After the fabulous light show of Dazzle which has brightened up my weekend nighttime dog walks .

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It was marvelous to see this lovely Magnolia in the dark yesterday.

https://theoldmortuary.design/2025/03/03/1220-theoldmortuary-ponders/

It reminded me to reflect, in a very self indulgent way, on the passing of winter and how as an ardent winterphobe I improved my attitude to my least liked season.

Reviewing things I realise that actually there are only three things I really dislike. January, constant rain, and short daylight hours. None of these things avoidable.

In December I am lifted by the run up to Christmas, festive lights and goodwill.

And I love February for its brevity and skippy nature as the days grow a little longer and Spring flowers spike the sodden soil.

Leaving me just with January to endure. ‘ Find the positives ‘ was the advice from Newspaper magazines each Saturday. I am always an optimist but January sucks my optimism. But I gave positivity  a go and decided to try and create interesting images out of the shockingly dull photographs I was taking. What light there is in January is overlayed with a perpetual mist and large quantities of rain. I tried everything in my medical imaging repertoire of image manipulation, everything in my arty photograph toolbox, some painting skills and used image manipulation software from really old systems to current ones.

There is almost no predictability about which bad pictures will turn out to be visual gems with my tweakments but learning to use all the tools and ideas in my head has been  fascinating. There have been some epic failures.

I even went back to the nineties and bought myself a home printer. Goodness me they have improved.

January and indeed winter 25/26 I am ready for you.

Here is the Magnolia on a gorgeous shade of ‘ greige’, surely my most used word of the winter months.

And finally the image I was aiming for.

Other worldly Magnolia.