This amused me but didn’t quite fit in with the “story” I was trying to tell in my blog about Oslo…

I Have really fond memories of summer 1994 when I did a summer job in Ipswich. (Yes, I’m talking about Ipswich in a blog entitled “Oslo.” Bear with me.) Now Suffolk isn’t a glamorous location necessarily but it was a good time for me and it was a great, hot summer. A few years ago I stopped back in the town on the way back from a wedding. I really wish I hadn’t. Maybe it was the grey and the rain or maybe the years had not been kind, but Ipswich just wasn’t what I remembered.

The difficulty with this weeks challenge, “Countryside,” was which picture to use? I’m not really patient enough to be a great landscape photographer but I’ve got lucky a few times, including this time in Ireland.

I’ve not posted an entry for the last week or two, so there’s no suggestion to vote for my entry this week!

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Clothing.”I had a few options for this one — including a few people dressed in outrageous clothes at the “Protest the Pope” rally in London — but in the end I went for this picture of drying clothes in Havana, Cuba.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Geometric.” I’m entry number 142.

Having spent a little time in Jordan, Egypt and Moorish Spain, the word “Geometric,” this weeks PhotoFriday theme, says “Islamic architecture.” The above picture was taken in the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Grandeur.” I’m entry number 118.

There are no guarantees when travelling in the UK. Even in May the weather can be all over the place, beautiful, bright and sunny one minute, drab, grey and miserable the next.

There are no guarantees when travelling with a five month old baby. They can be bright and cheery and laughing one minute and crying and screaming the next.

I’ve just been away for a week walking in the Lake District, so “Walk” should be the ideal PhotoFriday theme for me. Unfortunately I forgot my USB cable and can’t download my photographs. Instead, this is a picture from a walking holiday a couple of years ago in the south of Spain.

Please also vote for my picture in last weeks challenge, “Detailed.” I’m entry number 101.

I don’t “get” many of the current entries to this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Downward,” so I thought I’d go for a very simple, very obvious interpretation of the theme. This is a view from the Eiffel Tower, looking downwards at the road below.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Portraiture.” I’m entry number 147.

I’m not sure whether a “Crimson” sunset is too obvious an interpretation of the theme, but I couldn’t find a better image so you’re stuck with this one(!).

It was taken in Malta, just outside where I was staying in St Julians. The picture was taken on… gasp… actual film.

“Rain” is a good PhotoFriday theme for someone, like myself, who lives in the UK. I could have taken a picture on pretty much any day, but this way taken in August last year. Um, actually, in Ireland rather than at home…

There’s no need to panic and rush to vote for my entry in last weeks challenge since I didn’t enter.