avid followers will have noticed that aside from brief posts about re-organising the site, with one or two updates, things have been even quieter than usual around here since at least november of last year (2021). it’s not so much that i’ve been allowing my camera to gather dust in a remote corner of my castle (never a good idea, using a camera or not), i have been out and about quite a bit with both my dslr, and my little fuji x100f. details later. this winter i’ve been feeling even less like exploring and flaneuring than usual. it’s been a dark and gloomy winter, and i’ve been longing for the light that spring brings.

i did some ‘post-covid’ or at least ‘post-restriction’ travelling over the in france and italy, visiting the wonderful sopra bolzano area of the italian tyrol. i also stayed at riva garda on italy’s largest lake, a romantic and lovely setting, even in winter, where i also managed to contract the omicron variant of covid 19. thankfully i’m fully vaccinated with a booster, and although the illness was far from pleasant, i managed to recover incredibly quickly, something which i can only ascribe to the efficacy of the vaccine. so i spent some days in venice at the end of december and the beginning of this year. a winter visit to venice is something i’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and it didn’t disappoint. it was quiet, mysterious, and with omicron, depressing and bloody freezing. i’ll be posting some photos soon.

the positive covid test necessitated an extended stay in paris, which, while i was recovering from the virus provided a pretty setting, up on the hill of montmartre.

my outlook has remained gloomy: galloping inflation is making huge inroads to my income. a death in my immediate family added yet another layer of sorrow to the winter cold in february, and of course the horrendous and bloody invasion of ukraine has left me stunned by incredulity, as the spectre of WWIII has reappeared; something i never thought i’d see again in my lifetime. my thoughts, daily, are coloured as should all our thoughts, by the suffering of the country, and of course, the other less publicised, but no less terrible conflicts and miseries in the world. those would include yemen, africa, the continuing plight of palestine and the repressions and privations of the people of afghanistan and the many other dangerous places in our fragile world.