It rained yesterday: a steady drizzle, more or less non-stop until mid-afternoon. Water butts in the garden were filled and I sat and watched cricket on the television (no rain at Old Trafford) without guilt.

We always moan about the weather, don’t we? But what started as a nice, warm summer has since become a bit of a nightmare, hasn’t it? Much as I like wearing shorts, temperatures in the mid-thirties and higher, day after day, get to be a bit much.

Photographically it hasn’t been a great time, either. It’s not that I can’t take pictures in hot weather, more that clear blue skies hold limited appeal. Even the sea has been calm in the heat, so options for attractive seascapes have also been more restricted than usual.

I thought I’d be able to rely on a trip to Scotland to give some variety, but it was hot, clear and dry there as well, with barely a ripple on the Firth of Forth and North Sea. Damn it!

Still, I wasn’t going to be completely defeated, and trips to Elie and Earlsferry in the beautifully named Blackness Bay on the Firth of Forth, plus St. Monans just along the coast, were fun and yielded a couple of pictures that I like.

I also developed “a bit of a thing” for the Tay rail bridge and photographed it on several occasions while staying in Dundee. It’s a very fine a photogenic bridge, but one with a tragic past with the first iteration falling into the Tay on a stormy night, taking a train and over ninety passengers with it.

Back at home, I’m now thinking ahead to autumn and something a little cooler. I have ideas for pictures at Filey and Spurn Point, amongst others, and look forward to the right conditions.

If you’ve read this far, thank you, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your own long, hot summer.