Altocumulus stratiformis perlucidus

Under a big sky (at Lindley Wood Reservoir)

I have been rendered almost speechless by your response to my 365th blip. The last 24 hours or so have been very busy, and all attempts to find time to thank people and some space in my head to compose a proper response have failed. For now, let me just say to everyone who took the time to comment that I am enormously grateful for your kind words. There were a lot of names that I didn't recognise. I know that many, like me at the moment, have little time to comment but I really appreciate those who stopped by yesterday to let me know that they enjoy my photographs and my writing. That acknowledgement is certainly what keeps me going. And for those people who regularly comment, my long-standing blipmates, I will treasure the messages that you left forever. You are one truly wonderful and incredibly generous bunch of people. There is so much love spread around here. It sure makes you feel warm inside!

I have to admit that I was tempted to stop at the end of my year, for a number of reasons mostly to do with available time, but I don't see any way that I can bring a close to this now! I seem to have touched and inspired a great many of your with my images of the local landscape here. That makes me very happy. The magic of this place has me under a kind of spell too. Since I started blipping I've seen it through fresh new eyes myself. I'm ever alert to its constantly shifting beauty, always seeing new things in even the most familiar of locations. I've become so acutely aware of the ever changing play of light, that the sun is always in a different place in the sky, that no shot can ever be reproduced. Each photograph represents a unique moment in space and time.

There are so many things I wanted to mention in relation to the photography and my journey here that I'm going to have to talk about them over a number of days. For my actual blip birthday shot I had a very difficult choice tonight, but I've plumped for this one because clouds have become so important to me over this last year. I live for great skies. My favourite sky is when you get a mixture of cirrus and cumulus, with lots of both high level and low level action. If I see a good sky building I need to be outside looking for an angle that I can use to showcase it. A good landscape photograph requires a good sky to set the scene and provide a mood, but I tend to turn that around and think about what view I can find which will fit the mood created by the clouds. I guess the sky is the canvas on which my photographs are painted.

I started off thinking that I was incredibly lucky with my blips, and didn't want to own up to any great skill, but I've now come to realise that, like in every aspect of life, you make your own luck. I give myself plenty of opportunity by getting out running on the moor or cycling, but I think also that knowing the environment here so well allows me to 'instinctively' head for the best place given the conditions. I don't necessarily make a conscious decision but time and time again I seem to end up in the right place at the right time. It happens too often to be pure luck. Like tonight.

It's turned midnight so my final blip of the first year is technically a back-blip but that does not really matter. There were some shots in my first few months which were a bit dodgy, but apart from those I think I can say that I was happy with every single blip I posted, especially in the last six months. Each day something turned up and I have learned to trust to that. I never have a plan. Perhaps the most exciting thing of all is waking up in the morning knowing that come the evening I will have posted a photograph, but have absolutely no idea where it's going to come from. I feel like I get a little present from the universe every day. Each one a lovely surprise. How could I possibly stop? !!