Bits and pieces from the end of 2015

Ever since I got my new camera (more than 2 years ago now I think) I have always tried to only take a photo if I think it has the potential to be a good one, not just to document where I happen to be at the time. This is no guarantee that any of the pictures I take are, or even have to be, good, but it does mean that on the odd trip or hike I end up with only a very few pictures I actually think are worth showing off. Usually these then languish on my hard drive, unblogged.

Well, no more! I have a small collection of photos from the last bit of 2015 with which to fill you in a bit on where I've been and hopefully give you a few pictures to enjoy on the way. The first three pictures in my miscellaneous album come from my trip to Krakow in November to meet up with a friend who was an invited speaker at a TV convention there. I very much enjoyed my all too brief stay in the city, and would love to go back. I have a very long list of Polish foods I didn't manage to try (though I did get me some pierogi, mmm) and we didn't make it inside the huge castle at all! Granted, the official 3 days in Krakow guide also advises you don't bother going into the castle as there is too much to see and you just don't have time. Refreshing, is how I would describe the 3 days in Krakow guide. The one weird thing about the city is its architecture, coming  across as a mixture of Vienna, Graz and Prague, and generally making me feel a bit like maybe I just made a wrong turn down a Viennese side street and ended up somewhere with a language with far too many accents on the words!

The second set of photos are from a VERY foggy late November walk in the Wienerwald. Nothing special about the route, just the classic up from Huetteldorf via the Jubilaeumswarte down to Neuwaldegg. You can see why I didn't manage a full album of photos out of this one, you could barely see more than 10m in front of yourself the whole way! But, fog has its way of making everthing wonderfully strange and unfamiliar, and I did manage to get a few shots that summed up the walk, as well as the photo of a very handsome bracket fungus I am rather proud of.

The final two images in the set come from somewhere that in some senses is much closer to home, and in other senses much further away: the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire. My friends and I from Bucks have long had a tradition of a walk in the days after christmas. The date has now settled on Boxing Day +1, and this year's walk was on a new route out in the countryside around Chesham. Exactly what one wants in a Boxing day +1 hike - green hills, lots of mud, a good pub at the end of it and gorgeous wether - warm and with sun breaking through the dramatic scudding clouds.

So there you have it, a few choice shots filling you in on activities of mine that would otherwise remain secret... I know some readers of this blog think I ONLY go to stunningly gorgeous places and on stunningly gorgeous walks, but that is just the editorial effect of me only wanting you to see nice photos!

So long for now and bis bald,

der Tom.