The Hanging Stone

A Big Storm Brewing (recommended)

To cut a long story short, the last 24 hours has been nothing short of a nightmare. It's been one of those situations where a small mistake kicked off a cascade of problems which have taken longer and longer to solve as I've got more and more tired. I missed the last train back from Shipley last night and the boys very kindly offered to come out and pick me up. I had expected to be sorted out by the time they arrived, but then another problem came up and I eventually had to send them home without me. I finally got it sorted at 2.30 am and managed to find a rear light and some bike clothes so I could ride home. It was actually rather good for my head to cycle back on deserted roads with the moon rising out of sombre clouds.

I contrived to not set the alarm properly so I was thwarted from getting up as early as I really needed to, but that was possibly no bad thing. I awoke to the most amazing cloudscapes again and my first thought was that I had to get out and photograph it all. I probably missed the best of it, for there wasn't too much of a route through for the sun this morning, but I did catch the light quite nicely here beside the Hanging Stone.

You can see here the little cave from which I posted the first blip of 2012 on a disgustingly wet day. I thought blipping through the winter was going to be incredibly hard back then, but as it's turned out I think winter is possible the best time of year for my kind of photography - as long as you can actually get out in the few hours of daylight avaialble.

I've had absolutely no chance to catch up with anyone in the last few days and I really regret that because I've been left some wonderful comments. Those certainly helped sustain me through yesterday's miserable long evening when I took the odd few minutes off for a cup of tea. I dared not begin to comment back because it would have been impossible to know where to start and when to stop. I can only, for right now, say a huge thank you to everybody.

I'm travelling this evening, seeking some rest and recuperation for a few days. I've still got to pack and get organised so I'm going to have to love you and leave you in a rush yet again. I so look forward to some downtime for a proper catch-up soon now.