’s fearsome to ride.
Go RR in the Var
Last ride of 2025 on my CBR600RR in Provence. Blue sky and temperatures 15°C or so. Out to the Var département, passing the Circuit du Castellet. I found a route around the vineyards of Côtes de Provence and then back over Ste. Baume.
Cap Croisette - Parc national des Calanques
Cap Croisette is the weathered limestone massif at the end of the peninsular from the Marseille leisure port of Pointe Rouge. A ride on urban blacktop until I reached the derelict sardine canning factories at the end of the standard bus line at la Madrague de Montredon.
Onwards with a chilly Mistral to Les Goudes, a pretty fishing village and port. Cap Croisette is the end of this road (by now just a track of weathered limestone) facing l’île Maïre across a treacherous narrow strait.
The Nutcracker - Royal Ballet, Covent Garden 2025
The Nutcracker magic starts with the first notes of Tchaikovsky’s music taking us in to the world of the supernatural. This production is about the dance, the costumes and the tunes. Of course there’s the story but it’s almost impossible to follow. And within the world of the Nutcracker, it’s magnificent. But in 1913, just twenty-one years after the first performance of The Nutcracker in 1892, The Rite of Spring erupted in to the world of ballet and nothing would be the same again.
Classic Royal Ballet production this, now the definitive British interpretation. It was the most complete London production when it first appeared in 1984, when it displaced Nureyev’s 1968 version. As expected, this revival was light and beautiful, sprinkled lightly with magic dust with little of the dark undercurrents and menace brought out in contemporary dance productions.
Read more: The Nutcracker - Royal Ballet, Covent Garden 2025
