Once a year, I’m reminded that I have a WordPress account and a blog that I started on Christmas Day 2008, and used to put a lot of time and effort into. As usual, WordPress remind me by sending an email thanking me for my payment, rather than one a week before explaining that they’re about to relieve me of $80!

And so, as in recent years, I’ll give the blog a short-lived revival before forgetting about it and starting the cycle again.

Before I begin though, is anyone still out there?

(My little corner of) WordPress used to be a cool place filled with cyclists, photographers and musical folks and my feed something that was worth checking out every day. It seems most of those blogs have withered and died (as perhaps this one should have done!).

I recently closed my Twitter account and had real mixed feelings about doing so. This wasn’t because of my feelings towards Elon, his algorythm or the cesspit that X (ffs) has become, but because of my history there. Back in the day, I met (and in some cases REALLY met) some fantastic people through it, learned things about all sorts of topics and become part of the film photography scene of shooters, podcasters, zine makers and teachers. For the most part, it was a supportive and fun community and I’d posted a lot of my favourite photography work there.

Deleting the account meant letting go of all that without an obvious replacement. I guess it ages me quite accurately, but I’m not sure what the current equivalent is to those halcyon days of Flickr, Twitter and WordPress. It doesn’t seem to be Bluesky, Reddit or Facebook and it definitely isn’t Instagram. Perhaps it’s some Utopian corner of the internet that I’m too old or not cool enough to know about. Does anyone have an introductory offer to share?

Anyway, down to business and my first, fairly mundane post in this short lived comeback…

Today is Święto Trzech Króli or Christmas for Orthodox Christians. That means that it’s also the last day of the school holidays here in Poland and so E had some friends around meaning that I had a pass out to head to the forest with Gaja, our Hungarian Vizsla for longer than usual.

Our walk was around the state forests and fish ponds a few kilometers north of home. These forests are mostly Scots pine and go for at least 50km, broken only by the occasional road. They are carefully managed with clearly demarcated areas between old trees and those more recently cut and replanted – tree farming is perhaps a better way to think of it.