The Christmas Blog 2023

How are you all, how’s it been going and have you had a good year?

I don’t expect you all to answer, however we trust you are all well, you have had a productive year and it has been a good one for you all.

Yep, Christmas is just around the corner.

Can you believe it? I can’t. I really have no idea where this year has gone. I did wonder whether there had been the possibility of Alien Abduction, this could certainly explain the missing time, however my wife distinctly remembers seeing me every day this year. So that theory can’t be proven. Although how do I know that my wife wasn’t abducted too and then given false memories. See it is all totally possible really….yes really.
I have a confession; I really didn’t do very well with the posting on social media and the blogging this year despite all my good intentions and plans to be more organised.
But I’m guessing that you already know that don’t you!
I will not promise to do better next year but I will promise to do my best and show you some of the stuff that we love to create in the hopes that you may also like it.

Christmas Joke

What reindeer game do reindeer play the night before Christmas Eve?
Truth or deer.

So, to the blog, because I last blogged in March, I thought I would do a look back on 2023. Just so you know we were doing things (in between the Alien Abductions obviously) and what sort of things we were doing.
Without further ado, here we go:

January and onwards through 2023
​
This year we made a return visit to the Canary Wharf winter light festival.

Strangely the people who seem to be right in front of my wife, who took this photo, couldn’t see her at all. Such fun. (Quick Miranda quote, my wife likes Miranda)

Onwards our first visit to the Graffiti Tunnels. This is literally a captured moment in time as the walls are continually changing with new graffiti artists adding their own art. 

Some of the artwork is truly stunning, well worth a visit, I am sure we will return.

Then a change of tack when we went to see the oldest wooden church in the world - Greensted Church.

Now I would not want to cast any aspersions on this claim I am sure that it is quite accurate and it is a lovely little church.
​However I can't help thinking about Triggers broom in Only Fools and Horses…..Just saying. It is a lovely church.

Battersea Power Station was next on our list.
​I have always wanted to go there and it just so happened they also had a light show going on at the time of our visit. You would even think that we planned it like that. I would have loved to have seen the power station when it was a power station but the more modern iteration is still very impressive with shops on all the floors and some of the old equipment preserved within. 

Another Christmas Joke

What happened to the man who stole an Advent Calendar?
He got 25 days!

This next part comes with a scare warning of 1.5 out of 10 for those of a nervous disposition. We took a stroll down to Highgate Cemetery East, I say East as we did not have time to see the West side mainly because they closed quite early and we take ages to go round anywhere. You know the thing if it says on the website or someone on TripAdvisor has said “took about 2 hours”, then we know we will be there most of the day (which is probably why no one goes anywhere with us anymore).

Now this second image was a bit freaky to say the least, have you noticed why? If you are familiar with the cemetery, then if you turn around from the tomb of Karl Marx you will see this grave.
Imagine my surprise.
How strange would it be if this was a relative, albeit an unknown one. We did try to do some checking but couldn’t really get anywhere. However, if there is a will waiting to be claimed by a distant relative please let me know in the comments as here I am ready and waiting to take on the burden of a vast fortune and possibly a mansion.😁

Another Christmas Joke

What is an elf’s favourite type of music?
Wrap!

We then found ourselves literally walking through a wonderland in Dorset, luckily, we escaped with our heads intact. We found a tower on top of a hill; it was so windy the tower was even being blown over. No, I am just kidding it is the wide-angle lens used that causes this distortion. Some people would have to straighten it all out in post but I quite like the effect. 

Back to Harlow Town for this next one. Taken because the buildings shown here no longer exist, demolished to make way for new changes taking place.
Nothing stands still for too long.
I hope this progress will truly be of benefit to the town and its people.

Next on the whistle stop tour a visit to a local favourite of ours Fishers Green which always offers opportunities for a piccy or two or three or four. If your not into taking photos yourself (who isn’t nowadays with mobile phones so ready to hand), then Fishers Green offers lovely walks, oh yes and there is also an ice cream van most of the year, what more do you need.

Moving on two images from a commission we undertook. Taken at our local park.

And another Christmas Joke

Why is the Christmas alphabet different to the ordinary alphabet?
The Christmas alphabet has Noel.

Somewhere else very local to us, Latton Wood, a great place to take a look around and maybe find a piccy. It isn’t massive but still offers a nice little walk on reasonably good paths. There is also common ground where horses can be found grazing.

We also found our image on the front of the Harlow Times Spring edition.

We may have mentioned this before.😇

A quick train ride and back into London, this time Spitalfields and the Brick Lane areas. At Spitalfields we found ourselves transformed to an earlier era watching an impromptu tea dance. The band were excellent and great time was had by all.

Brick Lane is again all about the graffiti and the market. Some fantastic street artwork and lots of it.

Keeping with the London theme and later in the year another adventure this time to the Barbican Centre, which was quite quiet and a stroll down to Covent Garden. Sadly, the gardens at the Barbican were shut due to a private function. At least it gives us another reason to return another day.
​Covent Garden in contrast to the Barbican was awash with people having fun, shopping and dining out.

These next two images are from our holiday to Wales, we love Wales it is our fourth year there and we have been to a different area every time. The people are always friendly and there is so much to see. This is one of the train drivers who was happy to pose and give us a wave as he went, steam filling the air. The next image is Borth beech where we found ourselves in a mini sand storm. The way the sand danced across the beech was mesmerising. So many images taken just on this one visit.

Another Christmas joke I hear you cry.

What’s the absolute best Christmas present?
A broken drum — you can’t beat it!

After Wales we went straight on Safari capturing the animals in blistering heat of Kenya. 

Nope hang on that’s not quite true, I wish we could go on Safari.
So, this was the next best thing a trip to two of our local Zoos, on different days just for clarification.

Would you have guessed if we had continued with the charade?

Well, if you are all sticking with this well done and thank you.
​Back and even more local now with a walk around Gibberd Garden which was the home of Sir Frederick Gibberd who was consultant architect planner for the development of Harlow. He spent the rest of his life living in the town he had designed.

Because we didn’t get to see the Highgate Cemetery West on our first visit we decided to return for this very purpose. We were very glad we did and enjoyed another day walking around. If you haven’t been, again we highly recommend it, it is not scary at all quite the opposite full of history, quiet and peaceful.

Although, if you do have a penchant for the macabre you can also imagine scenarios with vampires, werewolves, crusaders and treasure maps. Look, at this point you have to admit I have not been forthcoming with my usual sci fi references so I need a little bit of mind wonderings.

Another suitable Christmas joke for the last visit.

What do you get if you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Frostbite.

Keeping with the magical and mysterious, this next trip brought us face to face with a Death Eater whilst walking through Diagon Alley. After we clocked it (slang - for saw something UK), we thought it was time (get it time the image is of the clock, clocked it get it. Well I’m not going anywhere, just renewed the website subscription, so you will just have to put up with it) to make a hasty retreat. Once again another brilliant trip, even if you are not a dyed in the wool Potter fan, it is very interesting.

Ok sorry no more silliness or tall Tales next is our trip to Canterbury (nope not saying anything about Canterbury and Tales it was just a strange coincidence “honest governor”).

Ahem as I said Canterbury.

Not exactly what we thought it would be but still very nice, although charging you to walk around the outside of Canterbury Cathedral (that was covered in scaffolding when we went, didn’t say nothing about that on the website before we visited) was a little bit steep in our opinion. Pay to go in we get, but to walk around outside?
​Bah Humbug (had to get a little Dickens in somewhere, well it is Christmas after all).
Anyway, as I said there is much to commend Canterbury and it was nice to visit as we hadn’t been before.

Almost there now time for another Christmas joke.

Where do Santa's elves go swimming when they have stopped working?
The North pool.

Just a quick one now, took some frozen fruit out of the freezer and thought “that could make a picture”. Here is my artistic version what do you think?

This little image taken on a walk along the riverside (local of course, just through the park and over the bridge) led to our Halloween Reel which was very well received, so we thank you all very much. Check it out on this website.

You may have seen one of our other images on Facebook from this walk which was once again local to us at Parndon Wood. Another place full of photographic opportunities throughout the year. We were not out long but came back with lots of lovely fungi images. 

Finally, December is here and we finish with the Christmas lights in London.

Which brings us to the end of our journey and 2023.
We hope you enjoyed a wander through the year with us. You may have noticed that a lot of our images were taken very local, so I think what we are trying to say is, take your inspiration from all around you whether that is in an artistic way or just noticing the little things, get out there and see what you can find, you may be more surprised than you think.

If you take a look at last year’s Christmas Blog I started off with a quote from

C. S. Lewis:
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different...”

I think that can equally apply here, now I have taken a quick look back I realise just how much we did do in 2023. There is a plethora (don’t you just love words like plethora, so posh) of images from all of these visits to work on.
So, 2024 will be equally busy and of course there will be many more adventures to be had.
 
Just time for one more Christmas joke.

Why did Father Christmas get a parking ticket on Christmas Eve?
He left his sleigh in a snow parking zone.

What? There that good you want one more, well ok then.

How much did Father Christmas pay for his sleigh?
Nothing, it was on the house! Boom Boom.
 
So, we end 2023 as we do all our Christmas blogs.
Here is looking to a very bright and prosperous future for everybody.
​Happy Holidays to all. Be careful, be safe, enjoy what you have, eat, drink
be merry and stay warm.
 
We hope that 2024 brings you many adventures both big and small.

In our best Dickensian voices, we say (imagine in your head the voice of Brian Blessed, you know, he said Gordon’s Alive in Flash. I did it last year and I've done it again).

May we wish you a Merry Christmas and to one and all a Happy New Year.

If you made it to the end thank you. Please like, comment and share here and on our facebook page.