This week’s weekly photo challenge is to pick the best pictures from 2012 and have those pictures tell everyone about your year. I have so many… to narrow it down to a few to produce a gallery was really really hard. I have tried to use new photos that I have not shown before, apologies for any duplicates!
I didn’t go abroad at all in 2012, so all the photos are from the UK. I have uploaded them in date order so don’t be surprised by the weather, we had hot days of over 25°C in March, and hailstones in July!
I’m hoping the gallery will display properly. I can not get the rectangular version to display 3 across and it keeps making one of the photos huge. I have swapped to the square version as it is a bit tidier, but some of the photos should be displayed landscape. I am going to have to learn HTML to display these the way I want!! 🙂
I have tried to put explanatory captions on the photos… there are links in the captions when there is a website which gives more information about the place or photo.
Click on any picture to see it in full.
Start the year with a splash, Christmas swim in Hampton Open air Pool
Family in the middle of the pool Christmas Day Hampton Pool 2011
Christmas Swim 2011 Family close up 🙂
A snowy morning, and a garden full of bright green Parakeets hoping for some peanuts!
I saw this beautiful golden Torc during a half term trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum
Frogs ‘hugging’ in our garden. March was unseasonably warm, so during the first rainy night the garden was gull of hugging frogs 🙂
This house & boat are just outside the entrance to Birdham pool Marina in Chichester Harbour
Wilson loves water…. what’s a little mud between friends?
This is absolutely my favourite house! This photo was my header for ages, I might put it back once WordPress stops snowing!
Our favourite tree outside St Martha’s Church in Guildford where we got married last year
St Martha’s Church, Chilworth, Guildford where we got married in April last year
Wilson’s paws show their size when they are in water… He has webbed feet and is an excellent swimmer
I got stuck at work one July evening by a flash hailstorm. The drifts were so heavy that there were huge piles that needed to be shovelled out of the way the next day despite the return of the hot July sunshine
A baby bird we found in Canterbury in July, He looked a bit shook so after his photo-shoot we put him in a nearby tree safe from cats!
Another evening a flash rainstorm flooded the roads and some of the houses on this road!
Incredibly fast racing boat in Chichester Harbour
A Harris Hawk in Devon
Sunflowers outside a beach shop on a soggy August Bank Holiday Monday in Coombe Martin Devon
We got to go to the Olympics in September, and here I am with one of the Olympic torches 🙂
We have been to see Leonard Cohen 6 times since he began his world tour in 2009
The temporary bridge in Walton is finally being replaced. I have taken lots of photos of it’s progress. If you’re wondering what the weather is like where I live, have a look at the live webcam!
Wilson had a very short haircut! His hair gets very long and tangled, and this was the only way to sort it out! It’s grown back quickly, this was October!
‘The Rapunzel Tower’ at Box Hill, a folly that is great fun to climb, and has a tree growing up the inside
Guildford Castle in the November sunshine
Beautiful golden beech leaves in the November sun
Parakeets back in force for peanuts now that it’s December
My favourite house in Langstone, with a light shining from the lighthouse window
For other interpretations of this week’s theme have a look at:
Weekly Photo Challenge: My 2012 in Pictures
Update:
It seems the links in the captions don’t work when the photos are in a gallery, so here are the relevant links:
Hampton Open Air Pool
Victoria and Albert Museum
The Rapunzel tower at Box Hill
Birdham Pool Marina
St Martha on The Hill Church
Leonard Cohen World Tour 2012
Walton Bridge Webcam
Guildford Castle
About Barbara
Born in Dublin, living in London with Peter, my two daughters, Wilson our Spaniel & Woordow our Malshih (Shih Tzu-Maltese cross)
Day One 
great photos 🙂
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Thanks! It’s so hard to pick just a few… and to try & spread them out over the year! Wilson is only in 4 of them too… he will be very upset!!
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aw that’s not too bad an average – he’s a star
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Oops! Hubby is upset he’s not in the Christmas swim photo!! And I thought he didn’t like being on the Internet! Need to change that one 😉
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(Fixed!) 🙂
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Ha ha !!
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I can’t win can I ?
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You had a great year, evidently! I was excited to see your pic of Leonard Cohen and see how many of his concerts you had attended. We saw one in December in Toronto and I think it was probably the best I have ever seen. But I didn’t get a photo. I am envious of yours!
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I’ve been a fan of Leonard since I was a moody teenager, and my first concert of his was in Dublin in 1986. When we found out about him going back on tour we jumped at the chance to see one of our childhood heroes ‘one last time’ (we have also recently seen Neil Young, Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, John Martyn, James Taylor, Bowie… Etc) but the first concert we went to, it just blew us away. He had announced a second set of nights and the second we got home from that first concert we booked more! We have seen him twice at the O2 arena, once at Wembley arena, and at a live concert really near our home in Weybridge! We are going to the O2 again in June. The acoustics are stunning. His concerts are by far the best we have been to, and hubby & I have seen a lot over the years. Hubby was at the last Hendrix concert on the Isle of Wight….
For those who only knew Leonard as a depressing crooner for miserable teenagers, the new man is a transformation. Just do what I say… If there are tickets out there… Go!!! You will not regret it 🙂
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I really enjoyed the photos. The gallery laid out very nicely – great format. And your dog is just precious!
Nancy
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He is indeed. No matter how I wake up, Wilson is always happy. We were blessed to have found him 🙂
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Did you see the comment I left you over at the WordPress challenge about getting three columns instead of two?
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I saw it… But then I lost it! Thanks… Will go back again & find it again 🙂 thank you
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I thought I’d move your response over to here (you can delete if you don’t want it here) – you said:
I found it! sorry i didnt reply instantly… and then i couldnt find your comment, or mine!
i reloaded and re-arranged and resubmitted and deleted and reposted this entry about 40 times before I was remotely happy with it (& then had to work out how to swap one photo cos hubby is a bit put out not being in the Christmas swim one! )
I think it’s a problem with the theme. I chose this theme for its simplicity as I am dyslexic and don’t like clutter, but I would love the gallery to look better Maybe I’ll have a play in the new year. A few people seem to use flikr to host their photos, maybe that would be a way forward?
I love the slideshow option, but people don’t tend to look through the photos when they are displayed like that so some are lost. I have a whole load of photo orientated posts planned for next year with loads of photos of my travels, so I might just have to try a play with some more photoblog
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Barbara – I’m not surprised you had to play with it for a while to get it to look good. It gets faster with practice.
I don’t use flikr, I simply upload to WordPress (I paid for extra storage). I use Lightroom to downsize my photos and put on a watermark before I upload.
Your theme looks good to me and you’re using a standard two column format – you might recheck your settings for the galleries (both in media upload and also in the dashboard \ settings \ media \ tiled galleries.
Remember that WordPress has a lot of good support write-ups and the forums are good too. Their initial write-up when the galleries changed was particularly good.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/
There’s nothing wrong with changing your theme, but it would be disappointing to do so and find out it didn’t solve the problem.
Sorry this is so long, but I thought you might want it where you can reference it quickly as you experiment.
Nancy
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Thank you! I couldn’t find my comment and your reply within the hundreds of comments on the challenge 🙂 will have a play in the new year
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Love these photos, a really interesting insight to your year. Thanks for sharing them 🙂
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Thank you 🙂 it’s a really difficult challenge! A lovely relaxing happy year. Probably the opposite of yours. Here’s hoping your 2013 will be filled with better health & positive energy & good news xxx
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Harris Hawk in Devon = a proud character!
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He was indeed. I couldn’t stop taking photos of him, I think he considers himself a bit of a model 🙂 he seemed to be posing for the camera
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Lovely photos. I can help you with your gallery set up if you still want help.
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Yes please! I gave up on the rectangular one as it just wouldn’t work! 😦
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Oh my goodness, I’m ashamed to admit this, but I thought I could help out with this. Alas, I cannot. Using another of my blogs with a wider posting space like yours (The Good Villager has a narrower column and the photos therefore don’t appear to be huge), and I’ve played with a number of parameters. It really appears that for rectangular tiling, appearance of 3 photos in a row is completely random! Adjusting number of columns, photo sizing, etc. do not work!
The most helpful articles on galleries are: http://agallerydemo.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/shapes-and-mosaics-new-ways-of-displaying-your-gallery-thumbnails/ and http://gammagirl.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/not-the-official-wordpresscom-gallery-faq/ – but still, neither of them provide a solution that works.
I’m afraid that I’ve gotten your hopes up, when truly, this is one for the support forums. Many, many apologies 😦
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Lol, don’t worry! It’s just good to know its a problem with WordPress rather than with me! I reloaded and re-arranged and resubmitted and deleted and reposted this entry about 40 times before I was remotely happy with it (& now I have to work out how to swap one photo cos hubby is a bit put out not being in the Christmas swim one! )
It makes sense that it’s a problem with the theme. I chose this theme for its simplicity as I am dyslexic and don’t like clutter, but I would love the gallery to look better 😦 Maybe I’ll have a play in the new year. A few people seem to use flikr to host their photos, maybe that would be a way forward?
I love the slideshow option, but people don’t tend to look through the photos when they are displayed like that so some are lost. I have a whole load of photo orientated posts planned for next year with loads of photos of my travels, so I might just have to try a play with some more photoblog friendly themes.
Thanks so much for taking the time to help! Xxx
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Sounds like a good plan for 2013. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for photo presentation – you’ve got some great shots, and I’m sure there are more to come!
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Great selection, it is hard to pick a favourite. I had not realised how big Wilson’s paws were.
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I know! He hurt his paws once on limpets on a beach, and we tried to get him some shoes, but all the ones we tried were far too small. They are huge for such a little dog!
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Hello Barbara, I love Watson !!!! WordPress has changed a lot. I thought I am stupid 😆
Don´t worry, be happy 😉
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We love Wilson too… he is a big part of every day. Very glad to know that it is WordPress, not us that is stupid 🙂 xxx
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WOW, Barbara – I do understand why you couldn’t resize the numbers of photos. They are all so wonderful and I can see you have had a superb journey in 2012 where you met high and low … I love to look at them . Have a super great Happy New Year 2013 😀
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Thank you 🙂 I could easily add a completely different 24. The only low really has been my health, and in comparison to other people’s health problems, it’s nothing, just an uncomfortable inconvenience I have to learn to live with! Mostly highs this year, lifted even higher by the presence of Wilson in our lives 🙂
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My pleasure, dear Barbara – There are a lot of things we accept because we don’t want to miss something, right? I am happy for you having Wilson too. 🙂 Thanks for dropping by
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A great selection of pictures, gives me some great ideas of other places to visit.
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I like yours too… Richmond is a common haunt of ours too, but less so since we have Wilson as he is fond of deer and we are worried about a repeat of the ‘Fenton’ video :). I miss our walks along the river there too
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Great collection of images Barbara, seems to be a very appropriate time for doing it.
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Lol, funny I would not have thought of doing it were it not the weekly photo challenge! A great idea
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The church where you got married is charming! Your pictures are really beautiful… 🙂
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It is really stunning. There are more photos of it on my ‘About Me‘ page, and I have some lovely ones from the snow in 2010/11 that I must add shortly.
You can only get there by walking 20 mins up hill (although there is a track if people can’t manage the walk)
It was great to make all of our wedding guests go for a hill walk before our wedding 🙂
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