Season five teaser trailer has dropped.
Guines #50places2025
Over the last few years I have visited France quite a bit.
I first visited France as a child where it was a regular destination for family holidays, day trips and school exchanges. There was then about a ten year gap. I remember doing a ferry trip to Caen in the mid 1990s, and visiting Honfleur.
I then didn’t visit France until September 2018 when I took the train from London to Brest in Brittany, via Paris, for a library conference. It was quite a fleeting visit. I travelled from London on one day and then travelled back the following day. Arriving at Gard de Nord on the way back I realised that I had been to Paris, but in name only. I had a little time before I needed to pass through passport control, so I popped out onto the street. Took a few photographs and admired the street scene.
My next visit to France was a holiday to Brittany in 2019. We also went to France the following year this time staying in Picardy and visiting Paris.
Last year I was in France again on a driving holiday to France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
I did a day trip to Calais and Dunkerque earlier this year.
In July I did another holiday to France staying outside Calais in Guines. This is a lovely French town complete with shops, a regular market and some nice historical buildings. It was more of a base for us, but I did explore some of the town when I was there.
30. Predator
As my train was delayed, I was able to get to Temple Quay to photograph a fourth sculpture. Wasn’t planning to get four done today but pleased I did. However, these are all the four which are close to my office. I think I will need to spend some days off or weekends to get them all in before the end of August.
The terror of the deep, Predator, rises fast and flipperous from the ocean’s depths. His razor-sharp fin slices the surface, as his eyes lock on the target. Disguised as a shark and just as deadly, watch your toes when taking a dip.
51. Wednesday
My first Feathers sculpture was hiding outside Bristol Temple Meads, despite arriving by train earlier that day, I didn’t see him until later when I made my way back to the station to catch my train home.
Re-imagined in collaboration with Netflix from the smash-hit series, Wednesday is mysterious with a calculated flair. Smart and sinister, Wednesday joins the trail bringing her signature deadpan look to the streets of Bristol.
47. Treasured Island
At the front of St Mary Redcliffe church was Treasured Island.
Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, our globe-trotting Gromit will help you discover world heritage sites and rare wildlife. Perhaps the real treasures are the Gromits you find along the way…
1. Aladdin
The first of the Gromits in the Gromit Unleashed 3 trail I captured was Aladdin which was (literally) hiding in the heart of the St Nicholas Market. It was a bit of a hunt to find him, but there were some paw prints leading the way.
Inspired by the classic tale from Arabian Nights, Aladdin twinkles at every turn with jewels, gold and riches, inspiring magic and joy through the realms of his wondrous adventures.
Gromit Unleashed 3
So, 2025 sees another trail featuring Aardman’s characters from Wallace and Gromit.
Back in 2015 I attempted to see and photograph all 70 Shaun the Sheep sculptures I managed to get 62. In 2018 I was aiming to get all 67 sculptures and was successful.
This year there are 53 sculptures across Bristol. The plan is to visit and photograph all of them between now and the end of August.
Nottingham #50places2025
I was attending a conference at Nottingham Trent University. I did have a chance to explore some of Nottingham while I was there.
My first visit to Nottingham was as a child visiting my aunt and uncle. My main memory was thinking how small Sherwood Forest was and how on earth did Robin Hood hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham when the forest was so small… Of course what I didn’t realise was back then the forest was huge in comparison to the size of the forest today.
Over the last twenty five years I have made quite a few visits to Nottingham, for events, conferences, and sometimes staying there when travelling further north. I’ve also had some nice meals there too.
Exploring the city now I realise I still don’t really know the place and found it hard to get my bearings. I would walk up one street and find myself somewhere completely different to where I expected to be.
As we approach the half way point in the year, I planned to visit fifty different places and so far I have done thirty six, so well on target.
Plymouth #50places2025
I have been visiting various universities across the South West with my daughter for their open days. I’ve not been posting those visits here as most times we have just been visiting the university campus, so didn’t really consider it being a place for my #50places2025 posts. However when we went to Plymouth we arrived early, so after visiting the university we had some time, we went to explore Plymouth. We visited the city centre, Plymouth Hoe, the quayside and the old town. The sun was shining and it was a lovely walk around the city.
My first visit to Plymouth was back in the 1980s on a school trip, well not quite a visit but was departing from there to Roscoff in France. It was quite a hike in the coach as at that time I was living in Cambridge.
In the early 2000s I would visit Plymouth quite often for meetings and attending conferences at the University of Plymouth. With changes in my job, I no longer needed to visit Plymouth. We did stop off there once in 2016 when we were travelling down to Cornwall, that was the last time I had been there until now.
Plymouth is an interesting city in many ways, the historic naval connections and the destruction during the second world war has influence how the city has grown and changed over the years.
The city centre is being redeveloped when we were there and you could see that the sea of concrete needed some much greenery and trees.
Plymouth Hoe is so different to the concrete of the centre. The green grass, Smeaton’s lighthouse, and the lido.
I do like the dockside and I remember going to bars there when I was attending conferences at the University of Plymouth.
Then and Now Take Two, still with scaffolding – Bristol Airport
This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view o ar perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.
Over the years I have taken this view at Bristol Airport quite a few times, both unintentionally and now intentionally.
I was flying to Belfast in June 2025, so I took my usual photograph, with an iPhone 13, the building work was continuing.
I was flying to Dublin in October 2024, so I took my usual photograph.
Not quite the same view as there was scaffolding in the way and it was raining.
I was flying to Glasgow in November 2023, so I took my usual photograph.
I was flying to Amsterdam in October 2023 so I took a photograph from the window next to the balcony at the departures lounge. The balcony itself was closed, it was rather foggy.
When travelling from Bristol Airport in August 2023 I took this photograph from the balcony at the departures lounge.
When I was at Bristol Airport on the 14th November 2022, I intentionally took a photograph from the same vantage point.
I had taken a similar picture in February 2017.
I took this view of Bristol Airport from the departures lounge on an early morning in August 2016.
