Rob Ralley
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robralley.bsky.social
Rob Ralley
@robralley.bsky.social
3.4K followers 830 following 5.3K posts
Historian of science and medicine. Editor for The Casebooks of Simon Forman and Richard Napier (1596-1634), now writing about Napier, slowly. And taking photos. Views my own.
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robralley.bsky.social
A gloomy and nippy (read: Baltic) visit to the seaside at Allonby today to finish the year off. As ever, thanks to everyone for likes, reposts, replies, and for all your posts and wonderful pictures over the year. Here's to a better 2026. 📷 #photography
A view across seaside grasses to sea, with the hilly shore of Galloway on the far side of the seainlet caught in a patch of sunlight. Above are grey clouds with a hint of blue sky through a break in them.
December 31, 2025 at 7:10 PM
robralley.bsky.social
'TO THE CAFE': a ghost sign in Wigton for #WallsOnWednesday 📷 #photography
A patch of brick wall, red bricks but nearly black on the surface with dirt and age; down the right side is some greyish render and the ends of three black-painted stones intruding into shot at the right edge. Towards the top an old sign painted onto the wall, reading 'TO THE CAFE' in black letters on white, has had the street sign 'MEETINGHOUSE LANE' attached over it.
December 31, 2025 at 11:32 AM
robralley.bsky.social
First visit today to the nature reserve at the Swifts in Carlisle: this view is across the Eden to Rickerby Park.
📷 #photography
A shallow river running white over rocks, with grassy banks on the near and far side, the grass on the far bank running up in stages to higher land with houses just visible behind bare wintry trees. It is a day of bright winter sun.
December 30, 2025 at 7:36 PM
robralley.bsky.social
High St, Wigton.
📷 #photography
View south along a town street with sunlight from up ahead shining on the white walls of the buildings, bare trees silhouetted, and strings of Christmas lights unlit hanging across the road.
December 30, 2025 at 1:04 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Merry Christmas Wigton
📷 #photography
A T-junction in the middle of a town with Christmas lights on the side of a building reading 'Merry Christmas Wigton' with holly leaves and berries above them. The buildings are old and painted in pale colours with black stones up the corners. Christmas lights go across the road and back and some black bollards have knitted Christmas decorations on top.
December 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Signpost, Wigton.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekZforZero 📷 #photography
A black-and-white striped metal post with 'WIGTON' written in black letters on a white ring above it, and on it arms pointing to Longthwaite and Blaithwaite; Red Dial (via the B5304); and Sebergham and Penrith (via the B5305). In the background is a row of red sandstone houses with cars parked in front, and grass, trees and hedge. There is blue sky in the distance but grey cloud above; sunlight is catching the left arm of the sign.
December 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Gap.
📷 #photography
The ends of two neighbouring red-brick houses, one with a conservatory on the back; the fence in the foreground changes colour, pale to dark brown, as it runs from one garden to the next. In between the houses is visible blue sky and a third red-brick house in the winter sun, turned at an angle to the other two.
December 27, 2025 at 9:23 AM
robralley.bsky.social
Boxing Day sunset on St John's Road, Ely.
📷 #photography
The end of a medieval barn with tall, narrow windows and doorway blocked up, a telegraph pole in front of it, and a gate and tall unkempt hedge beside it, all almost silhouetted against an orange sunset. The road in the foreground is damp and shining blue-grey in the low light.
December 26, 2025 at 6:25 PM
robralley.bsky.social
A fenland view, just about, from this afternoon's walk.
📷 #photography
A view through a gap in trees (with branches reaching across from either side) to low, flat fields, the closest with brown grasses in it. It is near sunset and there is a hint of gold in the light. The sky is clear.
December 25, 2025 at 7:56 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Christmas preparations, Ely.
📷 #photography
A view along a street at night, with car headlights shining along it, people walking along the pavements illuminated by light from inside shops, and Christmas lights hanging above across the road.
December 24, 2025 at 3:11 PM
robralley.bsky.social
A glimpse of the Christmas tree at Ely Cathedral today.
📷 #photography
A view along the south aisle of the nave of Ely Cathedral in low light, through archways across a tiled floor to a partial view of a Christmas tree decked in white lights and gold with a star on top. There is a computer display beside it and one or two people standing around.
December 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
robralley.bsky.social
St Mary's Street/Downham Road, Ely.
#ClassicMono 📷 #photography
A view of the end house of a block of old brick buildings on St Mary's Street, with a street sign just over halfway up it, and past the house down Downham Road.
December 22, 2025 at 4:59 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Sunset in Aldeburgh last weekend.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A view south along Crag Path in Aldeburgh, along the sea front, with a sea wall crossed by steps on the left, and parked cars and houses on the right. The streetlights are on and the sky has patches of blue but is largely clouds lit peach/pink colours by the sunset.
December 21, 2025 at 1:58 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Late afternoon sun.
#BlueskyArtShow #OpenHouse 📷 #photography
A boxy brown-brick house with a shallow pitched roof and one single tall window on its side. It and houses around, as well as the back of a street sign, are caught by golden light from the low sun. The silhouette of a chimney is visible against the house's wall.
December 20, 2025 at 4:44 PM
robralley.bsky.social
King's Forest in Suffolk, from a fungus hunt in October.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A view through tall, slender trees, silhouetted against sunlit undergrowth of grass and bracken that show green and coppery tones.
December 20, 2025 at 12:22 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Arran, late summer.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast and #scape 📷 #photography
A view of Arran's shore and tree-lined green fields, catching morning sun. There is a sweep of rather grey cloud across the sky.
December 19, 2025 at 12:41 PM
robralley.bsky.social
High Street, Ely.
#UrbanGaze 📷 #photography
A street in the dark, lit by streetlamps and Christmas lights. Some shops have lights on inside. A car is parked under the Christmas lights and they are reflected on its bonnet.
December 18, 2025 at 5:29 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Ena Harkness, blooming early in the summer.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A red rose bloom, just on the point of opening, with a second still in bud below it and another out of focus behind, against a background of green leaves.
December 18, 2025 at 1:44 PM
robralley.bsky.social
A walk through woodland filled with shoulder-high cow parsley back in May.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A narrow dirt path threads its way between clouds of cow parsley, slightly taller on the left where they are caught in a beam of sunlight. In the shady background trees reach over from the left. There are glimpses of blue sky between the branches.
December 17, 2025 at 12:29 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Green-winged orchid, from our annual trip to Chettisham Meadow in May.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A purple flower in sunlight in a grassy meadow, with a tall meadow buttercup behind it.
December 16, 2025 at 7:56 PM
robralley.bsky.social
View from the medieval bridge at St Ives, Cambridgeshire, on a foggy day back in January.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekYforYearPast 📷 #photography
A largely very pale grey or off-white picture, with a river bank across the middle bristling with wintry trees and with a faint green streak of dew-soaked grass. The trees are reflecting through ripples in the water.
December 15, 2025 at 1:35 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Aldeburgh Memorial Christmas tree and South Lookout, Aldeburgh beach.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekXforXmas 📷 #photography
A sunset on a shingle beach, with a low white building and attached small tower on the right, looking leftwards out to sea, and a large Christmas tree on the left decorated with lights and pieces of paper bearing messages from the bereaved to their loved ones.
December 14, 2025 at 5:43 PM
robralley.bsky.social
A last look across Aldeburgh's rooftops before we leave. Till next time.
📷 #photography
View on a sunny winter's day out to sea, with house roofs and tall house chimneys in the foreground.
December 14, 2025 at 11:46 AM
robralley.bsky.social
Moot Hall, Aldeburgh.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekXforXmas 📷 #photography
A section of the elaborate east wall of the Moot Hall in Aldeburgh, sixteenth-century, with a timber frame and (later) patterned infill of brick. There is a window (two light, mullioned and transomed) in the lower half. The light is blue, just after sunset, but there is a string of dangling white Christmas lights across the top.
December 13, 2025 at 6:08 PM
robralley.bsky.social
Greetings from Aldeburgh.
📷 #photography
A view from the beach uphill at Aldeburgh, with a small white-hulled (light brown cabined) boat on the shingle in the foreground, and Aldeburgh's pastel-coloured houses, and its church tower, in the background. It is a bright clear day.
December 13, 2025 at 2:51 PM