Waves on a sandy beach
Madagascar,  Paris,  The Changing Seasons,  Themed galleries

Gallery: an October & November selection (2023)

December 1, 2023 / 43 Comments

November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear

Sir Walter Scott

That quote sums up what I like least and most about November, which is NOT one of my favourite months. Yes, there is still plenty of autumn colour, in the first part of the month at least. But here in the UK there are many more dull November days than bright, or so it seems to me. And with the clocks going back at the end of October, darkness falls by late afternoon.

So what better month in which to escape the country for warmer climes?! We’ve tended to do just that in recent years and this year was no exception. Towards the end of October we headed off to Madagascar to see the wildlife there and spend a few days chilling on a beach. Hence the lack of an October round-up and the reason why I’m bundling both months together.

Madagascar certainly delivered on wildlife, and we especially loved the eco-lodge we stayed in on Baobab Beach, where my feature photo was taken. I’ve already shared some of our experiences there in previous posts and there are a lot more to come! So here I’ve tried to feature shots that probably won’t make it into any immediately forthcoming posts.

However I banged my shin badly on the second day of the trip. On my return home, the leg no better (worse if anything), I went to the doctor who declared it infected and put me on a course of antibiotics! It’s improved since but not as much as I’d hoped, so those first few weeks after returning home were relatively quiet.

But the end of the month, with the leg finally starting to heal, found us off to Paris again, not this time to celebrate an anniversary but to join the thousands of Newcastle fans heading there for the match against PSG. We didn’t have tickets, but we were keen to soak up the atmosphere. Plus it was a chance to meet up with friends living elsewhere in Europe. Because we were with friends I didn’t take as many photos as I normally would on a trip. But of course I’ve thrown in a few to round off the selection.

Technical notes

All my Madagascar photos were taken with my Lumix bridge camera, while I used the smaller compact Lumix in Paris. The handful of shots from closer to home were all taken with my phone. All the shots were edited in Photoshop Elements, many also in Color Efex Pro, and the black and white ones in Silver Efex Pro.

As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge.

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