Scozmo's Photery

January 1st 2026

Do you remember thinking that the 21st century was “the future”? Many of the comics & books I read as a lad were SciFi based and many talked about the 21st Century like it was a different place and time and yet, here we are!

We had a pretty dreich end to 2025, it was getting quite depressing and it made me wonder what it would be like if we never saw the actual Sun again? Just endless dank, grey days. So when January 1st literally dawned, my spirit was lifted.

I had the usual start. I got up, wrapped up, it’s Scotland in Winter 🙂 and wandered through to make the toast and coffee.

The view through the kitchen doors made me smile so I grabbed a camera and wandered out in my goonie and slippers (as usual) 🙂

Sunshine makes one heck of a difference to our day, our well being, senses, everything. As I type, the Sun has risen and is shining on the side of my face.

08:27 – I probably took a few more than that but I’m trying to clean down often these days, the number of images waiting to be edited is just crazy 🙂

Coffee drank, toast devoured, I’d kept an eye on the sky outside so …

Just standing outside as the Sun rises or sets is a wonderful feeling, in fact I lost all my feeling on a beach in Llandudno watching the sun set over Anglesey 🙂 (Autocorrect drives me nuts, especially when it’s not actual English based, this must be US English, it wanted to change Anglesey to Langley!!!!!!) Really?

I spent much of the rest of that morning at the Mac, editing and listening to music and then ….

It snowed! It carried on snowing intermittently for a good while but once it looked like it had stopped, we headed out for a New Years day walk.

I took a camera but we actually just enjoyed the walk for a change and i took very few shots. Amazing 🙂

As I came back up the lane, there’s an apple tree on the right that still has apples on it and the Blackbirds gather there to eat their fill but I spotted a Fieldfare chasing them off so, I weakened 🙂

They’re gorgeous Winter visitors and we had one last year in the garden that drove all other Thrush-like birds away for about a week.

Almost back at the house, bottom of the last hill and the Sun was shining on the hedge so it was full of wee birds catching a heat I guess.

I caught this female Redpoll in the low Sunlight, they’ve only been high in the trees until recently, now they’re all around but very flighty, gorgeous wee birds.

Those were just after 14:30 or 2:30pm so I probably lit the fire and we had dinner once settled in again but they day wasn’t over yet.

There was a very brief but beautifully subtle Sunset, at 15:37!

And, to top the day off completely …

A bright, waxing gibbous Moon, almost full, almost the full Moon wasn’t until January 3rd.

My point here? Our year ended pretty low under dank, grey skies and the new year started with bright skies, albeit intermingled with heavy snow but, snow is white and bright 🙂

Here’s hoping for a better year this year, for us all.