SOLSTICE SUN

Getting used to seasonal shifts in daylight hours has been one of the hardest things to adapt to since moving to Europe. Although I spent many years in New Zealand when I was young, I lived near the equator long enough to consider daylight hours of equal length all year round as normal. Still, I finally got my little hound over to the UK a couple of weeks ago so my new daily routine involves getting up an hour earlier (groan) to be dragged comatose around the countryside.

IT'S ALWAYS SUMMER IN PROVENCE

I recently went on a short trip to Vergeze, a small sleepy village in the South of France. Time to shed the heavy coats and get a welcome respite from the northern cold snap.

FORET

Fly agaric toadstool

During my most recent visit back to France, I took the hound for an autumnal wander in the forests of Saint Amand les Eaux (Parc Naturel Régional Scarpe-Escaut). Decent forests are pretty few and far between in the north so it was a nice change to get out and about in a woodland. Lots of mushroom and toadstools on display, so I tried my hand at a little microcosm style photography.

PASTORALE

One of those typical medieval style country villages full of quaint lanes and half timbered houses, Chilham has become one of my favourite spots to visit on a lazy sunny Sunday afternoon. There are also pretty extensive walking tracks around the village as it's part of the South Downs Way. This quaint summer scene of grazing sheep and ripening apples was just too perfect.

FNQ

During my latest trip to Australia, I went on a quick 5 day dash over to far North Queensland. I haven't been here since I was a kid, and on the itinerary was a tour of the Atherton region, the Daintree and a bit of Barrier Reef action. Although the weather was mostly cold and overcast (well, except for in those first couple of pictures...) it was a pretty fun excursion...aside from the gut heaving excursion out to the reef which left half a boatload of passengers being violently ill, myself included (check out my sexy sea legs).

KINGS OF THE ROAD

Road trains are the most common forms of goods transport in Australia. Huge trucks cover large distances every week, and travel the length and breadth of the country.

UBIRR

It's been years since I've been out to Kakadu. Even when I was living in Darwin I'd gotten out of the habit of taking trips down the track, apart from the odd visit to Litchfield. To be honest I'd completely forgotten how amazing Kakadu can be.

CHILLED IN KATHERINE

Normally the north Australian dry season has warm sunny days you can set your watch by, years in advance. However this year was an exception to this rule and my jaunt to Mataranka and Katherine was mostly overshadowed by...well...a blanket of grey clouds. And not only clouds but ridiculously cold weather to boot (cue me and a few hundred other chilled souls ransacking the Target dept store in Katherine for some cold weather wardrobe accessories). I tried my hardest to avoid jersey fabric, but ultimately the inevitable happened.

KAKADU BIRDS

Striated pardalote - open eucalypt woodland, Litchfield National Park

I lived in Northern Australia for about 12 years in total, and spent a lot of that time out in the bush, surrounded by amazing colours, diverse nature and raw beauty. I was always interested in photography, and have had a camera kicking around for as long as I can remember but like a lot of people the cost of film could be a bit offputting when you were still working it all out.
I had so much fun cramming in 13 lost years into a one month holiday, but at the same time I quite regretted that I hadn't go into photography earlier. It was amazing to see how much easier it is to photograph wild birds in Australia as compared with Europe. All of these shots used nothing more powerful than a 200mm lens and a bit of cropping.

BURNING SEASON

Every year from around May until July is when most of the annual burning is done in the Top End. Once a landscape that was managed according to a long and unbroken tradition by the indigenous peoples of this nation, these days it's more of a ramshackle affair that tries to tie in modern science, traditional knowledge, diverse land practices and the problem of increased fuel loads from invasive grasses.

KENTISH

Well the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur! Between getting a job in the UK, going to Australia, finding some temporary digs (currently living in an uninsulated closet sized room for the next few months until I find something more long-term suitable), buying a car, having said car turn into a lemon before I even got it home, spending a fortune on getting the car fixed and plotting revenge on the scammy bastard who sold it to me, worrying about the puppy I left behind (it'll be a few months before I can bring him over), trying to get my laundry dry and learning a gazillion new things at my place of work (including how to go about fixing the database system that underpins about 50% of the work I have to do) - well, I have found a little time for eating and sleeping...

STORMS OVER CALAIS

I've never been a fan of the industrial town of Calais, in Northern France. It serves as a port to get to and from the UK but I haven't yet found any other reasons to visit. However, I do think their belfry is one of the nicest in Flanders. Snapped this shot on my way back from my interview over in Kent - it had been a totally manic and rushed day full of crucial transport connections and stumbling around unknown territory. I took a moment out before heading on the train home to breathe in and look behind me, and was treated to a lovely bit of stormy dark-light.

I'll soon be heading over the sleeve myself as I did get a job offer following this interview...they were even happy to hold the position for me until I'm back from my trip to Australia! More changes afoot...

OVER THE SLEEVE

I finally had a job interview last week with a wildlife park in Kent as I've recently been considering a move to the UK if I want to get work in my field, anywhere near my field, 3 paddocks over from my field...Mr Francais has also expressed an interest to move also but for now I'm thinking mostly of my own career goals as the compromises I have been making career-wise to stay in France are not doing either of us any favours.

CANAL

water! the horrors!

One of the advantages of having a brand spanking new puppy to try and keep trained and/or exhausted is getting to know some local scenery. I walk down by this canal near our apartment a lot, and the enclosed pathway has been very useful for teaching the pooch a bit of off-leash training and recall. It's quite a pretty walk and great for keeping watch on the unfolding spring season...and I imagine that without the persistent prod of a pooch that wants some outdoors time, I would never even have found out about it.

EVEN MY DOG HAS A CHIROPRACTOR

I've never had a dog before. In fact, I've only very sporadically had cats and have never had the occasion to take any of them to the vet. However, being as I am a newly responsible, mature and adult dog owner (read 'wallet on legs') I have had a couple of recent visits for booster shots and the like. This last visit came with a singularly bizarre witch doctory chiropractic session where my fairly confused and generally overexcited dog was treated to some reiki style micro manipulations from the local vet who, as far as I could tell, appeared to be casting out localised stresses with dramatic flourishes of her wrist.

Oh well, he's no more or less insane than usual.

YPRES (IEPER)

A few snaps from the town of Ypres in northern Belgium

CHAMPAGNE-ARDENNES

During the Easter break we bundled up the puppy for a short trip to the nearby region of Champagne-Ardennes in north-eastern France. Still a bit on the damp and nippy side, it was nevertheless a great couple of days away and the pup behaved surprisingly well (helped along by many hours of running through forests...but not crossing tiny streams...absolutely not. Not even rivulets....tell me again how spaniels are meant to like water??)

BRUGGES

Brugges, also called the Venice of the North, is a little village just over the Belgian border, that has been frozen in time - much to the delight of hundreds of tourists who flock to the town for their fix of lace, chocolate and ye olde authentic horse and carriage rides (this town probably has the highest carriage per person ratio of anywhere in the world outside of Amish settlements).

EASTER AT MEERT

The pricey but exquisitely turn of the century chocolate, pastry and tearoom known as Meert is the jewel in the Vieux Lille crown. However, aside from popping in for the occasional packet of old style syrup filled waffles (gaufres), it's not an experience I can readily afford. But window shopping is free...(and they're pretty chill about letting you take photos).

SOCIALITE

It appears that owning a dog in France is like obtaining an open pass to converse with any and all strangers you meet on the street. Whether you want to or not...you have little choice in the matter. While his little cocker eyes don't fool me for a second (well, apart from that bit that saw me forking over a bunch of cash to buy him), they seem to work wonders on all passers by that either have a dog, had a dog, want a dog or are quite simply insane. Being, as we are, in France, this figure is somewhere around the 98% mark.

TOUTOU

Mr Francais, master of the poorly thought out idea, lived up to his reputation this weekend and decided the best way to repair the most recent bout of relationship strain was to get a puppy. I didn't really have the energy to argue the point but wasn't really expecting that we'd find a suitable canine candidate so was happy just to wander around and look at fluffy things...until I met my canine kryptonite; a cocker spaniel.  Well, there's zero preparation in the apartment, shoes and cables and dvds lying about as we leave the house with no intention of getting a dog...and come back a lot poorer with an armful of canine...(well, I'm poorer at any rate, somehow I ended up paying for all of this).

To be honest though, I could do with the company (and the exercise).

NORTHERN BRICKS

Even when we're new to a place, it's often the case that we'll go from active observer to passive viewer very quickly. And usually the more common a feature is, the less likely we are to really see it.

Here in northern France, brick architecture reigns supreme. We're drowning in them, from red brick buildings to cobblestone streets, the streets of northern French towns are a pixelated tapestry of squares and mortar. Squint your eyes a little and it all blends into one homogenous mass of baked earth blocks.

GRANDE ARCHE DE LA DEFENSE

Designed by Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen

RETRACING OLD STEPS

It was my first time back in Paris since leaving definitively about a year ago. Whereas once I was cynical enough to be rolling my eyes at the enchanted tourists, I was myself finally able to appreciate it again for the city that it can be. The edges of bad memories of being pushed and shoved about in the metro softened by observing people actually being courteous, by not riding the peak hour lines or times, by not having to be anywhere at a particular time (except for the train station Anne, except for the train station...)