Valley view, November afternoon

It was the first sunny morning for a while, and I took the opportunity to do a disagreeable outside job: I wanted to empty and go through the contents of the dustbin, into which I had emptied the cannister of our bagless vacuum cleaner the day before I realised the diamond from my ring was missing. I used a big, white garden tray, removed all the bagged items, then carefully sifted through the mess of dust, fluff and hair. It was another fruitless search, but I was glad I had done it. Now we can put the bin out without worrying that maybe...

By the time I got out for an afternoon walk the clouds had gathered and the light was fading too fast for the rosebud and cherry leaf photos to be worth keeping; but there was still light in the sky, the clouds were interesting, and after browsing my new Don McCullin book I thought I'd try to capture a gloomy landscape image with looming clouds. It's technically a poor photo, would have been better with a tripod (if I was prepared to lug one up the hill, which I'm probably not) and if I had better software I would adjust and balance light and contrast separately for the landscape and the sky; but for all its glaring imperfections, I still quite like the general effect if I don't look too closely. It's a view up the valley, looking roughly north east, and I like the folds and layers of landscape.