Looking back, it`s been a year of mixed emotions, dominated by our Dad`s declining health, leading to a long period of palliative care, and then his passing in June. This meant that between February and June in particular I spent a significant time away from home, and therefore many things took a back seat, including photography projects.
This photo above is one of my "thinking spots" back home, a place to try and get some perspective back, feel the fresh air, listen to distant Curlew, and re-evaluate a lot of things.
But there have been a number of positives squeezed somehow into the odd gaps - the catching up with old friends; occasional projects (including work with the falconry); monitoring breeding Kingfisher for WWT when time permitted; meeting, for the first time, one of my long-time "heroes" - Don Powell of Slade, at a video shoot with the Don Powell Band; moving forward with my new Church; a bit of airshow photography; trying out new video work, etc etc.
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The `planned` list of projects for 2023 was quite extensive, but nearly all of them haven`t even been started. My wishlist kit wise stills remains a dream for 2024, but just grateful for what I did manage to see and do during what has been a very busy, emotional and occasionally difficult year. Onward and upward for 2024.
I`ve enjoyed carrying on my WWT volunteering when time permitted, which has included data collection on the Reserve, `Walk with the Warden` days, High tide watch, Dawn Chorus Walk, and (pride of place) the Kingfisher monitoring. In particular, it was great to have been able to have obtained actual proof (for the first time) that one of our Kingfisher families had a third brood, something that hadn`t been proved before for our site. I managed to track down a `new` young male Kingfisher (as opposed to one from the two previous broods), in mid September, looking as though it had only been fledged a couple of days.
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Spreadsheets of data were collated throughout the breeding season, all of which has become very useful for future work.
Looking forward now to starting 2024 with a bit of a new slate, and I should be assisting with the WWT tick event on New Year`s Day. Some of the projects from that lengthy list might be started too.
Lots of New Year resolutions from last time carried-forward again, plus (although i`ve said this before) I hope to get back to some art again too.
Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2024.
