Hoar Frost

Beautiful hoar frost yesterday, starting with pink and orange hues reflecting in the ice crystals as the sun rose going to deep blues hues. I wasn't able to get out and photograph as I had other commitments but enjoyed the silver birch outside the front door!!

Waxwing Flock at Last

 Coming back from Cambridge spied a flock of 20 or so Waxwings on the Madingley Roundabout area. Rushed home to get camera and managed to track them down in nearby trees. They were too far away and too much in the bushes to get good portraits but very happy to have got even this close.

Fowlmere Birds in Winter Sun

 A few more images from Fowlmere yesterday. The Moorhens were disputing territory, as alway,s so there was quite a lot of chasing and splashing. The Kinfisher looked beautiful in the low winter light on the little tree but didn't stay to fish unlike the Heron who remained there the entire visit. We were delighted to see the Water Rail - always surprised at how small they are compared to a moorhen.

First Snow of Winter

 We had the first snow of winter early this morning, Only a sprinkling here but enough in Essex to close Stansted airport for a few hours

Wildfowl Trust Competition

I entered the following three images in the Wildfowl and Wetlands winter competition. There is a popular choice winner so if you feel like voting for my images that would be great. I have provided a link to the relevant page Welney in Winter in LandscapesWinter Wonderland in People and wildlife
Whoopers landing on Ice in Wildlife section

Winter Arrives in St Petersburg

As you can see, it snowed on our last morning in St Petersburg before flying home. I am looking forward to processing these images fully but I am putting up a selection of them now so as to complete my diary of the trip. A full gallery (or more!) of my favourite images will be put on my website in due course. Most of the images seem to work best in monochrome but there are some colour images around the city ending with a good bye to some very cold pigeons!
A wonderful trip and many thanks to Berni, Anatoli and Anya who showed us the rich heritage of their cities.

Catherine's Palace

My original plan was to find a trip that included the Peterhof Palace and Gardens but it seems that these are not visited by groups in the winter. However, Catherine's Palace at Pushkin provided many of the images that I had in my mind when thinking about a trip to Russia. There was enough snow and the grey skies were perfect. These images are straight from the camera - there are quite a few metal statue coverings that I think I will remove but these images will give an idea of the beauty of the lake and gardens.

Greetings from Moscow

Well made it to Moscow - in fact the flight went very smoothly arrangement-wise (though actually quite a lot of turbulence) as we had a tail wind and arrived about 40 mins ahead of schedule. However, the coach drive to the hotel took almost as long - two and a half hours - as the guide said, the M25 is not the only motorway car park. There is still snow on the ground but it is now unseasonably warm and raining - just my luck when I've come for snowy images.


The next two images are from my 8th floor hotel bedroom - will enjoy photography from up here at dawn and dusk.

Paddling Pool in Winter