WME Flickr Focus - December 2022

Christmas was the usual festive whirlwind of utter mayhem and I've now got a little bit of routine administration to attend to before we can say hello to 2023. Consulting my trusty abacus, the numbers reveal that the West Midlands Exploration photostream received exactly 600 photo arrivals over the course of 2022, thus bringing the grand total to a not insubstantial 6,078 published pictures...

December's contribution focused almost exclusively upon one particular gallery, except for a minor outburst from WME Staffordshire (a footpath mileage marker near Whiston, but we don't need to get excited about that). No, apart from that single item, Exploration Extra absolutely dominated proceedings as if on a mission to banish the slumbers that had kept it devoid of additions until November.

Encouragingly, many of EE's fresh items see me dipping into my 2021 archives with May and June of that year making especially useful inroads. For example, the Rail Rover 2021 album has been boosted by the presence of Barrow upon Soar (notably featuring Deep Lock on the Grand Union Canal), then there are extractions from my Kendal family holiday with a focus on castle ruins, mysterious yards and River Kent wildlife. Still with 2021, the Derby Rams Trail registers strongly thanks to the likes of 'Bee Happy', 'Captain Strong' and 'Rambo'.

There have been prized pluckings from earlier in my back catalogue too: I've raided Edinburgh 2017 for David Hume's statue plus Iona Bar branding, whereas the same year's Chelmsford cricket escape provides County Ground vistas and a trio of pub signs (the United Brethren, the Plough and the Riverside). The first ever Warwickshire-watching getaway Stephen and I joined forces for was at Chester-le-Street in 2010 so I'm pleased that Durham's Shakespeare pub has taken its rightful photostream place, and my oldest upload of the whole year is a 2006 sighting of preserved Daimler BON 474C at BaMMoT.

I can therefore consider 2022 a job well done in terms of the Flickr side of things so in 2023 I'll simply aim to keep chipping away as best I can whenever the chance arises. I've been taking digital photos for over 20 years now - my 2002 equivalent self would never have believed that! - and though I'm still very much an amateur with a point-and-click approach I've nevertheless relished documenting the West Midlands in my own peculiar way over that time. Here's hoping there is plenty more to come...