Gifts

And so the year comes to a close, and the impossible has happened: I have kept a diary for longer than 10 days!

A huge thank you to all for the gift of Blip. Yes I've a Flickr account, and a Picasa one, and so on, but it's the once-a-day ethos that has really got my photography going and has challenged me to take, and share, better photographs regardless of the prevailing conditions.

For me Blip is a journal rather than a gallery, so what has this year seen? It didn't start that great - with a cold. The swans on the business park, and later the ducklings and cygnets provided plenty of lunchtime cute.

We've managed a few escapes from the flatlands, weekends in the peaks, and a week with serious peaks in Switzerland.

This year it rained, and rained and rained; there were exams to revise for; birthdays to celebrate and hospital trips to make; and a funeral.

We've enjoyed our sons' creativity in many ways; the Olympics, and our physical exercises of Molly and Karate.

I even won a photo competition at work!

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The kings above are part of our nativity set. For many years now we've had the characters 'travel' from the front room to the stable over the fireplace in the back room.

The kings, currently still only halfway along the piano, are supposed to arrive later, but typically end up having to catch a flight to arrive just before the stable is dismantled...

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The gifts of gold, frankincense, myrrh and penguin are perhaps atypical.